Quake III Benchmarks

The Quake III benchmarks only show big differences with the `FAST' settings. I generally prefer to run 1024*768 in "HIGH QUALITY mode." I normally overclock my Creative Annihilator Pro to 155MHz Core, and 345MHZ Memory. I only benchmarked the overclocked video card at 1024*768 mode with "HIGH QUALITY" settings; I get 106.2 FPS with BF6 setup, and 102.8 FPS with the VT6X4 setup. Now onto the 3D Mark 2000 benchmarks.

There is a growing trend here, despite the low memory bandwidth scores. The VT6X4 does not fall behind in the benchmarks by a great margin. While there is an obvious difference at the lowest resolutions in Quake III, it is rather meaningless to MOST gamers. It is unreasonable to spend $355 CDN ($238 USD) on a fast video card to run at the lowest possible resolutions.

In the tests I used a very thin layer of silver-based thermal transfer paste between the CPU and heat sink. While the silcon-based pastes are sufficient for the average person, silver pastes offer the highest levels of thermal transfer. This due to the high level of thermal conductivity silver is endowed with. Comparing silver and silcon head on, silver has a thermal conductivity of 417 (w/M*C) while silicon has one of 117 (w/M*C). While this comparison deals with the elements in their natural state, it should be enough to illustrate the differences in ability for thermal transfer each paste typically posses. The last difference between the two is electrical conductivity, silver will conduct electricity if too much is used and it gets somewhere it shouldn't, whereas silicon will not.

A 7 degree Celsius drop from the default fan to the Alpha fan is significant. A CPU temperature under 30C is always a welcome situation. Not surprisingly, the temperatures were the same regardless of the motherboard being tested.
	Alpha FC-PAL35 6063 Aluminum Weighs 180 grams Base 60x60mm Imbedded Copper slug Thermal Resistance 0.37deg C/W Cost $40CDN/$27US

Now for the fun stuff - OVERCLOCKING!!

Overclocking with the Abit BF6 is a very easy task. This motherboard (as it's mentioned in the specs) comes with Abit's Soft Menu III. For those of you new to overclocking, Abit's Soft Menu feature is a very simple method of controlling CPU settings within the motherboard bios. Being able to control the three major overclocking factors within the bios without the use of jumpers has made it very easy for newbie and veteran overclockers alike.

The CPU clock multiplier can be set within the CPU Soft Menu (though this is not so important these days, since all Intel CPU's come with locked multipliers.) Secondly the Abit's CPU Soft Menu III allows you to manually set the frontside bus frequency quickly and easily in the bios (Soft Menu III allows raising the FSB in 1MHZ increments.) Voltage tweaking is also set within the Soft Menu.

These settings are important when overclocking because a CPU's speed is determined by two major factors, the clock multiplier (600E is "6x") as well as the frontside bus setting (600E is "100MHZ FSB.") Voltage tweaks should be applied to achieve stability at higher speeds (within in reason, the 600E's default voltage is 1.65, raising it beyond 1.85 is not advisable.) Since the clock multiplier has been locked at "6x" you can only raise the frontside bus to setting greater than 100MHZ to overclock your CPU. For this article, I overclocked the 600E to an effective 800MHZ CPU (which was achieved by raising the frontside bus to 133MHZ [6x133MHZ = 800MHZ.) I also raised the voltage to 1.8V in all tests.

Overclocking with the Abit VT6X4, is just as simple as the BF6, however the VT6X4 only comes with Soft Menu II. The major drawback in my opinion with Soft Menu II is the lack of frontside bus settings above 133MHZ. The VT6X4 only offers the 140MHZ and 150MHZ FSB setting above 133MHZ. This is a huge drawback, because your CPU might be stable with a 145MHZ FSB, but you'll never know because you don't have that setting to play with L .

Once again I overclocked the 600E to 800MHZ, the major difference is that fact that the VT6X4 has a ? AGP divider at FSB's at or above 133MHZ, therefore any AGP card will work with the 133MHZ FSB (this can not be said for the BF6, utilizing the i440BX chipset which does not have a ? AGP divider at 133MHZ FSB.)

I am fortunate enough to have an AGP card that can handle an overclocked AGP bus (2/3 * 133MHZ = 88.7MHZ.) My RAM also runs nicely at 133MHZ. With RAM and AGP troubles out of the way (remember that the BF6 has a ? PCI divisor at 133MHZ FSB and above.) I was able to push the 600E to 800MHZ (800EB then,) on the Abit BF6. I could not coax any more speed from the CPU; perhaps the MSI 6905 Master is at fault? Well I am not going to whine about "only" getting 200MHZ above spec for too long J .

Let's begin with SiSoft Sandra Professional 2000 Benchmarks: