High End Chipsets Head-to-Head Comparison

Intel 975X Express vs. Nvidia nForce4 SLI 16x Intel Edition

by Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 01/11/2006 | 11:58 PM ]

Legion Hardware has compared two latest high-end chipsets for Intel Pentium processors. Intel 975X Express chipset has been put to head-to-head comparison with the Nvidia nForce4 SLI 16x Intel Edition.

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The Intel 975X Express chipset is designed for the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 dual-core processor which features 4MB L2 cache (2MB per core), 1066MHz processor system bus, Hyper-Threading technology and virtualization technology. An important feature of the latest chipset from Intel is support for multi-GPU technology, which is limited to ATI CrossFire.

Nvidia nForce4 SLI 16x Intel Edition chipset utilizes the company’s new system platform processors (the company refers its memory controller hubs as SPPs) and media and communication processors (MCPs), each of which sports 16 or more PCI Express lanes and connects to each other using high-speed “dedicated proprietary connection”. The new nForce4 SLI 16x inherited I/O capabilities of the first-generation nForce4 chipsets, which are among the world’s most feature-rich platform logic. Just as the name suggests this core-logic allows to install a pair or Nvidia graphics cards to take full advantage of Nvidia SLI multi-GPU technology.

The author compared core-logics in a series of synthetics, real-world and gaming benchmarks.

“There is realistically no difference in performance between the original nForce4 SLI chipset and the newer more expensive nForce4 x16 SLI chipset. The same can be said for the 955X and 975X chipsets, both deliver the same level of performance. Though the 975X does support CrossFire technology which is something. If Intel is to be the manufacturer of choice and you are not fussed about multi-GPU technology then the choice of either the 975X Express or the nForce4 x16 SLI chipset still remains. Out of the two I would go with an nForce 4 x16 SLI motherboard, but given your choices are limited to the ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe you may want to consider a standard SLI board,” concludes the author.

• Legion Hardware: Intel 975X Express vs. Nvidia nForce4 X16 SLI.