nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding
by Wesley Fink on February 28, 2005 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Ethernet Performance
We have often talked about the throughput advantage of PCI Express compared to PCI and its impact on Gigabit LAN performance. To show you this, the new motherboard test suite needed to include LAN performance measurements.The Windows 2000 Driver Development Kit (DDK) includes a useful LAN testing utility called NTttcp. We used the NTttcp tool to test Ethernet throughput and the CPU utilization of the various Ethernet Controllers used on the nForce4 SLI motherboards.
We set up one machine as the server; in this case, an Intel box with an Intel CSA Gigabit LAN connection. Intel CSA has a reputation for providing fast throughput and this seemed a reasonable choice to serve our Gigabit LAN clients. At the server side, we used the following Command Line as suggested by the VIA whitepaper on LAN testing:
Ntttcps -m 4,0,‹client IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000On the client side (the motherboard under test), we used the following Command Line:
Ntttcpr -m 4,0,‹server IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000At the conclusion of the test, we captured the throughput and CPU utilization figures from the client screen.
All Ethernet tests were performed with standard frames, but Gigabit Ethernet supports Jumbo frames as well. Jumbo frames will theoretically provide a further reduction in CPU overhead. We have seen test results that show the combination of Active Armor and Jumbo Frames, which can reduce CPU utilization below 10%, a very respectable performance for on-chip gigabit LAN.
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Heinrich - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Wesley did you spend any time at all on this link, I consider this to be a serious issue
http://www.rhcf.com/sisubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/21...
Heinrich - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
When I set up my MSI board I cannot get surround sound out of the optical digital cable except for DVDs. I verified this on a few web sites. Not why there is conflicting information but mine is real world experience with current drivers (did not use packaged CDs)
giz02 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
#28, 31 and 32...The onboard Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit samples at 192 KHz instead of 96 KHz (like Realtek's ALC880/880D and 850) and features full support for Creative's EAX HD technology. Additionally, the soundcard has also passed Dolby certification for Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital EX and has an integrated Dolby interactive content encoder!
Snip from PCStats review:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1...
Dice Dice baby.. (couldn't resist)
giz02 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
#41 I've got a TT WS0049 PS, so I should be good with the -5v.#43 I've already cancled my DFI SLI DR board. MSI here I come ($238 cdn... so it's cheaper too) :D
Wesley Fink - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
#42 - The on-board nF4 LAN requires a PHY (Physical Layer) gigabit LAN to function properly, but is specified as PCIe. All 4 SLI boards implement PCI Express Gigabit LAN with the PHY chips (Vitesse or Marvel). If you check all 4 manuals you will see Gigabit PCIe LAN specified by all 4 for the on-chip LAN.#40 - From the MSI manual Audio specifications:
"Dolby Digital Encoder. 24-bit/96-192kHz audio quality. Up to 100db SNR. 7.1 channel H/W audio."
ChineseDemocracyGNR - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Wesley,"all 4 SLI boards implement PCIe on Gigabit #1"
I don't think the onboard LAN on the nForce4 chipset uses the PCI-E bus, are you sure about this?
Spacecomber - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Here's the address for a MSI forum note concerning the problem with the Creative onboard sound and power supplies without a -5 volt connection.http://diamondclub.msi.com.tw/eng/forum/viewthread...
And, if you take a look at the ATX12V Power Supply Design Guide, you can see that the lack of a -5 volt connection on many current power supplies should not have come as a surprise to MSI.
http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/ATX12V%...
Space
giz02 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
WOW! This is looking good...Manual available here:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/manual/mnu/s...
Page 5-1 of the MS 7100 manual (At MSI)
CA0106
Brand new Azalia Spec
8 Channel & SPDIF audio effect
Page 5-8
After installing teh creative audio driver, you are able to use teh 2-,4-,6- or 8- channel and the SPDIF audio featre now..
Page 5-11
Decoder shows SPDIF Passthrough option!!!
I am not familiar with the old Creative Live 24 hardware or menu settings, but is this new?
giz02 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
BTW: If this is the case, I am canceling my DFI preorder (I've been waiting almost 1 month for this board to become available....)Good things may indeed come to those who wait! There is no better way to hook up to my Z5500's if the encode is supported!
giz02 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
#28, #31, I'd really like to know as well...#32, I guess this is brought up, because of this statement in the roundup (on the first MSI Page)
"The Audio also fully supports Dolby Digital encoding, which will matter a great deal to some users."
Anand, is this some sort of typo, or can the onboard solution in facte ENCODE dolby digital audio. The ENCODE assumes that it can take .wav audio and encode it to dolby digital and place it on any (analog/SPDIF Coax/Toslink) output (ala IntelHD and SoundStorm)
Let us know :D