8RGA+ IGP performance

[Jibby]

I actually posted this in the motherboard forum, but I've reposted here since this forum seems quite a bit more busy.

"Hiya, I recently got this system for mostly uni work:
Athlon XP 1800+
Epox 8RGA+ mobbo
1x512 MB PC2700 DDR RAM

Not that I'm overly concerned since this isn't my gaming rig, but I did a quick run of 3DMark2001SE yesterday, and got about 2500 marks. Is this normal? From what I've been reading, I should be getting 4000+, right?

The other thing is that this is my first nforce board. I'm still using the drivers that came with the Epox CD (v1.15, I think). Is the IGP performance increased dramatically by going to v2.03, as the description on the nvidia website said something about IGP support? With installing new drivers, do I just install it without removal of the previous drivers (sorry, been using VIA mobbos before)? And if I should remove the previous drivers before new ones, what should I be looking for in Add/Remove Programs?

I'm afraid I won't be able to run UT2k3 benchies yet, will have to get back to studying soon. Any help or info on nforce drivers will be much appreciated by this nforce newbie. "

 

[bluemax]

Your IGP will perform much better with TWO sticks of DDR which will activate "dual threading" or whatever it's called.
Increases memory bandwidth by 2x as well as giving a big boost to the internal GF4-MX video.

 

[Jibby]

I got one reply in the motherboard forum that said the same thing, but now that both of you said it, it sounds like it is quite a big disadvantage having just one stick of RAM in there. Hmm... maybe I should take put this 512MB stick in my gaming rig and take the 2x256 MB PC2100 sticks from that and put it onto the Epox. The gaming rig is using a VIA-based mobbo anyway...

 

[bluemax]

Smart move! Let us know if you see a difference! You won't be able to overclock as well, but you might not need to either! The boost from 2xDDR should be well worth it.

 

[Sid59]

nice .. i think it was the article on anandtech, im not sure ... IGP had the most performance in dual channel set up than the boards without IGP. Even boards without IGP saw a small improvement.

 

[Jibby]

Only problem is that I won't be able to swap them around until the end of the week when I get most of the uni work out of the way (in time for the much-looked-forward-to mid-sem break). By then, this topic will probably be on page 12. Well, if you don't mind me doing a bump then, I'll tell you what happens.

The two 256MB sticks are unbranded though... hope the epox will like them...

Out of curiosity, does this make as much of a difference if I put a GF4 Ti4400 onto the epox mobbo? I will be doing that in the future when I upgrade or get a new gaming rig, which is now using that said GF4.

Also, any advice on the driver-related questions?

 

[bluemax]

The Dual DDR makes the biggest difference with the onboard video, the rest is only REALLY visible in synthetic benchmarks.
You could always stick with the 512MB now and get a second one when you can. Then you'd have 2x sticks of faster, bigger RAM.

EDIT: OOPS! Didn't see you already OWN that video card!
Well, with a video card in AGP, the choice between one FAST stick and two slower sticks isn't quite as easy. If you're going to be using the onboard video for a while, do the dual. If you're getting the video card in there rather soon, stick with the faster RAM.

Feel free to have a different opinion, folks.

 

[Jibby]

Nah, don't think the upgrade on my gaming computer will be done anytime soon...probably end of the year. I had a look at the anandtech article sid59 was talking about (can't believe I didn't look in the chipset section before... just been looking in the motherboard section ), and faster RAM (dual channel) do help out the IGP quite a fair bit. Putting PC2100 sticks in the epox will probably give me a little bit more performance than the MX420... more than enough for what I'm using the computer for, I guess. My concern is whether the mobbo will take kindly to the unbranded sticks, because stability is pretty important in this computer.

 

[Elcs]

As long as its not going to be overclocked, then the unbranded RAM should work fine.

Most unbranded RAM doesnt overclock well.

 

[Jibby]

Just wanted to pop in here and say that I bought another 512MB Samsung PC2700 stick for the non-gaming rig (yeah, I know, excessive RAM there lol... I guess I can always swap the two samsungs with the unbranded ones when games I play start to demand 1GB of RAM). Getting 4000 3DMarks (2001SE) now, not quite up there with some of the scores I've seen using IGP, but it could be due to my lower CPU speed... or drivers (still using the ones that came with the CD... my motto for THIS computer is "if it ain't broken, don't fix it").

Thanks for the help, fellas.