NVIDIA’s nForce2 series of AMD platform chipsets since its launch, has gained massive popularity for people preferring an AMD platform. nForce2 solutions popularity arose not only because, did the nForce2 chipsets offer (through a combination of the SPP and MCP2 chips) an excellent platform for AMD solutions, which included Dual Channel support at various RAM ratings, 400MHz DDR FSB (with the nForce2 Ultra 400), Dobly Digital onboard sound (with the right MCP rivaling even Creative Lab’s Audigy 2) but, also because, nForce2 motherboards generally are stellar overclockers. Recently nForce3 chipset motherboards have been launched catering to a new AMD x86 64 bit platform. The nForce3 chipset market is still in its infancy but, if you go by past records, NVIDIA’s nForce3 solutions will also gain popularity as NVIDIA nForce series motherboards are synonymous with performance.

It hasn’t been long since nForce3 motherboard launch and hence very few reviews and public feedback have been generated on them. As for nForce2 motherboards, they are generally friendly for overclockers due to the plethora of settings available for tweaking through the BIOS that most OEM will allow for overclocking. In fact, overclockers today are spoilt for choice in what settings to tweak to get maximum overclockabilty. These days not only can you can change clock speeds and voltage levels on just about anything but also tweak memory timings. When overclocking, it’s always calculated risk because, you are changing the default recommended settings to what you think might work for a desired effect. This can be from increasing the CPU FSB, to increasing voltage for the CPU, to hopefully enable the CPU to run at higher clock speeds, or to changing clock multiplier settings or a host of other combinations. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t, with disastrous consequences. You have to fiddle around with a host of settings, from memory timings to CPU voltage to memory voltage in order to get a stable overclock. Tweaking through the BIOS is also not everyone’s cup of tea. It can be cumbersome, nudge the FSB up 1 MHz, or nudge the CPU voltage up .05 V or, change the memory timing settings and then, save and reboot and hope that everything works all right. It can be time consuming to get the perfect setup right.

However, there are some programs that let you tweak FSB within a windows interface. In fact there have been a number of these programs. There was SoftFSB by H. Oda which has since been discontinued. With it, you could overclock the FSB on certain motherboards which was amazing when it came out in 1999. CPUFSB is also another utility that lets you overclock your FSB within windows. However, none of these utility programs will let you tweak anything besides the CPU FSB. That’s about to change, long overdue (it has almost been 1 year, since the nForce2 chipsets first launched), NVIDIA today launches its own tweaking utility for nForce2 and nForce3 based motherboards, the NVIDIA System Utility.

We preview NVIDIA’s NVIDIA System Utility or NVSU for short. The NVSU we used to preview is a generic form of the utility. This means on certain motherboard certain functions of NVSU will not be available as was the case with my motherboard. NVIDIA is working with OEM partners and it will be the OEMs who will customize the NVSU to make NVSU work to its full potential.

This is a quote from the user guide.

About NVIDIA Systems Utility;

NVIDIA System Utility is a full-featured application for easily modifying system settings and testing them without the need for rebooting your system.

With NVIDIA System Utility, you can;

• Modify system performance settings, such as bus speeds, CPU voltages, fan speed, and other system performance options that are supported by the BIOS
• Save the modifications to a profile so that you can quickly apply settings to suit specific application environments
• Monitor hardware temperature, voltage, timing, and fan speed
• View other information about your system, such as hardware and software revisions and other capabilities

System Requirements

This utility program is a powerful collection of tool for enthusiasts with nForce2 or nForce3 motherboards. (There is no support for nForce motherboards). In short, NVSU lets you tweak and change various settings within a windows interface to eek out the performance overclockers crave. NVSU will let you overclock FSB, tweak voltage settings (including CPU, AGP, and RAM), even some memory timings, or even change fan speed on the fly within a windows session thereby negating some tweaking through the BIOS. The utility changes some of the settings without writing to the BIOS and thus leaves the BIOS intact. That means in some cases, the settings you change “only apply to the current windows session” and so, if you are rather excessive on the tweaking and your system crashes, the BIOS is left intact and therefore, you will be able to boot up windows (provided the windows files aren’t corrupted) with the original settings you had in your BIOS. Furthermore, like Motherboard Monitor or CPUCool, you will also be able to monitor CPU temperatures, fan speeds and voltages and like WCPUID and CPU-Z, you will be able get information on the CPU and memory and all this, through 3 interfaces available within NVSU. Do note however, some advanced configurable settings are only set after rebooting.

*However, a word of warning, the NVSU’s full potential can only be realized through BIOS support from the motherboard manufacturer.

What is NVSU?

Let’s get into the details.

NVSU supports the following list of chipsets and CPUs;

NVIDIA Chipsets Supported

NVSU will support the following NVIDIA chipsets: