Performance Tests

As a rule, the performance of similar systems working in identical conditions doesn’t differ that much at all. Before, the core logic set used on the mainboard could have substantial effect on the system performance. Now, however, when CPUs with integrated memory controller become more and more widely spread, even this parameter becomes secondary. In our case, both mainboards in question - Foxconn A7DA 3.0 and Asus M4A78T-E – are based on the same exact chipset, so the difference in their performance should be minimal.

At first we will compare the performance of two testbed configurations in nominal mode. This way we can get an idea of the performance level the user can count on with default BIOS settings. The only changes made to the mainboards’ BIOS settings were connected with enabling Intel processor power-saving technologies. The mainboards configured all other parameters on their own.

We were a little concerned with the fact that Foxconn A7DA 3.0 fell behind the competitor in Everest copy and latency tests. This is probably the reason for SuperPi and Custom PC Bench 2007 Multitasking Test results being so low. The board is a little behind in almost all other tests, but the difference in them is insignificant and will hardly be noticeable to the users.

Now let’s see how the boards compare during overclocking. Even if they run neck and neck in nominal mode, it doesn’t guarantee parity during overclocking. In this case the boards operational conditions change dramatically and a lot can happen:

No wonder that the performance ratio remained about the same: Foxconn A7DA 3.0 mainboard is almost always a little behind. Of course, there shouldn’t be any significant differences, because we overclocked by raising the clock frequency multiplier. In fact, this overclocking barely increased the load on the mainboard. There is no need to fight for stability at high clock generator frequencies, to increase the memory frequency and lower the timings. So where could the differences possibly come from? Therefore, this comparison is not very interesting to us, but unfortunately, this is the only type of overclocking that Foxconn A7DA 3.0 allows us.