Test Setup

MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R: Athlon 64 3200+ (10x200: 2GHz), 2 x 512MB Kingston HyperX PC4000, FIC Radeon 9600 Pro, 120GB Western Digital SE 8MB Cache, Windows XP SP1, VIA Hyperion 4in1 drivers 4.49, ATI Catalyst 3.8

MSI K7N2-L nForce2: Athlon XP 2500+ (10x200: 2GHz), 2 x 512MB Kingston HyperX PC4000, ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, 120GB Western Digital SE 8MB Cache, Windows XP SP1, nForce 2 Unified Driver Package 2.45, ATI Catalyst 3.8

Test software will be:

Unreal Tournament 2003

Though most benchmarks should be self explanitory, VirtualDub and TMPGEnc may raise a few eyebrows. We've elected to use these apps as real-world tests, and wrote this small article to explain our testing methodology.

The comparison platform will be the MSI K7N2-L nForce2 Ultra 400, running an Athlon XP at 10x200. This should give you an indication of the performance differences between the change in Athlon architecture. For extended Barton numbers, I invite you to read that review. The Kingston modules will be run at 2.5-3-3-6, at "Fast" settings.

All our benchmarks were run on a 32-bit version of Windows XP. The 64-bit Windows isn't due for a few months, and according to AMD, we may get a significant performance boost in a true 64-bit environment. In anycase, the Athlon 64 (A64) runs 32-bit code natively with no emulation.

SiSoft Sandra 2004

Although a synthetic benchmark, it's a popular one, freely available if you wish to make comparison benchmarks. We will be testing the CPU, MMX, and memory speeds, using the 32-bit 2004 version. We do have a 64-bit copy, but unfortunently it won't work on our current version of Windows.

CPU	MMX	Memory

CPU Arithmetic Benchmark

Though the K8T Neo and A64 3200+ beats the nForce 2 Ultra 400 based K7N2-L and AMD Barton, the difference is not gigantic. Remeber that both CPUs are running at 10x200.

CPU Multimedia Benchmark

Here we see a much bigger gap between the two platforms. Some of the credit could probably go to the A64's SSE2 support, but in general, the larger cache and redesign is the determining factor.

Memory Benchmark

I will be the first to admit that I was initially very surprised the single channel K8T Neo was able to convincingly defeat the dual channel nForce 2. Credit must go to the A64's integrated memory controller and its reduced latency.