nForce4

[Overheat]

Anyone else here really looking forward to the new nForce4 technologies? I'm dying to see it all in action. Bits I'm most looking forward to are SLI and nTune. I want an nForce4 PC NOW!

http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce4

[Viper007Bond]

Frankly, I haven't heard much about it.

I'm an ATI guy though, so...

[swek]

It's an evil marketing plot to make you buy two new Graphic Cards
No Seriously, I'm quite happy with my Nforce 3 250GB.

*How does PCI express compare to common AGP Cards ? And what is nTune ?

[Overheat]

It works out cheaper for us to use two graphics cards, which is nice.

PCI-Express cards currently don't have a massive boost over AGP, but given that they will be able to go twice a fast (sort of), they will get better an better. Also, manufacturers will be focusing much more heavily on the new technology in the months to come, so AGP will start to fall behind and people will have to wait longer for the technology. AGP will no doubt be around for a couple years longer yet tho, though how long it will last at the high end of the market is debateable.

And nTune is nVidia's new technology that will be built into the new boards that takes all the components on the board and overclocks them to the limit (of stability). Which for lazy overclockers like myself, is a BIG bonus

[Viper007Bond]

Oh, are we talking about SLI here?

[Dark_Templer_102]

itsn't Nforce for motherboards....not video cards

Nvidea has the FX seriers and ATi has 9800...and theres even newer like the X800 for ATI and 6600 or something for Nvidea

[Hazardous]

Originally Posted by Dark_Templer_102

Nvidea has the FX seriers and ATi has 9800...and theres even newer like the X800 for ATI and 6600 or something for Nvidea

6800 for nVidia. 6600 is PCI-Express card line, but not state-of-the-art.

Originally Posted by Overheat

PCI-Express cards currently don't have a massive boost over AGP, but given that they will be able to go twice a fast (sort of), they will get better an better. Also, manufacturers will be focusing much more heavily on the new technology in the months to come, so AGP will start to fall behind and people will have to wait longer for the technology. AGP will no doubt be around for a couple years longer yet tho, though how long it will last at the high end of the market is debateable.

Correct, PCI-Express doens't offer that much of a power boost but the cards are way cheaper. That means you can have a card that's nearly as powerful as a 6800 version but with 2/3rds of the price. PCI-Express ain't that much quicker than PCI or AGP so I think the high end cards will not use PCI-X for that long.

[Overheat]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

Oh, are we talking about SLI here?

SLI is one of the new technologies that the nForce4 chipset allows. Nice to see a return of it, though it now stand for "Scalable Link Interface" for nVidia, whereas when 3dfx used to use it, it was "Scan Line Interleave", still basicallt the same principal (u can use 2 graphics cards), just a different implementation.

SLI will be cheaper way for people to get faster computers too as 2x Geforce 6600 GTs are faster than a 6800 GT and about £40 cheaper.

[Overheat]

Originally Posted by Dark_Templer_102

itsn't Nforce for motherboards....not video cards

Nvidea has the FX seriers and ATi has 9800...and theres even newer like the X800 for ATI and 6600 or something for Nvidea

Yes, nVidia make nForce chipsets for motherboards, there main rivals being VIA and SIS, producing the K8T890 and 761 respectively to compete with the nForce4, but there's also going to be a new entry into the market in the form of ATI's Radeon Xpress.

Also, nVidia dropped the FX prefix for their latest GeForce graphics cards the 6 series, the fastest being the 6800 Ultra, thought the best being 6800 GT if you include value for money, and the 6600 GT being the budget version. And ATI's newest are the X-series, their most powerful being the X800 XT.

[Overheat]

Originally Posted by Overheat

PCI-Express cards currently don't have a massive boost over AGP, but given that they will be able to go twice a fast (sort of), they will get better an better. Also, manufacturers will be focusing much more heavily on the new technology in the months to come, so AGP will start to fall behind and people will have to wait longer for the technology. AGP will no doubt be around for a couple years longer yet tho, though how long it will last at the high end of the market is debateable.

Correct, PCI-Express doens't offer that much of a power boost but the cards are way cheaper. That means you can have a card that's nearly as powerful as a 6800 version but with 2/3rds of the price. PCI-Express ain't that much quicker than PCI or AGP so I think the high end cards will not use PCI-X for that long.[/quote]

You are correct in saying that the PCIe cards are currently cheaper, but not by such a margin. The PCIe cards are also more likely to retain their value being the newer and more wanted technology. Also, the PCIe setup, being 16x has twice as much bandwidth available to it than the AGP ports and therefore will definately be the main focus of the high end cards. It is potentially TWICE as fast! (PCI gfx cards are useless though imo)

[andyhui01]

Originally Posted by Viper007bond

I'm an ATI guy though, so...

hey.. finally found a person that likes ATi graphics card over Nvidia... every I know always wants GeForce 4 FX cards when I'm always using Radeons

[Overheat]

I agree that ATIs were better for the last generation of graphics cards, but nVidia have REALLY got there act together this time and ATI are gonna have to better pretty damn hard to win this war back.

[Kip_6666]

I'm not really a fan boy, I just get what the best choice for my budget. Now i have a nforce 2 board and a 6800le @ almost gt speeds

Pci-e vs agp is all about bandwidth, the old pci was crap with bandwidth, easily limiting raid controllers and gigabit ethernet cards. The time was to make things beter, and they did

Agp followed another line, and was constantly updated, 2x, 4x and now 8x, increaseing the bandwidth each time, but the funny thing was that the cards never needed that much bandwidth for games. 4x is still enough i believe for high end cards.

Its the same for pci-e, it comes in different speeds, most popular for gfx cards is 16x, a wooping 4gb\s, overkill.

This hardware site tested the effect of pci-e bandwidth on today's gfx cards.
http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.c...nalyse-01.html

They made the conclusion that pci-e 4x is enough, now thats only 1gb\s, 4 times less bandwidth, thats alot.

pci vs agp is all about bandwidth, nothing else matters. But is very overrated sadly.

And the price differences between pcie cards and agp cards are too different, depends on the models.


I'm looking forward to the nforce 4 boards, mainly because I've been looking to upgrade too a a64 system, and I've read a few times that they're maybe planning a agp version too

Shame to buy a new card when my 6800le is doing a kick ass job.

[Overheat]

You know there are plenty of A64 boards out there with AGP capabilities

Just wondering why you're specifically waiting for the nForce4 ones really.

[zyran]

isnt nforce4 the new nvidia motherboard with intel licenced technology?

[bigfoot1942]

Originally Posted by andyhui01

hey.. finally found a person that likes ATi graphics card over Nvidia... every I know always wants GeForce 4 FX cards when I'm always using Radeons

ATI just rules

[andyhui01]

Originally Posted by bigfoot1942

ATI just rules

great to know so many ATi supporters here

[bigfoot1942]

Originally Posted by andyhui01

great to know so many ATi supporters here

ive bought an x800, so i sold my soul to ATI...

[Greatgraddage]

I've always had nvidia cards and I've never had any problems, and their drivers are awsome therefore brand loyalty means I shall stick with them.

[ESPNSTI]

Originally Posted by Greatgraddage

I've always had nvidia cards and I've never had any problems, and their drivers are awsome therefore brand loyalty means I shall stick with them.

I'm in the same boat, and considering I've had problems with ATI drivers in the past (I know they've improved things now), I'm going to stick with NVidea unless there's a good reason to switch.