NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI Ultra and GeForce 9800 GX2

Name: NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI Ultra and GeForce 9800 GX2 - Page 11
Brand: NVIDIA

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, March 18, 2008, 08:00 AM EDT

In our custom LAME MT MP3 encoding test, we convert a large WAV file to the MP3 format, which is a popular scenario that many end users work with on a day-to-day basis to provide portability and storage of their digital audio content. LAME is an open-source mid to high bit-rate and VBR (variable bit rate) MP3 audio encoder that is used widely around the world in a multitude of third party applications.

LAME MT

Audio Encoding

In this test, we created our own 223MB WAV file (a hallucinogenically-induced Grateful Dead jam) and converted it to the MP3 format using the multi-thread capable LAME MT application in single and multi-thread modes. Processing times are recorded below, listed in seconds. Once again, shorter times equate to better performance.

Talk about a dead heat. Our custom LAME MT benchmark performed exactly the same on all of the platforms we tested. This test is completely CPU bound, hence the similarities in performance between the different chipsets.

Sony Vegas

Video Rendering

Sony's Vegas DV editing software is heavily multi-threaded as it processes and mixes both audio and video streams. This is a new breed of digital video editing software that takes full advantage of current dual and multi-core processor architectures.

The nForce 790i SLI Ultra based motherboards performed very well in our Sony Vegas benchmark, trailing Intel's X48 chipset by only a second or two, but surpassing the nForce 680i SLI and 780i SLI by one to six seconds.

Tags: Nvidia, GeForce, nforce, 790i, sli, X2, Ultra, force, 980, ULT, id, and

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com