AMD and Nvidia Platforms Do Battle

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Chipset Comparison Table

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Socket 940 Pins AM2+ 940 Pins AM2+
Chipset Design Dual Chip Single Chip
Northbridge AMD 780G Nvidia GeForce 8200 mGPU
Northbridge CMOS 55nm 80nm
Southbridge AMD SB700 N/A
Southbridge CMOS 55nm N/A
CPU Interface HT 3.0 (1.8 GHz) HT 3.0 (1.8 GHz)
Chipset Interlink PCIe x4 (2GB/s) N/A
Memory Row 8 - Cell 1 Row 8 - Cell 2
Memory Type Dual Channel DDR2 Dual Channel DDR2
Memory Speed DDR2-667/800/1066 DDR2-667/800/1066
Maximum Memory 8 GB 8 GB
ECC Support No No
Connectivity Row 13 - Cell 1 Row 13 - Cell 2
PCIe Support 26 PCIe 2.0 Lanes 19 PCIe 2.0 Lanes
PCIe Usage 16 lanes for graphics 16 lanes for graphics
Row 16 - Cell 0 4 lanes for chipset interlink 3 lanes for add-on devices
Row 17 - Cell 0 6 lanes for add-on devices Row 17 - Cell 2
Networking PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Integrated Nvidia Gigabit Ethernet controller
USB Ports 12x USB 2.0 12x USB 2.0
Row 20 - Cell 0 2x USB 1.1 Row 20 - Cell 2
PCI Support 5x 32 Bit PCI 2.3 5x 32 Bit PCI 2.3
Storage Row 22 - Cell 1 Row 22 - Cell 2
SATA Ports 6x SATA/300 w/ NCQ 6x SATA/300 w/ NCQ
eSATA Possible Possible
UltraATA Ports 2x UltraATA/133 (four devices) 1x UltraATA/133 (two devices)
RAID Modes 0, 1,10, JBOD 0, 1,10, 5, JBOD
Graphics Row 27 - Cell 1 Row 27 - Cell 2
Core Radeon HD2400 (RV610)-based GeForce 8400 GS (G86)-based
Technology Direct X 10.0, Shader Model 4.0 Direct X 10.0, Shader Model 4.0
Clock Speed 500 MHz 500 MHz
Core Design 40 stream processors 16 stream processors
Multi-GPU Crossfire X possible Hybrid Graphics-only
Hybrid Graphics Hybrid CrossFire X for Performance Nvidia Hybrid SLI
Graphics Performance Options Radeon HD 2400/3450 GeForce 8400 GS/8500 GT
Power Saving Options N/A HybridPower switches off discrete graphics in 2D
Display Memory Optional, up to 512MB N/A
Video Row 37 - Cell 1 Row 37 - Cell 2
Video Decoding ATI Avivo HD Nvidia PureVideo HD
HD Video Blu-ray, Betamax/HD-DVD Blu-ray, Betamax/HD-DVD
Outputs D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI w/ HDCP, Display Port D-Sub, DVI and HDMI w/ HDCP
HDMI Options HDMI 1.3 HDMI 1.3, no Dolby True HD or DTS-HD