Performance Acceleration Technology (PAT)

[Tom Collin]

How much of a drop off can be expected in a chipset not using PAT? In
particular, is there a significant penalty for using the P4G800-V
mobo, with its 865G chip set, instead of one of the 875P based boards
(given comparable video cards)? The reason for the question is that I
am considering an upgrade to a machine in order to do some
basic/mid-level home design work.

Tom Collin

 

[Dr Teeth]

How much of a drop off can be expected in a chipset not using PAT? In
particular, is there a significant penalty for using the P4G800-V
mobo, with its 865G chip set, instead of one of the 875P based boards
(given comparable video cards)? The reason for the question is that I
am considering an upgrade to a machine in order to do some
basic/mid-level home design work.

Tom Collin

Some board vendors released a BIOS update that enabled PAT in the 865
chipset.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[Clas Mehus]

How much of a drop off can be expected in a chipset not using PAT? In
particular, is there a significant penalty for using the P4G800-V
mobo, with its 865G chip set, instead of one of the 875P based boards
(given comparable video cards)? The reason for the question is that I
am considering an upgrade to a machine in order to do some
basic/mid-level home design work.

Up to 4-5%, but often less. A lot of the boards with 865G/865PE has
PAT implemented under a different name -- at least for the Asus
P4P800, which is based on 865PE, Asus call it "Hyper Path". Basily
they are now allowed by Intel to call it PAT on 865PE-boards. This
feature might have to be enabled manualy in BIOS on 865PE/865G-boards.

So, if the 865G/PE-board you by have PAT, but with a different name,
there should be much difference at all between it and a average
875P-board.

 

[Tom Collin]

Up to 4-5%, but often less. A lot of the boards with 865G/865PE has
PAT implemented under a different name -- at least for the Asus
P4P800, which is based on 865PE, Asus call it "Hyper Path". Basily
they are now allowed by Intel to call it PAT on 865PE-boards. This
feature might have to be enabled manualy in BIOS on 865PE/865G-boards.

So, if the 865G/PE-board you by have PAT, but with a different name,
there should be much difference at all between it and a average
875P-board.

Thanks Cles and Guy. A pretty thorough walk through of my P4G800-V
BIOS settings (version 8, 2/13/04) showed nothing that resembled Hyper
Path or PAT. But your comments encourage me to proceed nonetheless.
We're going to upgrade with an additional Gig of memory and an nVidia
5950 Ultra video card (excellent reviews in the CAD periodicals).
Already have a 3.0c CPU installed (now just a mid range speed --
sheesh! -- but cannot afford the upper reaches). Just putting in the
video card will speed up the system since it relieves onboard video
processing.

Tom Collin

 

[Clas Mehus]

Thanks Cles and Guy. A pretty thorough walk through of my P4G800-V
BIOS settings (version 8, 2/13/04) showed nothing that resembled Hyper
Path or PAT. But your comments encourage me to proceed nonetheless.
We're going to upgrade with an additional Gig of memory and an nVidia
5950 Ultra video card (excellent reviews in the CAD periodicals).
Already have a 3.0c CPU installed (now just a mid range speed --
sheesh! -- but cannot afford the upper reaches). Just putting in the
video card will speed up the system since it relieves onboard video
processing.

It could be that it was enabled using the Turbo-settings for the
memory PAT got activated.

 

[Tim]

Tom,

You are most unlikely to be able to notice the difference with or without
PAT. There are so many other factors that influence performance that to
notice a difference you would have to look for it using benchmarking
software.

Ditto for an upgrade to the higher spec processors. a 3.0 to 3.2 GHz upgrade
is 1/15th (6.67%?) = sod all. Improvements above 25% can be noticeable in
some situations. If you want a performance improvement to be worth while
think about it when you see 2x to 3x or more. IE wait for 6GHz and get value
out of your current system.

- Tim