EpoX 8K7A does *NOT* fully (nor officially) support Palomino...

[Pabster]

Here's a couple interesting bits. I received an e-mail from EpoX today that the 8K7A does not "officially" support Palomino.

Also, it appears that as this board doesn't recognize the chip differently than a Thunderbird, SSE enhancements are disabled.
The only mobo I can verify fully supports this CPU is the ASUS A7V133.

Nonetheless, I expect EpoX to issue a BIOS update in the near future which adds full Palomino core support.

 

[Duvie]

good info pabster...thanks...

Got any other good benches off of the machine yet to test the hardware prefetching of the mp chip?

 

[Pabster]

Duvie:

Well, I've just scored 7032 @ default 3DMark2K1 settings. I've also pushed it semi-successfully to 160x9.5 (1520) but the old power supply couldn't take it. I'll be trying again with an Enermax 651VP-E real soon. The numbers I did get at that bus/clock were impressive, to say the least. The memory benchmark was around 930/1030, the highest numbers I've seen from DDR yet.

 

[Duvie]

wow those are the highest ddr scores I have seen as well...

I am really interested in your dual setup when it gets going...Are you going to try to boost both the chips up as high as they go since they supposedly support two chips of differing speed?

I am hopping to go dual 1.2 or 1.4s with a bit of coing near the end of the year if some cheaper dual mobos come out...A good price of like 200 bucks to offset the cost of also adding a new power supply...my 350 sparkle I just don't think will cut it plus it doesn't habe the extra plug most likely...

 

[NFS4]

The Abit KT7A-RAID also fully supports the Palomino. I believe that Anand confirmed this.

 

[Pabster]

NFS4:

My KT7A doesn't fully support it. Perhaps there is a BIOS revision I'm missing? Nonetheless, the numbers on the KT7A would be significantly lower due to the SDRAM, etc. Palomino needs DDR to shine, and it certainly does

 

[NFS4]

<< NFS4:

My KT7A doesn't fully support it. Perhaps there is a BIOS revision I'm missing? Nonetheless, the numbers on the KT7A would be significantly lower due to the SDRAM, etc. Palomino needs DDR to shine, and it certainly does >>


Maybe I just read too much into his comment Maybe it just &quot;works&quot; in the KT7A. Which BIOS revision are you using? And are there any new beta BIOS's out??

 

[Liquidh2o]

here's what the latest revision for the epox 8k7a bios includes (dated june 6)

Updated CPU ratio table for new Athlon CPU.
Removed EPA logo.
Upgraded HighPoint 370A bios (EP-8K7A+ only).
Added a new BIOS item to tune up system performance (&quot;Normal&quot; to set as default).
Upgraded AMD CPU string table.
Upgraded CPU instruction SSED.
Added PhoneixNet support


not sure what it all means exactly, but thought it might be useful for some of you

 

[Pabster]

NFS4 wrote:

&quot;Maybe I just read too much into his comment Maybe it just &quot;works&quot; in the KT7A. Which BIOS revision are you using? And are there any new beta BIOS's out??&quot;

ZT right now. I believe there could be a newer one, but I haven't looked yet as I'm not actively using that particular mobo right now. I just briefly tested a Palomino in it.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Hmmm and ive been telling people to buy A7V133's instead of KK266's and epox bards for months but nobody listened...

 

[Doomguy]

Huh. Why would you get an a7v133 over a kk266?

 

[Pabster]

Unfortunately, in my experience, the A7V133 is nowhere near the performance or stability of the EpoX 8K7A. Initial results on the A7V133 w/ Palomino prove my findings

 

[Duvie]

little suspect there own webpage listed the enhancements of the new firmware which was to include ssed support and support for new athlons...and I am sure they just didn't mean multipliers because with multiplier 13 they should have c chips covered to 1733mhz...

What do you think about that Pabster? I though it supported Palo's by those statements alone and recommended it to people because of that....

I agree that kt133a boards support of palominos should be near mute as the sdram isn't really gonna show the pwoer of the palomino as much.

 

[Pabster]

Duvie wrote:

&quot;What do you think about that Pabster? I though it supported Palo's by those statements alone and recommended it to people because of that....&quot;

Not sure what to make of it. It appears no board manufacturer (other than Tyan ) is rushing to &quot;officially&quot; or even unofficially &quot;totally&quot; support Palomino. Perhaps there is pressure from AMD as they don't want people using them on these older boards, etc. It's hard to say.

 

[Insane3D]

Pabster:

Interesting info, I will look into this some more. I am curious about what bios you are using. I think I remember you saying you were using the 1606 bios, but this is not the latest one. The latest bios is 1607 and it is beta, but supposedly adds support for a FSB up to 250mhz. I have the 1607 and I am going to flash to it right away when I build this weekend. If you need it, LMK. Also, did you hit the 160FSB with the Crucial, or did you need the Corsair? Keep that info comin...

 

[formulav8]

Pabster, If you look at Epox's site at the latest bios you will see the new bios does support the new Athlon cpu.


Jason

 

[Pabster]

formulav8 wrote:

&quot;Pabster, If you look at Epox's site at the latest bios you will see the new bios does support the new Athlon cpu.&quot;

I'm using 1606 right now. There is a beta 1607 floating around, which I haven't tried. I may let someone else be the guinea pig

 

[Pabster]

Insane3D wrote:

&quot;Interesting info, I will look into this some more. I am curious about what bios you are using. I think I remember you saying you were using the 1606 bios, but this is not the latest one. The latest bios is 1607 and it is beta, but supposedly adds support for a FSB up to 250mhz. I have the 1607 and I am going to flash to it right away when I build this weekend. If you need it, LMK. Also, did you hit the 160FSB with the Crucial, or did you need the Corsair? Keep that info comin...&quot;

I am currently flashed with 1606 official. I don't have 1607, and I'm almost afraid to mess with it (LOL.) The FSB to 250MHz is useless, since nothing can handle that right now. In the future, perhaps. I was able to run both of my 256MB Crucial PC2100 modules with extremely fast timings (8/8/7/2/2/2/2) as high as 161 FSB. After that, I had to reduce a bit. Excellent results for $55/stick RAM.

 

[formulav8]

<< formulav8 wrote:

&quot;Pabster, If you look at Epox's site at the latest bios you will see the new bios does support the new Athlon cpu.&quot;

I'm using 1606 right now. There is a beta 1607 floating around, which I haven't tried. I may let someone else be the guinea pig >>



I used the beta bios and it does fine. Still not the memory performance as the shipping bios.


Jason

 

[Insane3D]

Well, I will be the guinea pig...I am going to flash to it first thing. I agree the 250mhz FSB is useless due to their being no DDR right now to support that speed, but from what I have heard, the Epox supports a 1/6 divisor in hardware, so the only thing we should need is faster DDR. I can hit 170FSB with my KK266-R, but the PCI and AGP speeds are way too high by that point, plus PC133 gets real flaky above 168mhz. I know they recently adopted a new DDR spec for 166mhz, PC2700, so hopefully some faster stuff will be available soon. Only one more day until I can start building mine...

 

[Pabster]

Well, obviously, it wouldn't help in this scenario. They need to release a new official BIOS which adds 100% support for Athlon 4. Like I said, FSB options to 250MHz are pointless because no DDR modules can clock that high (yet). I don't see the AMD-761 making it that high, either

 

[mchammer187]

Pabster how are you testing your stability i have 2x256 MB of PC2100 and can only get 100% stability @ 141x10 FSB on a Tbird 1.2 Axia Y week 16 if i try to run it at a higher FSB then Prime95 craps out on me and gives me roundoff errors, have u tried Prime95 to test ur stability?

Everything else works fine @ 147 FSB except Prime95

running
Epox 8k7a 8-8-8-2-2-2-2
512 crucial pc 2100 cl2.5
MSI GF 2 Pro
temps run @ 43C under load

trying to determine if it is the ram or crappy 400w psu

 

[Soccerman]

The only thing I'm worried about when boosting the fsb to 200mhz, is the AGP port! we know the PCI works at 1/6 (33mhz), but what about the AGP? does the AGP just take 2x the PCI, or does it require it's own seperate divider of 1/3?

anywho, once these boards start running @ 200mhz, that will mean that the DDR SDRAM is running at 3.2 gigabytes a second, or so..

with the scores you posted, I think it is quite possible to see the Athlon reach the P4 scores in Sisoft when the fsb and mem bandwidth are equal.

Whether or not that will translate into higher game etc., scores, we'll only be able to tell from you. I think everyone here appreciates what you are doing Pabster! All I can say is, don't do anything stupid (like run the core at 2.1 volts! lol)!

 

[Technonut]

Pabster, I am just curious on how high you were running the FSB on the A7V133 when you were testing the Palomino? I had an 8K7A that I sold to replace it with a + version later since I like running my 4 drives as master on their own channels. My A7V133 has a week 51 NorthBridge that I have been running for a long while at an FSB of 158 with a mix of 2 128MB sticks of CAS2 Crucial, and 1 256MB stick of Infineon set at 3-2-2. For the last couple of days I have dropped down to 1440MHz with the FSB rock solid at 160 3-2-2 after I added a copper RAM sink to the ICS chip, and replaced the stock mounting pins that were alittle loose on the NB HSF with spring loaded pins from a Blorb that hold the NB HSF much tighter. It ran through the Prime95 Torture Test, looping 3DMark2001, and games without a hiccup.

I may hold off on the 8K7A+ for awhile if the performance is good with a Palomimo with the FSB at 160 on my A7V133. I know it will not have the boost that DDR has, but I am benching 655/738 in Sandra now, and it would give me a chance to run the Palomino and wait to see how other DDR boards will fare after they mature.

EDIT: I know that I am reaching the limits of my 430 watt Enermax PS. I installed 4 extra 120mm fans to see what it would do, and the system rebooted it's self immediately after getting into Windows. I removed the extra fans, and it is back to normal. I have an Enermax 651 that I will be installing today to see if I can push my OC further, and also possibly be ready for some future MP action.

 

[Insane3D]

Sonny, those scores are pretty impressive..most people don't get that high on the A7V133. I get a score of 675/751 @ CL3 and all the fastest settings on the Iwill. You are correct that the hardware prefetch of the Palomino will not utilize SDRAM as well as DDR but it does benefit SDRAM more if you are running a high FSB. I may give my MP/Palomino a go in the Iwill @ 165 FSB to see what kind of boost I get, if any, with SDRAM when I finish testing in the Epox. Good job with that A7V133!