ECS GF8200A (NVIDIA GeForce 8200) with integrated graphics
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Date: 03.08.2008 |
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BIOS
the BIOS of abit A-N68SV is based on the Award BIOS Phoenix version, while the BIOS of ECS GF8200A - on the AMI BIOS version.
At first glance, the ECS board offers a wider selection of memory frequencies. However, we should keep in mind that the memory frequencies are in direct dependence on the memory controller integrated into the CPU. In the end, the DDR2-1066 MHz frequency is unattainable on principle for our test specimen of the CPU built on the Orleans, and that the respective item in the ECS menu is available is a flaw of the BIOS.
In the respective subsection, the user can set the required memory latency timings, and their number is vast enough in both the boards:
The system monitoring section of the abit board is somehow more powerful than the similar one in the ECS product.
In particular, apart from the temperature of the CPU and the system, the abit board also keeps track of the temperature of the power converter. The abit board also determines a greater number of voltages.
Both the boards support the feature for dynamic adjusting the rotational speed of the CPU cooler depending on the CPU temperature.
Besides, the user of the abit board can also keeps track of the monitoring data using the Windows utility FanEQ:
Using the FlashMenu utility, it is possible to update the BIOS firmware:
We note the feature for controlling the memory capacity allocated for the needs of the graphic core:
In conclusion, we note that ECS GF8200A due to the latest chipset supports the Hybrid SLI technology (an analog of the Hybrid Crossfire).
In the forthcoming materials, we'll tell how effective it is.
Overclocking and stability
abit A-N68SV implements a 3-line scheme and uses six 680 mkF and four 1000 mkF capacitors. ECS GF8200A also uses a 3-line scheme but a different kit of capacitors: six 820 mkF and four 270 mkF.
Now on to the overclocking features.
| Motherboard |
abit A-N68SV |
ECS GF8200A |
| CPU multiplier adjustable |
+ |
- |
| HT multiplier adjustable |
+ |
+ |
| FSB adjustment |
within 200 MHz to 400 MHz (1 MHz) |
within 200 MHz to 600 MHz (1 MHz) |
| Vcore adjustment |
within 1.35 to 2.0V (0.025V) |
within 0.8 to 1.55V (0.025V) |
| Vmem adjustment |
within 1.8 to 2.1 V (0.1V) |
within 1.9 to 2.4V (0.07V) |
| Vdd adjustment |
- |
within 1.13V to 1.24V (0.03-0.04V) |
| Vht adjustable |
- |
within 1.2 to 1.35V (0.05V) |
| PCI-E adjustment |
within 100 MHz to 150 MHz (1 MHz) |
- |
Now let's look at the practical results of overclocking. To start with, despite the great number of overclocking tools, the ECS board simply wouldn't overclock the test CPU at all. On the other hand, there were no issues with the abit board - overclocking is possible, but the results are below the average.
We produced these results with the earlier versions of the BIOS. Then we updated the BIOS for the abit board with the firmware version 14 and were annoyed by the fact that the feature for multiplier adjustment ceased to work. In fact, it did work, but any value that differs from the nominal (11) was replaced with 10.
After that, we updated the BIOS firmware of the ECS board to version of 22 May and were delighted to see that the "M.I.B." section appeared:
All the overclocking tools remained unchanged (HTT frequency, voltage ranges), and it is convenient that they are all on the same screen. But the nicest thing is that all the features resumed to work and we were able to achieve the HTT=246 MHz. The capability of the board is definitely higher, but you can't measure it without reducing the CPU multiplier (this feature is not supported by ECS GF8200A).
We also note the lack of features for overclocking the integrated graphic core. We were especially delighted by the ECS board because we wanted to compare the overclocking efficiency of the GeForce 8200 chipset versus its direct competitor - AMD 780G (in ECS A780GM-A the overclocking tool was implemented).
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