Athlon64 Chipsets Compared
| Manufacturer | NVIDIA Corp. | NVIDIA Corp. | SiS | VIA Technologies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northbridge | nForce3 150
1309 Ball BGA 0.15 µm |
nForce3 250 Gb
1309 Ball BGA 0.15 µm |
SiS 755
698 Ball BGA 0.22 µm |
K8T800
578 Ball BGA 0.22 µm |
| Southbridge | Integrated | Integrated | SiS 964 | VT8237
539 Ball BGA |
| Interconnect | StreamThru | StreamThru | MuTIOL 1 GB/s
with HyperStreaming |
8X V-Link 533 MB/s |
| AGP | 3.0 / AGP 8x | 3.0 / AGP 8x | 3.0 / AGP 8x | 3.0 / AGP 8x |
| Fixer AGP/ PCI clock for overclocking | yes | yes | yes | no |
| System Speed / Hyper Transport | 8 Bit, 600 MHz Up ; 16 Bit, 800 MHz Down | 16 Bit, 800 MHz Up & Down | 16 Bit, 800 MHz Up & Down | 16 Bit, 800 MHz Up & Down |
| Memory Type | DDR SDRAM | DDR SDRAM | DDR SDRAM | DDR SDRAM |
| Memory Speed | DDR266/333/400 | DDR266/333/400 | DDR266/333/400 | DDR266/333/400 |
| Max. Memory | 4096 MB | 4096 MB | 4096 MB | 4096 MB |
| PCI Slots | 6x 32 Bit PCI 2.3 | 6x 32 Bit PCI 2.3 | 6x 32 Bit PCI 2.3 | 6x 32 Bit PCI 2.3
PCI-X using VIA VPX2 |
| IDE Interface | 2 Ports U-ATA/133 | 2 Ports U-ATA/133 | 2 Ports U-ATA/133 | 2 Ports U-ATA/133 |
| Serial ATA | - | 4 Ports | 2 Ports | DriveStation Controller, 2 Ports SATA-150 &
SATAlite Interface for 2 additional SATA ports |
| RAID | - | RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 | RAID 0, RAID 1 | RAID 0, RAID 1 (SATA only) |
| USB Ports | - | 6x USB 2.0/1.1
480 MBit/s |
8x USB 2.0/1.1
480 MBit/s |
8x USB 2.0/1.1
480 MBit/s |
| Audio | AC97 2.1 | AC97 2.1 | AC97 2.1 | AC97 2.1 or PCI
VIA Vinyl Audio |
| Network | 10/100 NVIDIA MAC | 10/100/1000 NVIDIA MAC with Firewall | 10/100 MAC Interface | VIA Gigabit Ethernet Interface or 10/100 MAC |
| Drivers | nForce Unified Driver & ForceWare Suite | nForce Unified Driver & ForceWare Suite | Dedicated AGP & IDE drivers | Unified Hyperion 4in1 Drivers |
Test System
| Processor | |
|---|---|
| Socket 754 | Athlon 64 3200+ (2000 MHz, 1 MB L2 Cache) |
| Memory | |
| AMD Athlon 64 | 2x Corsair TwinX CMX512-3500C2 (XMS3502 V1.1)
512 MB per DIMM CL 2.0 - tRCD 2/3 - tRP 2 - tRAS 5 |
| Motherboards | |
| NVIDIA nForce3 150 | Gigabyte KA-8NNXP Rev. 1.0
BIOS : F12 (2010 MHz) |
| NVIDIA nForcee 250 Gb | MSI K8N Neo MS-7030, Rev. 1.0
BIOS : 1.13 (2009 MHz) |
| SiS 755 | SiS 755 Reference Board
BIOS : n/a (2010 MHz) |
| VIA K8T800 | MSI K8T Neo MS-6702, Rev. 1.0
BIOS : 1.4 (2001 MHz) |
| System Hardware | |
| Graphics Card | Asus A9800XT/DVD, Rev. 1.01
GPU : ATI Radeon 9800XT, 412 MHz Chip Clock Memory : 128 MB DDR-SDRAM, 365 MHz Chip Clock |
| Sound Card | Terratec Aureon 7.1 Space |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital WD800JB, 80 GB
80 GB Per Platter, 7200 rpm, 8 MB Cache |
| Network Controllers | 3COM 3C996B-T PCI-X Controller on Dual Xeon 2.8 GHz
for network testing |
| Software | |
| Chipset Software | SiS AGP Driver 1.17, IDE Driver 2.03
NVIDIA Platform Driver 4.09 VIA Hyperion 4in1 Ver. 4.51 |
| Graphics Driver | ATI Catalyst 4.1 (7.97 / 6.14.10.6414) |
| Network Drivers | Broadcom BCM5705 Driver Build 7.35a |
| DirectX Version | 9.0b |
| OS | Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600, Service Pack 1 |
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