Intel D975XBX (Bad Axe)

[bingo13]

Originally Posted by Intel_User

bingo13, do you know if the very first Prescott tests about heat were tested with closed case or not??

Hi,

I do not have an answer to that question. I know there have been personnel who reviewed the boards on the test bench and those who use a case. Swapping out components every test run in a case is a pain but I believe you generate a more real world number doing it this way. You also come to appreciate good case and motherboard designs.

[bingo13]

Originally Posted by Intel_User

Maybe Tomshardware result about Presler benchies were all BS. Tomshardware showed 975X chipset showing absolutely no improvement in performance in non-SLI/Crossfire benchmarks over 955X. Anandtech results show 975X is indeed faster than 955X.

They also showed very little improvement in Presler EE 3.46GHz/1066FSB over Smithfield EE 3.2GHz/800FSB. While Anandtech shows at the same clock and same FSB Presler EE is faster than Smithfield EE. This is pretty good news.

At the time they did the review the D2 bios from Gigabyte was not optimized very well nor was the latest stepping of the chipset available. We did not post Presler/Cedar Mill scores in our first look at the Gigabyte board for that very reason. I honestly believe once Asus/MSI/Gigabyte have some additional time with the 975X we will see further improvements. I think the nForce4 boards will also show nice gains.

[Intel_User]

At the time they did the review the D2 bios from Gigabyte was not optimized very well nor was the latest stepping of the chipset available. We did not post Presler/Cedar Mill scores in our first look at the Gigabyte board for that very reason. I honestly believe once Asus/MSI/Gigabyte have some additional time with the 975X we will see further improvements. I think the nForce4 boards will also show nice gains.

Exactly why I go to Anandtech. So you are saying Tomshardware did early revision benchmarks and that's why its so slow?? The problem with Tomshardware is they test so early especially with Intel hardware so it looks worse, and then everyone takes Tomshardware result. I have never seen it done with AMD, so AMD artificially looks better than they are...

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by Intel_User

Maybe Tomshardware result about Presler benchies were all BS. Tomshardware showed 975X chipset showing absolutely no improvement in performance in non-SLI/Crossfire benchmarks over 955X. Anandtech results show 975X is indeed faster than 955X.

They also showed very little improvement in Presler EE 3.46GHz/1066FSB over Smithfield EE 3.2GHz/800FSB. While Anandtech shows at the same clock and same FSB Presler EE is faster than Smithfield EE. This is pretty good news.




Presler EE has HT.



Uhh, I wouldn't be too sure about that. Intel's datasheet papers that you linked shows that 975X only supports 800 and 1066FSB. It looks like Conroe will have 1066FSB on mainstream versions, with EE possibly supporting 1333FSB. I bet there will be revised 975X versions called 975XE or something.

I was referring to the D950ES bingo13 was talking about.

My current board runs 800/1066/1333/1600. They only say they officially support 800/1066 because the current CPU's only do 800/1066 but the board goes higher. As a matter of fact I was told the D975XBX was going to support 1333 and I believe I have it posted at the beginning of this thread.

[Intel_User]

I am talking about these results:

Motherboard:
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherbo...114/index.html
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2605

CPU(Presler):
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/2005...e_core-05.html

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2631&p=9

Presler shows good performance increase on Anandtech results, while 1-2% increase in Tomshardware results. You are saying since Tomshardware is using early revision of the board that is not optimized for Presler??

[Sandog]

OK I'm confused again. I was wrong above when I said "I was talking about the D950ES bingo13 talked about" because I went to bingo13's link and the whole article tested using an 840EE, hopefully I am still confused so tell me if I'm wrong. I could not find new Presler benchies anywhere in that article and it kind of makes sense since I do not think the NDA is lifted.

OK, on to something else. I took this out of bingo's AnandTech article link, I think it has some meat in it.

"The chart above lists the standard feature set available to manufacturers using the Intel 82975X chipset. The Intel 975X Express Chipset enables full support for multiple 2x8 PCI Express graphics cards, Intel Memory Pipeline Technology (MPT), Intel Flex Memory Technology , 8GB memory addressability, and ECC memory support.

The Intel MPT has been enhanced to offer improved pipelining to enable a higher utilization of each memory channel, resulting in better performance through increased transfers between the processor and system memory. Intel Flex Memory Technology allows different memory sizes to be populated and still remain in dual-channel mode.

The new architecture also supports both asynchronous and isochronous data traffic, with dedicated internal pipelines and specialized arbitration. In addition, the 975X chipset has improved electricals with optimized ball-out for better latency."

Pretty good stuff huh? So it is looking like 8GB of memory storage possible plus you can mix and match and retain dual-channel mode. I also read this from the same article:

"Memory stress tests look at the ability of the Asus P5WDG2-WS to operate at the officially supported memory frequencies of 667MHz DDR2, at the best performing memory timings that the Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL revision 1.3 will support."

The article link is here again.

[Intel_User]

I was referring to the D950ES bingo13 was talking about.

My current board runs 800/1066/1333/1600. They only say they officially support 800/1066 because the current CPU's only do 800/1066 but the board goes higher. As a matter of fact I was told the D975XBX was going to support 1333 and I believe I have it posted at the beginning of this thread.

Yea but what I am talking is about official support. Officially 955X only supports up to 1066FSB. In fact, I have taken a look at the beginning of the thread and I didn't see anything that said 1333 FSB. Anyway it says that Conroe will be supported with "Platform Refresh" which would probably mean a new revision of the 975X.


I wouldn't be too sure about getting 975X based on current information to run Conroe...

[Intel_User]

I hope Intel's desktop board based on 975X chipset becomes first place for all 975X mobos. In history, Intel's Desktop mobos haven't been top of the line in performance in motherboard performance compared to other manufacturers. It was always in low-middle range. It would be good to pull that to the top this time.

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by Intel_User

Yea but what I am talking is about official support. Officially 955X only supports up to 1066FSB. In fact, I have taken a look at the beginning of the thread and I didn't see anything that said 1333 FSB. Anyway it says that Conroe will be supported with "Platform Refresh" which would probably mean a new revision of the 975X.


I wouldn't be too sure about getting 975X based on current information to run Conroe...

Well frankly I think official support means 1. The mobo supports the frequency and it does. 2. That Intel will start testing and validating 667MHz RAM. This they have not done yet probably but there is already even 800MHz sticks out there working just fine.

I am almost positive my Intel contact mentioned 667 support to me but maybe I didn't post it since I thought it was a given or mentioned in one of the chipset articles. It is already implemented in BIOS on the D955XBK.

I am positive the D975XBX will run Conroe at some point in time. The Broadwater chipsets are coming out in Q2 and will be less capable than the 975X chipset. They do provide support for onboard graphics though and this is there main specialty. AFAIK Intel does not have anymore chipsets planned for the year other than these. The previous reasons for a mobo refresh were:

Power - The Conroe will use less power than an D840EE which the D975XBX already supports so this is not a reason.

Speed - The current D955XBK already works at 400/533/667/800 so we know it can work on the D975XBX.

Socket - Conroe will remain 775pin.

Multicore - D975XBX already supports dual core which is why the D925EX got canned.

I know for sure it will require a BIOS update as every new CPU requires one but I think this is all it will take to run Conroe. I know Conroe is a totally new animal but don't forget the D975 was suppose to come out in Q2/06 also. It may already have support for Conroe. It is one of those things we will have to wait and see but only for about a month probably. Once the D975XBX gets reviews out we should hear immediately if and how it will support Conroe or at least some discussion on it since this is what everybody will be interested in.

[TQ]

Originally Posted by bingo13

You also come to appreciate good case and motherboard designs.

And which manufacturer's cases have you come to appreciate? Inquiring minds want to know...

[Sandog]

2006 Chipset Roadmap

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2635

"On the top end of the scale, Intel is migrating everyone to its 975X chipset from the currently available 955X, with the transitional period lasting roughly 6 months. An important piece of information to keep in mind is that 975X is the only current performance chipset to support Extreme Edition processors and will continue to be the only chipset to do so through to the 2H of 2006 -- clearly the demand for Extreme Edition processors are not very high."

That last statement is not true IMO. If you are buying an EE then you will want to get the D975XBX. There is no need for a lesser board as nobody will put an EE in a D945. Also there are a lot more people who buy EE chips than you can imagine. Someday we might get some figures on this if Intel releases them. A lot of people won't admit they spent $1K on a chip lol.

[bingo13]

Originally Posted by Sandog

OK I'm confused again. I was wrong above when I said "I was talking about the D950ES bingo13 talked about" because I went to bingo13's link and the whole article tested using an 840EE, hopefully I am still confused so tell me if I'm wrong. I could not find new Presler benchies anywhere in that article and it kind of makes sense since I do not think the NDA is lifted.

OK, on to something else. I took this out of bingo's AnandTech article link, I think it has some meat in it.

"The chart above lists the standard feature set available to manufacturers using the Intel 82975X chipset. The Intel 975X Express Chipset enables full support for multiple 2x8 PCI Express graphics cards, Intel Memory Pipeline Technology (MPT), Intel Flex Memory Technology , 8GB memory addressability, and ECC memory support.

The Intel MPT has been enhanced to offer improved pipelining to enable a higher utilization of each memory channel, resulting in better performance through increased transfers between the processor and system memory. Intel Flex Memory Technology allows different memory sizes to be populated and still remain in dual-channel mode.

The new architecture also supports both asynchronous and isochronous data traffic, with dedicated internal pipelines and specialized arbitration. In addition, the 975X chipset has improved electricals with optimized ball-out for better latency."

Pretty good stuff huh? So it is looking like 8GB of memory storage possible plus you can mix and match and retain dual-channel mode. I also read this from the same article:

"Memory stress tests look at the ability of the Asus P5WDG2-WS to operate at the officially supported memory frequencies of 667MHz DDR2, at the best performing memory timings that the Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL revision 1.3 will support."

The article link is here again.

The article has the Presler overclock scores here - http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2631&p=5 and on the general performance and gaming pages you will see the test results with Presler and the 840EE. The Presler 950D results are in orange and labeled as such in the bar text code.

[bingo13]

Originally Posted by Intel_User

I am talking about these results:

Motherboard:
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherbo...114/index.html
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2605

CPU(Presler):
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/2005...e_core-05.html

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2631&p=9

Presler shows good performance increase on Anandtech results, while 1-2% increase in Tomshardware results. You are saying since Tomshardware is using early revision of the board that is not optimized for Presler??

The bios they were using was not optimized for the Presler or Cedar Mill. We tried it and found the same results but did not publish at the time. Also, CPU or memory intensive applications or benchmarks will show the greatest gains with Presler. In our testing of certain games like F.E.A.R., which is almost strictly GPU intensive, there were not any real benefits. However, games like HL2 and Serious Sam II which are more CPU dependent there were some significant gains to be found.

[Sandog]

I see the scores now, pretty good lead on some workstation benchmarks and 3DMark2005. If the Presler runs as cool as you say and has this kind of increased performance it will do well.

Also on this page in the article, look down to where it talks about using Corsair 2x512 5400UL sticks (DDR667). It says it ran great at 2.1V and 8-2-2-3. Now right after they install 4x512 sticks and guess what? They had to turn the voltage up and increase the timing to 8-3-3-3 in order to get 4 sticks to work. They also said 4 sticks put a tougher load on the MCH. This is more proof to our age old question about running 4 sticks of memory in these Intel boards. You will not get the same performance. If I were thinking of upgrading to 2GB of RAM which I am, I would try to find 2x1GB and not go with 4 sticks of 512MB.

[TQ]

Originally Posted by bingo13

You also come to appreciate good case and motherboard designs.

You know, I was serious about my previous question...