Zaključak

Gigabyte je svojim Extreme modelima pokazao da se ne šali i
da misli ozbiljno protiv ljute konkurencije. Oba modela su vrhunska bilo
po pitanju kvalitete izrade ugrađenih komponenti, softverske strane, hlađenja
ili po pitanju overclock potencijala. Za minus smo uzeli cijenu, no ukoliko
stvar pogledamo iz druge perspektive, tj. usporedimo iste sa cijenama modela
konkurentnih proizvoda, ista se i ne čini toliko pretjeranom, s obzirom na
to da se radi o samom vrhu ponude Gigabyteovih ploča za P45 čipset. Konkretno,
DDR2 model  košta oko 1620 (sa PDV-om), dok DDR3 košta oko 1850kn (sa
PDV-om). Ovakve ploče nisu baš za svakoga, tako da će se i iskusniji korisnici
morati malo zadržati u BIOS-u kako bi razumjeli čitavu stvar. No kako ništa
nije savršeno tako je i Gigabyte napravio neke minuse po pitanju dizajna koje
nije bilo lijepo za vidjeti u praksi, a za koje se nadamo da će popraviti
u budućnosti sa svojom novom Ultra Durable 3 serijom ploča.

Kao što vidite, ovo nam je već druga usporedba DDR2 i DDR3 platformi. Prošlo
je dosta vremena od izlaska DDR3 memorije, tako da se i kod nas ponuda lagano
"opipava". Cijene lagano padaju i kod nas pa dolazi sve kvalitetnija
memorija, pristupačnija širem krugu korisnika. Kako smo već spomenuli, DDR3
memorija možda i ne donosi neka velika poboljšanja u performansama, no s vremenom
će doći na svoje sa velikim OC potencijalom, pogotovo što za saveznika ima
nadolazeću Nehalem platformu.

Stigli smo i do zadnjeg aspekta ovog članka, a to su Crossfire performanse
P45 i X48 čipseta.  Vječna dvojba o kojoj ćemo vam mi iznijeti svoje
viđenje situacije, pa vi odlučite što je bolje i isplativije za Crossfire.
Kako vidimo iz grafova, razlika je tu, svakako, negdje je osjetna više, a
negdje manje. Mi smo koristili HD4850 kartice, a s obzirom da su na tržištu
prisutni i jači modeli, vjerujemo da bi X48 došao do većeg izražaja ispred
P45 čipseta u zahtjevnijim situacijama. Mišljenja smo da, ukoliko želite jeftini
Crossfire sustav i spremni ste žrtvovati par FPS-a, ipak idete na P45. U suprotnom
ćete morati dati više novca za X48 ploču, pritom uživati u tih par sličica
u sekundi više, no tanjeg novčanika.

Conclusion

With its Extreme models, Gigabyte has shown its heavy competitors
that they are serious. Both models are superb, whether it’s about quality
of embedded components, software, great cooling or about the overclock potential.
We took price for a minus, but if we look from the different perspective,
in fact if we compare prices with the models of competitive products, then
the price isn’t that much big, considering that this is a very high end pair of
Gigabyte’s P45 motherboards. In particular, DDR2 model costs about 225€ (including
VAT), and the DDR3 costs about 255€ (including VAT). These boards are not
just for everybody, so even the more experienced users, will have to study
their BIOS-es for a while in order to understand its “nature”. But since nothing
is perfect, we found some flaws on these boards also. Gigabyte has made a few wrong turns in terms of design, which
was not nice to work with in practice, and which we hope they’ll fix in the future,
with their new Ultra Durable 3 motherboard series.

If you have norticed, this is our second comparison of DDR2 and DDR3 platforms.
DDR3 is on the market for a while now, so the offer has grown even here in Croatia.
Prices are dropping, and choice is much bigger now, we might even say that DDR3 is more affordable to a wider
range of users. As we mentioned earlier, the DDR3 memory may not bring some
great improvements in performance, but it will definitely come in handy with
its big overclock headroom, especially as the ally to the upcoming Nehalem platform.

We came to the last aspect of this article, and that is the Crossfire
performance of P45 and X48 chipsets. Through our tests and comentary you can decide for your self which solution is better and more
profitable for Crossfire. As we can see from the graphs above, there is a difference, somewhere is noticeably more, somewhere less. We used
HD4850 cards, but since there are stronger cards on the market, we believe
that the X48 would come out as a better solution then the P45 chipset in more
demanding situations. We think that if you want a cheap Crossfire system,
and you’re ready to sacrifice a few frames, you should get a P45 based
board.