Doom 3 is
the most advanced game to date. it takes advantage of the latest videocard
technology and pushes the processing power of the CPU to its absolute limit. At
its highest setting, Ultra quality, texture sizes pass the 500MB mark which
means even tomorrow's videocards will have a hard time running everything. The
frame rates in the game itself are locked at 60 fps so anything above that point
is wasted. Each test is run three times with the third run being
recorded.
| Doom3 |
| LQ 640x480: |
Points |
Ranking |
| Albatron K8X890 Pro II (K8T890 200/400) |
125.7 |
   |
| MSI RS480M2-IL (RS480 200/400) |
110.4 |
|
| Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra (NF4 Ultra
200/400) |
124.7 |
|
| DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR (NF4 SLI 200/400 7800GTX
Single) |
126.9 |
|
| DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR (NF4 SLI 200/400 7800GTX
SLI) |
127.5 |
|
| Epox 9NPA+ SLI (NF4 SLI 200/400 7800GTX
Single) |
124.3 |
|
| Epox 9NPA+ SLI (NF4 SLI 200/400 7800GTX SLI) |
122.2 |
|
| ECS KN1-SLI Extreme (NF4 SLI 200/400 GeForce
7800GTX Single) |
124.4 |
   |
| ECS KN1-SLI Extreme (NF4 SLI 200/400 GeForce
7800GTX SLI) |
121.2 |
|
Doom 3 is the last benchmark of the group and things
finish off quite well for the ECS KN1-SLI Extreme.
Well it's
fast!
With AMD clearly the current performance leader in the
desktop world, many users are trying out AMD systems for the first time.
Unfortunately for those DIY'ers it can be quite difficult to navigate through
the various motherboards and chipsets. At the moment probably the best chipset
on the market is nVIDIA's nForce4 SLI.
On a budget? Do not fear! If you shop around you can
still get all the dual videocard goodness without breaking the bank. With a
retail price of $160 US ($135 US), the Socket 939
compatible ECS KN1-SLI Extreme motherboard is probably the least
expensive NF4 SLI motherboard on the market that we've seen. Despite its low
price, features are still pretty good: it comes with onboard 7.1 audio, Gigabit
and 10/100 NICs, IEEE 1394a and an additional Serial ATA II/RAID controller.
Probably the biggest feature about the KN1-SLI Extreme is its switchless SLI
ability.
In terms of performance the KN1-SLI Extreme did very
well. It would often compete with the DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR and Epox 9NPA+ SLI
for top spot in 3D benchmarks and it was one of the fastest boards when running
2D applications. ECS does not have much of an overclocking history, but the
KN1-SLI Extreme did well in that regard when it reached 260 MHz. If you want to
join the AMD Athlon64 ranks without spending a load of money, the ECS KN1
Extreme motherboard is definitely worth consideration. It packs in a lot of
value at a very competitive price point.
Find out
about this and many other reviews by joining the Weekly PCstats.com
Newsletter today! Catch all of PCstats latest hardware reviews right
here.
Related Articles
Here are
a few other articles that you might enjoy as well...
1. ABIT AN8-SLI
nForce4-SLI Motherboard Review
2. ECS KN1
Extreme nForce 4 Ultra Motherboard Review
3.
Asus A8N-SLI
Premium Athlon64 Motherboard Review
4. ECS PF88
Extreme Hybrid Intel/AMD Motherboard Review
5. Foxconn
WinFast NF4SK8AA-8KRS Motherboard Review
Doom
3
RSS Newsletter
