NForce 4

[r2d2d3d4d5]

The Inquirer (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17058) are reporting some NF4 rumours. Most of it is either already known or easily predictable. Anyway, it will apparently support the following:
32 x PCI-E lanes (possibly 16x, 8x, 1x, 1x, 1x, 1x - not sure about the rest)
5 x PCI slots
2 x GbEthernet
1 x nVidia RAID
8 x SATA Drives
6 x PATA Drives
10 x USB 2 Ports
1 x Soundstorm 2 (DD 5.1 compliant, EX effects at 20GFlops (that's nice), supports 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 speaker configurations)

I'd like to see a board supporting all those functions, but it would probably need a rather hefty case.

[Pafet]

So, that would be the only way to go SLI for now (not right now) ?
any Intel mobos with 2 PCI-Express in the near future?

[nutball]

I'd like to see a board supporting all those functions, but it would probably need a rather hefty case.

Certainly would be if you wanted to build an 8-processor box ;)

[harl]

So, that would be the only way to go SLI for now (not right now) ?
any Intel mobos with 2 PCI-Express in the near future?

The Intel thumwater (dual xeon) allready suportes 2x pcie 16x

but Nforce4 could be use for "domestic systems"
But PCIE 16x & PCIE 8x don't sounds fine (like 2x PCIE 16x)

[Darth Flatus]

Are EX effects the same as EAX or something different?

[r2d2d3d4d5]

Certainly would be if you wanted to build an 8-processor box ;)
:drooling: :drooling:

But no PCI-X? It would be nice to have the option.

[MUYA]

nForce4 should behiiting review sites early Q4. These will primarily be single 16X mobos but, it's upto OEMs to make dual 16X boards. Remember PCI Express for this generation can only have 40 1X lanes in any combination. so 2 X 16X = 32 lanes taken already! Or like the tumwater motherboards, 16X + 8X. Just aboutt leaves enough for on-board stuff :D

[nvnews-reader]

nForce4 should behiiting review sites early Q4. These will primarily be single 16X mobos but, it's upto OEMs to make dual 16X boards. Remember PCI Express for this generation can only have 40 1X lanes in any combination. so 2 X 16X = 32 lanes taken already! Or like the tumwater motherboards, 16X + 8X. Just aboutt leaves enough for on-board stuff :D

Do all the extra's require a PCIE lane or does the Sata, usb, etc bypass the PCIE bus?

if so 8 lanes of PCIE should be plenty for add on cards.

And when the heck are SATA DVD's coming out? It'd be nice to have one of those and a RAID 0+1 like intels new mofo.

[MUYA]

i dunno, if some of the on board stuff are native or tied toa PCI Expres bus?? Ok so IDE/SATA are native, and so is NIC. That will leave maybe 3 used and 5 spare...so it maybe enough? We will have to wait and see.

[retsam]

it would be 2x 16x =32x leaving 8 lanes and only 4 physical ports with two nv45's in place that would only leave two open ports...


Do all the extra's require a PCIE lane or does the Sata, usb, etc bypass the PCIE bus

look here .... looks like the other interfaces bypass the pci-ex bus..

here (http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=1830&p=5)


retsam

[Dazz]

I myself am waiting for the nForce4, so i can upgrade my board and vid card at the same time.

[nvnews-reader]

I think it supports SATA 2.0 as well.

[Spags]

Ddr2?

[Viral]

Ddr2?

No.

[harl]

In athlons 64The memory controlor it's in the CPU nor the chipset

So DDR2 will come when AMD realeses an Athlon64 for ddr2
(maybe with a new socket)

The chipsets it's irrelevant
(we can see the same Nforce 3 with any socket or Memory type)

[MUYA]

ALL k8's have memory controller on die!!! ie CPU itself...including some Sempr0ns.

AMD aren't thinking about DDR2 just yet.

[Rakeesh]

Any word on when these nforce 4 boards are supposed to hit the streets? I for one am especially looking forward to the soundstorm 2.

[Spags]

Thanks for the DDR2 info guys. I just bought a gig of DDR500 that I'd like to stick with for a while.

[sxotty]

ALL k8's have memory controller on die!!! ie CPU itself...including some Sempr0ns.

AMD aren't thinking about DDR2 just yet.


This is why Jen Hsun was whining about increasing price pressure in amd chipsets. No longer can nvidia create a chipset that stomps on the competition since amd has integrated the memory controller. Not that I am complaining it gives users more choice. However this does mean that the important thing now is features to distinguish chipsets from the competition as performance will be similar.

[CaptNKILL]

Anyone know if it will be possible for a company to create an Nforce 4 board with an AGP slot? The either\or thing is pretty stupid IMO. Anyone that has a high end card now is going to be left without a video card when they buy a PCI-E motherboard... its just stupid, I dont quite understand the reasoning there. At least when going from PCI to AGP it was optional, thats why it eventually became a success. People could buy a new motherboard and use their PCI graphics, then buy an AGP card when they had the money. Now, you MUST buy a graphics card with your motherboard, you have no choice (unless you are still using PCI :retard: ). Most wont have a PCI-E card before they get an Nforce 4, and I doubt anyone will buy the motherboard then let it sit for 6 months while they save up money for a video card.

Please tell me theres some sort of AGP option for these things.

[JamesDax]

Isn't there an Intel board that has both PCI-e and AGP??

I personally would love to see a SFF system using a socket 939 NForce 4 c/ a 6600GT on board and a single 16x PCI-e slot for a SLI upgrade.

[Dazz]

Nope no one managed to get PCI-EX and AGP to work on the same board, mostly due to them being so diffrent from each other.

[MrSavoy]

Well that does suck not having AGP when you switch to pci-e. But I will probably just sell my 6800 GT and get another one in pci-e format or quite possible a pci-e 500mb offering from nvidia at that time. Im figuring NF4 will rock and be readily availble late 1st quarter 05 or early spring q2. Either way is NF4 MB's have as many features as is the rumors its going to rock. I love my soundstorm on my a7n8x so I say bring on SS2!! :nanahump:

[Filibuster]

Nope no one managed to get PCI-EX and AGP to work on the same board, mostly due to them being so diffrent from each other.

There are some Intel chipset boards with AGP slots but they are basically an extention of the PCI bus and so run very slow. It's a hack job.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2074

[Hallowed]

I as well would look forward to Soundstorm 2, however according to nForcersHQ, it will again miss the cut. They have traditionally been right on target.

Its unfortunate, but perhaps NV will recall one of the more important selling factors of the NF2 chipset logic.

Perhaps I skimmed by this, but its also mentioned that there will be 4 flavors of nF4 CK8:

Barebone (office and sys integrators)
Performance
SLI (Fully-featured Perf + SLI capability)
Professional (workstation, 4P support)