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Benchmarks
and Comparisons |
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System Overview |
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MadOnion's
PCMark2002Pro:
One of the newest and all
inclusive system benchmarks around is MadOnion's
PCMark2002Pro. The beauty of this package is its
ability to test the three most important components of a
system in a single test, CPU, Memory, and Hard Drive
performance. For a frame of reference, we ran the same
tests with the same processor, RAM and hard drive on a very
popular KT333 motherboard, the Abit KX7-333R.
The CPU performance of the two
systems were extremely close, giving the advantage to the
newer KT4 Ultra. We were not completely surprised at
the scores of the two boards with this test since the KT400
has little advancements that would increase CPU performance
by any great measure. Next we'll take a look at the
memory performance.
Once again, the KT4 Ultra walked
away with a slightly higher score, topping the Abit KX7-333R
by a little over 1%. Again, we were not expecting any
tremendous difference in performance with the two systems
because of the similarities between the two chipsets. Next up...Hard Drive performance.
With the hard drive scores we
saw the widest margin between the two boards out of all
three tests. This time the MSI KT4 Ultra-FISR took a lead of
almost 30 points equating to a 3% increase over the
KX7-333R. All in all it was a fairly close competition
with the scales tipped in favor of the KT4 in all three
tests.
Quake 3:
Another way that we like to test
a motherboard's performance is by testing its CPU limitations
with Quake 3. To do this, we set up the Timedemo to
run with the visual settings reduced, to minimize the
effects of the video card on the score. We ran the
test at the stock CPU speeds with both motherboards and also
on the KT4 while overclocked.
Here we saw the KT4 take a more
commanding lead over the KX7-333R, topping it by 6.7FPS.
Once we kicked the memory up to 400MHz. and the bus speed to
150MHz., the KT4 tacked on an additional 28.1 FPS, a boost of
11%.
On the next page
we'll take a look at the performance of both motherboards to
ascertain their abilities when running DirectX, OpenGL and
of course, the Winstones.
DirectX, OpenGL, and a Dash
of Winstone
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