nForce release date?

[eli_c]

Anyone know when we can expect nforce motherboards to hit the market?

[Nick CPU]

Never heard of them. whats makes them special?

[jkrohn]

Nforce is Nvidia's new thing. They are taking onbaord graphics (integrated) to a new level suppossedly. The Nforce is an intergrated graphics card that promises the performance of a Tnt2. I believe that the Nforce also does not use system ram as other intergrated chips do, which will help curve the performance sacrifice of an intergrated chip. Personally I'll believe it when i see it though as it sounds a little too good to be true.

[Praetorian]

Here is more info on it. http://pc.ign.com/news/38075.html

Article from the The Triple Helix (http://thetriplehelix.com/article.php?sid=1279&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0)

[Praetorian]

If the nForce chipset is all its cracked up to be then I'll have one in my system by the end of the year. ;)

[thekemp]

i belive the nforce will be a lot more expensive than the chipsets in its target market the i810 and the via km133 series so i doubt that many motherboard manufactures would impliment it?
who knows?

[RobRich]

My info shows initial dual-channel nForce motherboards will cost in the $175-200 price range. Fine for retail buyers, but I doubt many OEMs will be interested, regardless of performance, until the prices fall drastically.

semi-official release date: early Q4

Robert Richmond

[Ironforge]

I do not think I would want to buy one.. most people who are building their own systems typically have a good graphics card anyway.. even if you are "upgrading"

why spend an extra $50-70 for a built in graphics card when for a little more you can get Geforce2 GTS.. or you can apply that extra money to a nice card like GF3...

I have never really liked "integrated" components.. except maybe ethernet or RAID/SCSI...

if you get a new graphcis card you can't toss the "old one" into another computer.. it's built in..

[Harshu]

Best thing of nForce is the 6x tranfer mode and a good intgrated graphic card and 5.1 compliant sound card. I am waiting for any upgradation:D

[Praetorian]

Thats what I'm saying. Right now my system is:

Celeron 466mhz Slot A
64mb PC100 RAM
nVidia RIVA TNT2 M64 32mb VRAM
Creative AWE 64 sound card
Kingston KNE100TX NIC

I could use the integrated components and I figured I'll just upgrade the vid card later. I plan on getting an Athlon 1.4ghz or whatever the fastest is when I get my new mobo. :D

[eli_c]

Will any motherboards be available without the integrated components?

[Praetorian]

Not sure. I dont think so though. The plan was to integrate the components to improve speed with the new chipset. You could probably disable the onboard stuff and add the it into a PCI slot. I'm gonna upgrade the video on it when I get the board.

[RobRich]

Most nForce boards will include an AGP slot for future upgrades, just like current Intel i815 or SIS 730 designs. The onboard video is automatically disabled when an AGP card is inserted. Otherwise, sound and other integrated options will be user-configurable as well.

The only downside, the dual-channel nForce chipset uses a 128-bit memory bus for dual-channel operation. The Athlon only offers a 64-bit memory path, so the extra 1/2 bandwidth is essentially provided for the integrated graphics controller. In other words, the nForce may not perform significantly better than any other DDR motherboard available due to the processor's 64-bit memory transfer limitation.

Robert Richmond

[Mr.Goodbytes]

I believe there will be a 220, 220D, 420, and 420D. The 220 series uses a 64-bit DDR memory architecture, and the 420 series uses 128-bit DDR. The "D" denotes having the Dolby 5.1 sound. I don't know if they'll choose to offer boards without integrated NIC's, HomePNA 2.0 and modems. I certainly hope so for the last 2. But I would love to have the NIC and the sound. Very low processor utilization for both, and better throughput for the NIC as well.

[Praetorian]

Any sites taking pre-orders?