ECS A85F2-A Golden Review: All That Glitters
by Ian Cutress on January 12, 2013 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- ECS
- FM2
- A85X
3D Movement Algorithm Test
The algorithms in 3DPM employ both uniform random number generation or normal distribution random number generation, and vary in various amounts of trigonometric operations, conditional statements, generation and rejection, fused operations, etc. The benchmark runs through six algorithms for a specified number of particles and steps, and calculates the speed of each algorithm, then sums them all for a final score. This is an example of a real world situation that a computational scientist may find themselves in, rather than a pure synthetic benchmark. The benchmark is also parallel between particles simulated, and we test the single thread performance as well as the multi-threaded performance.
As expected, our ECS board hits the 73.5 mark similar to other FM2A85X boards.
The ECS A85F2-A Golden takes a distinct lead in our multithreaded test due to the turbo mode used on the board. In a crude form of Multicore Acceleration, the ECS board will put the A10-5800K CPU to 4.2 GHz under any load except idle, meaning that any memory-independent benchmark is likely to win out against the other motherboards.
WinRAR x64 3.93 - link
With 64-bit WinRAR, we compress the set of files used in the USB speed tests. WinRAR x64 3.93 attempts to use multithreading when possible, and provides as a good test for when a system has variable threaded load. If a system has multiple speeds to invoke at different loading, the switching between those speeds will determine how well the system will do.
Due to the memory issues experienced with the ECS motherboard, it comes bottom of our WinRAR test.
FastStone Image Viewer 4.2 - link
FastStone Image Viewer is a free piece of software I have been using for quite a few years now. It allows quick viewing of flat images, as well as resizing, changing color depth, adding simple text or simple filters. It also has a bulk image conversion tool, which we use here. The software currently operates only in single-thread mode, which should change in later versions of the software. For this test, we convert a series of 170 files, of various resolutions, dimensions and types (of a total size of 163MB), all to the .gif format of 640x480 dimensions.
Similar to the 3DPM-ST benchmark, the ECS A85F2-A Golden appears middle of the pack on a single threaded, non-memory related benchmark.
Xilisoft Video Converter
With XVC, users can convert any type of normal video to any compatible format for smartphones, tablets and other devices. By default, it uses all available threads on the system, and in the presence of appropriate graphics cards, can utilize CUDA for NVIDIA GPUs as well as AMD APP for AMD GPUs. For this test, we use a set of 32 HD videos, each lasting 30 seconds, and convert them from 1080p to an iPod H.264 video format using just the CPU. The time taken to convert these videos gives us our result.
One would assume that a video conversion tool that uses all the threads would crave memory bandwidth, however if the memory can amply feed the CPU, the CPU becomes the limiting factor. The high CPU speed and low memory speed of the ECS setup cancels each other out, and we get an average result in XVC.
x264 HD Benchmark
The x264 HD Benchmark uses a common HD encoding tool to process an HD MPEG2 source at 1280x720 at 3963 Kbps. This test represents a standardized result which can be compared across other reviews, and is dependant on both CPU power and memory speed. The benchmark performs a 2-pass encode, and the results shown are the average of each pass performed four times.
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ForeverAlone - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
Why so much power and so many slots/plugs on such an underpowered chipset?You'll never need to crossfire/SLI graphics cards with a CPU as weak as the A10-5800K.
Oscarcharliezulu - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
This has got to be the most poorly penned review I've read in a while. I reads mostly like a cut and paste jumble. You repeat yourself constantly. The grammar makes my brain hurt. Your assumptions about what "golden" represents is just space filler. For a moment I thought I was reading a bad auto-translate. Lastly, admitting you look around the web at other opinions and I now am not sure if this review is your opinion or some kind of reference to what other people have said. Please do over. D-.IanCutress - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
I do admit that sometimes my British idiosyncrasies come through more on some reviews than others, but it's not something I should apologize for. It did get a thorough triple check before going live, as do all my reviews. If there is something that completely boggles the mind, please feel free to email me for clarification.Regarding space filler, my review is meant to cater for a large percentage of the potential readership, and thus explaining design philosophy to those not accustomed to it is part of the package.
As for looking at other reviews and such, I would be a poor academic researcher if I did not find reference and justification for the results and final opinions of the board. To go in blind would be completely remiss, especially if I come across a fringe issue, or fail to come across a significant issue because I do not specifically test for it. I am a strong advocate in researching a topic before discussing it, especially in such a public facing publication such as AnandTech.
Ian
JonnyDough - Sunday, January 13, 2013 - link
This is actually one of the sharpest boards I have ever seen. As for the gold coated rear ports, I'm not sure if those are necessary, but if the price is right I wouldn't be complaining. Very ooglable! :)lordcheeto - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
You should review the Biostar Hi-Fi A85W. That's what I have, and it looks good and performs good. Not sure how it stacks up against the boards you have tested, but I think it will do well.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
sudz - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
(though on a board this side I would prefer at least five).This size?
Rick83 - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
out of the box?Back in the Athlon days, main board makers were using this trick to gain a few points in benchmarks, but thankfully it gradually disappeared again.
Now many different main boards hit the market, that overclock CPUs out of the box. This is not acceptable in my book, as I want all components in my system to play fair with one another, and adhere to the well known specs.
This kind of fudging around for a few percent of performance in some computation benchmarks, that don't even reflect real world gains, should be harshly judged.
After reading this, I stopped reading the rest of the review.
One other note. As you write scientific articles, why do you not preface your articles with an abstract? I think this would increase reading efficiency. If the main strong and weak points, as well as the verdict can be resumed on the front page, then a lot of time reading non-essential information can be used otherwise.
CeriseCogburn - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
ECS is plenty big, and has a lot of good boards toward the cheaper end at all levels.The problem here is AMD and it's crap. The overclock page is embarrassing.
Another unstable piece of amd centered junk.
dgingeri - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
Sorry, after my past experiences, no matter how nice you find this board and no matter how inexpensive it is, I am not ever going to buy ECS hardware. I had a motherboard that was bad out of the box, returned it for warranty replacement, got 3 used ones in a row, including one with the socket lever broken, that were also non-functional over the course of 3 months, and then declared the board was no longer under warranty because it was beyond 90 days. (This was way back in the socket 5 days.) I swore off them then and have never bought another one, in nearly 20 years.Not gonna happen. I won't trust them again.
ggathagan - Monday, January 14, 2013 - link
Not particularly a fan of ECS, but I think 20 years is long enough to hold a grudge.It would be a surprise if 80% of the ECS employees in 1991 are still working there.
:)