VIAs Apollo Pro266 will be the first available chipset for PCs that works with DDR-SDRAM. It is designed for Intel-CPUs that fit into Socket 370, ie Pentium III-Coppermine/FC-PGA and Celeron/FC-PGA. Another Apollo KT266 will soon bring DDR-performance for AMDs Athlon and Duron in their Socket A versions.
In our advanced testLab we were able to extensively benchmark a demo-mainboard supplied by VIA. The VT5322C surpassed all the expectations we put into it and clearly defeated other Socket 370 solutions equipped with PC-133-SDRAM or Rambus memory (DRDRAM, DRD800).
Benchmarks
We performed all the tests with a Pentium III EB at 800 MHz, 128 MBytes of memory, Guillemots Maxi Gamer Xentor32, Adaptecs AHA2940UW Pro and Quantums Atlas IV 9 GByte harddrive. For keeping the results comparable to earlier tests, SYSmark was run at a 1024 x 768 Pixels resolution at 32 bits color depth, the gaming benchmarks ran at 800 x 600, 16 bit.
Benchmark | DDR266, Apollo Pro266 | DRD800, Intel i820 | PC133, Apollo Pro133 |
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
SYSmark98 NT 4 | 347 points | 343 points | 323 points |
SYSmark98 Win 98 | 322 points | 311 points | 287 points |
3DMark99 Max | 7540 points | 7511 points | 7532 points |
3DMark99 Max CPU | 12396 points | 12080 points | 12010 points |
Unreal | 67,0 fps | 67,9 fps | 62,6 fps |
Unreal Softrenderer | 24,0 fps | 23,0 fps | 18,5 fps |
Quake III Arena | 99,9 fps | 96,7 fps | 95,9 fps |
The most important indicator here for overall performance with standard 2D-applications is BapCos SYSmark98. The DDR-system beats PC-133-SDRAM by 7,4 to 12,2 per cent, depending on the particular application. When comparing DDR to Rambus, the newer, yet cheaper technology still shows a 1,2 to 3,5 per cent lead.
DDR266 beats PC-133 hands down in our gaming benchmarks as well: 3DMark99 Max, Unreal and Quake III show a clear advantage. Even when Unreal is run with its internal software rendering, not making use of the 3D card, it beats Rambus. This only changes when the 3D card comes into play.
Details on Apollo Pro266
Apollo Pro266 and KT266 will be equipped with the VT8633 as a south bridge. VIA achieves this through its new bus called V-Link, which is a serial interface between north and south bridge. Both chipsets will sport AGP 4x, six USB ports, two UltraDMA/100 interfaces and the usual selection of integrated sound and modem functionality (AC97, MC97, Ethernet 10/100, HomePNA).
Apart from DDR-SDRAM these chipsets are also able to work with standard SDRAM or Virtual Channel memory (VCM). SDRAM and VCM can be clocked at 66, 100 or 133 MHz. It is stil uncertain whether we will see motherboards that have slots for SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM at the same time, which would surely be a desirable solution for upgrading. According to VIA, this may be an option for the chipset offers functionality for both types of memory.
Apollo Pro266 works with two Pentium III processors for SMP, KT266 will be for single Athlons only - but AMDs 760 MP, scheduled for January, will fill in here.
Conclusion
Our demo system with a preproduction chipset ran rock solid and fast. We expect to see off-the-shelves versions of this chipset this year, they might even show a little better performace due to BIOS optimizations. According to recent announcements by Micron and other manufacturers DDR memory will only be 10 per cent more costly than single data rate SDRAM. This still makes it only half as expensive as RDRAM. Unless there will be no unexpected difficulties with DDR technology, Intel and Rambus will see a long cold winter.
How DDR memory works can be read up in our Report DDR-SDRAM - is it a Rambus killer? Currently this feature is only available in german, please bear with us. An extensive review of VIAs first DDR-board will be available on October 24 2000. (mec/nie)
(Edit: The german version of the longer report is up now. International readers may take a look, though, for benchmark diagrams and schematics speak for themselves, we think. Thanks for your patience.)
(Translation by Nico Ernst. This story is (c) 2000 by IDG Interactive GmbH. All rights reserved.)
Other English releases:
Review: Pentium 4 at 1,4, 1,5 and 1,6 GHz