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While the FIC AU11 turned out good results in our productivity tests, it didn't dominate consistently across the board. Our game tests, however, show how aggressive the Nforce2 can be against other boards.

In Unreal Tournament 2003 you can see that the results are the most dramatic, with the AU11 outscoring the Gigabyte 7VAXP and Epox 8K9A3+ by as much as 20 frames per second at the lower resolutions - that's a nearly 10% in difference!! Clearly, Dual Channel has some SERIOUS advantages in certain games.

Conclusion

The AU11 has placed itself in the spotlight with its robust overclocking features and superior performance. At this time we didn't include our K7N2 results for comparison, because our K7N2 board isn't working properly anymore after we tried some extreme... er... tests. For now, we can conclude that the AU11 and Nforce2 is a very nasty surprise for VIA's KT400 chip. Dual Channel memory is excitingly refreshing, and offers performance enhancements that give the Nforce2 that extra edge over the KT400. Don't forget too, that some of the gains we saw - 3-10% over non Dual Channel mode, validate the need for every potential Nforce2 owner to invest in a Dual Channel setup to take full advantage of the speed benefits.

Most technologies don't necessarily have the same gains as media hype may suggest. Certainly Dual Channel memory doesn't perform as mightily as some Press Releases are wont to make you think, but performance gains from Dual Channel memory are nothing to sneeze at either. If we can note a 10% lead for Nforce2 in Dual Channel over a regular KT400 board in Unreal Tournament, what else might we note in a broader array of tests? Really it could go either way, but the speed of the AU11 is one thing that isn't in doubt. Throw in a mix of superb overclocking features in-BIOS, and you have yourself a very attractive board indeed.

Overall Score: 86%