Wednesday, April 21, 1999

The performance tests results

All tests were all performed under Windows98.

The system setup was as following:

Motherboard: ECS P5VP-A+
CPU: AMD K6-2 400Mhz
Memory: 64mb PC100 SDram (LGS)
IDE first channel Primary port: Quantum Fireball EIDE ST 3.2A
IDE second channel Primary port: AOpen CD-ROM drive CD-936E
AGP port: STB VElocity 4400 TNT 16Mb SDRAM AGP
OS: Win98 built 4.10
DirectX 6

Winbench99 CPUmark99

The results of this test are showing that the P5VP-A+ performance are almost equaling those of the Iwill XA100 Plus motherboard. However, these performances are well under those available on a system based on the Intel Celeron 300A clocked at 300Mhz as it is the case for any other system using an AMD 400Mhz processor.

Winbench99 FPU Winmark

The same remarks as above are also applying to this test

Winstone99

On this test, the P5VP-A+ took the lead by a thin margin on the Iwill XA100 Plus motherboard. As a fact, it even outperformed a 300Mhz clocked Celeron 300A based system. The best score obtained by a 300Mhz clocked Celeron 300A from 3 consecutive test was 16.3 while the best score obtained by the Iwill XA100 Plus was 16.9.

Memory sub-system using Safbench 2.51

Safbench v2.31 is a computer speed/operation test program. It runs in 32bit protected mode (using DOS32 v3.3 by Adam Seychell). Safbench is programmed completely in assembly, because FOR EXAMPLE mixing integers with FPU code like it's done in Safbench isn't possible in other languages (Simple Arithmetic FPU and Mixed FPU&CPU contain the same FPU instructions, but Mixed one has some integer between FPU operations).

While they are using totally different chipsets, the P5VP-A+ and the Iwill XA100 Plus obtained pretty similar results on this test as showed by the above table. Like you know, the P5VP-A+ is using the Via MVP3 chispet while the Iwill XA100 Plus is using the Ali Aladin V chipset.

Video sub-system tests

Once again, both omtherboards compared are almost on par in term of performance.

Hard disk drive sub-system tests

Instead to use HD Tach 2.52 as usual for this test, I had to use Winbench99 hard disk drive test because HD Tach 2.52 doesn't seem to respond correctly with the chipset used on this motherboard.

The below evaluation table is showing the strong points and the weak points of the tested motherboard. No need to remember to you that we never buy a motherboard only for its performances. Most of today's motherboards are exhibiting performances very close to each others, so, we need additional information in order to help us distinguish what are the real advantages of a motherboard compared to the others and this is exactly where is coming into help this evaluation table.

The score obtained by this motherboard is 86 points out of 100 points. This motherboard can therefore be recognized as a high quality product missing the highest step of the podium by only a few points. The lost points are coming from the fact that there are only 4 PCI slots, only 3 memory banks, the poor placement of the jumpers becoming difficult to reach when the IDE cables are connected and because there were no indication in the users manual about the required core voltage for the processors supported by this motherboard.

The strong points

The strong points of the ECS P5VP-A+ are: the great Overclocking versatility offered by its jumpers settings and its very good rock solid performances.

The weak points

The weak points of this motherboard are: the very poor choice of system clock frequencies, the restricted number of memory banks, the restricted number of PCI slots and the poor placement of its jumpers becoming difficult to reach once the IDE cables are connected.

Conclusions

The ECS P5VP-A+ motherboard is really not the type of motherboard that I could recommend to newbies. This type of motherboard in my opinion would be better suited to experimented users. Even if this motherboard doesn't really have any spectacular features, it is nonetheless a very good motherboard offering a very satisfying performance under very stable operating conditions and this might count more than nothing else finally.

For any additional information, please visit Elitegroup's web site.