Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Chipset Duel - VIA vs. Nvidia nForce

Posted by michael on from the dueling-banjos dept.

msolnik writes: "Tom's Hardware has put 13 motherboards to the ultimate test in their lab. The outcome? By and large, the VIA KT266A chipset knocks the stuffing out of the Nvidia nForce 420D. True bright spots were the candidates sent in by Soltek and Soyo."

17 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Compiling linux kernel on windows ? by kraf · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's quite possible, look at this pic.

  2. nForce vs KT266A performance by Xugumad · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, the KT266A does show an approximate 5-10% lead on the nForce, however:

    • This is using an external graphics card - the GeForce 3. The nForce has a GeForce 2 MX equivalent, and I imagine that comparing the speed of the nForce to a KT266A with GeForce 2 MX would prove insightful, too.
    • The nForce, IMHO, is aimed at the OEM market. It has not just graphics, but sound integrated onto the motherboard, at a significant cost saving compared to buying them seperately.
    • I cannot find any reference to stability, and my experience of Via chipsets, compared to Intel and AMD chipsets, is that they are less stable and more likely to have problems (the last Via based computer I had to set up took two people 5 days to get working correctly, compared to AMD and Intel based computers which have worked perfectly from first boot up).

    If you're looking for raw speed, over all other concerns, yes the KT266A is probably for you, and would go well with a Creative Audigy and GeForce 3 Ti500. However if you're looking for a less powerful system, with a still respectable specification, the nForce is likely to work out a lot cheaper.

    1. Re:nForce vs KT266A performance by hetfield · · Score: 5, Interesting

      One issue to keep in mind when talking about AMD/VIA chipsets is that most, if not all, AMD chipsets are meant to be reference designs only and to get new technology (like DDR) on the market before others can catch up. For example, the 760MP, which is only present on two Tyan boards, is being phased out for the 760MPX. Those Tyan boards have been in production for only about 6 months. The AMD 760 (sans MP) is being phased out because there are DDR chipsets being produced in mass quantity by VIA and SIS. Most AMD chipsets don't last very long because AMD expects VIA, SIS, and now Nvidia to pick up the ball from there with their own chipsets.

      As far as stability, I've had just the opposite experience you've had. My two Tyan motherboards with VIA chipsets have worked flawlessly since I received them, but my Tyan S2462 board was RMA'd once and cursed at many more times. The Tyan S2462 (Thunder K7) and S2460 (Tiger MP) have many known problems with memory and power supply compatibility as well as high DOA rates; just search groups.google for tyan's newsgroup.

      --

    2. Re:nForce vs KT266A performance by Rogerborg · · Score: 3, Insightful
      • The nForce [...] has not just graphics, but sound integrated onto the motherboard, at a significant cost saving compared to buying them seperately.

      And a NIC. I go for integrated boards (at least sound + NIC) simply because it allows me to buy a faster processor and more RAM, which pretty much negates the advantage of the bare bones performance board. Before the nForce, I wouldn't have gone down the integrated gfx route, but really, a GeForce2MX paired with an Athlon 1800+ is a pretty good solution right now. Off the top of my head, I work the KT266A + GeForce3 solution as about $300 more than the equivelant nForce before adding processor and RAM, and that's a pretty big differential.

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  3. Some bad information by hattig · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Erm, when using 3 DIMMs, the nForce IGP 128 is still in 128-bit mode for accessing memory. You should balance the DIMMs though for optimum performance - channel 'A' should have the same amount of memory as channel 'B', which might mean a 256MB DIMM in the first slot, and two 128MB DIMMs in the other 2 slots (nForce has 3 DIMM slots, although it is possible to build a motherboard with 4 DIMM slots).

    Haven't got the time to read each motherboard in detail. In the end, KT266A looks to be a good choice if you already have a soundcard and graphics card, the nForce is a great first chipset and is great if you don't currently have a soundcard or graphics card - in fact the audio will be the best you can buy for under $100 at least.

    And what was that about VIA taking the SiS735 memory controller? Eh? They are different companies, and SiS would certainly not give VIA their memory controller, that just doesn't make sense from a business or engineering point of view. The KT266A memory controller is taken from the P4X266 chipset.

  4. Video out? by swordboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think that the nForce is being pitched improperly. What we need to know is - which board has the best TV out capabilities. With built in Dolby Digital, this thing could make a great set top box without making a huge investment. Hell, which motherboard has coax-in ports?

    The PC-TV revolution is coming and the only one poised to take advantage is Microsoft. Are there any Linux or alternate OS based projects that have real funding behind them? What ever happened to Indrema? This would make a perfect hardware match for the platform.

    Sigh...

    --

    Life is the leading cause of death in America.
  5. Don't forget... by SaDan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The nForce is nVidia's first attempt at a chipset for AMD systems. How long has VIA been making chipsets?

    I think this is a really good showing for nForce.

    I also think that Tom is starting to lose focus when it comes to what people really want. With processors as cheap as they are, there's not much point to overclocking anymore. If a board doesn't make it easy to nuke your processor, that shouldn't be held against the manufacturer. Stability should be the priority, not how fast you can run the board out of spec.

    1. Re:Don't forget... by Pfhor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also, if you look at the actual numbers, the difference in the boards statistics was around .2 or so, from fastest to slowest. All of the boards are performing obscenely fast, yet tom doesn't seem to pay attention to his own graphs or statistics.

      http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q4/01112 6/ kt266a_nforce-18.html

      the 5 fastest boards for Lame MP3 encoding all have times of 178 secs. No decimal points included. "The nforce boards come out on top" yeah they really are when the slowest KT266A board has a time of 179 seconds.

      Or for another fun bunch of numbers, look at the flask mpeg encoding. The "fastest" fps is 21.51 (nForce board) and then there are 6 boards following it, all at 21.25 FPS. According to Tom the nForce boards "Pummeled" the competition.

      Just some funny statistics stuff i noticed. Of course, Tom isn't lying per say, but it would be more impressive if he did an analysis based on cost etc. Like best board for a $600 system, $900 system, $1300 system.

  6. Re:nForce would be nice.. by Tim+Doran · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My next motherboard is probably going to be the ECS K7S5A, based on the SIS735 chipset. Reviews of both the chipset and ECS's implementation have been excellent. I need a low-cost part and for CDN$99 this seems to be a fast (DDR supported!), affordable solution. You might want to consider it.

    I can't speak to its linux compatibility, since none of the reviews have touched on that...

  7. VIA Stability by CaptainSuperBoy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    VIA's stability / ease of setting up has been nothing short of awful in the past. The KT266A is suprisingly reliable, however. With VIA's 4in1 drivers 4.35 on Win 2000, or Windows XP (which includes VIA chipset drivers) users have found it to be pretty stable.

    I agree with you they're comparing apples to oranges. When nForce was first announced, I questioned the decision to integrate an underpowered graphics chip, when most power users would want at least a GF3. The answer, as you say, is that this board isn't for power users. Sure our ears perked up when we heard nVidia was making a chipset, after all they revolutionized the 3D world. I'm sure future offerings from them will live up to their name. If you remember, it took them several tries with the Riva128, TNT, and TNT2 before they had a true performance winner in the Geforce256.

  8. Tom needs to take a chill pill by Rogerborg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Phew, another article that focusses on overclocking potential and absolute performance. All well and good, but I'd like to see Tom's doing more comparisons on total component price and bang per buck and not try and match specifications without regard to the retail price. When I upgrade, I pick a budget first, then go shopping to see what I can get for that money. The price difference between a fully integrated nForce and a bare VIA + NIC + GeForce2 + sound means I can afford to put a significantly faster processor and a shedload more RAM in the nForce. There's a tradeoff in that it's harder to upgrade piecemeal, but I choose not to do that anyway as I find that it's cheaper and more rewarding to make infrequent larger upgrades, and easier to find a deserving home for the old hardware if it can form the substantial core of a box.

    Informative article, but it's once again aimed at the geek who simply has to have the rootinist, tootinist fastest system west of the Pecos, with cost not an issue. Note to Tom's; for those of us who don't get free hardware, cost is always an issue. ;-)

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  9. More Reviews... See www.3dnow.net by marcop · · Score: 4, Informative

    Check out the November '01 archives at www.3dnow.net for many reviews of KT266A mainboards and some nForce stuff.

    Some links from 3DNOW that I will highlight:

    VIA KT-266A Motherboard 3-Way Shootout


    VIA KT266A Initial Roundup - October 2001

  10. Aces Review shows different results by Fizgig · · Score: 4, Informative

    Aces Hardware shows a different story. There, the nForce board from MSI seems to beat out the MSI K7T266 Pro 2 (KT266A chipset) in most of the benchmarks by a good margin. Not to say that I believe one over the other, but they do have widely different results.

  11. Re:GeForce 2 MX??????? by softsign · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The nForce chipset has a Geforce2 integrated into the northbridge... it's not exactly the type of thing you just leave off a board. Not only that, but since it's in the northbridge, the interface is equivalent to AGP 6x. I really question why they didn't test or show results for the nForce boards sans Geforce3.

    Furthermore, can somebody explain to me why they used a memory configuration of 1x256, 2x128? Doesn't this switch off the nForce dual-channel configuration by using three dimms?

    I really have issues with their methodology and conclusions here... "Trounces"? The best KT266A mobo does marginally better on Q3A and office benchmarks and gets beaten on bandwidth intensive apps. I don't know about Germany, but where I come from, that's not a trouncing by any means.

  12. They're all about the same by Animats · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Look at the performance charts. All the benchmarks are within 10% of each other, and often much closer. And yet the reviewer talks about variations as if they were a big deal. They write "The benchmark results in SPECViewperf were all over the place", while their own numbers show a range of 15.36 to 15.64. Users will never notice that without instrumentation.

    I'd like to see "we ran them in a burn-in oven at the maximum rated temperature for two weeks while running diagnostic programs that checked for correct functioning of everything". And "we put the machine on the shake table and ran the standard shake test profile". The reports should then show failure rates, like Consumer Reports. People notice when the product breaks. And then you'd find out which motherboard manufacturers actually build good PC boards.

  13. Re:GeForce 2 MX??????? by softsign · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Maybe I should have phrased that differently. On the other hand, maybe I should have checked my source before posting:
    With its second generation transform and lighting capabilities, per-pixel shading operations, a fill rate of up to 350M pixels per second and an internal 8X AGP interface, the integrated GeForce2...

    I didn't mean to imply that the only reason the integrated GeForce2 is 8x (I said 6x, my bad) is because it's in the IGP - merely that it is equivalent to 8x AGP, as a consequence of its location and nVidia's nice work.

    You have no idea how hard I found it to respond to your comment in a civil manner. Next time, you try the whole "civility" thing.

  14. Exactly! by SaDan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    All of these boards appear to be performing so close as to not make ANY difference in real world use to the end user. They're all fast.

    None of the boards really shine over another in performance (there are a few that lag in some of the tests). I think now you really have to look at the total package (the mobo, included accessories and software), and the prices to make a fair comparison anymore. Tom did say a few things about what the boards came with, but neglected the average retail prices of the boards.

    Overclockability needs to become a side note after the conclusion, or part of a different review. Stability, integrated stuff (like IDE RAID, SCSI, ethernet, USB 1/2, sound, slots, etc), BIOS features and cost are pretty much all I (and a lot of people I know) care about in a hardware review.