nForce4: PCI Express and SLI for Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on October 19, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
nForce4 Reference Board: Basic Features
| nForce 4 Reference Board Specifications | |
| CPU Interface | Socket 939 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | nForce4 Ultra single-chip |
| Bus Speeds | 200MHz to 250MHz |
| PCI Express Speeds | Synchronous or Asynchronous PCIe FIX at 100MHz to 145MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| Core Voltage | None available on Reference Board |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | 4x-25.5x |
| CPU Auto Tuning | Off to 15% |
| HyperTransport Frequency | 1000MHz (1GHz) |
| HyperTransport Multiplier | 1x-5x |
| DRAM Voltage | None available on Reference Board |
| Memory Async Latency | 10ns-4ns |
| AGP Voltage | None available on Reference Board |
| HyperTransport Voltage | None available on Reference Board |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 4GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x16 PCIe Slot 4 PCI Slots 2 x1 PCIe Slots |
| Onboard Serial ATA RAID | nForce4 (4 Drives, 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD) 2 SATA Controllers to 3Gb/s |
| Onboard IDE/IDE RAID | Two Standard ATA133/100/66 (4 drives) Drives may be configured as IDE RAID |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 10 USB 2.0 ports supported by nForce4 No Firewire - Must use additional chip |
| Onboard LAN | 1Gigabit Ethernet on-chip by nForce4 |
| Onboard Audio | AC '97 2.3 8-Channel Realtek ALC850 supported by nForce4 |
| BIOS Revision | Reference Board NF-CK804 10/05/2004 |
Reference Boards are normally quite different from the production boards that will later appear with the Reference Board chipset. While certain component arrangements may be retained from a Reference Board, the board is designed for testing and qualification, and generally not for production. They are also normally designed to be tested on the bench, out of any case.
Click to enlarge.
The introduction of the nForce3-250 chipset family moved nVidia to a leading position for Athlon 64 chipsets. nForce4 builds upon the nForce3-250 update with the addition of PCI Express. The rearrangement includes an x16 PCI Express graphics slot, 2 x1 PCIe, two SATA controllers capable of 3Gb/s speeds, and 10 USB ports.
nVidia has not had SoundStorm on any nForce3 chipset, so for the past year+ SoundStorm has been "missing" on any nVidia chipset for Athlon 64. We raised this issue for nForce3-150, then for nForce3-250 in nForce3-250 - Part 2. This has not changed with nF4. The nForce4 Reference board uses the AC'97 2.3 compliant 8-channel Realtek ALC850 codec. More information on the ALC850 can be found at Realtek ALC850 Product information.
Click to enlarge.
Fully decked out, nForce4 provides features currently available nowhere else, like on-chip 1GB Ethernet, on-chip firewall, 4-drive SATA RAID, and both SATA and IDE RAID that can be combined. The nForce4 SLI adds the option to combine two nVidia video cards in two x8 PCIe slots for a huge increase in video performance.
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Viper96720 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Hope a 754 version of the sli capable board is made. Woldn't mind getting the board and a 6600GT. Then getting the second 6600 later on. Since I got an 754pin cpu already. Guess I know what I want for Christmas.swatX - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
drool!!!!!!!!!!ViRGE - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
#17, there is no Soundstorm, it's a figment of everyone's imaginations. Nvidia has already stated with the nForce 3 that they really aren't interested in doing another advanced sound solution (in part due to Creative's purchase of Sensaura, I'm sure), so there's no reason to really harp on them.Rys - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
NDA has yet to expire on nForce4 (5.5 hours early at the time of posting this).Davediego - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
What happened to SoundStorm2? Why isn't audio even mentioned in this article other than 1 line in the basic feature table on pg7? This is a major feature many many enthusiasts have been waiting for, and if it doesnt exist in nforce4 why is anandtech not harping nvidia for it?allnighter - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Not trying to be rude, but there is an abundance of good articles on nVidia's SLi that will help better understanding and answer many of the questions asked here.#15 I believe each card will load textures for the part it will render and the driver will handle that load on the fly.
Kovie - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Probably a stupid question but does anyone know if in SLI mode the system has to keep two separate copies of textures in video memory (each card has the same textures loaded) or if they can just keep it on one card and make two 128mb cards into a 256mb?Doormat - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Is that SATA 3Gb/s real SATA II? I remember seeing something about switches that allow 4 drives to hook into 1 sata 2 port. Is that a feature NF4 supports?xsilver - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
A little off topic.. but why doesn't intel bring out 1066 products now? my year old northwood is already running 1000 fsb...GhandiInstinct - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Roger that, also can the SLI or Alienware have Agp also? Will the N4 have agp?