X-bit labs

Intel’s Nearest Plans: FSB 800MHz and Springdale. Details and First Benchmarks (page 2)

Category: Chipsets

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 03/10/2003 | 02:45 PM ]

i865 and i875 Specifications Comparison

Performance

We were very lucky to get hold of a pre-production sample of i865G based mainboard. Even though the chipset launch is expected to take place about two months later Intel already offers the mainboard guys the first chipset revisions. As you understand, the chipset is still quite raw and is not free from some problems, however, it works well enough for us to be able to get some preliminary benchmarks results, which could allow us to evaluate its efficiency and potential. We couldn’t miss this exciting opportunity and are happy to offer you the first benchmarks results for a system built on i865G Revision A1 chipset. We tested the mainboard we had at our disposal in three work modes: with 800MHz FSB and dual-channel DDR400 SDRAM; with 533MHz FSB and DDR266/DDR333 SDRAM. We also used a Pentium 4 2.8GHz processor with the unlocked clock frequency multiplier, which allowed us to run this CPU at 2800MHz set as 21x133MHz and 14x200MHz.

So, in the end we got the following testbed configuration:

• Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz processor;
• i865G based mainboard;
• 512MB DDR400 SDRAM (2x256MB Corsair XMS3200 DIMM modules);
• Seagate Barracuda ATA IV ST380021A HDD;
• Windows XP SP1 OS.

We also had the new drivers for Intel chipset at our disposal, which allowed our system to recognize the newest hardware absolutely correctly.

First of all we measured the memory subsystem performance with the help of SiSoft Sandra 2003 benchmark. Here is a screenshot obtained at 800MHz bus and dual-channel DDR400 SDRAM:

As we see, due to extremely high bus frequency and one of the fastest memory types, the bandwidth of the CPU-to-memory bus grew up to very big rates. However, the practical results still do not reach the theoretical 6.4GB/sec making only about 75% of the theoretical value.

Now let’s find out how big will the practical memory bandwidth turn out in case of 533MHz FSB. The next screenshot was taken with DDR333 SDRAM:

And the following screenshot was taken with DDR266 SDRAM:

As we see, the memory bandwidth by Springdale running with 533MHz bus is hardly any different from the memory bandwidth by another dual-channel chipset aka Granite Bay. However, there is nothing to be surprised at: the memory controller of i865 was based on the one borrowed from Intel E7205.

Now let’s check the results of Cachemem tests, which will give us a better idea of the i865 memory controller performance:

The results are again very predictable: the increase in the bus frequency together with the use of faster memory results into bandwidth growth and latency reduction. At the same time, we would like to point out that the use of dual-channel DDR333 SDRAM with 533MHz processor bus doesn’t improve the performance tremendously compared with that in case of dual-channel DDR266. Here the bandwidth is limited by the system bus frequency and not by the memory subsystem performance.

And here are the results obtained in PCMark2002 test:

The advantage of 800MHz bus is evident: we see 23% performance growth.

In conclusion of our mini test session, we would like to try testing the system in some real applications. We thought it would be a good idea to run SYSmark2002 test set, which includes a lot of popular applications:

The advantages of 800MHz bus over 533MHz one can also be seen with a naked eye. As we notice, faster FSB ensures a significant performance growth in real applications too. SYSmark2002 showed that the performance increased by 5-8%. Here we would like to remind you that all the results provided above were obtained with the processor running at 2800MHz. So, you can now see that the increase in system bus frequency of Intel Pentium 4 processors does have a tangible impact on their performance.

Conclusion

The launching of Canterwood, Springdale and Pentium 4 processors with 800MHz bus should become a significant move forward. As we see, speeding up the Pentium 4 bus together with the shift to faster memory improves the performance very noticeably. NetBurst architecture implemented in Pentium 4 turned out perfectly scalable with the FSB frequency growth. Therefore, as soon as Pentium 4 processors with faster 800MHz bus come out, the performance of top Pentium 4 models will get to a totally new level.

Besides that, the new chipset generation intended to support Pentium 4 with 800MHz bus boasts a great lot of new very up-to-date features. Among them we should definitely mention CSA, native SerialATA support and RAID function. As a result, Pentium 4 based systems should become even more attractive this spring.