The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

Test Configuration

Processor(s): AMD K6/233 ANR & Intel Pentium MMX 233 & Cyrix 6x86MX-PR2/200
RAM: 2 - 32MB Advanced Megatrends SDRAM DIMMs
2 - 32MB Corsair SDRAM DIMMs
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital Caviar AC21600H
Video Card: ATI Xpert@Work (4MB SGRAM)
Matrox Millennium II (4MB WRAM)
Busmaster EIDE Drivers: VIA v2.13
Video Card Drivers: MGA Millennium 4.03.00.3410
OS: Windows 95 Service Release 2

 

Windows 95 Performance of the PA-2012 (PCI Video)
CPU Business Winstone 97 Business Winstone 98 Bus. Gfx. Winmark 97 Bus. Gfx. Winmark 98
AMD K6-200 53.2 Not Run 103 Not Run
AMD K6-225 56.9 Not Run 116 Not Run
AMD K6-233 56.0 17.5 111 107
Cyrix 6x86MX-PR2/200 (150/75) 55.2 Not Run 104 Not Run
Cyrix 6x86MX-PR2/200 (166/66) 56.1 Not Run 112 Not Run
Intel Pentium MMX - 200 51.4 Not Run 104 Not Run
Intel Pentium MMX - 225 53.5 Not Run 109 Not Run
Intel Pentium MMX - 233 52.1 16.8 107 110
Intel Pentium MMX - 262.5 55.6 Not Run 118 Not Run

The PCI Video Performance of the PA-2012 is outstanding, however when using an AGP video card the performance increase isn't as great when compared to identical configurations with LX motherboards.  In any case, the PA-2012's performance is top-notch although it could be much better. 

Windows 95 Performance of the PA-2012 (AGP Video)
CPU Business Winstone 97 Business Winstone 98 Bus. Gfx. Winmark 97 Bus. Gfx. Winmark 98
AMD K6-200 53.5 Not Run 103 Not Run
AMD K6-225 57.2 Not Run 116 Not Run
AMD K6-233 56.4 17.7 114 109
Cyrix 6x86MX-PR2/200 (150/75) 55.4 Not Run 108 Not Run
Cyrix 6x86MX-PR2/200 (166/66) 56.3 Not Run 116 Not Run
Intel Pentium MMX - 200 51.5 Not Run 105 Not Run
Intel Pentium MMX - 225 53.7 Not Run 111 Not Run
Intel Pentium MMX - 233 52.3 16.9 109 110
Intel Pentium MMX - 262.5 55.8 Not Run 119 Not Run

 

Performance of the PA-2012
CPU Business Disk Winmark 98 High End Disk Winmark 98 VGA Bench SVGA Bench
AMD K6-233 (AGP Video) 865 2200 128.2 fps 32.7 fps
Intel Pentium MMX - 233 (AGP Video) Not Run Not Run 116.9 fps 38.8 fps

 


The Final Decision

How well has FIC harnessed the power of the VIA VP3 chipset?  Very well, in one month FIC will release the PA-2012 and as long as its shortcomings don't bother you incredibly it will make the perfect Socket-7 Motherboard...at least until ABIT's IT5A makes its way into the market...

 

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