Epox MVP3G2 Super7 ATX

by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 7, 1999 11:24 PM EST

The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

How I Tested

  • Each benchmark was run a minimum of 2 times and a maximum of 5 times, if the motherboard failed to complete a single test within the 5 allocated test runs the OS/Software was re-installed on a freshly formatted Hard Drive and the BIOS settings were adjusted to prevent the test from failing again.  All such encounters were noted at the exact time of their occurrence.

  • Business Winstone 98 & 3D Winbench 98 was run at each individually tested clock speed, if reliable scores were achieved with the first two test runs of the suite an average of the two was taken and recorded as the final score at that clock speed.  If the test system displayed erratic behavior while the tests were running or the results were incredibly low/high the tests were re-run up to 5 times and an average of all the test runs was taken and recorded at the final score at that clock speed

  • All video tests were conducted using an AGP video accelerator

  • No foreign drivers were present in the test system other than those required for the system to function to the best of its ability

  • All foreign installation files were moved to a separate partition during the test as to prevent them from effecting the test results

  • All tests were conducted at 1024 x 768 x 16-bit color

  • Quake 2 tests were conducted at 800 x 600 x 16-bit color in Software Rendering Mode

Test Configuration

Processor(s): AMD K6-2 450
AMD K6-III 450
RAM: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM
1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital Caviar AC28400 - UltraATA/33
Bus Master Drivers: VIA 4-in-1 Service Pack BM Drivers
Video Card(s): 3dfx Voodoo3 3000
Operation System(s): Windows 98 SE
Motherboard Revision: Epox MVP3G2 Revision 1.0

 

Windows 98 Performance

 

Business
Winstone 99

Q3 Test 1.08 demo1.dm3
Fastest Fast Normal
AMD K6-2 450 16.9 45.5 36.7 32.8
AMD K6-III 450 19.5 56.6 46.6 40.3

The Final Decision

There is quite a bit of mystery surrounding the current state of the MVP3 chipset and its two North Bridge flavors, however if stability is your top concern then the G2 will have no problem delivering on its promises.  There is always room for improvement, but the G2 is definitely improved in comparison to most of the other Super7 solutions we've had to live with. 

For performance oriented users, you may want to consider the Tyan Trinity S1598 which is considerably faster, especially under 3D gaming tests such as our Quake 3 Test benchmarks illustrated.


How it Rates

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

Rating

Performance 75%
Price 88%
Ease of Use 88%
Overclocked Stability 85%
General Stability 93%
Quality 86%
Documentation 85%
Reliability 80%
Overall Rating 85%

Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.

The Bad
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