VIA’s KT133A Socket-A Chipset: AMD 760 Performance without DDR SDRAM

Final Words

If you want AMD 760 class performance without the added costs of migrating to DDR SDRAM, the KT133A is the perfect solution.  While DDR SDRAM may have its place later on down the road when applications are more memory bandwidth intensive, or upon the release of the next-generation Athlon core (not Palomino) that is rumored to be much more like the Pentium 4 in terms of its design, it currently doesn’t make sense for the average user. 

Purchasing a KT133A board and either using a new 133MHz FSB Athlon such as the 1.2GHz parts or lowering the clock multiplier of an older 100MHz FSB part and using the 133MHz setting to get increased performance without actually overclocking your CPU would be your best bet for use with the KT133A. 

You saw the performance advantage that a 1GHz Athlon gained by simply lowering its clock multiplier from 10.0x to 7.5x and using the 133MHz FSB support of the KT133A.  You can guarantee that an even more aggressive overclock would result in even better performance figures. 

For the current KT133 owner, it doesn’t really make too much sense to go out and get a KT133A board, but if you’re looking to build a new system then the KT133A is definitely the way to go. 

From a manufacturing standpoint, it doesn't really cost any extra for the KT133A to be used instead of the KT133. The chips should cost the same, leaving the only extra costs associated with a KT133A board up to the ability of motherboard to be reliable at the 133MHz FSB which shouldn't be too hard for most manufacturers.

It looks like although VIA was late to the game with a DDR SDRAM chipset for the Athlon, they do get the last laugh as the KT133A offers 95 – 100% of the performance of the AMD 760 without the added cost of DDR SDRAM.