Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
1. CPU-Z and AI booster both show the 9.5 multi. All of the settings I listed were confirmed with CPU-Z and AI booster and nTune. So if there is no 9.5 multi all of these utilities are fooled in exactly the same way. (I have seen the comparisons showing a performance hit using the 1/2 dividers) Thanks Zebo!
I need more info on this. Do you have the latest CPU-Z (I think it is 1.26)??? In theory there are NO HALF dividers supported by AMD A64 Proccessors!!!, so whatever the BIOS and the utilities report there is no such thing... Since you have a very new board we must investigate this!
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
2. My post is correct, and I agree with your calculations.
3. This board doesn't offer manual memory dividers(bummer!!). You can run 1:1 or you can run auto and it applies the dividers automatically and always keeps your memory <= 200mhz
4. What comparison would you suggest? Since you obviously "know how"
To check the latency issue in dual compaprisons:
1. Same CPU freq, Same memory freq, different latencies eg: 2-2-5-2 vs 3-3-10-3
2. Higher or lower same CPU freq, Same memory divider as before, different latencies eg: 2-2-5-2 vs 3-3-10-3
The more of these tests the better: This way you identify the latency performance impact and how it scales when frequency scales...
To check the bandwidth issue in dual compaprisons:
1. Same CPU freq, same latencies, different memory bandwidth (different dividers) eg: 200 vs 166
2. Higher or lower same CPU freq, same latencies as before, different memory bandwidth (different dividers) eg: 200 vs 166
The more of these tests the better: This way you identify the mem bandwidth performance impact and how it scales when frequency scales...
This is the general idea, if we assume that 1:1 and ASYNC mem do not incur any serious differences in performace (tested many times by others) and that HT frequency performace hit is negligible (which is valid). Of course there are many more combinations to be tested (mixing the above ones), but most of these will not alter the results significantly...
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
The tone of your post indicates that these results disturb you. I myself am disappointed in the overclocking limitations on the A8N-SLI. But overall I love the features, stability, and performance of this board. I realize that to a lot of people CPU mhz bragging rights are important. Personally I don't care wether I run 2ghz or 3ghz, I just want to find the best performance I can get with this particular setup.
I will add that the lack of manual memory dividers on this board is a definate overclocking limitation. If your desire is to reach a maxium CPU overclock and overclock your ram you need to choose another board over the A8N-SLI at this time. I am hoping a future bios revision will address this limitation. I am interested to see if this is a limitation of just this board or all nforce4 boards.
I do not have this board and I can not comment on what is there and what is not... Maybe if you send me some more detailed info on your BIOS settings I could help you find what is supported and what is not...
PS1 From your previous results we can assume that the mem bandwidth increase in percentage yields between 1/6th and 1/7th in general performance benefit of the the same percenatge increase in CPU frequency (which is a lot previous reports speak of 1/10th). But we can not conclude anything on latencies...(my experience through various comparative benchmarks is 5% maximum general performance benefit of 2-2-5-2 vs 3-3-10-3). To sum it up ignore my tone

and provide more rigorous testing...
PS2 From all the above it is obvious that you can run your system with much higher performance than what you have posted and the only PROBABLE limiting factor is the lack!?! of manual memory dividers in your board...