Yup, you told me what I want to know. Strange about the non-support of 4-way memory interleaving in the KA266's BIOS, as I'm pretty sure that the KK266 supports it. Maybe different BIOSes?
OK here we go.
Quake 3 1.17
KK266 KA266
Fastest 153.5 157.8
Normal 145.3 151.1
HQ 137.8 142.5
3dMark2000
Default Setting 8089 8186
Sandra
ALU/Ram 554 605
FPU/Ram 623 788
Parameters for both:
1200Mhz Thunderbird (9*133)
SB Live
IBM 30Gb 75GXP
Windows2000 SP1
DX 8.0a
Nvidia 6.67 Drivers
Via 4.29 for KK266
ALI agp173e Drivers for KA266
KK266:
Memory at Cas2
Memory timings set to Turbo
KA266:
Memory at Cas2
Memory timings set to Ultra
I only use Win2K so a Win9X scores mean nothing to me. These tests are based on the same hardware setups and drivers and will most certainly not match anyone elses. Tests were run three times and the average taken for the final numbers. 3DMark2K1 would constantly crash on the dragon demo, so I couldnt run that as a benchmark.
Sidenote is that the KA was extremely troublefree. No crashes, no problems installing anything.
Quake 3 1.17
KK266 KA266
Fastest 153.5 157.8
Normal 145.3 151.1
HQ 137.8 142.5
3dMark2000
Default Setting 8089 8186
Sandra
ALU/Ram 554 605
FPU/Ram 623 788
Parameters for both:
1200Mhz Thunderbird (9*133)
SB Live
IBM 30Gb 75GXP
Windows2000 SP1
DX 8.0a
Nvidia 6.67 Drivers
Via 4.29 for KK266
ALI agp173e Drivers for KA266
KK266:
Memory at Cas2
Memory timings set to Turbo
KA266:
Memory at Cas2
Memory timings set to Ultra
I only use Win2K so a Win9X scores mean nothing to me. These tests are based on the same hardware setups and drivers and will most certainly not match anyone elses. Tests were run three times and the average taken for the final numbers. 3DMark2K1 would constantly crash on the dragon demo, so I couldnt run that as a benchmark.
Sidenote is that the KA was extremely troublefree. No crashes, no problems installing anything.
Well, I don't see any surprises - your results seems to confirm what other reviews have said about DDR vs KT133A.
A few questions though:
Do the manuals indicate what the "Turbo" and "Ultra" memory settings actually do in the KK266 and KA266, respectively?
Isn't your DDR SDRAM actually CAS 2.5 (you state that it is CAS 2)?
Re: your final comment "the KA was extremely troublefree. No crashes, no problems installing anything" - is that to imply that the KK266 gave you more problems than the KA266?
BTW, thanks for doing this!
A few questions though:
Do the manuals indicate what the "Turbo" and "Ultra" memory settings actually do in the KK266 and KA266, respectively?
Isn't your DDR SDRAM actually CAS 2.5 (you state that it is CAS 2)?
Re: your final comment "the KA was extremely troublefree. No crashes, no problems installing anything" - is that to imply that the KK266 gave you more problems than the KA266?
BTW, thanks for doing this!
i know the TurkOC allows 4 way interleaving in the KK. is that bios available for the KA as well?
A: The manual doesnt explain what the memory settings do at all. There are actually quite a lot of memory settings that I havent even seen before on any motherboard. I played around with them but didnt see much of any improvement.
B: Memory is rated at cas2.5 but it can do cas2. The cas2 setting due to its lower latency tested faster so I left it. I tweaked both motherboards as much as I could before testing to give a level playing field.
C: I had the problem of the SBlive hating everything that I did (it hated my ADSL card) on the KK266. After moving things around and a couple reformats I fixed it, but it was still annoying. Even switching things around on the KA266 I never had any problems installing anything.
TurkOC has only made a KK266 bios that I am aware of. I used his latest for the KK266 for its memory settings. I havent ever seen a bios from him for the KA266.
B: Memory is rated at cas2.5 but it can do cas2. The cas2 setting due to its lower latency tested faster so I left it. I tweaked both motherboards as much as I could before testing to give a level playing field.
C: I had the problem of the SBlive hating everything that I did (it hated my ADSL card) on the KK266. After moving things around and a couple reformats I fixed it, but it was still annoying. Even switching things around on the KA266 I never had any problems installing anything.
TurkOC has only made a KK266 bios that I am aware of. I used his latest for the KK266 for its memory settings. I havent ever seen a bios from him for the KA266.
I could be wrong here because I'm not a memory architecture professional, but a possible reason the KA266 board doesn't have 4 way interleaving option in the bios is because, that particular option only applies to SDRAM, not DDR ram. My guess would be this is related to the DDR ram function of sending data on the rise and fall of the clock cycle. Not that it matters, if the option is present, because as we can all see from benchmarks DDR is still faster.
I recieved a KA266R board from newegg it is rev 1.3 I set this up for my wife yesterday. No problem, not one, it uses a matrox mystique200, two IBM gxps (not in a RAID}, and 1 stick of 128meg crucial 1600 RAM oh yeah and a 1.2ghz266fsb cpu.
the dimm sockets are a bitch though. could not fit the ram in slot 0. It went in slot 1 ok and that works fine.
I have no benchmarks though. Iwill be be building this same system (with geforce instead) for myself so I will let you know how it goes.
This board arrived with the 02-15-01 bios installed.
I highly reccomend this board..
the dimm sockets are a bitch though. could not fit the ram in slot 0. It went in slot 1 ok and that works fine.
I have no benchmarks though. Iwill be be building this same system (with geforce instead) for myself so I will let you know how it goes.
This board arrived with the 02-15-01 bios installed.
I highly reccomend this board..
Just FYI - the KK BIOS that shipes with the board has 4-way interleave. The TurkOC bios just allows for the 3 bank timings (normal, fast, turbo etc..)
I would have liked to see the tests perfomed with 4-way memory interleaving enabled in the KK266's BIOS! That would have definitely improved its benchmark scores. Would the KA266 still beat it then?
Thats what I did. EVERYTHING that I could do to increase memory performance I did. 4-Way was enabled, set at cas2, and memory set to turbo. That is the reason the memory scores were so close.
Kovalen: Good that you did that (it wasn't clear). So after all is said and done, which board will you be keeping?
I'll probably keep the KA. They are both very good boards, and probably the best Ive ever used (I go through motherboards like tissue paper just to try them out).
You really cant tell any difference while using them, I could put them both side by side and no one could possibly tell just from normal use which was which. The slight increase in framerates is nullified at the resolutions that I play anyway. The KA just seems a bit more "future-proof" and probably has a bit more headroom, that and I wont have to buy a whole new set of memory next time.
You really cant tell any difference while using them, I could put them both side by side and no one could possibly tell just from normal use which was which. The slight increase in framerates is nullified at the resolutions that I play anyway. The KA just seems a bit more "future-proof" and probably has a bit more headroom, that and I wont have to buy a whole new set of memory next time.
Well, DDR is the (near-term) future all right. And at this point I think I will wait until the VIA KT266 chipset boards arrive before making my move (as I don't go through mobos as you do)! 
Actually the memory has kinda helped me. I see all this cheap SDRam and my credit card goes "Woohoo...you cant use me on that!!!".
If you are going to rebuild a computer from scratch then I have no problem saying a DDR board would be better. A DDR system costs just the same (if you overclock PC1600 memory to PC2100) as a standard system, the memory has a longer lifespan, and you can eeek out a bit more performance from it.
If you are going to rebuild a computer from scratch then I have no problem saying a DDR board would be better. A DDR system costs just the same (if you overclock PC1600 memory to PC2100) as a standard system, the memory has a longer lifespan, and you can eeek out a bit more performance from it.
Mushkin has PC2100 sticks. They also have been certified for the KA266. the 128MB's are on backorder right now, though.
While I too have 256MB of SDR SDRAM, I'm going to build another system from scratch (keeping my existing PC for "family use". So I'm going to make the SDR vs. DDR decision without feeling locked-in.
BTW, if I do go DDR, I woudn't buy less than 256MB sticks of PC2100, because the AMD760 chipset (and I believe the KT266 also) limits you to a max. of 2 (unbuffered) DIMM slots!!!
. So I'm going to make the SDR vs. DDR decision without feeling locked-in. BTW, if I do go DDR, I woudn't buy less than 256MB sticks of PC2100, because the AMD760 chipset (and I believe the KT266 also) limits you to a max. of 2 (unbuffered) DIMM slots!!!
Well, buying one of these boards will mark my return to the AMD side (wonder if Anand will allow a name change to AMDconvert?). Problem is that I just can't decide!!! Like Senior Guy, I don't have any SDRAM luggage to influence my decision, as I already have a buyer for my P3 system. So which way to go? -->decisions, decisions...
Just to confuse matters more, here is a first look at a KT266 board.
Just to confuse matters more, here is a first look at a KT266 board.
Judgement: Sometime in April is pretty much what everyone has been predicting for the first KT266 chipset boards, so no surprise there.
IntelConvert: Looks like we are in the same boat - having to decide between a KT133A board and a DDR board (and which DDR chipset)! While SDR is the less expensive way to go, since we both have to buy memory anyway, it seems foolish not to go with the "latest and greatest" -- i.e., some form of DDR. I'm going to wait until the KT266 boards arrive to see if they actually realize their (theoretical) higher performance.
IntelConvert: Looks like we are in the same boat - having to decide between a KT133A board and a DDR board (and which DDR chipset)! While SDR is the less expensive way to go, since we both have to buy memory anyway, it seems foolish not to go with the "latest and greatest" -- i.e., some form of DDR. I'm going to wait until the KT266 boards arrive to see if they actually realize their (theoretical) higher performance.
Well senior guy, I'm pretty sure that AnandTech, TomsHardware, LostCircuits, or another site, will be reviewing the first KT266 boards sometime in April. How can they resist a "shoot-out" between the 3 DDR chipsets (AMD760, ALiMagik1, and KT266)?
Hi Guys, My Iwill KA266-R based system is slowly comming together. I now have the OS installed and am waiting for my final video card. Thanks for your help along the way. Here are my questions for the day:
1. In the raid setup there is an option "Drive Write Cache Enable". By default it is off. In the mobo manual it talks about turning it on. Do you know what it does. I found that enabling increases my hard drive benchmark score in sisoft sandra by about 15%.
2. Is the "PNP OS Installed" setting in the bios important. The default is "NO" and I left it that way. Could there be a problem if I change it to "YES" now, after the OS is installed?
3. In the bios is the setting for the AT bus clock. The default it CLK2/4. Is this what sets the system bus speed based on the CPU clock. For example if I am running the CPU at 100 mhz and i use the setting of CLK2/4 then the system bus speed would be 50. Therefore I would really want to use the CLK2/3 setting so that the system bus would be at 66. Is this correct? If this is incorrect and has nothing to do with the system bus speed, is it the AGP bus speed that is being set? or is it the PCI bus, or what?
1. In the raid setup there is an option "Drive Write Cache Enable". By default it is off. In the mobo manual it talks about turning it on. Do you know what it does. I found that enabling increases my hard drive benchmark score in sisoft sandra by about 15%.
2. Is the "PNP OS Installed" setting in the bios important. The default is "NO" and I left it that way. Could there be a problem if I change it to "YES" now, after the OS is installed?
3. In the bios is the setting for the AT bus clock. The default it CLK2/4. Is this what sets the system bus speed based on the CPU clock. For example if I am running the CPU at 100 mhz and i use the setting of CLK2/4 then the system bus speed would be 50. Therefore I would really want to use the CLK2/3 setting so that the system bus would be at 66. Is this correct? If this is incorrect and has nothing to do with the system bus speed, is it the AGP bus speed that is being set? or is it the PCI bus, or what?
For that matter, just how reliable is any board's thermal sensor? If your fan freezes up or burns out, what are the odds that the thermal sensor will save your CPU from frying?
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