DFi nForce4 better for RAM than other nForce4 MBs?

[ayqazi]

Hi,

I read a certain article (sorry, not from tomshardware :
http://anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2386&p=6

That claims that "Crucial (Ballistix) gets a new lease on life on the DFI nForce4 motherboards with memory performance that blows past our previous results with Ballistix on A64."

Does this mean the DFI is better than all other nForce 4 boards? Or will I get performance similar to a (for example) Gigabyte nForce4 Ultra non-SLI board?

The Gigabyte board I'm thinking of is the Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 - that's the best non-SLI one right? Its got to be Gigabyte, cos their one seems to be the cheapest "good" mobo I can find on eBuyer!

Thanks,
Asfand Yar

 

[CrucialLabs]

What I think they are trying to say is the system test bed they used was a DFI board but it is not specific to the DFI board. The Ballistix memory works awesome on the nForce4 chipset boards for timing or bandwidth reasons.

Since each motherboard manufacturer is different, it would hard to say every motherboard running the nForce4 chipset is going to preform the same or give equal performance.

Just my thoughts.

Crucial Performance Lab

www.crucial.com
The Memory Experts(SM) at Crucial Technology is now on board to give you straight answers to your memory-related questions.
cpl@micron.com

 

[Rugger]

I've read that articel and I think they were also trying to point out that the DFI motherboard is a great overclocking motherboard. Because the mobo overclocked so well, they were able to push the Ballistix farther than their previous limits. It was a testament to the Micron chips on the Ballistix RAM and to the DFI motherboard.

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[ayqazi]

I need a bit more clarification:

The nForce4 overclocks memory much better than the nForce3 - correct?

The DFi motherboard overclocks memory much better than other nForce4 boards - correct?

The Gigabyte board I want to get ('cos its cheap will be able to overclock - say - 90% as well as the DFi board - i.e. still very good, and much better than an nForce 3 board - correct?

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

Keep in mind that NF4 board in strictly PCI-X VGA card.

So if you currently have an AGP graphics card, you won't be able to bring it with you into the next motherboard life.

NF3 supports AGP.

This is a big difference.

From what I've heard NF4 chipset is better than NF3.

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[Rugger]

nF4 is PCI<b>e</b> - PCI-X is a workstation video card standard. One of the primary differences between nF3 and nF4 is the support for PCIe - other than that they are similar in performance.

__________________________________________________
<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

sorry

meant PCI-eXpress



<font color=green>*****
"Memory with lifetime warranty? So, whose lifetime is that?"
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<font color=red>AIM BrentUnitedMem

 

[Rugger]

Brent: I've had issues with the PCIe vs PCI-X. Not trying to bust your balls - just prevent any n00b confusion. You'd think there would be a little more distinction between the naming conventions to avoid confusion.

Wusy: SATA II is nearly useless right now - HDDs can't even take advantage of SATA I. HTT wasn't a limiting factor on speed in nF3 and the higher HTT on nF4 isn't brining big - if any - performance gains. The most significant change was PCIe. One could even argue that PCIe hasn't had a large impact on current systems becasue the AGP counterparts perform just as well. The one exception would be the addition of SLI - as long as you can afford it. These features are all forward looking and haven't had large impacts on todays performance. When the other components catch up and can utilize the capabilties, then we'll see this chipset really shine - or at least its successors.

__________________________________________________
<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[over_c]

But doesn't the PCI bus limit the bandwidth from the U320 controller to the same as a u160?

Now if I just had $2000 to burn I might be able to test it myself.