MaximumPC 2006 01

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JANUARY 2006 MA XIMUMPC 

BEST PENTIUM CHIPSET

Can nVidia’s dual x16 PCI-E chipset pull a back-to-back win, taking out Intel’s 955X chipset too? We threw the brand-new,
nForce-powered Asus P5N32-SLI into the pit with the feature-rich, Intel-backed Asus P5WD2 board to find out

THE TESTS

Since its debut, Intel’s 955X has had an

uphill battle. Sure, it was the only chipset

that would run all Intel dual-core CPUs,

but it lacked SLI support. And before Intel

could cajole ATI into supporting CrossFire

on the 955X, nVidia released its own

LGA775 chipset with SLI support. With

Intel on the cusp of releasing the 975X—

which is rumored to support both SLI and

CrossFire—is the 955X relevant anymore?

To fi nd out, we pitted the old chipset, rep-

resented by Asus’ P5WD2 ($200, http://www.

asus.com), against nVidia’s new nForce

SLI X16 chipset, represented by Asus’

P5N32-SLI board ($250, http://www.asus.com).

Like its AMD sibling, the P5N32-SLI

boasts two x16 PCI-E-capable slots. A

total of 40 PCI-E lanes live in the nForce

SLI X16—two more than the AMD version.

For our tests, we used an Intel 3.73GHz

Pentium 4 Extreme Edition with 2MB

of cache on the 1066MHz FSB, 1GB of

Crucial Technology DDR2/667, an nVidia

GeForce 7800GTX, and a 160GB Seagate

SATA drive. BIOSes were updated to the

latest available and we used the latest driv-

ers from the chipset manufacturers as well.

Because our goal is to show off the

prowess of the chipsets, and not the

videocards, we chose our benchmarks

with care. Eschewing videocard-specifi c

tests, we picked tests that stress mem-

ory bandwidth, disk controllers, and PCI

Express speed.

THE RESULTS

The last time we pitted the 955X against

an nVidia chipset (October 2005,

Head2Head) the boards performed

almost identically. Albeit, there was

enough of a slight performance edge

in the nForce4’s corner that we could

declare it the winner.

Despite newer BIOSes, newer driv-

ers, and a different videocard, we saw

the same damn thing. Sure, in some

categories one chipset would win. The

955X was 3 percent faster in Quake III

Arena, for example, while the X16 was

about 2 percent faster in

3DMark01 SE. The 955X

also offered a tiny bit more

overall memory bandwidth

in Sandra 2005 and in the

CPU portion of 3DMark05.

In other benchmarks, from

3DMark03 to PCMark

to AquaMark, it was pretty

much a tie. We ran 14 dif-

ferent benchmarks for the

chipsets. Seven went to

nVidia and seven went to

Intel. In terms of perfor-

mance, we have to declare

this one a tie.

THE BOTTOM LINE

For the 955X, a tie is a victory on the per-

formance front. When you consider that

Intel has already marked the 955X for the

scrap heap to make way for the 975X, a

dead heat with nVidia’s best

and brightest ain’t that bad.

For nVidia, a performance

tie is bad, but not the end

of the world. Sales of the

X16 will hinge on the dual

graphics-card support and

that gives the advantage to

the X16. While the 955X has

nominal dual-card support

from ATI’s CrossFire, the momentum is

with nVidia. Without a CrossFire X1800 XT

option, who the hell wants dual Radeon

X850XT cards? With support for two x

PCI-E slots, the X16 also has an advan-

tage when graphics cards actually need

the bandwidth.

We do have to

note, however, that

nVidia’s approach has

a potential design

issue. The chipset fea-

tures 20 PCI-E lanes

to the north bridge and

20 lanes to the south

bridge. With 8.8GB of

potential data going to

the one videocard in

the north bridge and

another 8.8GB going

to the south bridge,

performance could be

contingent on the performance of the

interconnect between the north bridge

and south bridge. The company hasn’t

disclosed the interconnect speed, saying

there’s plenty of bandwidth for today’s

applications and those just over the

horizon. The company also says the two

chips can access system RAM indepen-

dent of each other, which lowers band-

width requirements.

In the here and now, the X16 offers

enough bandwidth for today’s games. And

when you consider that the X16 lets you

run SLI, while Intel’s board restricts you

to CrossFire, it’s really easy to declare the

X16 as the winner of this showdown.

POGO PLANE

The promise of full x16 per-

formance for each videocard

in SLI means the X16 chipset

could have a longer life.

NVIDIA NFORCE

SLI X

OSPREY

As we said before, will

someone please agree on

a fracking dual videocard

standard?

Asus’ nForce4-powered P5N32-SLI (right) is feature-packed but its sibling, the Intel

955X-based P5WD2, doesn’t go down without a fight

Chart is a representative sample of all benchmarks run. Best scores are bolded.

BENCHMARKS

INTEL 955X NVIDIA NFORCE SLI X

3DMARK05CPU 5,986 5,

3DMARK01 SE 26,347 26,

3DMARK03 16,901 16,

QUAKE III (FPS) 500 485

AQUAMARK III CPU 11,547 11,