VIA PT Series: VIA PCI Express for Intel
by Wesley Fink on January 31, 2005 12:01 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
The New VIA Chipsets
Today's introduction consists of three new VIA chipsets, targeted at different market segments.
The PT880 PRO is aimed at current Intel 865/875 users looking for a processor upgrade to Socket 775. However, the new Socket 775 is the only new purchase that you have to make with the board. Users can bring their existing AGP graphics card and memory with them - and still have an upgrade path to PCI Express graphics and DDR2 memory. The PT894 and PT894 PRO are aimed at the Enthusiast market and support only PCI Express graphics. The PT894 additionally supports dual PCIe graphics in an x16/x4 configuration.
| Platform Summary - Discrete P4 Chipsets | |||||
| PT880 Pro | PT894 | PT894 Pro | |||
| Processor Bus | 533/800/1066MHz | 533/800/1066MHz | 533/800/1066MHz | ||
| Memory Support | Dual Channel DDR-1 400/333/266 &/OR DDR-2 400/533/667 | Dual Channel DDR-1 400/333/266 &/OR DDR-2 400/533/667 | Dual Channel DDR-1 400/333/266 &/OR DDR-2 400/533/667 | ||
| Graphics Support | Universal Graphics Interface: PCI Express or AGP 8X OR PCIe + AGP 8X | PCI Express | VIA DualGFX Express (Dual PCI Express) | ||
| Chip Interconnect | Ultra V-Link | Ultra V-Link | Ultra V-Link | ||
| South Bridge | VT8237 | VT8237/VT8251 | VT8251 | ||
| Sampling | Early February 2005 | Now (January 2005) | Late February 2005 | ||
| Retail Market | Late Feb/Early March 2005 | Late February 2005 | Late March/Early April '05 | ||
All three chipsets support either DDR1 or DDR2 or both memory types on the same board (depending on what the manufacturer chooses to implement. The three new VIA chipsets are the first on the market to officially support DDR2-667 memory. FSB speeds to 1066 are also supported on all 3 chipsets.
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nserra - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
DDR dimm have 184 pin so:- Amd socket 939 = socket 754 + 184 pin = 938 pin
- Amd socket 754 - 184 = 570 pin (with out the on board memory controller)
Intel new P4 socket have 775, why?
xsilver - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
while the above are correctI refer to the fsb 1066 is not working currently statment --- how can this be good for overclocking?
its probably not working because of the AGP/PCI lock -- im an owner of the kt800 chipset and while the lock does work as they claim -- it kills itself at around 270fsb
k00kie - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
Wow, these VIA chipsets sure have the potential to give competition to Intel's and Nvidia's offerings. I hope they execute this one properly.2 - Yeah, there's a pretty good chance much of what we see with these chips will be brought to whatever VIA's working on for their upcoming chipsets for AMD's K8 processors
Manzelle - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
The fact that the PT880 supports both AGP and PCIe makes it very attractive. I wonder if VIA will implement the same with their AMD line...ChineseDemocracyGNR - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
Wow, I'm impressed. I didn't expect the PT894 to keep up with the 915/925 chipsets, but it's actually faster in a number of benchmarks.The VT8251 is very impressive too, specially if they can get it out soon for K8T890 boards. That's the best southbridge in my opinion, compared to Intel's ICH6 family and nVidia's nForce4 Ultra.