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Page 1 of 1 pages for this article Nvidia nForce2 Launch by Article Admin
Published: 07/15/2002
Platform Conference kicks off here in San Jose today, and with the start of the conference comes an announcement from NVIDIA - the nForce2. On the 15th NVIDIA held a press conference which I attended and gathered some pictures for you all, and some information about this new chipset. Read on to find out more information.
nForce2: Features:
Let’s take a look at these features one by one. First off, Dual Channel DDR400 is supported, making the nForce2 the first chipset to market with this support. With Dual Channel DDR400 memory, NVIDIA is claiming more than twice the bandwidth of competitors products. Next up is AGP 8X support, which allows upgradeability of nForce2 systems, instead of being stuck with onboard video and having to replace the motherboard. The onboard video in this case being a GeForce4 MX based solution. The GeForce4 MX includes nView, which allows you to have support for two monitors or other devices like a projector. Surprisingly this support made it into the integrated solution, which was something that I was quite interested in. Having the ability to run two monitors off of an integrated graphics core is great and allows for a more flexible solution for some situations that previously was not available in an integrated solution. Having this kind of support will enable corporate users who need two monitors or a monitor and a projector, to use the integrated graphics without a problem. I think that it will be interesting to see in the future what kind of performance impact, if any, this feature has on the system. Next, another interesting feature is DualNet. DualNet is just what it sounds like - dual network cards. Again this is aimed to please corporate users. One NIC is one designed by NVIDIA, and the other is a 3Com, so if corporate users need a 3Com NIC, they have one integrated onboard. Also, having two built in NIC’s allows for the system to be turned into a gateway for home or office use. With broadband internet connections being popular, this give the ability to share your network connection among other computers in your house without resorting to other expensive hardware such as a router or wireless setup. The other features which I’m sure you are familiar with are USB 2.0 and Firewire. Next we come to NVIDIA SoundStorm, which is a new brand from NVIDIA. SoundStorm offers Dolby Digital 5.1, six channel audio-out, S/PDIF-out, and is designed to offer higher quality audio on motherboards with integrated audio, much like the CMedia chip now does, though this will be an integrated solution.
Finally we come to a very interesting feature which is support for 333MHz FSB. What makes this strange is that there is no 333MHz FSB CPU from AMD, and they have said in the past that they do not have plans for one, instead focusing on their next-gen CPU, the K8 (Hammer). We were not given a solid answer from AMD about future CPU’s perhaps having 333MHz FSB support, but they did leave the door open and there is a possibility. Whether we see one of these CPU’s or not is still up for grabs. However, there is another good reason for having 333MHz FSB support. Overclockers are sure to love this as the chipset officially supports this speed and will remove the possibility of problems with the chipset not taking higher speeds successfully. next > next > next > next > Page 1 of 1 pages for this article Search
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