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NVIDIA nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition) Platform Review (page 19)

Category: Chipsets

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

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

Conclusion

Pentium 4 users used to believe that Intel provides the best chipsets for this platform. The chipset we introduced to you today can surely prove that this is not absolutely true anymore. NVIDIA nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition) is not just as good as any of the competitors from Intel, but can boast a few serious advantages over them.

Although the performance of the new NVIDIA solution with the DDR2-667 is very attractive, it is not its primary advantage. The major pride of nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition) is its rich functionality. Serial ATA-II and RAID 5, Gigabit network controller with ActiveArmor, and SLI mode for graphics cards – these are certainly the major trumps of the new NVIDIA nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition) until the mass mainboards on i955X start appearing in the market. However, even after the competing solutions start selling, NVIDIA chipset for Pentium 4 platform will still remain very attractive, at least due to SLI support (it is a big question whether i955X based mainboard will have SLI support).

In conclusion I can’t help mentioning that NVIDIA nForce4 SLI (Intel Edition) can also become very popular among overclockers. We haven’t yet seen any retail mainboards on this chipset, however, we tend to believe that these mainboards will allow increasing the FSB frequency dramatically. As you know, nForce4 platform for Athlon 64 processors has never had any problems with overclocking. Besides, the new solution for Pentium 4 can clock PCI Express bus and memory bus frequencies asynchronously.

So, summing up we can say the following. Now that Intel has let NVIDIA into the Pentium 4 chipsets market, they will have to face some very serious competition. Keeping in mind that NVIDIA will be trying to expand its influence in this market segment later on by introducing new Pentium 4 solutions, the share of Intel’s own chipsets can grow considerably smaller.