nVidia nForce3 Chipset
Anand Shimpi will be talking much more about chipsets at launch, but since this is our first real look at the nForce3 chipset, we should talk a bit about key features. One of the most exciting, and also controversial, features of the Opteron/Athlon64 is AMD’s decision to include the memory controller on the CPU. There are tremendous potential speed advantages to this solution, but the complexity of manufacturing also increases significantly. This can dramatically lower yields, which are becoming increasingly important in a competitive CPU environment.nVidia’s nForce3 PRO is the only one of the Opteron/nForce3 chipsets in a single-chip package. Both VIA K8T800 and SiS755 will use the more familiar Northbridge/Southbridge arrangement. Key features for nForce3 PRO are:
We also see nVidia including some more familiar options, like the much-talked-about AMD Hypertransport first used in their nForce chipset, 6 USB 2.0 ports, and AC’97 with an SPDIF interface. Undoubtedly, the consumer versions of nForce3 will have even more features, but as a base chipset, nForce 3 is certainly competitive with Intel’s latest 875/865 chipsets.
- Single-Chip Solution — Revolutionary single-chip solution designed for the AMD Opteron CPU enables higher-quality, full-featured motherboards and delivers maximum performance with the lowest latency. The single-chip design also means less power consumption and less heat dissipation.
- Dual-Channel DDR400 Memory — Our reference board includes full support for Dual-Channel DDR ECC memory, and the Athlon64 version will also support non-ECC memory
- Integrated SATA/IDE Raid — Provides support for RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1, enabling the highest disk data transfer rates for highest system and application performance, and the highest performance fault tolerant solution for maximum data integrity. NVIDIA RAID supports both SATA and ATA-133 disk controller standards.
- Enterprise-Class Networking — Delivers the required manageability features required by IT professions while maintaining the highest level of reliability, quality, and performance. Also delivers the highest throughput for network transfers and lower CPU utilization, resulting in lower total cost of ownership.
- 64-Bit Architecture — NVIDIA nForce3 Pro provides advanced processing capabilities and system innovations for the new 64-bit AMD processor architecture.
More information on nForce3 PRO is available at www.nvidia.com/page/nforce3.html.
If you are interested in learning more about the features and architecture of Opteron and Athlon 64, you can access Anand’s excellent 3-part article at www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1815.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
79 Comments
View All Comments
Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
Oh little Dvinnen I petty you for your ignoranceAMD Opteron Socket 940 at 2.0GHz (9x222) 444FSB
The opteron has the equivalent to a MEM-controller between MEM and CPU. And it is quote running at "AMD Opteron Socket 940 at 2.0GHz (9x222) 444FSB". So be that the mem will run at 444 Mhz or 222 "Dobbel-pumped" Mhz
So even the anandtech 'beeps' don't know the architecture of the CPU... Although FSB is a wrong id of it.
Mvh Mjello
The fool is not the one who is deceived. But the one who wants to be deceived...
By the way. The hypertransport-link is for peripherals.. Not memory
Not that I really care enough to answer you little dwuuip but I am in a rare mood
Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
one more (hopefully constructive) suggestion - how about commentary on the benchmarks next to the appropriate graphs so we can see the #'s while we read the comments.Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
quick suggestion for you guys - how come the graphs are labeled with motherboard names? shouldn't they be labeled with CPU names since this is a CPU comparison. Just skimming the article and looking at the graphs I had no idea what was being compared. If need be, put the chipset in parenthesis next to the CPU name & speed.excellent article though! athlon64 looks very imrpessive
Icewind - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
Wow, so far AMD looks like there on the right track, but its going to be interesting to see how Intel fires back at that with Prescott and Tejas, not to mention the change to PCI Express and what not. Next year is gonna be insane thats for sure. For now, im enjoying my 2.8.@3.2 ASUS P4C800-E, 1 Gig corsair rig and its screams. Im in looking into a 9800pro or 9800XT for my video card and im set for a good long year.sprockkets - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
Yeah, fire hazard, that's why a 3.2P4 uses 82w of power just to sit there, and the 3200+ XP uses 62.Dell won't touch AMD due to Intel forcing them to.
Intel has billions to spend on R&D, and look where it's gotten them, the loser Itanium.
And with P4 clock speeds like a 140mhz would make the world of difference on the 54% it is behind.
Why use 4x512MB? Don't we all need 2Gb of ram to function best?
You're right, due to the P4 freq binge AMD did introduce its + ratings. Isn't amazing that a processor running slower memory and 1060 mhz less can still be faster?
Funny, 20 out of 20 of my AMD systems don't have quirks in them, must be a stupid Windows user.
dvinnen - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
<<<and with 22 Mhz OC to the memory.>>>Wow. Did you even read the artical or know anything about The K8 line? There is no FSB to oc so you can't oc the memory that way. It gets it's external clock (aka:fsb) from the hypertransport line. So they oced the hypertransport to get the speed from there 1.8 opteron to 2.0, the shiping shipped of A64. OCing the fsb on K8 dosen't do anyithing but increase the clock becuase the HT line is about as saturated as a AGPx8 line.
Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
#20A lot of pepole play games on Linux, Q3 on Linux is actually a bit faster on my system then in w2k.
But that's not the point. The point is to see how much there is to gain from having a 64bit OS vs. 32bit. I bet id will compile, and release, a 64bit Q3 client for linux sometimes soon. Hope there will be one for UT2003 too.
Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
A sad day I must say.Not because AMD beat Intel's best (3.2 Ghz)but because AMD only beat intels second best (3.0 Ghz)and with 22 Mhz OC to the memory.
Anandtech is no more than a marketing machine. It's not worthy of our attention.
It is a biased benchmark which twists reality in order to make AMD 64 look better.
Now I must say that I would like this to be a total succes for AMD however I don't like being lied to. And that's what anandtech and AMD is doing in this review. It looks as if AMD is in to deep and might just go under because of their financial problems.
Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
Why not use 4x512MB memory for the P4 setup, since Anandtech's own setups have shown its best, and also, why a 3200+ Barton and 3.0GHz P4, that's not an equal comparison.Also, the layout seemed awful, there was a page just before the end with about 1/3 a page of text.
And it did seem like there was a lot os ass kissin gin the article as well.
Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
24/26/27...So many lies out of your mouth.