X-bit labs

NVIDIA nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition) Platform Review

Category: Chipsets

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 04/13/2005 | 07:07 PM ]

NVIDIA has finally entered the Pentium 4 chipset market. We performed a detailed comparison of their new solution for Pentium 4 platform against i925XE and the upcoming i955X chipsets. And now we have every right to state: Intel has something to worry about – new round of cut-throat competition is about to begin.

Table of contents:

• NVIDIA nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition) Architecture
  
• Competitors from Intel
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• Closer Look at nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition)
  
• Memory Controller
  
• SLI Mode
  
• Overclocking-Friendly Features
  
• Serial ATA Controller
  
• Network Controller
  
• USB
  
• Integrated Sound
  
• General Performance
  
• 800MHz FSB Frequency
  
• 1066MHz FSB Frequency
  
• Conclusion
  

NVIDIA as a chipset designer has already won a significant share in the AMD solutions market. In fact, NVIDIA owns about 50% of this market by now. However, the company doesn’t want to stop there and is planning to continue its expansion into the Intel platforms market as well. Having signed a cross-licensing agreement with Intel last November, NVIDIA got green light for Pentium 4 chipsets development.

It is evident that Intel is trying to satisfy the needs of hardcore gamers and computer enthusiasts by letting NVIDIA into this part of the chipset market. Right now NVIDIA is the only developer offering solutions supporting two graphics cards in SLI mode. That is why the introduction of an NVIDIA chipset for the Intel platform automatically implies that from now on it will be possible to build SLI systems not only on Athlon 64 processors, but also on the Pentium 4 based platforms.

Today we are proud to introduce to you NVIDIA’s first experience in this absolutely new field. The pilot chipset for Pentium 4 platform from NVIDIA boasts a pretty long name right now: nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition). It is quite far from the long-awaited nForce5, although it is a very logical name reflecting the major idea behind it. The NVIDIA’s new chipset for Intel Pentium 4 processors is an analogue of the nForce4 SLI for AMD Athlon 64 platform. In fact, the main differences between the traditional nForce4 SLI and the nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition) are the support of another processor interface and the memory controller.

We would like to tell you about the major features of the new NVIDIA nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition) chipset and will try to evaluate NVIDIA’s chances in the Pentium 4 chipset market. Especially, since it would be quite logical to expect NVIDIA to introduce not only an expensive SLI-solution with the average mainboard cost over $150, but also some better value alternatives. Today NVIDIA can only win the wealthy enthusiasts’ hearts, however, it would make a lot of sense to also release the non-SLI versions of the nForce4 (Intel Edition) chipset later on. Moreover, just like nForce4 for Athlon 64 systems, we can also expect some professional mobile solutions based on nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition) to come out soon. This way, the chipset we are going to review today is going to be the forefather of the entire family of solutions, although this hasn’t yet been announced openly.