October '97 Socket-7 Motherboard Comparison

Motherboard Business Winstone 97 ABIT AX5 2.2 54.0 ABIT IT5H 1.5 Not Run ABIT IT5H 2.0 53.9 ABIT PD5N 53.7 ABIT PX5 53.4 ABIT TX5 54.5 ABIT TX5N 54.7 AOpen AP58 54.5 AOpen AX5T-2 Not Run AOpen AX5T-3.1 54.4 ASUS TXP4-X 53.0 Chaintech 5SDA 54.3 Chaintech 5SIM 53.6 Chaintech 5TTL 54.2 Chaintech 5TTM Not Run Chaintech 5TTM1 54.2 Chaintech 5TDM2 54.1 DFI P5XV3 55.8 DFI P5XV3 (AGP) 56.2 EPoX P55-VP3 53.4 FIC PA-2007 54.9 FIC PA-2010+ 47.5 FIC PA-2011 54.3 FIC PA-2012 55.2 FIC PA-2012 (AGP) 55.4 FIC PT-2007 55.5 Megatrends HX83 Not Run MTech MIG R539 Not Run MTech MIG R540 51.2 MTech MIG R541 51.4 MTech Mustang R534F 56.0 QDI Titanium 1B 54.1 Shuttle HOT-565 55.2 Shuttle HOT-567 53.6 Shuttle HOT-569 54.6 Shuttle HOT-571 54.1 Shuttle HOT-603 54.7 Supermicro P5MMA Not Run Supermicro P5MMS98 54.0 Tyan Titan Turbo S1573S Failed

After reigning at the top of this comparison for the past 5 months, the MTech Mustang R534F has finally been dethroned as the fastest Cyrix 6x86MX Performer.  By a point differential of 0.2 Winstone points (hardly noticeable to a normal user), the DFI P5XV3, when using an AGP Video card, beats the MTech Mustang R534F coming in at 1st place with the 6x86MX at 150MHz (PR2/200+).  The third place winner is also the DFI P5XV3, however the score of 55.8 was obtained using a PCI Matrox Millennium vs. the AGP Millennium II used in the AGP tests of the P5XV3.   Amazingly enough, the Intel TX based FIC PT-2007 comes in fourth place with an astounding 55.5 Business Winstone 97 score...not bad at all considering the motherboard uses a chipset not designed specifically for use with the Cyrix 6x86MX. 

Closely following the miniscule lead of the PT-2007 is the VIA VP3 based FIC PA-2012 using an AGP Video card for the video subsystem, giving it the performance boost necessary to make the jump from its 7th place home to its 5th place resting area.  Separating the two PA-2012 scores is another TX based motherboard, the Shuttle HOT-565 which still seems to be an excellent performer, in spite of the age of the motherboard. 

In eighth place we see the VP2 based FIC PA-2007, a motherboard which was surrounded by hype upon its release a few months back...however that hype was mostly unjustified since it was about the "immense" cacheable memory area of the PA-2007, which in reality turned out to be a maximum of 128MB due to the lack of a secondary tag RAM on the motherboard itself. 

Holding its place in the top 10 is the SiS 5582 based AOpen AP58, this low cost motherboard is definitely not an old granny when it comes to the Cyrix 6x86MX...the AP58 beat the entire ABIT line of motherboards, along with some other non-Intel chipset based motherboard in this test...looks like the SiS 5582 chipset isn't as bad as people once imagined it would be.