Abit IC7 beta BIOS 14 Vs BIOS 13 benches

[oldfart]

Tried out the 14 Beta BIOS. The "Performance mode" disabled, fast, turbo, ultra has been replaced with "Game Accelerator" Auto, Turbo, street racer, F1. Kind of amusing :)

I ran a quick set of benches. BIOS 14 looks a little faster than 13. I still have to run some stability tests. So far, so good with no crashes during testing.

Abit IC7 / P4 2.6C Benches

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TEST SYSTEM
Abit IC7 - BIOS version 13, 14 Beta
P4 2.6C SL6WH Pack 05/02/03
3.34 GHz | 257 FSB
Corsair XMS3200C2 (2x 512) mb
Alpha 8942 - Panaflo M1A
Radeon 9700P - 370/325 core/mem - Cat 3.4 - no AA/AF - default settings
Antec True330 - 330 watt PS
Win XP Pro SP1a
DX 9.0a

TEST SPECS
ABIT IC7 i875P = 1.6 Vcore | 1.5 VAGP | 2.8 Vdimm | PCI/AGP 66/33 | 5:4 ratio | DC DDR 412 | cas 2-2-2-5

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BENCHMARKS Bios 13 | 14

> 3DMark2001 < default
18837 | 19017

> 3DMark2003 < default
5770 | 5790


> UT2003 Demo < 1024x768x32, flyby - botmatch
247.8 - 89.8 | 250.77 - 91.7

> Quake III 1024x768x32 < max quality settings
412.6 | 419

> AIDA32 ver 3.61 read/write
5263/1803 | 5592/1877

SiSoft unbuffered
3058/3064 | 3067/3109

[LastRide]

A little gain all across the board.Be interesting with performance mode enabled street racer,F1 what kind of results you will get.:)

[ThugsRook]

very nice improvement :beer:

[LastRide]

Here is something someone mentioed about that bios.

"Just to clear this up, it appears that the "Game Acceleration" only works at 1:1 mem divider - 5:4 and 3:2 only work with Game Acceleration turned off ("Auto"). I got a stable overclock of 210:210 FSB:RAM and much improved mem bandwidth scores in Sandra with "F1" mode - but can obviously get much better scores with Game Acceleration turned off, and mem divider at 5:4 (3.3Ghz stable in Prime95 for my 2.8C)."

[oldfart]

Yeah..seems so. I could not boot with turbo 5:4 no matter what I tried. I did some 1:1 benches with the various modes HERE (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=196)

Its all good. Performance boost 5:4 "auto" or using 1:1 with performance modes.

Same here with the overclock. My 257 FSB 5:4 is still a WAY faster setup for me. I have to give up a lot of FSB to run 1:1.

[ThugsRook]

where to get the 14 beta bios? :scratch:

[oldfart]

Oh yea. That would have been nice to put in the post! :beat:

It actually called "025". You can get it HERE (http://forum.abit-usa.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=99685)

[oldfart]

Version 1.4 is now officially released. Download here (http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/download/bios/dlbios.php?name=IC7&file=ic7/ic714.exe)

[roystarman]

I loaded the 1.4 BIOS last night and in auto I got aobut 150 to 200 increase in Sandra Buffered Memory, pretty nice. However I could not get any of the accelerator modes to operate. I have twin 3200ll corsair modules and I'm wondering with the newest message that they should operate at 2,6,3,2 is casuing problems. If I leave SPD selected it comes up with 2.5,6,3,2. I do have 4 sticks installed. I'm starting to wonder if I should go back to 2 and keep the others for another project someday. If I selected 2,6,3,2 manually it works in Auto but nowhere else. THere is a post on the ABIT page about what the accelerator settings appear to do to memory timing. I think all of the ones mentioned worked fine in AUTO mode so I'm wondering if I should disable and simply set the settings that are posted at the abit site. I've included the settings below.

<NOW, with BIOS 1.4 & SPD (2,5/2/2/6) with Voltage at 2.70 volt>

(I Detected Memory Timings @ 2,5/2/2/6)
If i put Game Acceleration mode to AUTO : Prime torture test PASS.

(I Detected Memory Timings @ 2,5/3/3/7)
If i put Game Acceleration mode to TURBO : Prime torture test PASS.

(I Detected Memory Timings @ 2/3/2/5)
If i put Game Acceleration mode to SRacer: Prime torture test PASS.

(I Detected Memory Timings @ 2/2/2/5)
If i put Game Acceleration mode to F1 : Prime torture test PASS.

Memory Bandwidth Results with Sandra Sisoft :
Auto < Turbo < Speed Racer < F1 (~5000 !!)

I'm a little concerned if I really have the LL memory even though New egg sent me what I think is labelled LL. I'l check that as well. I threw out the cases they came in so have to pull the sticks to check.

[roystarman]

I got the game accelerator to work but I had to only use 2 sticks of RAM vs 4. I get about 200 extra in memory badnwidth at F1 and 2 sticks vs the auto and 4 sticks with timings of 2,5,2,2. So now what to do?

[oldfart]

Those options are very aggressive. Lots of factors determine what you can use. 1:1 Vs 5:4, 2 sticks Vs 4, type of ram, FSB, etc. If auto is all that works with 4 sticks, use it.

[Ardy]

Oldfart,what % of performance gains would you say you got out of this board compared to your 845 ??