FIRST LOOK: ULi M1695 PCIe/AGP Socket 939 for Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on July 13, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
tRAS and Memory Stress Testing
Memory tRAS Recommendations
In past reviews, memory bandwidth tests established that a tRAS setting of 11 or 12 was generally best for nForce2, a tRAS of 10 was optimal for the nForce3 chipset, and a tRAS of 7 was the best choice for the nForce4 chipset. Since this is our first review of a ULi chipset, tRAS timings were first tested with memtest86, a free diagnostic program with its own boot OS that will boot from either a floppy disk or optical disk. Bandwidth of OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2, based on Samsung TCCD chips, was measured from tRas 5 to tRAS 13 to determine the best tRAS setting for the ULi chipset.| Memtest86 Bandwidth ULi M1695 with Athlon 64 4000+ |
|
| 5 tRAS | 1874 |
| 6 tRAS | 1913 |
| 7 tRAS | 1953 |
| 8 tRAS | 1953 |
| 9 tRAS | 1994 |
| 10 tRAS | 1994 |
| 11 tRAS | 1994 |
| 12 tRAS | 1874 |
| 13 tRAS | 1974 |
The best bandwidth was achieved with this combination of ULi M1695/4000+/TCCD in the 9 to 11 range, so a mid-value tRAS of 10 was chosen for all tests. It appears that optimal tRAS timings may also be memory dependent, so we recommend a quick series of memtest86 to establish the optimum tRAS timings for other memories on the ULi chipset.
Memory Stress Test
Our memory stress test measures the ability of the ULi to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (400MHz DDR), at the lowest memory timings that OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 modules will support. All DIMMs used for stress testing were 512MB double-sided (or double-bank) memory. To make sure that memory performed properly in Dual-Channel mode, memory was only tested using either one dual-channel (2 DIMMs) or 2 dual-channels (4 DIMMs).| Stable DDR400 Timings - One Dual-Channel (2/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 10T |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 1T |
Using two DIMMs in Dual-Channel 128-bit mode, the memory performed in all benchmarks at the fastest 2-2-2-10 timings at default voltage, which was the only memory voltage available.
| Stable DDR400 Timings - 4 DIMMs (4/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 10T |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 2T |
Tests with all four DIMM slots populated on the ULi M1695 required a 2T Command Rate with 4 DIMMs in two dual channels. This is the pattern seen on other top-performing Socket 939 boards. However, the ULi had no problem running at a 200 CPU speed setting with 4 double-sided DIMMs. This performance is certainly competitive with the best that we have seen on nForce4 motherboards for Socket 939.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
72 Comments
View All Comments
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - link
#12 - This is a First Look with 2 days testing time for the review. There is a followup Reference Board with better options and we will be analyzing disk and I/O on that board. Testing 10/100 Ethernet tells us little about the board. Abit and Gigabyte both have full-blown boards in the works.#15 - The drivers were trouble-free in our testing. Reference Boards are famous for quirky drivers but these worked as they should.
#20 - 400 IS the speed when I set 200 Clock Speed in BIOS, so I am talking about 400 Clock Speed (800). It isn't truly FSB on an HT machine, so I've changed the wording and the DDR reference error to make it better understood. We are expecting the second Reference Board with improved overclocking shortly and will do more testing for a Part 2 with that board.
nserra - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - link
Wesley Fink i noted that the speed of the AGP is very good, but vs the older 1689 is it equal, higher or is the 1689 even higher. Can you do some 939A8X-M test just to check.#20 He mean 400Mhz. Thats a typo.
Uli say their chipset would do 400Mhz bus speed i just dont know it it's 400x5 or 2000 HT.
PrinceGaz - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - link
Page 4 Overclocking - "Since there were no voltages for memory, we had to toss our normal overclock procedures out the window" and "Without memory voltage, the only way that this can be tested is by lowering memory ratios to those that can run at default voltage"Since you like promoting OCZ products and they seem more than happy to send you them (you used OCZ memory and PSU for this test), why not ask OCZ to send you a pair of their DDR Booster things?
From the same paragraph- "We have seen reports that this new ULi Reference Board, or more specifically the sister Reference Board with the dual 8X riser slot, can reach a FSB setting of DDR400"
Reach an FSB setting of DDR400? Isn't that the default memory speed anyway? I certainly hope it can reach DDR400! :) Did you mean that it can reach 400MHz FSB?
probedb - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - link
This is fantastic. I was wanting a skt939 mobo in a server but all the PCIe RAID boards I've seen need an 8x socket which currently nothing except servers support in tandem with a gfx card. The fact that you could get more than 20 lanes is brilliant news for me :)SynthDude2001 - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - link
#17 - OMG. I want one now!Any ideas if this will be able in the near future too? (Say, within a month or maybe two)
stmok - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - link
If you need Linux driver support for ULi chipsets, head to ocworkbench.com forums OR search/contact ULi about it.I know the previous generation, M1689 chipset did work without a problem in Linux. (I used Fedora Core 4, Gentoo and Slackware).
I was already excited about this chipset (M1695) MONTHS ago...It must take quite a bit of time to get the word out from Taiwan to USA.
If you thought the chipset was interesting.
Check out what ASRock is gonna do with it!
They have a mobo under development that uses this chipset and have an upgrade option to support future Socket M2 CPUs.
Don't believe me?
ASRock 939Dual-SATA (formerly ASRock 939Dual-M2)
http://forums.techwatch.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=448...
SO what do we have here?
(1) PCI-Express and AGP support (no performance loss)
(2) SLI capable. Over at ocworkbench, they have an article which demonstrates that the M1695 DOES support SLI. The special dual PCI-Express 8x riser card is only a prototype (consider it a concept demonstrator), and NOT a retail product...Either way, SLI on M1695 works...And performance is identical to NF4 SLI.
(3) Dual-core support. (both the older M1689 and newer M1695 can handle dual-core without issues).
(4) Overclocking. (ocworkbench.com has shown the newer M1695 has PCI/PCI-Express/AGP locks, and it can handle very high overclock bus speeds)...The current M1689 does NOT have PCI/AGP locks. So ULi did listen to the enthusiast crowd. :)
(5) Upgradeability (ASROCK only)...Who wouldn't want a mobo that supports Socket M2 as well as Socket 939? :)
(6) Its marketed to be slightly cheaper than VIA chipsets!
(7) Abit, ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte are some mobo manufacturers that have released mobos based on ULi chipsets, and they're working on products with the newer M1695.
Its not surprising that ULi is offering so much. They have been noted for saying they want to be the very best Taiwan based chipset provider. And from the looks of it, they're getting there quite well with the M1695.
Calin - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - link
Me three :DCalin
Googer - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - link
Quality drivers will make or break the deal on this chipset.Quality Hardware counts too, but drivers are a deal maker or breaker.
SynthDude2001 - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - link
Absolutely amazing. Assuming they allow for a bit more overclocking options (voltages mainly), and that it does appear in August like they say it will - this WILL be my next motherboard.My 6800GT still has a lot of life left in it I think, but the Athlon XP finally needs to go. I can pick up an X2 and one of these boards, use my 6800GT for now, throw in an R520 or '7800 Ultra' later, and probably be set for at least a year, maybe two.
I can't wait to see these appear at retail!
Cygni - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - link
Thats the most important thing for ULI right now. They need somebody, ANYBODY, to make a board with 2 physical PCI-Ex 16x slots AND agp 8x. The riser card is great in that it proves that it works (and that SLI works as fast as a Nforce 4 SLI board as seen on OCWorkbench), but it aint going to fit in any case that ive seen. 2 PCI-Ex 16, an AGP, 2 PCI, and a PCI-Ex 4 slot... and we got one beautiful board.Judging by past ULi/ALi pricing, it will be dirt cheap too. Actually, i dont think we need to worry so much about whos gonna make it... a quick search on Newegg shows that ASRock, Gigabyte, Abit, Albatron, and Chaintech are all making boards based on the less exciting 1689 chipset.
Im excited. Amazing AGP performance, solid PCI-Ex performance WITH full on SLI, and a low price. Perfect for a few upgrades to K8-ville.