Single channel Nforce2 400 faster than Dual channel NF2 Ultra 400??
The Inquirer: Single channel Nforce2 400 dethrones its dual channel stablemate
"ENTHUSIAST SITE AMDMB.com discovered this unexpected anomaly, which could have far reaching Socket-A repercussions.
Soltek's bottom dollar SL-NV400-64 motherboard, which is based on the single channel nForce2 400 chipset, is the cause of all this news. What is amazing is that it beat Asus' dual channel flagship product - the A7N8X Deluxe, in the majority of benchmarks. Ryan Shrout, the amdmb.com reviewer, who put Soltek's motherboard through its paces, suggests that its performance lead in UT 2K3 is down to the additional overhead that a dual channel system board has to deal with. Looking at the rest of the results, I would apply that comment as a general across the board statement. "
Soltek's overall performance lead is not earth shattering, but like everything else in this industry, perception is everything. Of the 14 benchmarks that were run, Soltek's board won 11 of them, drew 2, and lost only one. For the record:
Quake 3: Evenly matched results
UT 2K3: 5.5 to 11.1% lead
3D Mark 2K1: Wins by a nose
PC Mark 2K2: Two out of three is good enough.
SiSoft Sandra 2K2: A win in memory, but ties in CPU
Cachemem: 5.7% to 9.3% lead
Business Winstone 2K1 & 2K2: A win in both
CC Winstone 2K1, 2K2, & 2K3: Soltek takes the Triple Crown
SPECviewperf 7: Asus' only win
ScienceMark: Pretty much a draw
more info here
----------------------
AMDMB.com : Soltek NV400-64 review (2003-07-03)
" The Soltek NV400-64 motherboard is a surprise hit as far as performance goes. While the features that Soltek is offering with the board are on the very low end of things, that is simply because the boards (and chipset for that matter) are aimed for a mainstream market that doesn’t have a need for fancy options like Serial ATA and RAID. All they want is a low final price – and if they happen to get a great performer as well, all the better.
This is also interesting in the fact that it’s the first time we have seen anything based on the nForce2 400 chipset. Since we never received a reference board from anyone, we are taking the Soltek board as the defacto performance we can and should look for on future nF2 400 motherboards. Which raises the question: why is the nF2 400 performing better than the nF2 Ultra 400 board? Too be completely honest, I am not sure and any answers I have gotten from NVIDIA seem stretched at best."
