New and Improved: NVIDIA nForce3 250 Gb Chipset

Athlon64 Chipsets Compared

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ManufacturerNVIDIA Corp.NVIDIA Corp.SiSVIA Technologies
NorthbridgenForce3 1501309 Ball BGA0.15 µmnForce3 250 Gb1309 Ball BGA0.15 µmSiS 755698 Ball BGA0.22 µmK8T800578 Ball BGA0.22 µm
SouthbridgeIntegratedIntegratedSiS 964VT8237539 Ball BGA
InterconnectStreamThruStreamThruMuTIOL 1 GB/swith HyperStreaming8X V-Link 533 MB/s
AGP3.0 / AGP 8x3.0 / AGP 8x3.0 / AGP 8x3.0 / AGP 8x
Fixer AGP/ PCI clock for overclockingyesyesyesno
System Speed / Hyper Transport8 Bit, 600 MHz Up ; 16 Bit, 800 MHz Down16 Bit, 800 MHz Up & Down16 Bit, 800 MHz Up & Down16 Bit, 800 MHz Up & Down
Memory TypeDDR SDRAMDDR SDRAMDDR SDRAMDDR SDRAM
Memory SpeedDDR266/333/400DDR266/333/400DDR266/333/400DDR266/333/400
Max. Memory4096 MB4096 MB4096 MB4096 MB
PCI Slots6x 32 Bit PCI 2.36x 32 Bit PCI 2.36x 32 Bit PCI 2.36x 32 Bit PCI 2.3PCI-X using VIA VPX2
IDE Interface2 Ports U-ATA/1332 Ports U-ATA/1332 Ports U-ATA/1332 Ports U-ATA/133
Serial ATA-4 Ports2 PortsDriveStation Controller, 2 Ports SATA-150 &SATAlite Interface for 2 additional SATA ports
RAID-RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1RAID 0, RAID 1RAID 0, RAID 1 (SATA only)
USB Ports-6x USB 2.0/1.1480 MBit/s8x USB 2.0/1.1480 MBit/s8x USB 2.0/1.1480 MBit/s
AudioAC97 2.1AC97 2.1AC97 2.1AC97 2.1 or PCIVIA Vinyl Audio
Network10/100 NVIDIA MAC10/100/1000 NVIDIA MAC with Firewall10/100 MAC InterfaceVIA Gigabit Ethernet Interface or 10/100 MAC
DriversnForce Unified Driver & ForceWare SuitenForce Unified Driver & ForceWare SuiteDedicated AGP & IDE driversUnified Hyperion 4in1 Drivers

Test System

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Processor
Socket 754Athlon 64 3200+ (2000 MHz, 1 MB L2 Cache)
Memory
AMD Athlon 642x Corsair TwinX CMX512-3500C2 (XMS3502 V1.1)512 MB per DIMMCL 2.0 - tRCD 2/3 - tRP 2 - tRAS 5
Motherboards
NVIDIA nForce3 150Gigabyte KA-8NNXP Rev. 1.0BIOS : F12 (2010 MHz)
NVIDIA nForcee 250 GbMSI K8N Neo MS-7030, Rev. 1.0BIOS : 1.13 (2009 MHz)
SiS 755SiS 755 Reference BoardBIOS : n/a (2010 MHz)
VIA K8T800MSI K8T Neo MS-6702, Rev. 1.0BIOS : 1.4 (2001 MHz)
System Hardware
Graphics CardAsus A9800XT/DVD, Rev. 1.01GPU : ATI Radeon 9800XT, 412 MHz Chip ClockMemory : 128 MB DDR-SDRAM, 365 MHz Chip Clock
Sound CardTerratec Aureon 7.1 Space
Hard DriveWestern Digital WD800JB, 80 GB80 GB Per Platter, 7200 rpm, 8 MB Cache
Network Controllers3COM 3C996B-T PCI-X Controller on Dual Xeon 2.8 GHzfor network testing
Software
Chipset SoftwareSiS AGP Driver 1.17, IDE Driver 2.03NVIDIA Platform Driver 4.09VIA Hyperion 4in1 Ver. 4.51
Graphics DriverATI Catalyst 4.1 (7.97 / 6.14.10.6414)
Network DriversBroadcom BCM5705 Driver Build 7.35a
DirectX Version9.0b
OSWindows XP Professional 5.1.2600, Service Pack 1