Socket 939 Chipsets: Motherboard Performance & PCI/AGP Locks
by Wesley Fink on June 2, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Socket 939: Chipsets and Motherboards
Ever since the introduction of the Athlon 64 on-chip memory controller, computer users have seemed confused about chipsets for Athlon 64. That's understandable, given a market where computer users anxiously await each new chipset to see how it might perform. Chipsets, and the motherboards based on them, varied quite a lot in performance, and how a chipset performed compared to others was life and death in the market.Athlon 64 has changed the end-all importance of chipsets, at least for Athlon 64, just by moving the memory controller from the chipset to the processor. This means that the same VIA K8T800 PRO or nVidia nForce3-250 can be used in a single-channel Socket 754 board, or a Socket 940 Dual-Channel Server board, or a new Socket 939 dual-channel motherboard. All three of these boards use the same core and differ only in the memory controller - which is a part of the CPU.
This is an important distinction, because there really are not any new chipsets that were introduced for Socket 939. The new chipsets were introduced one to two months ago, in other sockets, as we showed you in those chipset launches. The new boards are using either the nVidia nForce3-250 that we reviewed in-depth in our 2-part March review: nForce3-250 - Part 1: Taking Athlon 64 to the Next Level and nForce3-250 - Part 2: Taking Athlon 64 to the Next Level; or they use the VIA K8T800 PRO chipset, which we covered in our May review, VIA K8T800 PRO: PCI/AGP Lock and 1000 HyperTransport for Athlon 64. Chipset and motherboard makers can and have confused computer users by using different names for different features of the chips used for Socket 939, but under the hood, the chipset requirements are the same for Athlon 64, whether the chipset drives Socket 754, Socket 940, or Socket 939. What makes these sockets different is the memory controller that sits on the CPU - not the different socket.
SiS has also announced an upgrade to their 755 chipset that supports 1000 Hyper Transport called the 755FX, and they are also displaying a new Athlon 64 chipset version called 756 for PCI Express and 1000 HT, but at launch, only boards from VIA and nVidia were available. We plan to look at the other new chipsets for Athlon 64 as soon as they become available.
The important thing to remember is that Socket 939 does have a new specification of a 1000 MHz Hyper Transport speed. This can be used for all chipsets, as VIA has chosen to do for the K8T800 PRO chipset, or there can be different versions with different Hyper Transport Speeds as nVidia has chosen to do with the nForce3-250/Gb (800MHzHT) and nForce3-250 Ultra (1000MHz HT). This only means manufacturers can speed-grade the chipset or separate different versions with different features, but the same nForce2-250Gb Ultra chipset can really drive any of the Athlon 64 sockets.
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Filibuster - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Via will support Athlon 64 with PCI-Express with the K8T890 chipset.Nvidia chipset plans are less clear. The only thing I've seen is a Inq. article saying Q4'04. :(
Hopefully it is sooner.
WileCoyote - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
After all the buildup in the first few pages of this article I was kind of disappointed by the very close benchmarks. All the chipsets perform within a couple percentage points of each other.ripdude - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
<quote>2 - Posted on Jun 2, 2004 at 1:55 AM by Brian23
What's the deal with the orange PCI connector?
</quote>
the orange PCI connector is, AFAIK, excepted from the PCI bus bandwidth and is directly connected to the chipset.
<quote>
3 - Posted on Jun 2, 2004 at 3:07 AM by adntaylor
Nice review but... still no tests of the AGP optimisations for the GeForce FX and 6 series cards on the nForce chipset.
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I, too, read about NVidia gfx cards getting a boost on NVidia chipsets, a 6 serie card on nforce-250gb could yield quite some surprises.
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6 - Posted on Jun 2, 2004 at 3:53 AM by Eidolon
Are PCI-Express mobos using either chipset planned? Any news on when that may be?
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I'm waiting for a good 939 board with PCI-E slots too. With ATI and NVidia announcing PCI-E cards they should be too far behind.
XRaider - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
No doubt # 6. Motherbord manufacturers seem to be dragging their feet on this... unless they are waiting for Nvidia and Ati..? I REALLY like the 939 FX53.. but I'm holding out until the PCI express standard gets implemented on the new motherboards, cause I'm not planning on upgrading for awhile after this new system build. :\Eidolon - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Are PCI-Express mobos using either chipset planned? Any news on when that may be?Eidolon - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
tfranzese - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
From what I remember the orange PCI slot is specifically for communications.adntaylor - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Nice review but... still no tests of the AGP optimisations for the GeForce FX and 6 series cards on the nForce chipset.Please can somebody just chuck a card in and see if the GeForce 6800 is boosted by the nForce3 chipset!
http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q2/nforce3-gefor... - this was the Tech Report's test of the FX 5950, and it delivered some surprising performance boosts. I'm desperate to see if the 6800 reacts similarly!
I'm interested to know what that orange PCI slot is for too.
Brian23 - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
What's the deal with the orange PCI connector?nycxandy - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
With the 939 CPU's already shipping, when will the 939 motherboards show up in stores?