NVIDIA Plans to Take on AMD 790, Intel P45 DDR3

[btarunr]

The NVIDIA chipset division has decided to take on chipsets (core-logic) from both AMD and Intel in their respective platforms. To begin with, the nForce 780a SLI has been given a major update. The Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) feature has been added to this chipset that allows overclocking competitive to the latest chipset from AMD, the SB 750 southbridge which is used on high-end motherboards based on the 790 GX or 790 FX northbridges. NVIDIA will connect the southbridge to the JTAG interface and then update the BIOS to support ACC for up to 10% better Phenom overclocks.

On to the Intel platform, and NVIDIA plans to release a new chipset called the nForce 770i SLI. Think of it as NVIDIA's answer to the P45 DDR3 chipset which provides Crossfire support (Dual PCI-Express slots with PCI-E 2.0 x8 bandwidth each in Crossfire mode). The nForce 770i will use a DDR3 memory controller, this is what differentiates it from the nForce 750i SLI, the chipset will support the 2-way SLI in the electrical PCI-E 2.0 x8 format.

Update:
It is known that existing motherboards in the market cannot be updated with this feature by means of a BIOS update, addition of this feature requires a hardware-level modification. Provided is a company slide from NVIDIA. (Source: Expreview)



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[Darkrealms]

LoL, guess that negates the rumor about them going out of the chipset market (jk I know they aren't).

Doesn't the 790 have something on it that is "linked" with some part of the CPU? Wouldn't that be proprietary? I mean more power to Nvidia for trying but it just seems the 790 will still come out on top.


Side note if my system was running an AMD CPU, I'd probably get the Nvidia chipset because those are my two "fanboy" choices. But thats not the logical point. The 790 should still win.

 

[suraswami]

thats good news for AMD Phenom OCers. Now we will have wider choices. I myself prefer NVidia chipset for greater driver support across platform.

 

[X1REME]

yeah what ever, well i say if you cant beat em, join em. lol

 

[KBD]

LoL, guess that negates the rumor about them going out of the chipset market (jk I know they aren't).

Doesn't the 790 have something on it that is "linked" with some part of the CPU? Wouldn't that be proprietary? I mean more power to Nvidia for trying but it just seems the 790 will still come out on top.


Side note if my system was running an AMD CPU, I'd probably get the Nvidia chipset because those are my two "fanboy" choices. But thats not the logical point. The 790 should still win.

I thought i've seen numbers that nvidia 780a beats the 790FX. Granted that was before SB750 and this new upgrade from nvidia.

Also, when can we see upgraded 780a boards? And how will they distinguish themselves from the current 780a lineup? Are they gonna be called 780a-something?

 

[WarEagleAU]

I aint seen where the 780A beat Amds 780G board (or whatever ATI is using) yet alone the 790FX boards.

 

[hipersoke]

I have an asus m3nht-deluxe with an 780a chipset, this motherboard will be able to use de ACC with a bios update or this posibility is only for new motherboards?
Thanks for your help

 

[btarunr]

I thought i've seen numbers that nvidia 780a beats the 790FX. Granted that was before SB750 and this new upgrade from nvidia.

Also, when can we see upgraded 780a boards? And how will they distinguish themselves from the current 780a lineup? Are they gonna be called 780a-something?

The 790 FX board from MSI (without ACC) was still too tough a rock to crack for 780a.
For example: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/m3n-ht_deluxe/

 

[Ketxxx]

Funny how manufacturers release new chipsets before they teach the "elder brother" how to walk properly.. then just kinda work on them all at once. Talk about throwing a spanner into the works. Kinda like Asus with the P45, they release their enthusiast boards, before they have even released one semi-mature BIOS for those boards all kinds of crappy cut-down versions appear for use in work systems.

 

[KBD]

I have an asus m3nht-deluxe with an 780a chipset, this motherboard will be able to use de ACC with a bios update or this posibility is only for new motherboards?
Thanks for your help

I'm interested in this also, i could be wrong, but i dont think it will be added via BIOS update. Most likely it will be a new revision of the board.

 

[PCpraiser100]

Now that Intel's and AMD's chips are going popular, nForce is going into withdrawal without customers since the market was to large. P45 and 700 chipsets are known for their low cost, and efficient power consumption. if nForce managed to pull it off by fulfilling those demands they just might make it back. However, my expectations is that Nvidia in the mere future will be a third-party technology provider for the motherboard industry as the only thing that makes nForce different is SLI support which is just plain ridiculous. Its too obvious that the rumors about Intel SLI is starting to unfold by taunt.

 

[btarunr]

nForce 780a is a joke with PCI-E if you ask me. Look at these slides:

Surprise! No SPP + MCP. Guess what, The nForce 200 has x lanes which it splits among three cards (3 cards work at x8, x8, x8) but the nForce 200 itself connects to the 780a MCP using 16 PCI-E 2.0 lanes so effectively the entire graphics sub-system relies on 16 lanes (with high base frequency) ! I really wouldn't make 3 GTX 200 cards walk on that rope. Rather for its (the motherboard's) price, buy a 790FX which has 32 PCI-E 2.0 lanes to split between 4 cards, and all those lanes come from the NB. Or hop over to Intel + 780i

 

[Megasty]

Geez, its if you can't beat 'em then just make a bs version of what they're doing & forget about it This is a bad joke at best. That 780a suppose to be an enthusiast board right !?

 

[btarunr]

But this feature won me:

Sure that's 16 lanes effectively, but using the "broadcast" feature, the nForce 200 replicates information from the MCP to all three/four cards. When loading a game, you send the same texture/mesh/geometry/shader data to all the cards you have in SLI. So in broadcast, the same data that's received from the MCP is broadcast to all those cards. Very clever. There's flipside to everything.

 

[sam0t]

Good point btarunr!

Although Iam on Intel based system now Iam allready looking for my next AMD setup. Something to keep in mind when choosing a platform.

 

[Megasty]

Hmmm, that broadcast feature might be something to look forward to. This may very well take scaling to another level, if not eliminate its disabilities all together

 

[Darkrealms]

I thought i've seen numbers that nvidia 780a beats the 790FX. Granted that was before SB750 and this new upgrade from nvidia.

Also, when can we see upgraded 780a boards? And how will they distinguish themselves from the current 780a lineup? Are they gonna be called 780a-something?

Good point.
Sorry about that, thats what I ment with their new south bridge chipset.

But this feature won me:

Sure that's 16 lanes effectively, but using the "broadcast" feature, the nForce 200 replicates information from the MCP to all three/four cards. When loading a game, you send the same texture/mesh/geometry/shader data to all the cards you have in SLI. So in broadcast, the same data that's received from the MCP is broadcast to all those cards. Very clever. There's flipside to everything.

That could make things interesting. Definately will be watching how this does.

 

[btarunr]

Good point.
Sorry about that, thats what I ment with their new south bridge chipset.

That could make things interesting. Definately will be watching how this does.

It's already implemented with 780a SLI boards it seems the PCI-E 2.0 link between the MCP and nF 200 is x16 for sure, but has a very high base frequency. The nF 200 itself becomes a PCI-E 2.0 x16 HF device, so there's a level of abstraction, not a case of where the PCI-E switch splits up lanes.

 

[btarunr]

Added a vital update

 

[Hayder_Master]

well , seems nvidia still go on make chips not like we hear it before about nvidia want to stop make chips after intel begin support sli in them new chips