W1zzard
07-26-2005, 04:14 PM
[pagE=Introduction]
Introduction
I would like to thank Sapphire (http://www.sapphiretech.com) for supplying the tested motherboard.
When it comes to ATI video cards, Sapphire is one of the top, if not the number one manufacturer. After their tremendous success with video cards, they are now entering the motherboard business.
I find the name of the PI-A9RX480 a bit complicated. Maybe somebody at Sapphire will come up with an easier marketing name.
This is how Sapphire's naming scheme works:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/name.gif
The obvious choice when it comes to the selection of motherboard chipset, are chipsets from ATI.
ATI's new RS480 chipsets are geared to deliver high performance and good overclocking. On the PI-A9RX480, Sapphire chose to use the RX480. This version of the RS480 does not come with integrated VGA. Overclockers don't really need an integrated X300 on their motherboards, so it makes sense to scrap that feature and save a few bucks.
Sapphire has specifically developed that board to fit the needs of overclockers and enthusiasts, so the BIOS shines when it comes to overclocking options. For example DDR Voltage can be selected up to 4.0 V.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/shield_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/shield.jpg)
[page=Features]
Features
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Processor</th>
<td>AMD Athlon64 / FX Socket 939</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>FSB</th>
<td>800 MHz / 1000+ MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Chipset</th>
<td>ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 (RX480 + SB450)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory</th>
<td>4x 184 Pin DDR, Dual Channel DDR266/333/400, up to 4 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>BIOS</th>
<td>AwardBios</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Slots</th>
<td>1x PCI-E x16<br />
2x PCI-E x1<br />
2x PCI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>HDD Connectivity</th>
<td>2x ATA-133<br />
4x SATA, 2x SATA-II</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Networking</th>
<td>10/100/1000 Mbps - Marvell 88E852 via PCI-Express</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ports</th>
<td>8x USB 2.0 (4 on Back Panel)<br />2x IEEE1394 (1 on Back Panel)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Audio</th>
<td>8 Channel Realtek ALC880 Audio, SPDIF</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Form Factor</th>
<td>ATX 305 x 244mm</td>
</tr>
</table>
Specifications from Sapphire
Chipset
ATI RX480 x SB450 Chipset
Processor
Support for AMD K8 Processor in Socket939 package
Support Hypertransport Interface bus
VRM (Voltage Regulator Modules) on Board
Flexible motherboard design with on board VRM, easy to upgrade with future AMD K8 processors
0.800V to 1.55V in 25 mV steps
System Memory
A total of four 184-pin DDR RAM sockets
DIMM size support from 64MB to 2GB
Suppot of dual channel 128-bit wide memory interface
Support of 266/333/400 DDR RAM memory type
System BIOS
PnP, APM, ATAPI and Windows 2000/XP
Full support of ACPI & DMI
Auto detects and supports LBA harddisks with capacities over 160GB
Easy to upgrade BIOS
Plug and Play
Supports Plug and Play specification 1.1
Plug and Play for Windows 2000 and XP
Fully assignable PCI interrupts
Onboard I/O
Onboard two PCI fast IDE ports supporting up to four ATA, ATA2, Ultra ATA33/66/100/133 IDE HDDs, CD-Roms, ZIP drives and LS-120 drives as boot drive
One floppy port supports two FDD of 360KB, 720KB, 1.2MB, 1.44MB and 2.88MB capacity
Eight USB ports (four ports via two headers)
PS/2 keyboard connector
PS/2 mouse connector
One front panel sound connector
Extended USB Support
Includes 2 OHCI host controllers, increasing the number of external ports to eight
Includes 1 OHCI USB2.0 host ontroller that supports all eight ports (Bandwidth shared between eight ports)
This motherboard supports USB 2.0 feature only on Windows 2000 (with SP4 or above) and XP (with SP1 or above) OS.
Onboard Marvell 88E8052 PCI Express Gigabit LAN
Full compliance with IEEE 802.3u 100 Base-T specifications and IEEE 802.3X Full Duplex Flow Control
Supports 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s and 1000 Mb/s operation
Supports Wake-On-LAN function and remote wake-up
PCI Express x16 Graphics Interface
One 16-lane (x16 port) PCI Express port intended for external graphics
Full compliant to the PCI Express Base Specification Revision 11.0a
The base PCI Express frequency of this interface is 4 GB/s
PCI Express supports an enhanced addressing mechanism
An optional ADD2 card can utilize PCI Express Graphics x16 connection
PCI Express x1 Ports
Two 1-lane (x1 port) PCI Express port intended for external graphics
Fully compliant to the PCI Express Base Specification revision 1.0a
Two virtual channel support for full unsynchronized data transfers
Supports full 2.5 Gb/s bandwidth in each direction per x1 lane
Power Management
Supports SMM, APM and ACPI
Break switch for instant suspend/resume on system operations
Energy star "Green PC" compliant
Hardware monitoring circuit is supported, provide voltage, fan speed etc. monitoring
Wake-On-LAN (WOL) support
Supports Suspend-To-RAM (STR)
Onboard ALC880 7.1 audio
Integrated Realtek ALC880 controller
Fully Sound and Sound Blaster compatible
Full-Duplex 4 24-bit two-channel DACs and 3 stereo 20-bit ADCs
PnP and APM 1.2 support
Windows 2000/XP drivers ready
Line-In, Line-out, Mic-in, SPDIF-in, SPDIF-out
Supports ALC880 codec for eight channel sound output
Onboard IEEE1394
Compliant with IEEE1394 OHCI specifications v1.0 and v1.1
Integrated 400Mb 2-port PHY
Onboard Serial ATA Host Controller
Independant DMA operation on four ports
Data transfer rates of 150 MB/s
RAID 0/1 feature support
Onboard Serial ATA-II Host Controller
Independant DMA operation on four ports
Data transfer rates of 300 MB/s
RAID 0/1 feature support
Expansion Slots
1 PCI Express x16 slot
2 PCI Express x1 slots
2 PCI bus master slots - ver. 2.2 compliant
[pagE=Packaging]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package1.jpg)
The box has a unique reflective packaging, logos and features to catch the buyers eye, and a window to give you a hint of the suprise inside.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package2.jpg)
On the back of the box is a description of the motherboard and specifications.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package3.jpg)
Open up the front cover, and you are treated with a picture of the motherboard, some additional features, and you reveal the full window, allowing you to view the motherboard.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package4.jpg)
In the window, you will see the motherboard. Similar to a few other manufacturers, Sapphire has chosen to use colors not common to the regular motherboard look.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package5.jpg)
Opening the box, you find the motherboard in its anti-static tray.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package6.jpg)
Under the motherboard you will find the bundled cables, CDs and the manual.
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/contents.jpg)
You will receive:
Motherboard
Users Manual, Sapphire Sticker
1x IDE Cable, 1x Floppy Cable, 1x SATA Cable
Bracket for SPDIF
Bracket for IEEE1394
IO Shield
Driver CD, Application CD
The included accessories are a bit lacking. However, the essential things, except for a SATA power cable, are there. The manual is very good, it even covers most of the enthusiast options in the BIOS.
[pagE=Board Layout]
Board Layout
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/board_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/board.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/back.jpg)
Click here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/board_fullsize.jpg) for a 3000x2500 high-res shot of the board (3 MB download), the backside is here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/back_fullsize.jpg).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sticker_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sticker.jpg)
On the backside and in the manual you will find a sticker which tells you that you are not supposed to use other retention modules. The reason behind this is, that the first batch of motherboards has an issue where one CPU socket mounting hole is live with +12V and the other one with +3.3V.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/33v_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/33v.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/12v_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/12v.jpg)
If you use a metal backplate with metal screws there is a high possibility to create a shortcut. Under normal circumstances, when you have this shortcut, the PSU will simply not turn on. However, there might be situations where you could damage your motherboard or even worse.
Sapphire assured us that only the first batch of samples were affected and that this is going to be fixed soon.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/cpuarea_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/cpuarea.jpg)
Space around the CPU socket is more than enough for most users. Big coolers like the XP-120 should fit fine.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/io_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/io.jpg)
If you look at the IO panel you see a big gaping hole. Initially, Sapphire wanted to include on-board VGA with the motherboard, that's where the connectors were supposed to be. In order to reduce total cost for this rarely used feature, the integrated VGA was scrapped, but doing a redesign of the back panel wouldn't have been worth it. Modders could use this to add some "OTES" style MOSFET cooling. So from left to right, we have PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, IEEE1394, 4x USB, Ethernet and Audio.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/dimm_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/dimm.jpg)
Usually memory slots are color-coded to indicate dual-channel configuration. Sapphire did not do this, probably to stay with the color theme of the motherboard. A quick look into the manual will tell you, that you have to put the modules right next to each other for Dual-Channel. This is not such a great solution since it tends to increase your memory temperature because there is less airflow around the individual sticks.
Connectors
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/atx_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/atx.jpg)
The 24-pin ATX power connector is very conveniently placed, the ATX12V connector could be placed in a better location. An extra power connector would be nice, but it doesn't seem to be needed since the board supports only one PCI-E Video Card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sata_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sata.jpg)
A total of six SATA ports are available on the Sapphire PI-A9RX480. They are arranged in two blocks. The group of four ports on the right is 150 MB/s capable while the other group on the left can run SATA-II up to 300 MB/s.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/pata_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/pata.jpg)
Two ATA-133 ports are located near the ATX Power connector. The connector closest to ATX power is the floppy port.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/headers_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/headers.jpg)
The front panel connector is neither color-coded, nor labelled. At least it follows the specification.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/buttons_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/buttons.jpg)
Overclockers love this feature. Two small buttons are used for Power and Reset. This saves you from connecting cables to the headers or using a screwdriver to turn the system on.
Slots
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/slots_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/slots.jpg)
There is some extra space between the PCI-E x16 connector and the first PCI-E x1 port. With a one slot cooler, you should have plenty of space for airflow. With a two slot cooler there is a good chance that both x1 slots remain usable.
[page=Layout continued]
Cooling
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/chipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/chipset.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sb.jpg)
Sapphire's PI-A9RX480 does not use any active cooling at all, which makes this a very quiet board during operation.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet2.jpg)
Special consideration has been given to keeping the MOSFET area around the CPU socket cool. A massive heatsink is attached to the transistors. The heatsink is 35x35mm, which means it will be a bit tricky to get a 40mm fan attached to it.
I laid a 40mm fan on top of the heatsink and marked the heatsink area red in following picture.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet3.jpg)
As you see, the fan is overlapping, making the screws hard to get in, but it is possible.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet4.jpg)
You want to use a bigger fan or waterblock? No problem, in addition to the two mounting holes of the heatsink, there are five extra holes here, that could be used to build you own mounting construction.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet5.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet6.jpg)
The heatsink is easy to get off. Sapphire doesn't use glue, but a sticky thermal pad. If you twist the heatsink while pulling it up, it goes off much easier. I see very little risk of accidentally pulling a MOSFET.
Chips
Sapphire uses only high-quality components on the motherboard, for example the capacitors are all japanese-built. Another point to note, is that special MOSFETs are used which increase power stability as well as price.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/monitoring.jpg)
Hardware monitoring is provided by ITE's 8712F. This is pretty much one of the most common monitoring chips right now, so getting software support for it should be easy.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/lan1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/lan1.jpg)
For networking, Sapphire chose a Marvell 88E805 10/100/1000 LAN controller which is connected via the PCI-Express bus, since ATI does not include a way to connect an ethernet chip directly to the chipset.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/audio_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/audio.jpg)
The Realtek ALC880 Audio Chip is responsible for sound. It features 7.1 Audio and SPDIF.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/satachip_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/satachip.jpg)
Silicon Image's SiI3132 provides two additional SATA-II ports, in addition to the ports of the ATI chipset. So you have a total of six ports, plus the two IDE channels.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/ieee1394_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/ieee1394.jpg)
Two IEEE1394 ports are implemented by the VIA VT6307 IEEE1394 controller.
[pagE=BIOS]
BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_bios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_bios.jpg)
Like most other companies, Sapphire uses the proven Phoenix AwardBios. The BIOS version we have been using is not the final version and all issues that we reported will be fixed, Sapphire promised.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_standardcmos_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_standardcmos.jpg)
The first page is called Standard CMOS and offers settings to change date/time, HDD and floppy settings.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_advbios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_advbios.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_hddpri_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_hddpri.jpg)
Advanced BIOS has settings to adjust general BIOS settings like typematic rate and additional bootup-delays. Also you can disable the full screen POST image here, so that you can see the full output of the system startup. On a subpage you can change the order in which the system will try the available boot devices.
Advanced Chipset
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_advchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_advchipset.jpg)
Here you find several ATI chipset related options, for example to control width of the PCI-Express x16 interface. On a submenu you can access the Memory Timings options which we will cover on the next page, in the overclocking section.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ldtconfig_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ldtconfig.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ldt_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ldt.jpg)
On another subpage you find settings related to the LDT speed and width.
Unlike the nForce4, the LDT frequency is not directly linked to HTT, so if you set 800 MHz here, it stays at 800 MHz, no matter what clock speeds you set for the CPU.
Integrated Peripherals
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_peripherals_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_peripherals.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ide_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ide.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_onboard_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_onboard.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_onchippci_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_onchippci.jpg)
Integrated Peripherals has options to change, which SATA and IDE ports are activated and to enable/disable USB, Audio, LAN, Floppy and the IEEE1394 interface.
RAID configuration is done in the SATA chip's own setup utility which can be entered by pressing a hotkey during POST.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_satabug_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_satabug.jpg)
One issue I spotted in the current BIOS, is that the default setting of the SATA controller defaults to RAID. On this setting you might not be able to start the Windows installation without loading additional drivers. Once you change this setting to "IDE Controller" everything will work fine.
[hr]
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_power.jpg)
Under Power Management, you will find the standard options which are usually listed here. One important option you can enable/disable here, is "AMD Cool&Quiet" which reduces heat output and power consumption when the CPU is idle.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_pnppci_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_pnppci.jpg)
PNP/PCI Configurations has no useful options. "Init Display First" is located on the Integrated Peripherals page.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_monitoring.jpg)
The Hardware Monitoring page shows the usually monitored fan speeds and voltages.
Three temperatures are monitored here: Ambient temperature, CPU VRM, which is the temperature of the MOSFETS under the big black heatsink and Northbridge voltage, which is the temperature of the ATI RX480 chipset. What I am really missing here is an option to monitor the CPU temperature by reading the on-die thermal diode. The board does support monitoring CPU temperature (and another temperature near the CPU socket) it's just that the BIOS does not list these yet.
Options to dynamically change fan speeds based on temperature are not available either.
[pagE=BIOS Continued]
BIOS: Overclocking
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_oc_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_oc.jpg)
The Overclocking Features page in the BIOS is home to the overclocking options. Sapphire has done an excellent job here, the options are well rounded, you might even find some options which no other board offered yet.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_fsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_fsb.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_pcieclock_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_pcieclock.jpg)
The CPU FSB can be changed in 1 MHz steps between 200 MHz and 440 MHz. Options for the PCI-Express bus frequency range from 100 MHz to 200 MHz. Most people fix it at 100 MHz and it works well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vnb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vnb.jpg)
Four values are available for Northbridge voltage. 1.50V sounds like a bit much to me, especially without active cooling on the chipset. But it's better to have the options than to be limited. ATI lists 1.26 V as maximum recommended Voltage for the chipset, but hardcore overclockers have never cared about manufacturer maximums, anyway.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vht_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vht.jpg)
The voltage of the HyperTransport link can be increased up to 1.5 V as well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vpcie_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vpcie.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vpcie2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vpcie2.jpg)
Two voltages of the PCI-Express bus can be changed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vddr1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vddr1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vddr2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vddr2.jpg)
Great job here again, Sapphire. DDR voltage is selectable from 2.5 V all the way up to 4.0 V in 0.05 V increments.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ddrvtt_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ddrvtt.jpg)
This setting allows you to define how much the VTT termination voltage should change from the default setting.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_fid_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_fid.jpg)
Unlike the Pentium 4, AMD's processors have a selectable multiplier (only downwards). This allows you to boost performance even more, if your memory can handle the speeds. The options here range from 4.0x up to the CPU maximum (in our case 9.0x). Half dividers are available as well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vcore1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vcore1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vcore2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vcore2.jpg)
The easiest way to get a few more MHz out of your CPU, is by increasing the Core voltage. Sapphire's motherboard is one of the few boards to allow undervolting. Minimum voltage is 0.825 V, in steps of 0.025 V you can go up to 1.550 V, which isn't that much for the more extreme people. From a hardware perspective the board can easily support over 2.0 VCore. The BIOS option for an "offset" voltage was not in this tested BIOS. A few days later we got a new one with the options, but they did not work. It was possible to change the offset voltage via software, so it's just a matter of time until Sapphire gets this working in the BIOS.
Memory Timings
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram3.jpg)
The Sapphire PI-A9RX480 has a ton of memory timing options. Listing them all would take too long, take a look at the pictures and be impressed. There are three "sections": Timing Mode, User Config Mode and DRAM ECC Feature Control.
Good that there is an auto setting for each section, so newbies don't have to worry about getting every option right.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dramtiming_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dramtiming.jpg)
When setting DRAM Timing to manual you can change the standard timings Tcl, Tras, Trp and Trcd.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dramtiming_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dramtiming.jpg)
Another option is to set your memory divider to change the frequency your memory is running at. There are seven different settings which should cover most situations you would like to run your memory in.
[page=Performance: Test systems]
Test Systems
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "Sapphire PURE"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480, Bios 07/27/05<br />ATI RX480</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB OCZ PC3500 Gold GX 2-2-2-5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.7</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "ECS KN1 SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ECS KN1 SLI Extreme, Bios 1.11a 6/20/05<br />nForce4 SLI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "K8SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Albatron K8SLI, Bios 1.07a<br />nForce4 SLI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "LanParty NF4"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D, Bios 5.10-2 Fix<br />nForce4 Ultra</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "AA8XE"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 3.0F (S775; 2MB; Prescott)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, Bios 1.4<br />i925XE</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB OCZ PC2-5400 EB Platinum 4-2-2-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X800 Non-Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 4500 is 15x300 FSB, Mem Ratio 1:1 (=300 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 2.4C"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 2.4C (S478; 512KB; Northwood)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT IC7, Bios 2.8<br />i875P</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 256MB Generic PC3200 2.5-3-3-6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X800 XT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Antec TrueControl 550W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 3400 is 15x283 FSB, Mem Ratio 2:3 (=188 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Sandra & Everest]
SiSoftware Sandra
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sandraint.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sandrafloat.gif
In this mainly CPU dependant benchmark, all AMD systems show the same performance.
Lavalys Everest
Higher is better. For latency, lower is better.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/everestread.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/everestwrite.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/everestlatency.gif
We are using faster timings on the Sapphire PI-A9RX480, so it is obvious that the board is faster. But if you consider the memory performance of earlier chipsets, the benchmarks make clear that ATI has greatly improved as compared to earlier chipsets.
[pagE=Performance: SuperPi]
SuperPi
Lower is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/superpi1m.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/superpi32m.gif
Without overclocking the Sapphire PI-A9RX480 is the fastest AMD64 motherboard. Overclocked it is beaten by the ECS KN1 SLI, but just by a very tiny bit.
[page=Performance: PCMark04 & 3DMark01]
PCMark 2004
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/pcmark2004.gif
PCMark04 favors Intel CPUs with their HyperThreading Technology a lot, here Sapphire isn't too strong with their board.
3DMark 2001
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/3dmark2001.gif
Quite the contrary in 3DMark2001, the PI-A9RX480 is faster than any other Athlon64 motherboard. When overclocked it is even faster than the 4.5 GHz Pentium 4. This is a good sign that 3DMark junkies are going to love this board.
[page=Performance: CineBench & Kribibench]
CineBench
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/cinebench.gif
The nForce4 motherboards show about the same speed, Intel systems with their Hyper-threading Technology are king here.
KribiBench
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/kribibench.gif
KribiBench uses a proprietary software-only rendering engine to draw a 3D scene and again we see Sapphire's motherboard on top of the Athlon64 boards.
[page=Performance: Comanche 4 & Quake 3]
Comanche 4
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/comanche4.gif
Wow. In Comanche 4 the Sapphire PI-A9RX480 is almost 3% ahead of the competition.
Quake 3 Arena
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/quake3.gif
Looks like gamers will love this board. Again, Sapphire's board is a good deal faster than the other AMD64 systems, especially when overclocked.
[page=Performance: Audio RMAA]
Rightmark Audio Analyzer
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/rmaa.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/loopback_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/loopback.jpg)
We used Rightmark Audio Analyzer together with a loop-back cable to analyze the quality of the on-board audio solution.
Summary
<table width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:</strong></td>
<td>+0.25, -0.31</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Noise level, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>-86.2</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Dynamic range, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>86.3</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>THD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.0041</td>
<td>Very good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.034</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Stereo crosstalk, dB:</strong></td>
<td>-85.7</td>
<td>Excellent</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD at 10 kHz, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.106</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
</table>
General performance: Good
[hr]
Users of NVIDIA on-board sound solutions will envy this board. Generally nForce4 motherboards have rather mediocre audio quality. Looking at above numbers, everybody who contributed to getting sound did a good job.
Frequency Response
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/fr.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Frequency range</strong></td>
<td><strong>Response</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-1.68, +0.25</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-0.31, +0.25</td>
</tr>
</table>
Noise Level
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/noise.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power, dB:</td>
<td>-77.3</td>
<td>-78.3</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>-86.1</td>
<td>-86.2</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Peak level, dB FS:</td>
<td>-65.8</td>
<td>-65.9</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>-0.00</td>
<td>-0.00</td>
</tr>
</table>
Dynamic Range
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/dynamics.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range, dB:</td>
<td>+79.4</td>
<td>+79.1</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>+86.4</td>
<td>+86.3</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>-0.00</td>
<td>-0.00</td>
</tr>
</table>
THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/thd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD, %:</td>
<td>0.0051</td>
<td>0.0041</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0302</td>
<td>0.0260</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0120</td>
<td>0.0113</td>
</tr>
</table>
Intermodulation distortion
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/imd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0341</td>
<td>0.0390</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0171</td>
<td>0.0172</td>
</tr>
</table>
Stereo crosstalk
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/cross.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>L <- R</strong></td>
<td><strong>L -> R</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB:</td>
<td>-79</td>
<td>-79</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 1 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-84</td>
<td>-85</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 10 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-84</td>
<td>-82</td>
</tr>
</table>
IMD (swept tones)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/imdswept.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 5 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.0340</td>
<td>0.0339</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 10 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.1122</td>
<td>0.1122</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 15 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.1720</td>
<td>0.1715</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Audio Games]
Quake 3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/q3asound.gif
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/c4sound.gif
[page=Sound Levels & Overclocking]
Sound Levels
As mentioned above, the board uses all passive cooling, so the total sound level is 0 dBA.
There were no squeaking noises or similar, even under heavy load.
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/maxfsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/maxfsb.jpg)
In order to find out the overclocking potential of the Sapphire PI-A9RX480, we put a Dangerden TDX waterblock on our CPU and set the multiplier to 4x with a memory divider of 2:1. This is to make sure that neither the CPU nor the memory are limiting our overclock here.
A maximum FSB of 355 MHz is very good. This should be good enough for most people. You have to consider that this was with all passive cooling on the chipset (which got blazing hot, around 90°C).
If you put active cooling on the chip, raise the chipset voltage some more and get a lucky board, 400 MHz might be possible.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/maxperf_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/maxperf.jpg)
For a more real-world overclocking score we left the multiplier at 9x and slowly increased the FSB. Since our memory can not run that fast, we had to drop the memory ratio to 2:3 which means the memory was running at DDR400 while the CPU ran at 2700 MHz. The board was no limiting factor here at any time. I always thought the CPU's limit was 2700 MHz, but apparently it can go a bit faster on the Sapphire PI-A9RX480. We reached an impressive, completetly stable 2736 real MHz with our 1800 MHz AMD64 CPU. It was quite warm in the room, so low water temperatures were not the reason for the higher overclock.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
Sapphire is targeting to sell the board at around $169, which is certainly not cheap, but high-quality components have its price.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Superb performance, especially in games
Excellent overclocker
Great BIOS options for overclocking
Good on-board Audio
All passively cooled
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Expensive
Only one PCI-E x16 slot
Memory slots not staggered
Slim accessory package
Preproduction BIOS issues (which will be fixed)
</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.2</th>
<td>When this motherboard and its controversial color theme were displayed the first time at this year's Cebit, people all over the net were debating whether Sapphire could deliver an overclocking board. Now, after a long wait, the board is finally ready.<br />
As it looks right now, Sapphire did a great job with it. The motherboard is very fast, even when not overclocked. There are a load of options available in the BIOS to tweak every little setting of the system. For new users these options can be set to 'auto' to let the board handle them automatically. The range of available options is exemplary, so is the manual which explains almost all of them.<br />
While there were a few BIOS issues with the current motherboard, these will be fixed when retail sales begin, which will be some time in August.<br />
What I am missing a bit is a second PCI-Express x16 slot to run two video cards -Sapphire is working on a Crossfire board already...</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td><img src="http://www.techpowerup.com/images/editorschoice.gif"></td></tr>
</table>
[hr]
Update: It seems Sapphire has thought a bit about the naming of the board and will now go with an easier name.
the motherboard line will be called "PURE".
the name of the motherboard is "Innovation"
the model number of the motherboard is "PI-A9RX480".
For the normal user this means the board is the "Sapphire PURE Innovation" .. I guess the name on the streets will be "Sapphire Innovation".
Introduction
I would like to thank Sapphire (http://www.sapphiretech.com) for supplying the tested motherboard.
When it comes to ATI video cards, Sapphire is one of the top, if not the number one manufacturer. After their tremendous success with video cards, they are now entering the motherboard business.
I find the name of the PI-A9RX480 a bit complicated. Maybe somebody at Sapphire will come up with an easier marketing name.
This is how Sapphire's naming scheme works:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/name.gif
The obvious choice when it comes to the selection of motherboard chipset, are chipsets from ATI.
ATI's new RS480 chipsets are geared to deliver high performance and good overclocking. On the PI-A9RX480, Sapphire chose to use the RX480. This version of the RS480 does not come with integrated VGA. Overclockers don't really need an integrated X300 on their motherboards, so it makes sense to scrap that feature and save a few bucks.
Sapphire has specifically developed that board to fit the needs of overclockers and enthusiasts, so the BIOS shines when it comes to overclocking options. For example DDR Voltage can be selected up to 4.0 V.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/shield_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/shield.jpg)
[page=Features]
Features
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="resulttable">
<tr>
<th colspan="2">Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Processor</th>
<td>AMD Athlon64 / FX Socket 939</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>FSB</th>
<td>800 MHz / 1000+ MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Chipset</th>
<td>ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 (RX480 + SB450)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory</th>
<td>4x 184 Pin DDR, Dual Channel DDR266/333/400, up to 4 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>BIOS</th>
<td>AwardBios</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Slots</th>
<td>1x PCI-E x16<br />
2x PCI-E x1<br />
2x PCI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>HDD Connectivity</th>
<td>2x ATA-133<br />
4x SATA, 2x SATA-II</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Networking</th>
<td>10/100/1000 Mbps - Marvell 88E852 via PCI-Express</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Ports</th>
<td>8x USB 2.0 (4 on Back Panel)<br />2x IEEE1394 (1 on Back Panel)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Audio</th>
<td>8 Channel Realtek ALC880 Audio, SPDIF</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Form Factor</th>
<td>ATX 305 x 244mm</td>
</tr>
</table>
Specifications from Sapphire
Chipset
ATI RX480 x SB450 Chipset
Processor
Support for AMD K8 Processor in Socket939 package
Support Hypertransport Interface bus
VRM (Voltage Regulator Modules) on Board
Flexible motherboard design with on board VRM, easy to upgrade with future AMD K8 processors
0.800V to 1.55V in 25 mV steps
System Memory
A total of four 184-pin DDR RAM sockets
DIMM size support from 64MB to 2GB
Suppot of dual channel 128-bit wide memory interface
Support of 266/333/400 DDR RAM memory type
System BIOS
PnP, APM, ATAPI and Windows 2000/XP
Full support of ACPI & DMI
Auto detects and supports LBA harddisks with capacities over 160GB
Easy to upgrade BIOS
Plug and Play
Supports Plug and Play specification 1.1
Plug and Play for Windows 2000 and XP
Fully assignable PCI interrupts
Onboard I/O
Onboard two PCI fast IDE ports supporting up to four ATA, ATA2, Ultra ATA33/66/100/133 IDE HDDs, CD-Roms, ZIP drives and LS-120 drives as boot drive
One floppy port supports two FDD of 360KB, 720KB, 1.2MB, 1.44MB and 2.88MB capacity
Eight USB ports (four ports via two headers)
PS/2 keyboard connector
PS/2 mouse connector
One front panel sound connector
Extended USB Support
Includes 2 OHCI host controllers, increasing the number of external ports to eight
Includes 1 OHCI USB2.0 host ontroller that supports all eight ports (Bandwidth shared between eight ports)
This motherboard supports USB 2.0 feature only on Windows 2000 (with SP4 or above) and XP (with SP1 or above) OS.
Onboard Marvell 88E8052 PCI Express Gigabit LAN
Full compliance with IEEE 802.3u 100 Base-T specifications and IEEE 802.3X Full Duplex Flow Control
Supports 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s and 1000 Mb/s operation
Supports Wake-On-LAN function and remote wake-up
PCI Express x16 Graphics Interface
One 16-lane (x16 port) PCI Express port intended for external graphics
Full compliant to the PCI Express Base Specification Revision 11.0a
The base PCI Express frequency of this interface is 4 GB/s
PCI Express supports an enhanced addressing mechanism
An optional ADD2 card can utilize PCI Express Graphics x16 connection
PCI Express x1 Ports
Two 1-lane (x1 port) PCI Express port intended for external graphics
Fully compliant to the PCI Express Base Specification revision 1.0a
Two virtual channel support for full unsynchronized data transfers
Supports full 2.5 Gb/s bandwidth in each direction per x1 lane
Power Management
Supports SMM, APM and ACPI
Break switch for instant suspend/resume on system operations
Energy star "Green PC" compliant
Hardware monitoring circuit is supported, provide voltage, fan speed etc. monitoring
Wake-On-LAN (WOL) support
Supports Suspend-To-RAM (STR)
Onboard ALC880 7.1 audio
Integrated Realtek ALC880 controller
Fully Sound and Sound Blaster compatible
Full-Duplex 4 24-bit two-channel DACs and 3 stereo 20-bit ADCs
PnP and APM 1.2 support
Windows 2000/XP drivers ready
Line-In, Line-out, Mic-in, SPDIF-in, SPDIF-out
Supports ALC880 codec for eight channel sound output
Onboard IEEE1394
Compliant with IEEE1394 OHCI specifications v1.0 and v1.1
Integrated 400Mb 2-port PHY
Onboard Serial ATA Host Controller
Independant DMA operation on four ports
Data transfer rates of 150 MB/s
RAID 0/1 feature support
Onboard Serial ATA-II Host Controller
Independant DMA operation on four ports
Data transfer rates of 300 MB/s
RAID 0/1 feature support
Expansion Slots
1 PCI Express x16 slot
2 PCI Express x1 slots
2 PCI bus master slots - ver. 2.2 compliant
[pagE=Packaging]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package1.jpg)
The box has a unique reflective packaging, logos and features to catch the buyers eye, and a window to give you a hint of the suprise inside.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package2.jpg)
On the back of the box is a description of the motherboard and specifications.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package3.jpg)
Open up the front cover, and you are treated with a picture of the motherboard, some additional features, and you reveal the full window, allowing you to view the motherboard.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package4.jpg)
In the window, you will see the motherboard. Similar to a few other manufacturers, Sapphire has chosen to use colors not common to the regular motherboard look.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package5.jpg)
Opening the box, you find the motherboard in its anti-static tray.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/package6.jpg)
Under the motherboard you will find the bundled cables, CDs and the manual.
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/contents.jpg)
You will receive:
Motherboard
Users Manual, Sapphire Sticker
1x IDE Cable, 1x Floppy Cable, 1x SATA Cable
Bracket for SPDIF
Bracket for IEEE1394
IO Shield
Driver CD, Application CD
The included accessories are a bit lacking. However, the essential things, except for a SATA power cable, are there. The manual is very good, it even covers most of the enthusiast options in the BIOS.
[pagE=Board Layout]
Board Layout
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/board_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/board.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/back.jpg)
Click here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/board_fullsize.jpg) for a 3000x2500 high-res shot of the board (3 MB download), the backside is here (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/back_fullsize.jpg).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sticker_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sticker.jpg)
On the backside and in the manual you will find a sticker which tells you that you are not supposed to use other retention modules. The reason behind this is, that the first batch of motherboards has an issue where one CPU socket mounting hole is live with +12V and the other one with +3.3V.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/33v_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/33v.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/12v_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/12v.jpg)
If you use a metal backplate with metal screws there is a high possibility to create a shortcut. Under normal circumstances, when you have this shortcut, the PSU will simply not turn on. However, there might be situations where you could damage your motherboard or even worse.
Sapphire assured us that only the first batch of samples were affected and that this is going to be fixed soon.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/cpuarea_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/cpuarea.jpg)
Space around the CPU socket is more than enough for most users. Big coolers like the XP-120 should fit fine.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/io_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/io.jpg)
If you look at the IO panel you see a big gaping hole. Initially, Sapphire wanted to include on-board VGA with the motherboard, that's where the connectors were supposed to be. In order to reduce total cost for this rarely used feature, the integrated VGA was scrapped, but doing a redesign of the back panel wouldn't have been worth it. Modders could use this to add some "OTES" style MOSFET cooling. So from left to right, we have PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, IEEE1394, 4x USB, Ethernet and Audio.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/dimm_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/dimm.jpg)
Usually memory slots are color-coded to indicate dual-channel configuration. Sapphire did not do this, probably to stay with the color theme of the motherboard. A quick look into the manual will tell you, that you have to put the modules right next to each other for Dual-Channel. This is not such a great solution since it tends to increase your memory temperature because there is less airflow around the individual sticks.
Connectors
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/atx_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/atx.jpg)
The 24-pin ATX power connector is very conveniently placed, the ATX12V connector could be placed in a better location. An extra power connector would be nice, but it doesn't seem to be needed since the board supports only one PCI-E Video Card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sata_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sata.jpg)
A total of six SATA ports are available on the Sapphire PI-A9RX480. They are arranged in two blocks. The group of four ports on the right is 150 MB/s capable while the other group on the left can run SATA-II up to 300 MB/s.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/pata_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/pata.jpg)
Two ATA-133 ports are located near the ATX Power connector. The connector closest to ATX power is the floppy port.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/headers_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/headers.jpg)
The front panel connector is neither color-coded, nor labelled. At least it follows the specification.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/buttons_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/buttons.jpg)
Overclockers love this feature. Two small buttons are used for Power and Reset. This saves you from connecting cables to the headers or using a screwdriver to turn the system on.
Slots
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/slots_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/slots.jpg)
There is some extra space between the PCI-E x16 connector and the first PCI-E x1 port. With a one slot cooler, you should have plenty of space for airflow. With a two slot cooler there is a good chance that both x1 slots remain usable.
[page=Layout continued]
Cooling
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/chipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/chipset.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sb.jpg)
Sapphire's PI-A9RX480 does not use any active cooling at all, which makes this a very quiet board during operation.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet2.jpg)
Special consideration has been given to keeping the MOSFET area around the CPU socket cool. A massive heatsink is attached to the transistors. The heatsink is 35x35mm, which means it will be a bit tricky to get a 40mm fan attached to it.
I laid a 40mm fan on top of the heatsink and marked the heatsink area red in following picture.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet3.jpg)
As you see, the fan is overlapping, making the screws hard to get in, but it is possible.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet4.jpg)
You want to use a bigger fan or waterblock? No problem, in addition to the two mounting holes of the heatsink, there are five extra holes here, that could be used to build you own mounting construction.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet5.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/mosfet6.jpg)
The heatsink is easy to get off. Sapphire doesn't use glue, but a sticky thermal pad. If you twist the heatsink while pulling it up, it goes off much easier. I see very little risk of accidentally pulling a MOSFET.
Chips
Sapphire uses only high-quality components on the motherboard, for example the capacitors are all japanese-built. Another point to note, is that special MOSFETs are used which increase power stability as well as price.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/monitoring.jpg)
Hardware monitoring is provided by ITE's 8712F. This is pretty much one of the most common monitoring chips right now, so getting software support for it should be easy.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/lan1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/lan1.jpg)
For networking, Sapphire chose a Marvell 88E805 10/100/1000 LAN controller which is connected via the PCI-Express bus, since ATI does not include a way to connect an ethernet chip directly to the chipset.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/audio_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/audio.jpg)
The Realtek ALC880 Audio Chip is responsible for sound. It features 7.1 Audio and SPDIF.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/satachip_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/satachip.jpg)
Silicon Image's SiI3132 provides two additional SATA-II ports, in addition to the ports of the ATI chipset. So you have a total of six ports, plus the two IDE channels.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/ieee1394_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/ieee1394.jpg)
Two IEEE1394 ports are implemented by the VIA VT6307 IEEE1394 controller.
[pagE=BIOS]
BIOS
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_bios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_bios.jpg)
Like most other companies, Sapphire uses the proven Phoenix AwardBios. The BIOS version we have been using is not the final version and all issues that we reported will be fixed, Sapphire promised.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_standardcmos_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_standardcmos.jpg)
The first page is called Standard CMOS and offers settings to change date/time, HDD and floppy settings.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_advbios_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_advbios.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_hddpri_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_hddpri.jpg)
Advanced BIOS has settings to adjust general BIOS settings like typematic rate and additional bootup-delays. Also you can disable the full screen POST image here, so that you can see the full output of the system startup. On a subpage you can change the order in which the system will try the available boot devices.
Advanced Chipset
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_advchipset_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_advchipset.jpg)
Here you find several ATI chipset related options, for example to control width of the PCI-Express x16 interface. On a submenu you can access the Memory Timings options which we will cover on the next page, in the overclocking section.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ldtconfig_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ldtconfig.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ldt_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ldt.jpg)
On another subpage you find settings related to the LDT speed and width.
Unlike the nForce4, the LDT frequency is not directly linked to HTT, so if you set 800 MHz here, it stays at 800 MHz, no matter what clock speeds you set for the CPU.
Integrated Peripherals
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_peripherals_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_peripherals.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ide_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ide.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_onboard_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_onboard.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_onchippci_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_onchippci.jpg)
Integrated Peripherals has options to change, which SATA and IDE ports are activated and to enable/disable USB, Audio, LAN, Floppy and the IEEE1394 interface.
RAID configuration is done in the SATA chip's own setup utility which can be entered by pressing a hotkey during POST.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_satabug_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_satabug.jpg)
One issue I spotted in the current BIOS, is that the default setting of the SATA controller defaults to RAID. On this setting you might not be able to start the Windows installation without loading additional drivers. Once you change this setting to "IDE Controller" everything will work fine.
[hr]
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_power.jpg)
Under Power Management, you will find the standard options which are usually listed here. One important option you can enable/disable here, is "AMD Cool&Quiet" which reduces heat output and power consumption when the CPU is idle.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_pnppci_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_pnppci.jpg)
PNP/PCI Configurations has no useful options. "Init Display First" is located on the Integrated Peripherals page.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_monitoring_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_monitoring.jpg)
The Hardware Monitoring page shows the usually monitored fan speeds and voltages.
Three temperatures are monitored here: Ambient temperature, CPU VRM, which is the temperature of the MOSFETS under the big black heatsink and Northbridge voltage, which is the temperature of the ATI RX480 chipset. What I am really missing here is an option to monitor the CPU temperature by reading the on-die thermal diode. The board does support monitoring CPU temperature (and another temperature near the CPU socket) it's just that the BIOS does not list these yet.
Options to dynamically change fan speeds based on temperature are not available either.
[pagE=BIOS Continued]
BIOS: Overclocking
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_oc_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_oc.jpg)
The Overclocking Features page in the BIOS is home to the overclocking options. Sapphire has done an excellent job here, the options are well rounded, you might even find some options which no other board offered yet.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_fsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_fsb.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_pcieclock_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_pcieclock.jpg)
The CPU FSB can be changed in 1 MHz steps between 200 MHz and 440 MHz. Options for the PCI-Express bus frequency range from 100 MHz to 200 MHz. Most people fix it at 100 MHz and it works well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vnb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vnb.jpg)
Four values are available for Northbridge voltage. 1.50V sounds like a bit much to me, especially without active cooling on the chipset. But it's better to have the options than to be limited. ATI lists 1.26 V as maximum recommended Voltage for the chipset, but hardcore overclockers have never cared about manufacturer maximums, anyway.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vht_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vht.jpg)
The voltage of the HyperTransport link can be increased up to 1.5 V as well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vpcie_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vpcie.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vpcie2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vpcie2.jpg)
Two voltages of the PCI-Express bus can be changed.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vddr1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vddr1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vddr2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vddr2.jpg)
Great job here again, Sapphire. DDR voltage is selectable from 2.5 V all the way up to 4.0 V in 0.05 V increments.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ddrvtt_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_ddrvtt.jpg)
This setting allows you to define how much the VTT termination voltage should change from the default setting.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_fid_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_fid.jpg)
Unlike the Pentium 4, AMD's processors have a selectable multiplier (only downwards). This allows you to boost performance even more, if your memory can handle the speeds. The options here range from 4.0x up to the CPU maximum (in our case 9.0x). Half dividers are available as well.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vcore1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vcore1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vcore2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_vcore2.jpg)
The easiest way to get a few more MHz out of your CPU, is by increasing the Core voltage. Sapphire's motherboard is one of the few boards to allow undervolting. Minimum voltage is 0.825 V, in steps of 0.025 V you can go up to 1.550 V, which isn't that much for the more extreme people. From a hardware perspective the board can easily support over 2.0 VCore. The BIOS option for an "offset" voltage was not in this tested BIOS. A few days later we got a new one with the options, but they did not work. It was possible to change the offset voltage via software, so it's just a matter of time until Sapphire gets this working in the BIOS.
Memory Timings
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dram3.jpg)
The Sapphire PI-A9RX480 has a ton of memory timing options. Listing them all would take too long, take a look at the pictures and be impressed. There are three "sections": Timing Mode, User Config Mode and DRAM ECC Feature Control.
Good that there is an auto setting for each section, so newbies don't have to worry about getting every option right.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dramtiming_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dramtiming.jpg)
When setting DRAM Timing to manual you can change the standard timings Tcl, Tras, Trp and Trcd.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dramtiming_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/b_dramtiming.jpg)
Another option is to set your memory divider to change the frequency your memory is running at. There are seven different settings which should cover most situations you would like to run your memory in.
[page=Performance: Test systems]
Test Systems
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "Sapphire PURE"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480, Bios 07/27/05<br />ATI RX480</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB OCZ PC3500 Gold GX 2-2-2-5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.7</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "ECS KN1 SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ECS KN1 SLI Extreme, Bios 1.11a 6/20/05<br />nForce4 SLI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "K8SLI"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Albatron K8SLI, Bios 1.07a<br />nForce4 SLI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "LanParty NF4"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 3000+ (S939; 512KB; Venice)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D, Bios 5.10-2 Fix<br />nForce4 Ultra</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB TwinMOS PC3200 2.5-3-3-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 2700 is 9x300 FSB, Mem ratio 2:3 (=200 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "AA8XE"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 3.0F (S775; 2MB; Prescott)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE, Bios 1.4<br />i925XE</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 512MB OCZ PC2-5400 EB Platinum 4-2-2-8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X800 Non-Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">HEC Power475</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 4500 is 15x300 FSB, Mem Ratio 1:1 (=300 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System "P4 2.4C"</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="100" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">Intel Pentium 4 2.4C (S478; 512KB; Northwood)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">ABIT IC7, Bios 2.8<br />i875P</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 256MB Generic PC3200 2.5-3-3-6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Video Card:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">ATI X800 XT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Maxtor DiamondMax 160GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Antec TrueControl 550W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">OC 3400 is 15x283 FSB, Mem Ratio 2:3 (=188 MHz)</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Sandra & Everest]
SiSoftware Sandra
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sandraint.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/sandrafloat.gif
In this mainly CPU dependant benchmark, all AMD systems show the same performance.
Lavalys Everest
Higher is better. For latency, lower is better.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/everestread.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/everestwrite.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/everestlatency.gif
We are using faster timings on the Sapphire PI-A9RX480, so it is obvious that the board is faster. But if you consider the memory performance of earlier chipsets, the benchmarks make clear that ATI has greatly improved as compared to earlier chipsets.
[pagE=Performance: SuperPi]
SuperPi
Lower is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/superpi1m.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/superpi32m.gif
Without overclocking the Sapphire PI-A9RX480 is the fastest AMD64 motherboard. Overclocked it is beaten by the ECS KN1 SLI, but just by a very tiny bit.
[page=Performance: PCMark04 & 3DMark01]
PCMark 2004
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/pcmark2004.gif
PCMark04 favors Intel CPUs with their HyperThreading Technology a lot, here Sapphire isn't too strong with their board.
3DMark 2001
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/3dmark2001.gif
Quite the contrary in 3DMark2001, the PI-A9RX480 is faster than any other Athlon64 motherboard. When overclocked it is even faster than the 4.5 GHz Pentium 4. This is a good sign that 3DMark junkies are going to love this board.
[page=Performance: CineBench & Kribibench]
CineBench
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/cinebench.gif
The nForce4 motherboards show about the same speed, Intel systems with their Hyper-threading Technology are king here.
KribiBench
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/kribibench.gif
KribiBench uses a proprietary software-only rendering engine to draw a 3D scene and again we see Sapphire's motherboard on top of the Athlon64 boards.
[page=Performance: Comanche 4 & Quake 3]
Comanche 4
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/comanche4.gif
Wow. In Comanche 4 the Sapphire PI-A9RX480 is almost 3% ahead of the competition.
Quake 3 Arena
Higher is better
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/quake3.gif
Looks like gamers will love this board. Again, Sapphire's board is a good deal faster than the other AMD64 systems, especially when overclocked.
[page=Performance: Audio RMAA]
Rightmark Audio Analyzer
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/rmaa.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/loopback_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/loopback.jpg)
We used Rightmark Audio Analyzer together with a loop-back cable to analyze the quality of the on-board audio solution.
Summary
<table width="600" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB:</strong></td>
<td>+0.25, -0.31</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Noise level, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>-86.2</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Dynamic range, dB (A):</strong></td>
<td>86.3</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>THD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.0041</td>
<td>Very good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.034</td>
<td>Good</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>Stereo crosstalk, dB:</strong></td>
<td>-85.7</td>
<td>Excellent</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="left"><strong>IMD at 10 kHz, %:</strong></td>
<td>0.106</td>
<td>Average</td>
</tr>
</table>
General performance: Good
[hr]
Users of NVIDIA on-board sound solutions will envy this board. Generally nForce4 motherboards have rather mediocre audio quality. Looking at above numbers, everybody who contributed to getting sound did a good job.
Frequency Response
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/fr.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Frequency range</strong></td>
<td><strong>Response</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 20 Hz to 20 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-1.68, +0.25</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">From 40 Hz to 15 kHz, dB</td>
<td>-0.31, +0.25</td>
</tr>
</table>
Noise Level
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/noise.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power, dB:</td>
<td>-77.3</td>
<td>-78.3</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">RMS power (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>-86.1</td>
<td>-86.2</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Peak level, dB FS:</td>
<td>-65.8</td>
<td>-65.9</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>-0.00</td>
<td>-0.00</td>
</tr>
</table>
Dynamic Range
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/dynamics.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range, dB:</td>
<td>+79.4</td>
<td>+79.1</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Dynamic range (A-weighted), dB:</td>
<td>+86.4</td>
<td>+86.3</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">DC offset, %:</td>
<td>-0.00</td>
<td>-0.00</td>
</tr>
</table>
THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/thd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD, %:</td>
<td>0.0051</td>
<td>0.0041</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0302</td>
<td>0.0260</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">THD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0120</td>
<td>0.0113</td>
</tr>
</table>
Intermodulation distortion
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/imd.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise, %:</td>
<td>0.0341</td>
<td>0.0390</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise (A-weighted), %:</td>
<td>0.0171</td>
<td>0.0172</td>
</tr>
</table>
Stereo crosstalk
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/cross.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>L <- R</strong></td>
<td><strong>L -> R</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 100 Hz, dB:</td>
<td>-79</td>
<td>-79</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 1 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-84</td>
<td>-85</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">Crosstalk at 10 kHz, dB:</td>
<td>-84</td>
<td>-82</td>
</tr>
</table>
IMD (swept tones)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/imdswept.png
<table width="400" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1">
<tr bgcolor=#C0C0C0 align="center">
<td align="left"><strong>Parameter</strong></td>
<td><strong>Left</strong></td>
<td><strong>Right</strong></td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 5 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.0340</td>
<td>0.0339</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 10 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.1122</td>
<td>0.1122</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center"><td align="left">IMD + Noise at 15 kHz, %:</td>
<td>0.1720</td>
<td>0.1715</td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Performance: Audio Games]
Quake 3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/q3asound.gif
Comanche 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/c4sound.gif
[page=Sound Levels & Overclocking]
Sound Levels
As mentioned above, the board uses all passive cooling, so the total sound level is 0 dBA.
There were no squeaking noises or similar, even under heavy load.
Overclocking
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/maxfsb_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/maxfsb.jpg)
In order to find out the overclocking potential of the Sapphire PI-A9RX480, we put a Dangerden TDX waterblock on our CPU and set the multiplier to 4x with a memory divider of 2:1. This is to make sure that neither the CPU nor the memory are limiting our overclock here.
A maximum FSB of 355 MHz is very good. This should be good enough for most people. You have to consider that this was with all passive cooling on the chipset (which got blazing hot, around 90°C).
If you put active cooling on the chip, raise the chipset voltage some more and get a lucky board, 400 MHz might be possible.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/maxperf_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/Gruper/images/maxperf.jpg)
For a more real-world overclocking score we left the multiplier at 9x and slowly increased the FSB. Since our memory can not run that fast, we had to drop the memory ratio to 2:3 which means the memory was running at DDR400 while the CPU ran at 2700 MHz. The board was no limiting factor here at any time. I always thought the CPU's limit was 2700 MHz, but apparently it can go a bit faster on the Sapphire PI-A9RX480. We reached an impressive, completetly stable 2736 real MHz with our 1800 MHz AMD64 CPU. It was quite warm in the room, so low water temperatures were not the reason for the higher overclock.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
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Sapphire is targeting to sell the board at around $169, which is certainly not cheap, but high-quality components have its price.
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Superb performance, especially in games
Excellent overclocker
Great BIOS options for overclocking
Good on-board Audio
All passively cooled
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Expensive
Only one PCI-E x16 slot
Memory slots not staggered
Slim accessory package
Preproduction BIOS issues (which will be fixed)
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<tr><th>9.2</th>
<td>When this motherboard and its controversial color theme were displayed the first time at this year's Cebit, people all over the net were debating whether Sapphire could deliver an overclocking board. Now, after a long wait, the board is finally ready.<br />
As it looks right now, Sapphire did a great job with it. The motherboard is very fast, even when not overclocked. There are a load of options available in the BIOS to tweak every little setting of the system. For new users these options can be set to 'auto' to let the board handle them automatically. The range of available options is exemplary, so is the manual which explains almost all of them.<br />
While there were a few BIOS issues with the current motherboard, these will be fixed when retail sales begin, which will be some time in August.<br />
What I am missing a bit is a second PCI-Express x16 slot to run two video cards -Sapphire is working on a Crossfire board already...</td></tr>
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Update: It seems Sapphire has thought a bit about the naming of the board and will now go with an easier name.
the motherboard line will be called "PURE".
the name of the motherboard is "Innovation"
the model number of the motherboard is "PI-A9RX480".
For the normal user this means the board is the "Sapphire PURE Innovation" .. I guess the name on the streets will be "Sapphire Innovation".