NForce4
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The correct title of this article is nForce4. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
The nForce4 is a computer chipset released by NVIDIA in October, 2004. The chipset supports AMD 64-bit processors (Socket 939, AM2 and 754) and Intel Pentium 4 LGA775 processors. Additionally, it includes support for DDR400 RAM (for the AMD version) and DDR2 667 RAM (for the Intel version).
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[edit] Models
[edit] nForce4/nForce4-4x
The vanilla version of the board has the HyperTransport link limited to 800 MHz on Socket 754 motherboards. One of the reasons the HyperTransport link was originally limited to 800 MHz was due to technical problems with early revisions of the nForce4 chipset (revisions A01 and A02) that prevented full 1 GHz HyperTransport speeds.[1] These problems were rectified for revision A03, but caused a delay in the production of the other nForce4 chipset versions which required 1 GHz HyperTransport speeds for Socket 939 support.
Motherboards based on early revisions (A02 and earlier) are mostly referred to as "nForce4-4x" (relating with their ability to handle HT speeds of 4x (times) only).
[edit] Features
- Support for up to 20 PCI Express (PCIe) lanes (up to 38-40 lanes for the nForce4 SLI x16). Reference boards are setup with one x16 slot and three x1 slots, leaving 1 lane unused.
- Support for up to 10 USB 2.0 ports.
- Support for 4 SATA and 4 PATA drives, which can be linked together in any combination of SATA and PATA to form a RAID 0, 1, or 0+1.
- NVIDIA RAID Morphing, which allows conversion from one RAID type to another on the fly.
- NVIDIA nTune, a tool for easy overclocking and timing configurations.
- Eight-channel AC97 audio.
- Onboard Gigabit Ethernet.
- NVIDIA ActiveArmor, an onboard firewall solution. (Not available on regular nForce 4)
- Does not support Windows 98 or Windows Me.[2]
[edit] nForce4 Ultra
The Ultra version contains all of the features of the vanilla version with the addition of:[3]
- Hardware processing for the ActiveArmor to reduce CPU load.
- Full 1000 MHz speed on HyperTransport.
- 300MB/s transfer speeds for Serial-ATA II drives (SATA II interface).
Enthusiasts discovered early after the release of nForce4 Ultra that the chipset was identical to nForce4 SLI other than a single resistor on the chip package itself. By modifying this resistor as the SLI is configured, an Ultra can be turned into a SLI.[4]
[edit] nForce4 SLI
The SLI version has all the features of the Ultra version, in addition to SLI (Scalable Link Interface). This interface allows two video cards to be connected together to produce a single output. This can theoretically double framerates by splitting work between the two GPUs.
On a standard (non x16) nForce4 SLI motherboard, the system can be configured to provide an x16 slot for one graphics board or twin x8 slots for the SLI configuration. A jumper bank must be altered to set these options.[5]
[edit] nForce4 SLI Intel Edition
Unlike its AMD brethren, the Intel Edition is a chipset in the truest sense of the word as it has both a northbridge and southbridge. As with the older nForce2 chipsets, NVIDIA calls the northbridge the "System Platform Processor" (SPP) and the southbridge the "Media and Communications Processor" (MCP). This change in design was necessitated because, unlike the Athlon64/Opteron, the Pentium 4 does not have an on-board memory controller thus requiring NVIDIA to include one in the chipset. In addition to supporting Pentium 4 processors (with up to a 1066 MHz FSB) the chipset includes support for DDR2 SDRAM. Also like NVIDIA's older chipsets, the MCP and SPP communicate through a Hypertransport link, in this case at 1.6 GB/s. Apart from these differences, the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition shares the same features as the regular nForce4 SLI.[6]
An oddity of the Intel Edition is the fact that while it works with the Pentium D 830 (3.0 GHz) and 840 (3.2 GHz), as well as the Extreme Edition of the 840, it does not work with the Pentium D 820 (2.8 GHz) because the 820 has a much lower current draw than the 830 and 840. Attempting to boot an Intel Edition board with an 820 will cause it to shut down so as to avoid damaging the processor. NVIDIA have stated that they do not consider the 820 to be an enthusiast processor, and as such will not be enabling support for it.[7] However, the nForce4 SLI X16 supports it.
[edit] nForce4 SLI x16
The nForce4 SLI x16 has similar features to the nForce4 SLI, except it now provides 16 PCI-Express lanes to both graphics cards in a SLI configuration (as opposed to only 8 lanes per graphics card with the original SLI chipset). This is the only version of the nForce4 for AMD processors that has a separate northbridge and southbridge. It comprises the existing nForce4 MCP for the southbridge and a new AMD nForce4 System Platform Processor (SPP). The two chips are connected via the HyperTransport link. This solution provides 38 PCI-Express lanes in total, and can be divided over 7 slots. It is also available for Intel processors, whereby it provides 40 PCI-Express lanes, which can be divided over 9 slots.
Performance gains from the extra 8 PCI-express lanes per graphics card have been proven to be marginal for the current generation of games. They are for now considered a "marketing point only", however professional graphics cards (Quadro) do show promise in professional applications for the extra lanes.[8]
[edit] Southbridges
[edit] nForce410/430
The nForce410 and nForce430 refers to two nForce4 based southbridges which are used together with GeForce 6100/6150 series northbridges to form a chipset with integrated graphics. The combination is a follow-up to the popular nForce2 IGP chipset.
[edit] Flaws
NVIDIA's nForce4 chipset suffers from several unresolved issues. First and foremost, the ActiveArmor hardware firewall is nearly non-functional, with many unsolved bugs and potentially serious instability. Installing ActiveArmor can cause BSODs for users of certain software, especially peer-to-peer file sharing applications. Some programs, such as μTorrent, go so far as to have warning messages about using NVIDIA's firewall in combination with their software. ActiveArmor also has a high probability of causing corruption of file downloads. NVIDIA has been unable to solve these issues and points to hardware bugs within the chipset itself; problems which they are unable to work around. To resolve the corruption and instability problems, NVIDIA has disabled the chipset's much-touted TCP Offload Engine in later drivers.[9] This effectively eliminates the firewall's performance advantage over other software-based solutions. Many users also continue to claim that ActiveArmor is simply non-functional as a firewall. Users refer to continued unpredictable stability issues. Communication between NVIDIA and enthusiasts continues to slowly address the problems.[10] However, the ActiveArmor feature has been discontinued in future NVIDIA chipsets.
The nForce4 chipset has also been blamed for issues with PCI cards, related to NVIDIA's implementation of the PCI bus. RME Audio, a maker of professional audio equipment, has stated that the latency of the PCI bus is unreliable and that the chipset's PCI Express interface can "hog" system data transfer resources when intense video card usage is occurring. This has the effect of causing audible pops and clicks with PCI sound cards.[11] Gamers have noticed this effect, especially with Creative's Sound Blaster X-Fi and Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound cards. Compatibility issues between these sound cards and nForce4 motherboards have been ongoing, even following driver updates.[12] Latency issues are more readily apparent with sound cards than other addon cards because of the direct user feedback the audio problems bring forward.
[edit] References
- ^ Abazovic, Fuad. Nforce 4 A01 silicon not reliable at 5X, The Inquirer, October 4, 2004.
- ^ NVIDIA nForce4, NVIDIA, accessed September 4, 2006.
- ^ Wasson, Scott. NVIDIA's nForce4 Ultra chipset, Tech Report, November 22, 2004.
- ^ Fink, Wesley. Morphing nForce4 Ultra into nForce4 SLI, Anandtech, January 18, 2005.
- ^ Fink, Wesley. DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers, Anandtech, February 5, 2005.
- ^ Wasson, Scott. NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset, Tech Report, April 8, 2005.
- ^ Shilov, Anton. Intel Pentium D 820 May Be Incompatible with Third Party Chipsets, X-bit labs, May 24, 2005.
- ^ Shrout, Ryan. Asus A8N32-SLI nForce4 SLI X16 Motherboard Review, PC Perspective, November 11, 2005.
- ^ Gasior, Geoff.NVIDIA cuts TCP offloads to end data corruption, Tech Report, March 3, 2006.
- ^ Nvidias interest in fixing the active armor problem, nForcers HQ, accessed September 5, 2006.
- ^ Fahlén, Anders. nForce4 Single CPU Chipset - DAW Stress Test Reports, RME Audio, March 9, 2005.
- ^ Creative Sound Blaster Forum, accessed September 5, 2006.
[edit] External links
- NVIDIA: nForce4
- Anandtech: nForce4: PCI Express and SLI for Athlon 64
- Techreport: NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset
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