I was just wondering if the SiS 756 chip is better/replacing the 755FX. This seems to be the case as far as I can see. Any thoughts, conments on that? I've been keeping a Next Gen Motherboard list and want to get it right.
The 755 had solid performance and i was very surprised that more board makers didnt use it. The 755FX/756 seems to be another step in that direction. Realistically, because the Nforce4 and ATI Xpress 200 are STILL not on the market, it is still possible for the 756 to be the first PCI-Ex capable AMD chipset.
I've seen that ... they did actually go ahead and made it available WITH the dedicated VGA RAM? Good then. But at $30 more than the same thing in shared-RAM configuration, they've missed the price point ... I mean, $30 buys me an entire Xabre graphics card.
Wesley, I wrote this _after_ reading the article ;) Head still on shoulders.
SiS integrated video for the A64 platform looks particularly interesting because it can have dedicated (!) VGA RAM attached to the north bridge chip. This is because they left the RAM controller in there - exclusively for the integrated VGA this time, since the CPU brings its own.
Now if only the board makers adopted that feature ... all I've seen so far (ASRock, ECS, PC-Chips) run it in shared-RAM mode, and so does my shiny new Averatec 5500 notebook. History repeating - even back in the Pentium and early PII days, the integrated SiS chipsets (530, 620, 630) supported dedicated VGA RAM, but practically nobody made boards that used it.
As for clock synthesizer chips, well if this piece of hardware doesn't support what you want it to do, then no update of BIOS or other software will make it.
#17, I would like to have an Athlon64 board with integrated video... but not with SiS integrated video. I would wait until (hopefully) some ATI-based board appears here in Romania. (I know I might be wrong about not buying a SIS with integrated video, but I prefer not to take the chance)
#17 - We have been talking with Asrock, and we will be reviewing a ASRock K8Upgrade, and the upgrade module, which is based on the SiS 760GX. We also requested a ULI chipset board but we have not received any info yet on when that board may be available for review.
ut2004 is also not Direct 9.0 either.
In case you are wondering, a 3 phase power supply on the motherboard provides better or cleaner power to the processor, and lasts longer as well since you have 3 phases to balance the output on. You can read more of an explanation somewhere on Lost Circuits website.
With the $40 you save, you can easily upgrade from a Athlon 3200+, to a 3500+. Throw in some modest overclocking, and you are probably much better off with this board that more expensive "overclockers" board.
Extreme overclocking is not really an issue, when you are saving enough money to upgrade the CPU!
The MSI "K8T NEO2-F" VIA K8T800 is also $100 at NewEgg, though...
Now the you covered the SiS755FX it would be nice to see the ULI M1689. Reasons:
1) it's cheaper. The retail price for this Foxconn board is around $100, you can get a socket 939 board with the ULI M1689 chipset for less than $80.
2) the ASRock Combo-Z motherboard (based on the ULI M1689 chipset) is capable of doing over 250MHz on the "FSB", and it will be an even more interesting choice when the 1.4 (2600+) and 1.6GHz (2800+) socket 754 Semprons are released next year.
--
"In the end, only 2 SiS 755 motherboards made it to the AnandTech labs - an ECS and a Foxconn. Both were capable budget motherboards, but neither packed the kind of enthusiast features we hoped that we would see with the 755 chipset."
It's too bad you didn't get the ASRock K8S8X (which has been discontinued in favor of the K8 Combo-Z). That motherboard had a working PCI/AGP lock and was a very capable overclocker for a budget board, as you can see here:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?... (267MHz reference clock).
For those who like SiS chipsets, there are two socket 754 motherboards based on the SiS760GX chipset (755 with integrated graphics) that also have working AGP/PCI lock: ASUS K8S-MX and ASRock K8Upgrade-760GX.
Foxconn probably got a really good volume deal on a particular part (of clockgen), which they found could be easily integrated into their mobo design, so they rolled with it.
Is the clock gen problem even a problem or was it designed like this? I can't imagine any mobo company using a chipset that has great capabilities and then scaling it back on a hardware level. It just doesn't make sense. So is this an unfixible mistake or an intentional limiter?
#12 - Foxconn tells us a BIOS update cannot fix the CPU clock frequency limitation. They also just advised that a drop in Clock Generator is not available that can be substituted in this design. The board would require some redesign to use a Clock Gen supporting higher than 233.
#9 - The tested Soltek is Socket 939 and it is very fast at stock speeds. If you click the motherboard tab at the top of AnandTech you will find the recent review.
Hey now, let's not split hairs over semantics; we all know what's being talked about here...
Anyway, what I was going to ask about is the clockgen on the board; is it a physical part of the board, or is it something that a BIOS update can rectify? I happen to have a pair of Mushkin Level-II PC3500 sticks that I can't take a single Hertz over 200MHz because of the poor overclocking properties of my Athlon XP 2800+, and I'd like to see how far those Winbonds will go with a chipset that can go "balls to the wall", as it were.
#10 - The SiS755FX "supports dual-channel memory". Did you explode? Then perhaps you should be more precise in your descriptions :-)
We do know the difference, but while chipsets are theoretically capable of being combined with any CPU on A64 designs, they are usually tied to a specific CPU configuration - in this case Socket 939, which supports current A64 with dual-channel memory controllers on the CPU.
As for what we used to call FSB, I have been trying very hard to consistently refer to this as "CPU clock frequency", and not FSB, because it is not technically the same in an HT design. If I slipped up I apologize. The end result is essentially the same, though the route there is certainly different.
The sis chipsets are very good, with the right bios configuration and drivers will do well. At least my ME and XP installation is already 3 years old and didn’t have to reinstall them because of problems.
The biggest Sis problem is that the mobo maker’s dont use good quality components on the (sis) boards, at the same level of the intel based ones. When every one says intel is the best, or that sis sucks, etc... Take that into account OK.
I noted the Soltek comes on top too many times, I wonder why is that, especially over the other ones, maybe they are socket 754 based?
#6 I had the same problem you have, and now it is solved. The startup time is really fast, not as fast as the ME, but good :)
I have bought a ECS K7S5A with SIS 735 chipset. It is still working, and is going good (except a very long startup time in WinXP).
I won't stay away from SiS chipsets, especially at that price point for a mainboard
Good article... hope to see more boards in retail...
Competition is very good.
SiS 755 was very good... in reviews...
But we never could find any SiS mobo in the shops (at least in Swizerland)
But I just do not trust SiS after I had way too many problems with SiS 648 (also was very good in reviews at it's time)
But check this out:
nSISt on nVIDIA
I a not a fun of nVIDIA although nF3 Ultra looks very atractive to me (nF4 not, since I have already good 6800GT AGP board...)
Well, too bad that Intel do not make chipsets for AMD... :)))
In the article he wrote, "The board is also a 3-phase design, instead of the 2-phase that we often see on boards designed to a price point" which made me wonder -- what's the difference? Both in a technical sense, and in a performance sense. Does the number of phases a board uses have any influence on what's the best power supply to mate it with, or am I wandering off in the wrong direction entirely? Anyone have a good link where I could dig a bit deeper?
just wanted to comment that I picked up ECS's 755-A2 board some time back and it is now pretty much the value board that I pick when someone doesn't want to shell out $100+ for a mother board. I'm pretty much pleased to see that SiS is continuing this with the 755FX. Hopefully it will mean a Socket 939 A64 will be joining the 3 current 754 boards.
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29 Comments
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ChineseDemocracyGNR - Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - link
The SiS755FX adds 1000MHz HTT support. So it's a chipset for socket 939 processors.The SiS756 is a new chipset, supporting PCI-E graphics.
RAINFIRE - Sunday, December 26, 2004 - link
I wasn just wondering if the SiS 756 is replacing the 755FX chipset. This seems to be the case with me. Anyone know if this is what is happening?RAINFIRE - Sunday, December 26, 2004 - link
I was just wondering if the SiS 756 chip is better/replacing the 755FX. This seems to be the case as far as I can see. Any thoughts, conments on that? I've been keeping a Next Gen Motherboard list and want to get it right.Cygni - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
The 755 had solid performance and i was very surprised that more board makers didnt use it. The 755FX/756 seems to be another step in that direction. Realistically, because the Nforce4 and ATI Xpress 200 are STILL not on the market, it is still possible for the 756 to be the first PCI-Ex capable AMD chipset.ChineseDemocracyGNR - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
Yes, the board is available here:http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...
Price is $101. The Foxconn is $69, the ASRock is $77 but it has overclocking options (the Gigabyte doesn't).
Peter - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
I've seen that ... they did actually go ahead and made it available WITH the dedicated VGA RAM? Good then. But at $30 more than the same thing in shared-RAM configuration, they've missed the price point ... I mean, $30 buys me an entire Xabre graphics card.ChineseDemocracyGNR - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
#20, that is great news! Are you going to test the K8Upgrade-760GX (SiS760GX, mATX) or the K8Upgrade-1689 (ULI M1689, ATX)?#22, Gigabyte makes a board with dedicated memory. It does improve performance but it's considerably more expensive too (at least $30).
There's a review:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2004/gigabyte/K8S760M/K...
Peter - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
Wesley, I wrote this _after_ reading the article ;) Head still on shoulders.SiS integrated video for the A64 platform looks particularly interesting because it can have dedicated (!) VGA RAM attached to the north bridge chip. This is because they left the RAM controller in there - exclusively for the integrated VGA this time, since the CPU brings its own.
Now if only the board makers adopted that feature ... all I've seen so far (ASRock, ECS, PC-Chips) run it in shared-RAM mode, and so does my shiny new Averatec 5500 notebook. History repeating - even back in the Pentium and early PII days, the integrated SiS chipsets (530, 620, 630) supported dedicated VGA RAM, but practically nobody made boards that used it.
As for clock synthesizer chips, well if this piece of hardware doesn't support what you want it to do, then no update of BIOS or other software will make it.
Calin - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
#17, I would like to have an Athlon64 board with integrated video... but not with SiS integrated video. I would wait until (hopefully) some ATI-based board appears here in Romania. (I know I might be wrong about not buying a SIS with integrated video, but I prefer not to take the chance)Calin
Wesley Fink - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
#17 - We have been talking with Asrock, and we will be reviewing a ASRock K8Upgrade, and the upgrade module, which is based on the SiS 760GX. We also requested a ULI chipset board but we have not received any info yet on when that board may be available for review.sprockkets - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
ut2004 is also not Direct 9.0 either.In case you are wondering, a 3 phase power supply on the motherboard provides better or cleaner power to the processor, and lasts longer as well since you have 3 phases to balance the output on. You can read more of an explanation somewhere on Lost Circuits website.
kmmatney - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
With the $40 you save, you can easily upgrade from a Athlon 3200+, to a 3500+. Throw in some modest overclocking, and you are probably much better off with this board that more expensive "overclockers" board.Extreme overclocking is not really an issue, when you are saving enough money to upgrade the CPU!
The MSI "K8T NEO2-F" VIA K8T800 is also $100 at NewEgg, though...
ChineseDemocracyGNR - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Now the you covered the SiS755FX it would be nice to see the ULI M1689. Reasons:1) it's cheaper. The retail price for this Foxconn board is around $100, you can get a socket 939 board with the ULI M1689 chipset for less than $80.
2) the ASRock Combo-Z motherboard (based on the ULI M1689 chipset) is capable of doing over 250MHz on the "FSB", and it will be an even more interesting choice when the 1.4 (2600+) and 1.6GHz (2800+) socket 754 Semprons are released next year.
--
"In the end, only 2 SiS 755 motherboards made it to the AnandTech labs - an ECS and a Foxconn. Both were capable budget motherboards, but neither packed the kind of enthusiast features we hoped that we would see with the 755 chipset."
It's too bad you didn't get the ASRock K8S8X (which has been discontinued in favor of the K8 Combo-Z). That motherboard had a working PCI/AGP lock and was a very capable overclocker for a budget board, as you can see here:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?...
(267MHz reference clock).
For those who like SiS chipsets, there are two socket 754 motherboards based on the SiS760GX chipset (755 with integrated graphics) that also have working AGP/PCI lock: ASUS K8S-MX and ASRock K8Upgrade-760GX.
LocutusX - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Foxconn probably got a really good volume deal on a particular part (of clockgen), which they found could be easily integrated into their mobo design, so they rolled with it.Gnoad - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Is the clock gen problem even a problem or was it designed like this? I can't imagine any mobo company using a chipset that has great capabilities and then scaling it back on a hardware level. It just doesn't make sense. So is this an unfixible mistake or an intentional limiter?Jeff7181 - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Maybe I missed it... was there any mention of when we can expect to be able to purchase one of these boards?Wesley Fink - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
#12 - Foxconn tells us a BIOS update cannot fix the CPU clock frequency limitation. They also just advised that a drop in Clock Generator is not available that can be substituted in this design. The board would require some redesign to use a Clock Gen supporting higher than 233.#9 - The tested Soltek is Socket 939 and it is very fast at stock speeds. If you click the motherboard tab at the top of AnandTech you will find the recent review.
Shinei - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Hey now, let's not split hairs over semantics; we all know what's being talked about here...Anyway, what I was going to ask about is the clockgen on the board; is it a physical part of the board, or is it something that a BIOS update can rectify? I happen to have a pair of Mushkin Level-II PC3500 sticks that I can't take a single Hertz over 200MHz because of the poor overclocking properties of my Athlon XP 2800+, and I'd like to see how far those Winbonds will go with a chipset that can go "balls to the wall", as it were.
Wesley Fink - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
#10 - The SiS755FX "supports dual-channel memory". Did you explode? Then perhaps you should be more precise in your descriptions :-)We do know the difference, but while chipsets are theoretically capable of being combined with any CPU on A64 designs, they are usually tied to a specific CPU configuration - in this case Socket 939, which supports current A64 with dual-channel memory controllers on the CPU.
As for what we used to call FSB, I have been trying very hard to consistently refer to this as "CPU clock frequency", and not FSB, because it is not technically the same in an HT design. If I slipped up I apologize. The end result is essentially the same, though the route there is certainly different.
Peter - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Next time I read about an AMD64 chipset "supporting dual memory", I'll explode.HELLOooOoOoOooo ... the RAM controller is in the CPU.
Also, AMD64 chipsets do not "support" certain CPU socket shapes. They are completely agnostic about what kind of and how many CPUs there are.
Finally, stop referring to the HT link as the "FSB". It is not a CPU front side bus, it's an I/O link.
New architectures require fresh thinking. Brain in gear please!
nserra - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
The sis chipsets are very good, with the right bios configuration and drivers will do well. At least my ME and XP installation is already 3 years old and didn’t have to reinstall them because of problems.The biggest Sis problem is that the mobo maker’s dont use good quality components on the (sis) boards, at the same level of the intel based ones. When every one says intel is the best, or that sis sucks, etc... Take that into account OK.
I noted the Soltek comes on top too many times, I wonder why is that, especially over the other ones, maybe they are socket 754 based?
#6 I had the same problem you have, and now it is solved. The startup time is really fast, not as fast as the ME, but good :)
jmke - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Why is DOOM3 (opengl) in the DX9 gaming category? ;)Gnoad - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Any word on if it would be capable if running above 233 if a program like clockgen was used?Calin - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
I have bought a ECS K7S5A with SIS 735 chipset. It is still working, and is going good (except a very long startup time in WinXP).I won't stay away from SiS chipsets, especially at that price point for a mainboard
FFS - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Ooops...missed t in "Switzerland" Sorry...
FFS - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Good article... hope to see more boards in retail...Competition is very good.
SiS 755 was very good... in reviews...
But we never could find any SiS mobo in the shops (at least in Swizerland)
But I just do not trust SiS after I had way too many problems with SiS 648 (also was very good in reviews at it's time)
But check this out:
nSISt on nVIDIA
I a not a fun of nVIDIA although nF3 Ultra looks very atractive to me (nF4 not, since I have already good 6800GT AGP board...)
Well, too bad that Intel do not make chipsets for AMD... :)))
Poser - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
In the article he wrote, "The board is also a 3-phase design, instead of the 2-phase that we often see on boards designed to a price point" which made me wonder -- what's the difference? Both in a technical sense, and in a performance sense. Does the number of phases a board uses have any influence on what's the best power supply to mate it with, or am I wandering off in the wrong direction entirely? Anyone have a good link where I could dig a bit deeper?esun - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Wow, this board looks like an excellent value. Here's hoping that they'll fix those minor problems, and perhaps I'll pick one up myself.Saist - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
just wanted to comment that I picked up ECS's 755-A2 board some time back and it is now pretty much the value board that I pick when someone doesn't want to shell out $100+ for a mother board. I'm pretty much pleased to see that SiS is continuing this with the 755FX. Hopefully it will mean a Socket 939 A64 will be joining the 3 current 754 boards.