X38 Express or P45! Help

[Scougar]

WJA96> So those results you gave are "pci-express 2" 16x 16x lanes, and defo not running at 8x 8x?

I only ask as that is heck of a jump just for upping the pci-express frequency!!

Matthew

 

[WJA96]

WJA96> So those results you gave are "pci-express 2" 16x 16x lanes, and defo not running at 8x 8x?

I only ask as that is heck of a jump just for upping the pci-express frequency!!

Matthew

It's an X48 motherboard - there is no option to run at 2 x 8x, only 2 x 16x

 

[kylew]

I'm not sure what to make of the following;

2 x x4850 in CrossfireX on a JW X48D2-Extreme with the PCIe clock locked at 100MHz, goves a 3DMark '06 score of 18750. Turn up the PCI clock to 110, and the score increases to 20,100. Turn the PCIe up to 115, and the score increases to 20,200. To me that says they coul dbe limited by 2x 8x slots rather than 2x 16x slots.

I'm really curious to hear that. It's an X48 motherboard? Increasing the PCI-E speed on the X48 board ups the performance of it by almost 10%?

I'm in the market for a new motherboard and 2 4850s, which I'll be buying this week.

 

[psychas]

p45 is below x38 so its x38> p45 x38 is enthusiast and if some p45 are some other features x38 is still better

 

[WJA96]

I'm really curious to hear that. It's an X48 motherboard? Increasing the PCI-E speed on the X48 board ups the performance of it by almost 10%?

It's a 7% increase and yes, it does seem to be correct. The J&W board is pretty typical of the X48 chipset, so I would expect them all to be similar. I do think the 2 x 8x channels could hold back the X4850 and X4870 cards as they are PCIe 2.0 cards in PCIe 2.0 slots.

 

[WJA96]

p45 is below x38 so its x38> p45 x38 is enthusiast and if some p45 are some other features x38 is still better

Yes, X48 is cherrypicked X38, so X38 is better than P45.

 

[kylew]

Yes, X48 is cherrypicked X38, so X38 is better than P45.

How would an Asus Maximus Formula sound with 2 4850s? Also, is the maximus formula PCI-E 2? If they've got 2 PCI-E 2 lanes, does that mean one of its 16X lanes is equivalent to a 32X lane PCI-E 1.1?

 

[WJA96]

How would an Asus Maximus Formula sound with 2 4850s? Also, is the maximus formula PCI-E 2? If they've got 2 PCI-E 2 lanes, does that mean one of its 16X lanes is equivalent to a 32X lane PCI-E 1.1?

I've always thought that this thing about 1 x 8x PCIe 2.0 slot is equivalent to a 16x PCIe 1.1 slot was a bit disingenuous. Yes, that works on a bandwidth basis, but as a PCIe 2.0 card can use the full bandwidth of a PCIe 2.0 slot, then how many equivalents of a PCIe 1.1 slot is irrelevant as you don't have a PCIe 1.1 graphics card.

I'm not very keen on ASUS for a whole host of reasons, including, but not limited to their poor support, incredibly slow website for downloads, poor UK RMA through OcUK and BIOS layout. Abit, DFI, Gigabyte, J&W, MSI and others all make perfectly decent X38 and X48 boards that are quite reasonably priced and perform well.

 

[bowza]

are all X38 chipset boards pcie v2.0

Bowza

 

[psychas]

How would an Asus Maximus Formula sound with 2 4850s? Also, is the maximus formula PCI-E 2? If they've got 2 PCI-E 2 lanes, does that mean one of its 16X lanes is equivalent to a 32X lane PCI-E 1.1?

Its sounds better with two 4870 even better it sounds with two 4870x2 on 30" dell

 

[kylew]

Its sounds better with two 4870 even better it sounds with two 4870x2 on 30" dell

I'm getting 2 4850s to play with for a while, then when the 4870s are out, and have dropped in price a bit, I'll pick two of them up and put one 4850 in a media PC, and another in a server PC.

 

[WJA96]

are all X38 chipset boards pcie v2.0

Yes.

 

[gurusan]

I'm getting 2 4850s to play with for a while, then when the 4870s are out, and have dropped in price a bit, I'll pick two of them up and put one 4850 in a media PC, and another in a server PC.

4850 in a server and media pc? what a waste

 

[engstrom0304]

slightly off the point but what is faster, 3870 x2 or 4850 xfir on the Q45 deluxe

 

[kylew]

4850 in a server and media pc? what a waste

That will be their primary use, but I want them to be able to run games at high settings for when friends come over. And they're cheap enough for it to be pretty cost effective. They'll also both have 4GB RAM, a Q6600 and a Q6700

 

[kylew]

slightly off the point but what is faster, 3870 x2 or 4850 xfir on the Q45 deluxe

The 4850s will be bottlenecked, but I think they'll still be a fair bit faster than a 3870X2 considering one 4850 is almost as fast in some, and faster in others.