X-bit labs

Roundup of 7 Contemporary Integrated Graphics Chipsets for Socket 478 and Socket A Platforms (page 6)

Category: Chipsets

by Tim Tscheblockov

[ 07/05/2004 | 11:09 AM ]

NVIDIA nForce2 IGP

NVIDIA’s first try at making chipsets was rather far from a success, but the second – the nForce2 – was so good that it became and remains the highest-performing chipset for Socket A processors up to this day (see our review called Contemporary Socket A Chipsets Comparison: NVIDIA nForce2 vs. VIA KT400). The integrated graphics core of the nForce2 IGP is an analog of the discrete GeForce 4 MX processor; its basic characteristics:

• 2 pixel pipelines with two TMUs per each;
• Support of bi-linear, tri-linear and anisotropic (up to 2x) texture filtering;
• Rendering of up to 2 textures per pass;
• Support of full-screen antialiasing (supersampling and multisampling with 2..4 samples);
• Hardware T&L;
• Hardware motion compensation, IQ and iDCT for DVD playback;
• 350MHz RAMDAC.

The nForce2 with the integrated GeForce4 MX440 graphics core and a dual-channel memory controller is a favorite of our tests for the Socket A platform since VIA and SiS just don’t have logics of that class on their hands now.

Let’s not anticipate, though. The A7N8X-VM mainboard from ASUS represents the class of nForce2 IGP-based products:

The mainboard follows the MicroATX form-factor and has the following slots and connectors:

• Socket A for AMD Athlon/Duron processors with 200/266/333MHz FSB;
• 2 slots (2 channels) for PC2100/2700/3200 DDR SDRAM;
• 1 AGP 4x/8x slot, 3 PCI slots;
• 2 ATA 66/100/133 slots;
• 1 RJ-45 10/100 Ethernet connector (Realtek 8201BL);
• 3 audio connectors: Line-out, Line-in and Mic-in;
• 1 VGA connector;
• 1 S-Video connector and 1 RCA connector on a bracket;
• 1 parallel and 1 serial port, 4 USB 2.0 connectors.

Although ASUS chose a powerful integrated chipset for this mainboard model, it turned to be less functionality-rich than the one based on the RADEON 9100 PRO IGP. Clearly, the A7N8X-VM is positioned as a relatively inexpensive mainboard, still based on a high-performance integrated chipset.

SiS 741GX

The SiS 741GX lags behind the top-end products in support of the fastest Socket A processors and DDR SDRAM modules. It is a single-channel chipset for CPUs with 200/266/333MHz FSB; it works with PC2100/2700 memory. The integrated graphics core, the Real256E, doesn’t differ from the one in the SiS661FX: the same modified SiS 315 constrained by a 64-bit memory bus, which it has to share with the CPU. The SiS741GX-based 741GX-M mainboard comes from ECS:

Connectors and slots:

• Socket A for Athlon/Duron CPUs with 200/266/333MHz FSB;
• 2 slots (1 channel) for PC2100/2700 DDR SDRAM;
• 1 AGP 4x/8x slot, 3 PCI slots, 1 CNR slot;
• 2 ATA 66/100/133 slots;
• 1 RJ-45 10/100 Fast Ethernet connector (Realtek 8201BL);
• 3 audio connectors: Line-out, Line-in and Mic-in (ALC655);
• 1 VGA connector;
• 1 parallel and 1 serial port, 2+4 USB 2.0 connectors.

ECS ships inexpensive mainboards and the 741GX-M follows the company’s policy. It doesn’t support topmost processors, fastest memory, new SATA hard disk drives, and is bad at overclocking. But it’s cheap!