VIA PT894 & PT880 Pro Chipset Preview
Benchmark Configuration and Sandra 2005
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| SYSTEM 1: Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz Extreme Edition Intel D925XECV2 Motherboard Intel D915GUX Motherboard 2x512MB Corsair PC4400 Pro Series CL3 (3-3-3-8) NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra PCI Express On-Board Gigabit Ethernet WD Raptor 36GB Hard Drive 10,000 RPM SATA Windows XP Pro SP2 (Fully Patched) NVIDIA Forceware v66.93 DirectX 9.0c |
SYSTEM 2: Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition VIA PT880 Pro Reference Motherboard VIA PT894 Reference Motherboard 2x512MB Corsair PC4000 Pro Series DDR CL3 (3-4-4-8) 2x512MB Corsair PC4400 Pro Series DDR2 CL3 (3-3-3-8) NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra PCI Express On-Board 10/100 Ethernet WD Raptor 36GB Hard Drive 10,000 RPM SATA Windows XP Pro SP2 (Fully Patched) NVIDIA Forceware v66.93 DirectX 9.0c |
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There are a few points to make here. First, processor performance is fairly constant across the four tested platforms. No matter who you go with, Intel or VIA, the Pentium 4 turns in stable numbers. Memory bandwidth is another story entirely, though. Intel's 925XE sweeps the bandwidth test with DDR2 memory running aggressive 3-3-3-8 timings. The 915G board isn't equipped with voltage settings and consequentially isn't capable of those settings. Even still, it turns in respectable numbers at 533 MHz.
VIA's PT880 Pro does fairly well using standard DDR400 memory configured with ultra-tight 2-2-2-5 latencies. It doesn't quite keep up with Intel's chipsets, but that's to be somewhat expected from a value-oriented platform. The real surprise comes when VIA's PT894 is put through its paces. Despite running DDR2-533 at 3-3-3-8, the chipset simply delivers underwhelming performance akin to what we saw from VIA in the early days of its DDR memory controllers. It may be premature to judge, especially considering the early reference sample we're examining here, but we hope VIA is able to improve memory performance and stability.
