nForce: nVidia sets itself in a position to dominate

[RobRich]

AGP 6x will be a psudeo-AGP standard, as no formal standardization origanization has ratified any type of AGP transfer speed above 4x. Intel has 8x on the way (currently in .9x revision status), but this technology will likely not appear until Q1 2001.

However, expect a serious integrated graphics performance increase for boards equipped with the nVidia Crush 12 chipset. This chipset provides a 128-bit wide bus when in dual memory slot mode. Since the Athlon can onlu utilize 64-bits, this means other Northbridge integrated features (such as video) will have a dedicate 64-bit pipe to the memory interface for increased bandwidth and lower latency access.

On a similar note, Abit will be annoucing two nVidia chipset motherboards in the near future.

ABIT NV7. This ATX mainboard will have 1 AGP and 5 PCI slots, 4 USB ports, 3 DIMM slots for PC1600/PC2100 DDR SDRAM. It will support ATA/100 and have integrated AC'97 sound.

NV22. This MicroATX mainboard features 1 AGP and 3 PCI slots, 4 USB ports and 3 DIMM slots for PC1600/PC2100 DDR SDRAM. It will also support ATA/100 and have AC'97 onboard sound.

Catch ya' later,
Robert Richmond

[LemonHead]

oooh. i want i want. I don't really know WHY i want, i'm just one of those bandwagon jumpers

[Hellmund]

So the MX on the Nforce will still use the main memory for it's framebuffer instead of having it's own dedicated ram?

[AuraEdge]

Yes it will. On boards without the dualchannel, Performance will be similar to a Geforce2 MX 200 (The memory will operate at 64bit 266Mhz shared, as opposed to the 64bit 175Mhz SDR dedicated on the 200).
When 2 memory slots are utilized, and theres 2 64bit memory busses going, it will perform more like a Geforce2 MX 400 (Memory will be 128bit 266Mhz shared). And if your sick of all that, you can just plug a big bad video card into the AGP slot and it will disable itself.

And I think it may be AGP8x. I read on two sites it AGP8x, and two that its 6x. AM I right when I say that AGP is extremly imporant on the nForce cuz AGP transfers is the Graphics part of the chipset's sole way of getting textures to memory? Not sure about that, but it seems that way.

--EDIT--
I just reread a review. There is a 1.5GB/s bus between the Geforce2 MX part of the chipset and the memory, which is essentially equal to AGP6x (AGP4x is 1GB/s). It simulates an AGP6x bus but isnt really an AGP bus at all.
--/EDIT--

And as for the Twinbank..4.2GB/s is alot of memory bandwidth. More than even the i850 can dish out, and thats a memory monster.

Nvidia has here the perfect recipe for a chipset. Value-through-performance range of flexibility, excellent integrated video w/ external AGP port for upgradability, Integrated sound that rivals the best...They even have Integrated 10/100BaseT and a 56k Modem, although I havent seen these utilized on any of the early boards.
They even have DASP, a prefetch for the cache, which is supposed to boost performance 20% on its own (Doubt its that high, but Im sure DASP can't hurt).

This is probably the most revolutionary chipset ever. Now, if it would support SMP, they would have all grounds covered.

I still think the 3 DIMMs is kinda funky, but whatever floats thier boat.

BTW this chipset can support SDRAM as well, so its got the Ali MaGiK beat there.

I want a NV7..


[This message has been edited by AuraEdge (edited 06-05-2001).]

[Andy_L]

We have come a long way, from Nvidia not even bothering to see if their cards were compatible with AMD (remember the TnT and SuperSocket7 fiasco) to making an awesome chipset using some of AMD's technology. I do like the idea of finally offering a high performance integrated video, only time will tell if the OEMs jump on the bandwagon and if advertising will steer the average customer the right way. Go Nvidia!!! I bet Intel had some interesting meetings about the whole thing, lol.

[This message has been edited by Andy_L (edited 06-07-2001).]

[Hellmund]

Dam, intel can't cop a break, the AMD processors are cheaper and run better, they may not dominate the server market too much longer with Palomino and AMD 760MP chipset, and now NVIDIA paired up with AMD to put themselves in a position to create very cheap very powerfull integrated motherboards. This could create sub-$500 PC's which quite a bit of bang for buck...
Hey those integrated MX's might actually make it worth while to get DDR memory, a mobo with DDR should actually beat a MX with access to SDR seeing as they're both restricted to a 64bit bus.