Doom 3 is
the most advanced game to date. it takes advantage of the latest videocard
technology and pushes the processing power of the CPU to its absolute limit. At
its highest setting, Ultra quality, texture sizes pass the 500MB mark which
means even tomorrow's videocards will have a hard time running everything. The
frame rates in the game itself are locked at 60 fps so anything above that point
is wasted. Each test is run three times with the third run being
recorded.
| Doom3 |
| LQ 640x480: |
FPS |
Ranking |
| Albatron K8X890 Pro II (K8T890 200/400) |
125.7 |
   |
| MSI RS480M2-IL (RS480 200/400) |
110.4 |
|
| Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra (NF4 Ultra
200/400) |
124.7 |
|
| DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR (NF4 SLI 200/400) |
126.9 |
|
| ECS KN1 Extreme SLI (NF4 SLI 200/400) |
124.4 |
|
| Epox 9NPA+ SLI (NF4 SLI 200/400) |
124.3 |
|
| ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 (Uli M1695 200/400
7800GTX) |
119.5 |
   |
| ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 (Uli M1695 200/400 GeForce
6800 AGP) |
118.5 |
|
In our last benchmark Doom 3, the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2
motherboard does not trail the competition by much.
Future ready and excellent
value!
Upgradability and future proofing is always a concern of
every computer user. No one wants a shiny new PC to be obsolete quickly.
Software has always had the flexibility of an easy upgrade path, however the
hardware world is traditionally a lot more rigid. With hardware architectures so
different between platforms, upgrading is often less practical that replacing
8-month old components entirely.
AMD's new DDR-2 RAM supporting Socket M2 processor is
not exactly a secret, and most educated users know that the new socket will be
implemented early 2006 - probably during CEBIT. Those who want top of the line
performance right now (and tomorrow) have a dilemma, should they buy now or wait
half a year? With the new ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard, the answer is much
more flexible.
Based around the ULi M1695 Northbridge and M1567
Southbridge, the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard offers the flexibility of
running current Athlon64 processors while enabling support for Socket M2
processors when they are available. All the user need do is buy the "Future CPU
Port" daughter card when it is available, a Socket M2 AMD processor and DDR2
memory.
With a retail price of $87 CDN ($74 US), the ASRock
939Dual-SATA2 motherboard offers upgrade options that higher end motherboards do
not. For instance the DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR or Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra, as fast as the two motherboards are,
cannot be upgraded to Socket M2 but the ASRock motherboard can.
Those looking to
upgrade older systems will also love the fact that the 939Dual-SATA2 even fully
supports 8x AGP videocards. AGP performance with the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 should
be pretty clear by looking at the benchmarks. Business users who require a lot
of real screen estate could even run two videocards together with upto four
monitors!
Performance of the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard was
relatively good. It did come in near the bottom of most benchmarks we ran, but
its scores were not drastically slow. The board overclocked to 304 MHz, which is
certainly nothing to scoff at! Ultimately, if you're on a budget and looking for
some flexibility, the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 can definitely help consumers build a
budget system that brings to the table some very attractive future upgrade
options.
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2. Epox EP-9NPA+ SLI Motherboard Review
3. ABIT AN8-SLI nForce4-SLI Motherboard
Review
4. ECS KN1 Extreme nForce 4 Ultra Motherboard Review
5. Asus A8N-SLI Premium Athlon64 Motherboard Review
Doom
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