Granite Bay

[First]

As most of you are already aware of, Granite Bay is Intel's first dual channel DDR chipset aimed at the desktop market. There are some in the industry who have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of motherboards based on this particular dual DDR chipset for a while now.

The good news is that we'll have plenty of Granite Bay reviews for you guys to read up on, so don't worry about that. The "bad" news is that we're under embargo until mid-November, meaning you won't be seeing any Granite Bay reviews on the front page until that date. Of course, this applies to all the hardware web sites out there, as anyone who is sane won't break NDA before mid-November.

In the meantime, we'd like to get all your questions answered before we post our Granite Bay reviews. Therefore, post any and all questions, suggestions or otherwise in this thread, so we know exactly what to include in the Granite Bay reviews once the time comes. Also, feel free to discuss all P4 dual DDR chipsets, not just Intel's. SiS, VIA, etc.

I'll be creating another thread just like this one in the coming months, but about a different platform altogether; Hammer.

 

[mechBgon]

Do some WinZip 8.1 compression tests on it and compare to PC1066 RDRAM and DDR333. This is one place where RAMBUS really cuts loose, according to the tests done by some Forum readers recently.

 

[John]

The "bad" news is that we're under embargo until mid-November, meaning you won't be seeing any Granite Bay reviews on the front page until that date.

You are welcome to email me the reviews you have to date on Intel's Granite Bay.

 

[mechBgon]

Me too. I need to, um... to proofread them. Yeah, that's right... for typos and stuff.

 

[mcveigh]

I am really waiting for this one!...hmm will P4's w/ hyperthreading be available to test also

and if any have some 64bit new generation pci slots I'd like to see some testing methodology to really work them out.
(I don't keep up on the latest news, so i dont know if that's on ganite bay or not)

 

[mechBgon]

Speaking of hyperthreading, some 3DS Max rendering benchmarks would be an interesting and relevant real-world test of HT. Or Caligari trueSpace, which I use (version 4.3 here). It has a renderer that can take advantage of SMP in raycast mode, and I'm guessing Anand has some version of trueSpace floating around. I could concoct a scene to test with, if you needed one cooked up.

 

[Mr. Crisis]

Ack, but Evan we can't wait so long!

Could you at least give us a hint about the performance relative to the 850E with Rambus 1066?

Just a tiny hint...!

 

[First]

Originally posted by: Mr. Crisis
Ack, but Evan we can't wait so long!

Could you at least give us a hint about the performance relative to the 850E with Rambus 1066?

Just a tiny hint...!

It's faster.

 

[RanDum72]

Comparisons between GB and other dual DDR chipsets such as the SIS 655 would be very helpful.

 

[Siegfried]

Gah... Mid november Is it REALLY that worthed to wait for it compared to an 845PE solution? I know it's going to be faster, but is it that worthed Evan?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Mr. Crisis]

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb

Originally posted by: Mr. Crisis
Ack, but Evan we can't wait so long!

Could you at least give us a hint about the performance relative to the 850E with Rambus 1066?

Just a tiny hint...!

It's faster.

Awesome!

 

[NicColt]

>we'd like to get all your questions answered before we post our Granite Bay reviews

Does the NDA coincide with the 3.06GHz Pentium 4 release and if so will you be reviewing the GB boards with this CPU once the NDA run out or another CPU ?

 

[Toymaker]

Originally posted by: RanDum72
Comparisons between GB and other dual DDR chipsets such as the SIS 655 would be very helpful.

I second that.

Overclockability, overclocking features, stability, ability to use different brands of RAM, benchmarks, board layouts. As much as can be reasonably squeezed into one review. The initial boards will probably have some stability issues. I'm sure that you'll plan on doing some updated reviews on revised boards. Whatever your budget allows.

 

[THUGSROOK]

...the only thing im concerned about is how good the onboard audio is (lmao)

we'll need to know what memory ratios it has and how well it can run 4 sticks of ram when overclocked

TIA

 

[BaconGrease]

mid november means a merry christmas!

 

[cmdrdredd]

I hate when companies give you a board to review and then tell you you can't release info until this date. That is the worst crap IMO.

Anyway I'm not to impressed with the Granite Bay specs myself. Common...only PC2100 support...going backwards in technology. My Corsair memory would not like it if I ran at 266Mhz!

 

[DukeChestnut]

then get the via p4x600 chipset. dual pc-2700 ddr support.

 

[Prong]

You'll have to excuse my unorganized ramblings, but I think the following would be helpful:

-512mb vs 1 gig of memory using various memory speeds if possible (pc2100, 2700, etc)
-HT enabled 3.06 vs "plain" cpu's (2.8, 2.53, etc)
-testing different programs with the HT cpu vs "plain" cpu's for performance differences
-ANY stability issues (either hardware or software related)
AND
sending me your test hardware to see for myself

 

[JSSheridan]

I would like to know how compatable these boards will be with the Prescott cores. With the Prescott possessing a 166MHz FSB upon its release, and eventually a 200MHz FSB, people will be able to run their PC2700 in sync with the Prescott cores. Also, in case you can run the memory async from the FSB, how do async memory speeds impact performance? Thanks Evan. Peace.

 

[fivepesos]

Is GB going to offer support for SMP? And if not, does Intel have a chipset in the pipeline that does?

Particlularly of interest would be benchmark comparisons to older platforms. It would help users who still have older systems decide if they want to upgrade. I know many of us are still running older setups on our primary machines or at least a secondary one that we are looking to upgrade.

Has there been any previews about GB or Intel roadmaps recently?

 

[HFC]

Does it take new version of DDR memory? Do we just need modules in pais? What are the effects on stability (if overclock ) if you mix brands of module?

 

[cmdrdredd]

i read that the GB will only support a 1:1 memory ratio

 

[Wolfsraider]

can you include a 9700 pro so we get scalability on that too

testing of all ddr speeds 2100 up

1066 and 800 rdram as well against it for a better picture

thank you

 

[senior guy]

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb

Originally posted by: Mr. Crisis
Ack, but Evan we can't wait so long!
Could you at least give us a hint about the performance relative to the 850E with Rambus 1066? Just a tiny hint...!

It's faster.

Evan, I don't see why that should be. ...how do you account for that?

 

[THUGSROOK]

its easy....

DCDDR ~ PC2100 x 2 = PC4200
DCDDR ~ PC2700 x 2 = PC5400
DCDDR ~ PC3200 x 2 = PC6400

simple