abit I-N73HD and MSI P6NGM (NVIDIA GeForce 71őő)

Author: Aleksandr Mitrofanov
Date: 15.05.2008

Performance tests

It turned out that while determining the starting FSB speed, the boards set it at a high enough precision.

In our test setup, we used the following hardware:

Test setup
CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 LGA775 (2.33 GHz; Conroe)
Cooler	Gigabyte 3D Cooler GP Edition
Video card	integrated video core
Sound card	-
HDD	Samsung HD160JJ
Memory	2x 1024 MB GoodRAM DDR2 GP1066D264L5/2GDC
Housing	FSP 550W
OS	MS Vista

Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks. For performance comparisons, we used the ECS board based on AMD 780G with a weak but cheap Athlon 64 3500+ processor.

Now on to the gaming benchmarks (performance in fps).

Tests of application software.

Video encoding (DivX, Xvid) was measured in seconds, i.e. the less the better.

Data compression (WinRAR) was measured in KB/sec, i.e. the more, the better.

As you can see, we used a somehow cut-down set of applications since some games simply wouldn't start on NVIDIA 71xx chipsets, whereas application tests were executing too long.

Final Words

As we can see, even with the more powerful processor motherboards based on GeForce 71xx proved to be slower than those on AMD 780G. So, if the user needs performance in 3D applications, we recommend either wait for the GeForce 8xxx series or purchase the AMD platform on the 780G chipset.

If the speed in 3D programs is not a critical factor, then abit I-N73HD and MSI P6NGM are quire acceptable basis for an inexpensive and multifunctional system. The choice between them is strongly complicated by the similarity of specifications. Almost everything is similar: the package bundle, the expansion options, as well as performance. There is a certain similarity in terms of overclocking as well - the difference in the maximum stable FSB speed proved to be no more than 10 MHz. At the same time, the best result proved to be with the MSI board, but the abit board offers a richer feature-set (i.e., higher capabilities). As regards the retail price, abit I-N73HD costs about $77, whereas MSI P6NGM is still unknown. On the other hand, we found the price for the P6NGM-FIH model (a modification without the Firewire controller) which costs at least $83. Therefore, P6NGM will be even more expensive, which makes it less attractive.

However, the prices for motherboard change fast enough, and it is very difficult to keep track of the market situation permanently. So our advice to the reader is simple enough: choosing between abit I-N73HD and MSI P6NGM, but the cheapest one!