• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Testing the A7V8X against the A7N8X

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

Mr Death

Registered
Joined
Aug 5, 2003
Location
The Garden State
A7V8X A7N8X
Test Setup: XP2500+ 512mb PC3500 G-Force3-Ti500
Watercooling plus heatsinked/fanned north and south bridges
nothing else is relevent.

The A7V8X reached a max speed of 2.07Ghz (12x174) with a pci bus of 34, this seemed to be my limiting factor as i could not handle 35.
Si Soft Sandra scores:
CPU MATH 5629/2829
CPU Multi Media 11284/12530
Mem Bandwith 2425/2244
3D Mark 2003 1109


The A7N8X reached a max speed of 2.11Ghz (10x211) pci bus uneffected, the limit may be my ram, as 422 is its rated max. Voltage Core is 1.725, increases in voltage above this were not helpful
Si Soft Sandra scores:
CPU MATH 5774/2872
CPU Multi Media 11456/12701
Mem Bandwith 2393/2160
3D Mark 2003 1156

It is odd that the bandwith is better on the Via set, but the ram timmings are better on the N-Force chipset at this speed (2.3.3.5)

both boards are the "deluxe" models (serial ata raid, sound, lan)

If someone knows how to overclock the Gefore 3 Ti500, let me know, although i will be upgrading that by the end of the month (open to suggestions on the next card)

in my opinion, if you aren't going to overclock your brains out, the via is a better deal due to the price. I still have not tried dual sticks of memory, hopefully bandwith will shoot up.
 
the a7n8x has more features too ;d nforce2 is the way to go =d if money is an issue go with a difference nfroce2 board =d
 
Yeah, something seems amiss with the memory bandwidth. Here are the results of some testing I did a few weeks back.

210x12 dual channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 3186,3031
3Dmark2001 - 19454

210x12 single channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 3107,2875
3Dmark2001 - 19345

200x12 dual channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 3070,2926
3Dmark2001 - 19140

200x12 singlel channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 2946,2737
3Dmark2001 - 18764

This is with the Barton/A7N8X Deluxe machine listed in my sig.

BTW, Welcome to the forums :thup:
 
Mustanley said:
Yeah, something seems amiss with the memory bandwidth. Here are the results of some testing I did a few weeks back.

210x12 dual channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 3186,3031
3Dmark2001 - 19454

210x12 single channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 3107,2875
3Dmark2001 - 19345

200x12 dual channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 3070,2926
3Dmark2001 - 19140

200x12 singlel channel) Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 2946,2737
3Dmark2001 - 18764

This is with the Barton/A7N8X Deluxe machine listed in my sig.

BTW, Welcome to the forums :thup:

Was your 2500 cpu at 333 to start with, or was it 266?
also, i remember similar bandwith issues with an ild P3V4X, you had to do reg edits and interweaving to come close to other chipsets.
 
i am running watercooling (water res even sits in it's own fridge) , what Vcore are you at? did you set your memory timings to slower speeds?
 
Vcore is at 1.825V. I have PC3500 memory running sync with timmings of 11-3-2-2CL at 2.8V.
At this speed, the cpu diode (using motherboard monitor 5) is reading around 38C under load with 26C ambient room temp.
What are your temps? I really think your chip should be capable of much more.
 
i will measure temps and get back to you in ten minutes.....my ram and pci bus shouldn't make a difference, if i can run at 211 x10, bumping it to 12 will only impact the cpu......i wonder if you can get better overclocks off chips that start with a 266 bus, like the old pentium 3 used to be....
 
The only chips out there that are outperforming the Barton are the DLTC TbredB chips, and even then only by a small margin of 100-200 MHz at best. They have a default voltage of 1.5V which seems to be what makes them so great.
 
with this mid level water block, here are temps
room temp 25.4c
no load 5 minutes cpu 34c/ board 26c
right after 3dmark03 cpu 39c / board 28c
 
i use 2 power supplies due to all the drives i run, but the one that powers my board is a simple 400 watt powermax, i have a big dual fan supply due to get to me on the 12th.....
 
I just got an Antec True Control 550W psu yesterday to replace my 350W Fortron. I think it's possible that my powersupply is limiting my overclock to some degree, so that's why I got the new one. Powermax is not the greatest psu (I actually have a 450W powmax running in my second machine) but it's hard to know if that could be limiting you. If it has a lot of voltage fluctuation, it can definitely limit you. Hopefully the new PSU will help.
 
i tried everything i could, the system will not let the cpu go over 2100mhz no matter what multiplier or voltage or settings i try....i am best served with the 10X210, i can run 211 but why bother.....i may try to get ram rated bettere then the 422 this stuff is pre tested at , that may permit me to run a 10x220 that would be worth it.....now i just have to overclock my g-force 3-ti500.......and then substitute a slurpee machine into my cooling system :)
 
Myabe you just got a lemon of a cpu, I don't know. With your hardware and cooling, you should be able to hit 2400MHz I would think. How high can you set the multiplier when you run the FSB at 166? My board has trouble booting at 10.5 multiplier for some reason, even though 11, 11.5, 12 and 12.5 work fine.
 
Back