RD600 first look and general questions

[Avman]

SuperPI dual 32m is a joke for testing CPU stability.
A horrible joke.

Unlike most people on XS, some of us actually use our computers for stuff other than synthetic benching.

That's why we like Orthos.

I have had all the 3DMarks pass, SuperPiss pass, as well as various other benches pass, but Orthos would fail within a few minutes.

So then i go play some Q4, only to have it crash twice in an hour.

That's why i like Orthos.

I'm not saying it's imperative for everyone, but for those of us who actually use our PCs, it's a pretty damn decent indicator is stability.

Granted, it may need an update, but as mentioned, if you want rock solid stability, there are few other programs that will cut it.

I'm the other way round on this issue - I've been running my 6600 at 4.1 Ghz rock solid (app.) stable - no glitches, crashes, or any type of weirdness in any way shape or form for three months now, (BF2, GRAW, Office, etc..etc..) but it won't do more than 2 minutes of Ortho.

P.S. I really need to update my sig!

[bingo13]

I would agree with that 100%

Unfortunately, aside from in the folding section, i don't recall anyone here ever reporting stability that way.

Now to get back on topic, it looks like this DFI is going to be one kickass mobo, albeit with limited stock for the first while.

Gary, may we have an ETA for when the review is arriving on AT?

Preview by the weekend with the shipping BIOS.
Full article next week including beta BIOS results.

[bingo13]

Here is the Banzai run.....



Passed Orthos for about 30 minutes before I needed to shutdown to get back to real work not to mention turning those six 120mm fans off. I am deaf now.

[sierra_bound]

Will your review also look at quad core performance? As you know, they don't do very well with 680i. I'm just curious how Kentsfield performs on RD600.

[bingo13]

This is what I have been testing at today, found some more tweaking secrets at Oskar University this morning.

[bingo13]

Will your review also look at quad core performance? As you know, they don't do very well with 680i. I'm just curious how Kentsfield performs on RD600.

The full review will have Quad performance. I have a retail Quad arriving on Friday. I will not post numbers with our ES unit.

[Raja@ASUS]

I have a retail x6800 coming , cost me an arm and leg, but as quad core support is just coming to fruition, I thought let's see what my phase unit can really do, and also put and end to this es myth and the hunt for a stbale high fsb. My benching friends prefer retails anyway, some of the newer batches are better than es's anyways

regards
Raja

[BLHealthy4life]

So.....

Only a few DFI RD600 boards will be released in the USA before Christmas...

What about the DFI 680i boards? What is the ETA for those boards in the USA?

Thanks!

BL

[camouflage]

Here is the Banzai run.....



Passed Orthos for about 30 minutes before I needed to shutdown to get back to real work not to mention turning those six 120mm fans off. I am deaf now.

Nice - can You show us a SP 1M at that speed plz........

Need to know the time.

[EnJoY]

So.....

Only a few DFI RD600 boards will be released in the USA before Christmas...

What about the DFI 680i boards? What is the ETA for those boards in the USA?

Thanks!

BL

Q1 2007, a little while after RD600, I can't be too exact, and this timeframe means nothing as the board is still in development.

[bingo13]

Nice - can You show us a SP 1M at that speed plz........

Need to know the time.

All in good time, but we have said this before, you will not set any SuperPI records with this board, application and 3D results are excellent so far.

[mnemonik23]

Other important thing to test: X-Fi
I hope there is no any sound issues with RD600 and X-Fi cards

[GNU]

A question:

Is the new DFI Mobo only an upgraded Nforce4 LP Mobo?
Whats about the bios? Same settings like my old AMD Mobo?

[bingo13]

Other important thing to test: X-Fi
I hope there is no any sound issues with RD600 and X-Fi cards

I look at it differently. I wonder if yet again the X-FI card will have an issue on a new chipset. Most people like to blame the motherboard companies, but programming a BIOS to be X-FI friendly (especially after driver changes) is not that easy. Most of the time it means reduced performance or screwing around with another component on the board to get it to work correctly.
But yes, we will test with the X-FI.

[marauder16]

A question:

Is the new DFI Mobo only an upgraded Nforce4 LP Mobo?
Whats about the bios? Same settings like my old AMD Mobo?

read the topic?






please read through the topic next time:
1. no it's not
2. no

[Trice]

Jan 10th is more realistic for me.........which isnt good. I would love to get one ASAP as I need my desktop up and running but I doubt I will be one of the few to get one. I guess I will have to buy a board to hold me over until then I guess.

Bummer.

[bingo13]

guys apps can have code issues with chipsets, we saw the same with early builds of memtest86 and prime had issues with Athlons also.....so it just may need a tweak or two to run 100% on this ATI chipset.

Then again it may be just plain unstable...I will try to run some tests to see soon.

Not to go OT again, but everyone needs to be reminded of the issues encountered when the Athlons and P4s were launched. This is the current change log for Prime95 - http://www.mersenne.org/whatsnew.txt - notice we have not seen any updates for the latest series of CPUs and chipsets. While I value the importance of Orthos/Prime95, I also know what I went through with the release of the Athlon, P4, and A64 processors.

It is happening again today and is the reason why I do not have 100% confidence in the program now. I have an "Orthos" stable system on my desktop that fails seven of twenty six benchmarks. I am skeptical for a reason. I promise not to mention this again in the thread, we can take it elsewhere.

[Poodle]

Bingo,

Just a reminder. Don't forget to compare the power consumption with 975 and i680 in your review.

[bingo13]

Bingo,

Just a reminder. Don't forget to compare the power consumption with 975 and i680 in your review.

I was wondering what scale I would have to use to show the difference between RD600 and 680i.

[Knight]

Sorry to rush you two, but how is the hard drive performance looking?

[Tony]

For those looking for some numbers...HDtach running both tests. ATI raid, 128kb

[Iconyu]

Its 16X with one card or 8x8 with 2, issue is just like Nf4 its fast with dual cards, I actually feel 16X 16X is not needed.

It actually is a issue, if you own two G80's as they physically need 16x + 16x to run in SLI even on a nVidia chipset mobo.

[Tony]

It actually is a issue, if you own two G80's as they physically need 16x + 16x to run in SLI even on a nVidia chipset mobo.

there is no driver for G80 on non NV chipsets anyway at this time.

[Iconyu]

Well thats logical considering the motherboards that support 16x 16x that aren't nVidia are so few. If the RD600 had joined those ranks then maybe there would have been a hacked driver, but without it no point really.

[voltaire2030]

Nice review Bingo and Tony !

Wow the Bios !!! I'm a suprise that it doesn't have an option to start my espresso machine in the morning...

But really, I think it's a bit too much ... I like what did EVGA-Nvidia in their 680i bios, nice and clean...

But will wait and see for you final review to replace my fried DFI ...