Thread: Comparison nForce4 chipset

If run on the price lists, it would appear that under the motherboard chipset for Socket 939 than the nForce4 family will not soon. If the realization of the family in chipsetnogo motherboards look dear, today they already probirayutsya even at the very budget PC market. A case in point may serve ASUS A8NE-FM / S, ECS nFORCE4-A754 and the other, whose price falls below $ 75. In connection with such a wide availability of low-cost cards for all tastes, increasingly buyer had to choose between different implementations of the popular chipset. In doing so, often from the manager and sellers can be heard convincing "Take Ultra, it is faster." Is this so? That's, we decided to check in practice, even more to prove some theoretical conclusions.

All three chipset positioned to build high-performance systems for advanced gamers, DFI and experienced users. Only nForce4 gets even in the PC segment mass, for all those who have not yet listed.

So what features of chipsets from each other may affect the performance? To the memory controller is built into the processor, this subsystem should not depend on the chipset, it may affect only shortcomings BIOS, as in writing, and in the setting. In other words, if during system BIOS correctly launched memory modules and is not introduced into their work further delay, then, at whatever chipset was not built fees, the speed with memory be the same.

To some extent on the productivity can affect bandwidth bus HyperTransport, which is responsible for liaison with the system processor, but almost all versions of the controller works the same tires, the speed of 5 x, ie 1 GHz. It is noteworthy, sometimes found on board is not made to table nForce4 chipset-4x, which is slow HyperTransport controller to 800 MHz. Of particular concern to this cause should not because such fees are for the most budget decisions in which productivity complain is not accepted. In addition, the capacity of 6.4 Gb / s is usually more than enough. Actually this is a theoretical capacity of two modules DDR-400 (PC-3200) in the dual mode, which is unattainable in practice, ie with the active swap data from the system into memory, or vice versa 6.4 Gb / s are more should be. Take into account that the nForce4-4x more often used by Socket 754 motherboards, but there single memory controller, which means it needs half. It turns out that even with the slow HyperTransport bus processor is not designed to work slowly. Something sight difference in performance between the various modifications nForce4. Yet each has its pros that can affect the performance of your system.



Indeed positive aspects nForce4 Ultra, compared with the ordinary nForce4 are support hard drives and SATA-300 ActiveArmor hardware firewall. Unfortunately, most users will not be able to fully enjoy the performance of these technologies. First, the hard drive with such interfaces are not yet popular, it is also still no appreciable increase in the speed of implementation of disk operations. Secondly, the hardware firewall tangibly ease processor (so that the user saw it) only if demanding applications over a large network activity, but such a situation is not often.

NForce4 SLI chipset modification of Ultra differs, in the first instance, to support the work of the two video cards to increase productivity in the games. This is an undeniable plus! It is a pity only that, for most it remains a potential, and going to be so always. We will not go into the details here WHY, as a separate "religious" talk.

Here is chipsets and all differences that may affect the performance of your system. Malovato, is not it? In other words, the vast majority of systems that are based on different versions of nForce4 should have similar productivity.

And now moving from theory to practice. Let's chipsets alive, in the case of low-cost ASUS motherboards. For comparison, performance and evaluation of the booster building, as well as the operational suitability of cards, we used two Athlon64 3200 + processor (kernel Venice) and Athlon64 3800 + (kernel NewCastle), but the more interesting results shown first, and give them one, and often it can be more often found in entry-level systems (downpayment into account the level of test cards).



To minimize the impact of memory on the results disperse and performance, we chose modules Corsair CMX512-3200XLPRO 2-2-2-5 volume of 512 MB. The remaining components of the test stand: cooling system - GlacialTech Igloo 7200 Pro, video card - Gigabyte GV-66T128D on GeForce 6600GT, hard disk - Samsung SP0812C, power supply - Chieftec HPC-420-102DF 420W.

Packaging Boards executed perfectly, ASUS engineers tried. By location elements virtually no claims. Interest cause sticker with the name and product audit. The fact is that the fee is built on PCB another product series, used the foundation of A8N-E, replaced only chipset (try to find differences could be slightly below).

Sam chipsets covered decorative radiator, to rescue from overheating, and comes sredneshumnym fan (speed - 4500-5000 RPM). During the radiator heats perceptibly, especially in BFG system, but the stability it could still work - cooling system copes with its task. Yet more practical here would look high full radiator, fan, perhaps with a lower speed.