BIOS screen: version 9R is used as it provides the highest performance. Temperatures are very good for a 60W CPU. Athlon XP is recognized correctly and not as unknown CPU! Voltages are also good despite using a 20 years old Enermax!
BiOS settings are quite particular on this board; I will try to go over the main ones that increase or decrease performance:
SOFT MENU III options
1. fast cpu command decode
2. enhance chip performance
3. force 4-way interleave
4. enable dram 4k-page mode
Each of them provides a very small performance boost and I let them enabled! Although the gains are nothing to write home about every little bit helps KT133A as the chipset is very memory bandwidth limited!
Advanced chipset features page:
Unlike earlier board where I found compatible memory modules that let me select the highest performance options this is not the case with KT7A-raid!
1. DRAM bank interleave: 4-way option increases performance a little bit
2. Delay DRAM read latch: 1.5ns. This settings actually decreases performance. You can select from several options: AUTO to let the board do its thing; NO DELAY - this is the best performing option!; 0.5/1.0/1.5ns delay. The higher the setting the lower the performance will be. I could not get the system to pass MEMTEST with 3 double sided modules unless I set the delay to 1.5ns!
3. MD driving strength: high - it is required in order to get the system stable with 3 512mb memory modules! Has no bearing on performance.
4. SDRAM cycle length: 3 - this settings also decreases performance! The system is stable with 1 double sided 512mb module if CAS is set to 2, but with 2 does not passes MEMTEST! This setting has the largest hit on performance on KT7A! Unfortunately the results will suffer but I simply could not find 3 modules the would let me set CAS to 2!
The rest of the settings are very simple and require no explanation:
CPU-Z vintage edition has great difficulty in recognizing the processor and the RAM:
However Everest 5.50 has no trouble at all in correctly identifying every single component:
Did anyone ever heard of Tanisys tech? For me it's the first time and the first impression is very good!
Before putting up the results I forgot to mention the monitor: Eizo S2100 with a max resolution of 1600*1200!
Also I have to mention that KT7A took the 7600 GT very nice; there was no error, no BSOD, nothing!
Now the results:
The order will always be:
1. nforce1: NV7-133R + sound storm
2. nforce1: NV7-133R + creative live
3. KT133A: KT7A-raid
4.AMD760: KG7-raid
5. KT266A: KR7A-133R
1. The first benchmark is Code creatures pro based on DirectX 8.
1024*768 resolution, default settings, NO sound:
2. Code creatures pro 1024*768 resolution, default settings, WITH sound:
3. Code Creatures pro 1024*768 max settings, NO sound:
4. Code Creatures pro 1024*768 max settings, sound ON:
5. Code creatures pro 1280*1024 max settings, sound OFF:
6. Code creatures pro 1280*1024 max settings, sound ON:
7. Code creatures pro 1600*1200 max settings, sound OFF:
8. Code creatures pro 1600*1200 max settings, sound ON:
Code creatures pro summary:
NVidia is not off to a good start! Nforce1 is at the bottom of the scores!
KT133A is severely bandwidth limited by the SDRAM - this is to be expected - however it manages to slightly edge out nforce1 by a small lead.
AMD760 and KT266A are at the top with VIA leading by a small margin!
Now onto Aquamark3 - a DirectX9 test!
9. Aquamark3
The order will remain the same:
1. nforce1: NV7-133R + sound storm
2. nforce1: NV7-133R + creative live
3. KT133A: KT7A-raid
4.AMD760: KG7-raid
5. KT266A: KR7A-133R
First up is nforce1 at default settings - that is 1024*768, no AA, AF 4X, NO sound and the rest of the options at max:
Sound storm first, Creative live second
Next is KT133A:
Followed by AMD760: