I ended up replacing the power supply and the motherboard over the weekend and everything seemed working well at first glance.
However, as soon as I started trying some games, I realized something was drastically wrong. Half-Life 2 was now a slide show. All my rFactor benchmarks were running 25-30 fps slower on average with all other settings the same. I could not even run Grand Prix Legends (8 year old game) at decent frame rates and I can do that on my old P4 1.8ghz computer.
I ran 3DMark03 and 3DMark05 ( http://www.futuremark.com/ ) and compared them to the last time I had run these benchmarks with the previous motherboard and I was now scoring much lower. In fact, in 3DMark 05 I was scoring 300 pts lower than my 4 year old P4 1.8ghz 512 mb with ATI 9500 non-pro. Something is obviously very wrong. I know that motherboards can have performance differences, but I did not think they could be so extreme. I sm still hoping that some setting is incorrect. Besides the motherboard and power supply, everything else has stayed the same:
Original Hardware Specifications:
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+ @ 2.20 GHz
Video Card Manufacturer/Chipset and Memory: XFX NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (128 MB) AGP
Video Card Driver Version and Date: 6.7.0.3 (11-30-2004)
Memory: 1024MB CORSAIR VS1GBKIT400 2X64X64 PC3200 (2X512mb)
Motherboard: MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINUM nVIDIA nFORCE 250
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/ ... hp?UID=607
Operating System: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Build 2600
Direct X Version: 9.0c (4.09.00.0904)
Sound Card and Driver: Realtek AC'97 Audio Driver 5.10.0.5620 (6-21-2004)
Here is a link to my 3DMark 03 Benchmarking Score for the orignal motherboard when I first ran it on 2/6/2005:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3672804
3DMark Score: 7672
CPU Score: 592
New Hardware Specifications:
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+ @ 2.20 GHz
Video Card Manufacturer/Chipset and Memory: XFX NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (128 MB) AGP
Video Card Driver Version and Date: 6.7.0.3 (11-30-2004)
Memory: 1024MB CORSAIR VS1GBKIT400 2X64X64 PC3200 (2X512mb)
Motherboard: ASRock 939Dual-SATA2: With AGP and PCIe
http://www.asrock.com/product/product_939Dual-SATA2.htm
Operating System: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Build 2600
Direct X Version: 9.0c (4.09.00.0904)
Sound Card and Driver: Realtek AC'97 Audio Driver 5.10.0.5650 (6-21-2004)
Now here is the link to my 3DMark 03 Benchmarking Score for the exact same system, drivers, etc. with the new motherboard:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=4590670
3DMark Score: 5179
CPU Score: 126
3DMark 05 Score is even worse!
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1763837
3DMark Score: 672
CPU Score: 619
By comparison here is what my 4 year old P4 1.8, 512mb, ATI 128mb 9500 non-pro scores in 3DMark 05:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1763881
3DMark Score: 1002
CPU Score: 1352
Clearly something is wrong, but I have yet to figure out what it is. I have tried changing the AGP Aperture from 64 to 128 to 256 with no change at all in the benchmarking results. Likewise, I have tried AGP Fast Writes enabled and disabled, again with no differences at all in benchmarking results. In fact, it is quite amazing just how consistent the results were no matter what changes I was making. All my benchmarking is done with vsynch off, AA/AF off, and all background tasks shut down.
I am really at a loss at this point. My whole reason for purchasing this particular board was that it offers an AGP slot and a PCI Express slot. Likewise, it also offers an extra AGP-like slot that can hold a processor expansion card for future AMD processors on Socket M2. I am not yet ready to shell out the money for a new PCIe graphics card, but since I was having to purchase a new motherboard anyway, I figured this board would give me better upgrade possibilities for the future and still work with my current hardware.
Tom's Hardware has reviewed this ASRock 939 motherboard and compared it to an Abit Fatal1ty A8N NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Chipset. While it did point out some performance differences, the worst case scenarios were 5% on the negative. The performance differences I am seeing are in the range of 30% to 50%!
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/09/16/asrock_939dual/
Likewise, Anandtech reviewed this board and said the following:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2524&p=1
Anyway, I am most likely going to try and take it back, but just thought I would post here as I know there is some hardware technical knowledge in these forums far beyond my skill set.For now, if you have a top AGP video card that you are not ready to replace, then get an ASRock 939Dual - you will not be disappointed in performance and you can add PCIe whenever. Even if you don't care about AGP, the PCIe performance of the ASRock will not disappoint. ULi has brought a capable, competitive chipset to the AMD Socket 939 market. It is a fully competitive choice for any buyer, a must for AGP owners, and more is on the way from ULi. The ASRock is a very good value board and we are looking forward to what can be done with this chipset on a board aimed at the enthusiast.
