Intel P965: The Double Mint Twins Gone Wild
by Gary Key on November 9, 2006 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Overclocking Performance
We have already reviewed the overclocking capabilities of each board in detail during our review of the boards' feature sets if additional information is required about the results. The ASUS P5B-E 1.02G is still the best overclocking board in our review to date but we were pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Biostar TForce 965PT. Actually, we were amazed as we had figured Biostar would have neutered the BIOS since the board is designed for the budget sector. We feel like the Biostar boards would have no issue matching the ASUS boards if they had memory voltage options up to 2.4V. The Gigabyte boards will be very competitive once the Micron D9 issues are resolved but until that time we hesitate to recommend them if you plan on overclocking an E6300 past 450 FSB.
Our results have not really changed since the first roundup although we see the Biostar 965PT nipping at the heels of the ASUS P5B-E 1.02G due to its overclocking capability. In our application benchmarks that tend to be very CPU intensive we see the benefits of overclocking as our Nero Recode test shows an improvement of 16% on average with our WinRAR tests showing upwards of a 36% increase in performance. Our audio encoding test only showed an improvement of 11% but this is due to the fact that the CPU was waiting on the optical drive during the encoding process as it takes two minutes and three seconds to extract the audio files.
In our Sandra memory results we see the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 having the highest unbuffered results which directly translates to its class leading performance in most of our benchmarks. We also have to commend Biostar for very consistent performance from their boards with the second highest memory scores. ASUS is close behind but they generally run relaxed timings to a certain degree in order to improve overclocking at the high end.
In our gaming benchmarks we see differences of 7% in Quake 4, up to 38% in Battlefield 2, and 59% in the older Serious Sam II title when overclocking. This trend shows a definite improvement in the CPU/GPU balanced titles with little improvement in a title like Quake 4 that can become GPU limited at 1280x1024. We implemented 4xAA in Quake 4 and as expected the game shows no real differences in performance once it becomes GPU limited. This basically holds true for the balance of our games as overclocking will improve performance to a certain degree but the GPU is the biggest factor in most games today.
We have already reviewed the overclocking capabilities of each board in detail during our review of the boards' feature sets if additional information is required about the results. The ASUS P5B-E 1.02G is still the best overclocking board in our review to date but we were pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Biostar TForce 965PT. Actually, we were amazed as we had figured Biostar would have neutered the BIOS since the board is designed for the budget sector. We feel like the Biostar boards would have no issue matching the ASUS boards if they had memory voltage options up to 2.4V. The Gigabyte boards will be very competitive once the Micron D9 issues are resolved but until that time we hesitate to recommend them if you plan on overclocking an E6300 past 450 FSB.
 |
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Our results have not really changed since the first roundup although we see the Biostar 965PT nipping at the heels of the ASUS P5B-E 1.02G due to its overclocking capability. In our application benchmarks that tend to be very CPU intensive we see the benefits of overclocking as our Nero Recode test shows an improvement of 16% on average with our WinRAR tests showing upwards of a 36% increase in performance. Our audio encoding test only showed an improvement of 11% but this is due to the fact that the CPU was waiting on the optical drive during the encoding process as it takes two minutes and three seconds to extract the audio files.
In our Sandra memory results we see the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 having the highest unbuffered results which directly translates to its class leading performance in most of our benchmarks. We also have to commend Biostar for very consistent performance from their boards with the second highest memory scores. ASUS is close behind but they generally run relaxed timings to a certain degree in order to improve overclocking at the high end.
In our gaming benchmarks we see differences of 7% in Quake 4, up to 38% in Battlefield 2, and 59% in the older Serious Sam II title when overclocking. This trend shows a definite improvement in the CPU/GPU balanced titles with little improvement in a title like Quake 4 that can become GPU limited at 1280x1024. We implemented 4xAA in Quake 4 and as expected the game shows no real differences in performance once it becomes GPU limited. This basically holds true for the balance of our games as overclocking will improve performance to a certain degree but the GPU is the biggest factor in most games today.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
23 Comments
View All Comments
Zak - Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - link
Yeah, WTF with the software design? Did they hire someone fired from FisherPrice or what? It's ugly and dysfunctional, even Asus AI Booster isn't THIS ugly.<Z>
mindless1 - Monday, November 13, 2006 - link
Regarding the article comment about the floppy connector,"We would just as well have this connector disappear at this time."
you might want to clarify who "we" is, since there are plenty of people who want a floppy connector even if they don't have a constant use for a floppy drive.
Remember that one person's use of a system does not equal entire world. Many legacy apps and even some emergency bios recovery routines require a floppy drive. If this were a reduced form factor board, it stands to reason that more features requiring connectors need to be left out, but to give up functionality on a whim is hardly useful, it's not as though you would have to grand replacement feature on that bottom edge, cubic inch of space otherwise.
Larso - Friday, November 10, 2006 - link
Oh my, do those motherboard monitoring/tuning applications look ugly... Ugly as in grotesque swollen blobs rather than functional design.A shame, I really liked the biostar board until the accompanying software utility appeared before for my eyes, aww... The gigabyte software is not pretty either... Can you switch the GUI to something less graphical and more standard windows widgets -like?
Do all software accompanying motherboards look like this??
Avalon - Saturday, November 11, 2006 - link
You mean you actually use software to overclock? Do it the manly way and use the BIOS.Larso - Saturday, November 11, 2006 - link
Its not about overclocking, the problem is if the motherboard software has some specific monitoring/adjusting features not available in freeware monitoring applications. Then you would have to use that monstrous software if you want the feature.Another problem is quality impression of the product as a whole. That software's user interface simply turns me off. Why don't they make the interface look like PRO tools, instead of plastic hell!
bullfrawg - Friday, November 10, 2006 - link
I think it's great that, as mentioned in the first article, you are checking out the manufacturer's tech support by pretending to be regular joes rather than review sites. So I want to express interest in seeing more detail about how tech support treats you. ASUS seems to have gotten a bad reputation lately for tech support -- is this justified in your experience? I see that you say Gigabyte has been good so far. Thanks!Staples - Friday, November 10, 2006 - link
The 965 performs very well no matter what board it is on. I will be waiting till you get a 650i Ultra board to review. I am holding out on a Core Duo and my next purchase will be between these two chipsets.Kensei - Friday, November 10, 2006 - link
Nice old school reference back to the double-mint twins. You definitely dated yourself with that one Gary.Kensei
Hikari - Friday, November 10, 2006 - link
Not really, I saw a double mint advertisement on TV with twins the other day...Kensei - Friday, November 10, 2006 - link
Really! I didn't know they had done a remake of that commercial.Ken