nForce 4 SLI X16: Full Speed PCI Express
by Derek Wilson on August 8, 2005 1:56 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Introduction
Ever since its launch in the fall of last year, nForce 4 has brought us SLI capability. Configurations for PCI Express slots in nForce 4 SLI motherboards must be selected by using a paddle that can be flipped to allow for either 2 x8 connections or full bandwidth for one with the other disabled. There is added flexibility on an nForce 4 SLI motherboard, but this flexibility comes with some limitations. Today, NVIDIA sheds the shackles of the paddle selector and limited bandwidth with the new nForce 4 SLI X16 chipset.
In addition to the increased bandwidth and ease of use come quite a few extra niceties. Boards based on nForce 4 SLI X16 will have more I/O options on top of the added PCI Express bandwidth. The introduction of a new enthusiast part will also push prices down on existing products and NVIDIA will begin selling its current nForce4 SLI solution at mainstream prices. Aside from cheaper being better, this should increase adoption of the SLI platform giving the mainstream user some reason to care about SLI. With this also comes value for options like 6600 and 6200 SLI. Everything seems to be coming up roses for NVIDIA's dual GPU business right now with ATI's Crossfire still waiting in the wings.
With this introduction also comes quite a surprise from Dell. NVIDIA will be supplying core logic to the previously Intel-only volume computer manufacturer, making nForce4 SLI X16 the first non-Intel chipset for dudes to get in their Dells. This is quite a big announcement and will really help to boost NVIDIA's already successful chipset business. This announcement also gives some glimmer of hope for Dell as non-Intel hardware on the motherboard may mean that Dell is capable of making good decisions in the processor department as well. While it is unlikely that we will see AMD based Dell systems anytime soon, it's nice to know that the thin line between volume discounts and unfair business practices is clear enough to allow Dell to make the right choice for performance once in a while. At least, now one of their chipset vendors supports AMD as well as Intel.
Unfortunately, we don't yet have a board to test for performance numbers on the new configuration, but that won't stop us from talking about what's new under the hood.
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Amplifier - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link
First PostHoudani - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link
Wow, a double snipe in the same paragraph ... Dell [bang!] Intel [bang!].
And we now turn your attention towards a nitpick:
What's a GPGPU again?
[Last page, next to last paragraph, two occurances.]
rrsurfer1 - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link
From the Wiki..."General-Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units (also referred to as GPGP and to a lesser extent GP^2) is a recent trend in computer science that uses the graphics processing unit to perform the computations rather than the CPU."
Houdani - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link
I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever heard of GPGPU. And here I was thinking it was a misspelling of GPU.I learned something new today!
JarredWalton - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link
Yeah, I saw this to and had to do a quick check on Google. The text is now tweaked to explain the acronym for those that haven't encountered it before.Phantronius - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link
I really hate this hobby sometimes....BoBOh - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link
There are some SATA RAID5 cards that run on x8 PCIe. That's why I want one of these new boards!system404 - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link
...I wonder if this may have influenced ATI's decision to do one last revision on their new line of mobos. The Inquirer had a http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25198">story a few days back about ATI going back to the drawing board to make undisclosed changes on what seemed to be a already-working chipset, pushing availability back another month into September. One can always hope the wait is worth the hype. I plan on building my rig in the next month or two & would like to have some options available when it comes time to choose a mobo & GPU combination...Marlowe - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link
I read that same story and I agree with you. I think ATI have probably heard about this x16 chipset before we have. I wonder what they are changing.. Who knows, maby we will see 2x16 pci-e crossfire boards? Time will tell..R3MF - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link
now give me a performance mainstream mATX SLI board.bring it on Abit/Asus/MSI/DFI............