Abit NI8 SLI: nVidia SLI for the Intel Gamer
by Randi Sica & Wesley Fink on October 7, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup
ALL benchmarks used the Intel Pentium D 840 EE. General Performance, encoding, DX9, and DX8 gaming were tested on all reported platforms with the Pentium D 840EE.
The only exception is in the Workstation test results. For the Workstation tests we only had past results generated with a single core 3.6GHz Pentium 4 560. We compared the 3.2 GHz 840EE on the Abit with past test results of the 3.6GHz 560 to illustrate the strong performance of the slower 3.2GHz dual-core compared to the faster 3.6GHz P4 in standardized Workstation tests.
The 3.46EE was used in some past memory tests to achieve high memory bus speeds, and we refered to those test results only in examing overclocked memory FSB speed records - not comparative performance.
Tests used the Corsair 5400UL aboard the ABIT. Memory ran at 3-2-2-8 1T timing in all benchmarks.
We tested with our standard MSI 7800GTX to allow the best comparisons for benchmark results with other motherboards. Resolution in all benchmarks is 1280x1024x32 unless otherwise noted.
Results for the ABIT NI8 SLI are in colour-coded red in all graphs.
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | Intel Pentium D 840 EE (3.2GHz, 800FSB, Dual-Core, HT, 2x1MB L2)(HT enabled for all tests) Intel Pentium 4 560 ES (3.6GHz, 800FSB, 1MB L2,HT) Intel 3.46EE (3.46GHz, 1066FSB, HT) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL 2 x 512MB OCZ PC2 5400 EB 2 x 1GB Patriot Extreme Performance PEP21G5600+XBL |
| Hard Drive(s): | Western Digital 36GB Raptor 10,000RPM |
| System Drivers: | NVIDIA 7.13 |
| Video Cards: | 2x NVIDIA 6800 Ultra MSI NVIDIA 7800GTX |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA Forceware beta 81.26 (Overclocking Tests) NVIDIA Forceware beta 78.05 (Standard Tests) |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP2 Direct X 9.0c |
| Motherboards: | ABIT NI8 SLI Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal MSI P4 Diamond Asus P5WD2 Premium (Intel 955x) Asus P5ND2-SLI Deluxe (NVIDIA nForce4 Intel) Asus P5AD2 Premium (Intel 925x) Intel 925x Reference Board |
ALL benchmarks used the Intel Pentium D 840 EE. General Performance, encoding, DX9, and DX8 gaming were tested on all reported platforms with the Pentium D 840EE.
The only exception is in the Workstation test results. For the Workstation tests we only had past results generated with a single core 3.6GHz Pentium 4 560. We compared the 3.2 GHz 840EE on the Abit with past test results of the 3.6GHz 560 to illustrate the strong performance of the slower 3.2GHz dual-core compared to the faster 3.6GHz P4 in standardized Workstation tests.
The 3.46EE was used in some past memory tests to achieve high memory bus speeds, and we refered to those test results only in examing overclocked memory FSB speed records - not comparative performance.
Tests used the Corsair 5400UL aboard the ABIT. Memory ran at 3-2-2-8 1T timing in all benchmarks.
We tested with our standard MSI 7800GTX to allow the best comparisons for benchmark results with other motherboards. Resolution in all benchmarks is 1280x1024x32 unless otherwise noted.
Results for the ABIT NI8 SLI are in colour-coded red in all graphs.
ABIT NI8 SLI - Overclocked 3D benchmark performance + SLI verification
General Performance and Encoding
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19 Comments
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TheInvincibleMustard - Saturday, October 8, 2005 - link
Thanks for clearing that up, Wesley ... here I was thinking that AT had gone off their rockers for a moment :D-TIM
jojo4u - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
A new Forceware was also used in the gaming tests.smn198 - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
Agreed. This is not a motherboard test.TheInvincibleMustard - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
QFT ... what's the point in testing a new board while conveniently slipping a new processor into it as well? That's akin to "Let's compare this Accord versus this Corolla, oh and by the way, the Accord has nitrous, aftermarket shocks, aftermarket brakes, aftermarket muffler ..."Thanks for an article that shows that dual-core is better than single-core in multi-threaded applications ... funny, I thought Anandtech did one of those articles a while back ...
-TIM
PS -- WTF is up with no Firewire on this board? Mobos http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">less than $80 shipped have IEEE1394 connectivity for cryin' out loud ...
TheInvincibleMustard - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
Err ... well ... I tried to QFT, but apparently it didn't work? Whatever, I still agree with you guys.-TIM
ksherman - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
Man, I REALLY like the passively cooled chipset... wish DFI did that in the nF4 boards...mongoosesRawesome - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
eh, not so impressed myself. what ABIT did looks expensive and it doesn't get the job done adequately. DFI includes temperature controlled fans in their BIOS, which makes their fans bearable. A nice thing about Nforce 3/4 boards is that you really only have one chip to cool.Who exactly is Abit targeting with this board? Who games with Intel? A64s are cheap, nforce 4 boards are cheap, and they perform better. I realize that in the corporate world, there are people out there that only use Intel, but I figured gamers were different. I just can't see this board really being that popular.
KristopherKubicki - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
ASUS did it first with the "Premium" series stuff.Kristopher
emc2-1955 - Sunday, August 29, 2010 - link
I got an Abit NI8 SLI with an extreme processor and 4 gig of ram. The problem is that to takes forever to load. I've tried it with windows xp pro and windows 7 can anyone tell me what I chould check any tips