VIA K8T900 Chipset Launched For AMD Platform

MojoDog writes " VIA has launched their new K8T900 chipset for the AMD platform this morning and HotHardware.com has a full analysis with benchmarks of the new platform. VIA is jumping into the dual PCI Express Graphics arena as well with this offering with their 'Rapid Fire' technology, which currently only supports their MultiChrome Dual GPU setups. However, NVIDIA and ATi will both have to provide the required driver level support for either SLI or CrossFire technology, which currently is not available on this new chipset. Beyond that, from a features and performance standpoint the K8T900 looks to be a solid solution."

Comments

Dual GPU's

[zymano]

This is what Sony and Microsoft should have done with their consoles instead of focusing on special chips.

They make solid equipment.

[Sheetrock]

The last three systems I've owned has used them for memory interface, and never gave me a problem -- their embedded devices (audio, USB, etc.) have all performed well and saved me from the cost of additional peripherals... unlike other embeds I've used in the past.

However, with the increasing price of oil, I can't help wondering what the face of computing is going to look like five or ten years down the line. The average computer uses as much as the Mayflower worth of coal to run on any given day. Much of this is spent on wasteful peripherals we could do without, such as fancy 3D graphics cards or optical mice, but even more is being spent on processing power well beyond the needs of the average user.

Inefficiencies in microcomponent fabrication mean that a great deal of the electricity that goes into your computer is given off as heat. Techniques such as reversible or quantum computing hold much promise in the future for putting more energy into computation but today it is up to the consumer to safeguard the environment.

In a way, the argument is the same as with vehicles -- most people don't need a SUV or a top-of-the-line system but many choose to get them to compensate for inadequacies or because of marketing -- but with computers at least it is impossible to argue you are "safer" for having a faster system. Indeed, you are more likely to run viruses or worms without realizing it because you don't notice the hit in operating performance.

I've noticed that I've been holding on to computer equipment longer and longer these days. Oh sure, I have to fix a power supply here and a fan there, but besides slack engineering standards from software companies there is little reason to keep up with the hardware treadmill... and at least one compelling reason not to.

Re:They make solid equipment.

[Kjella]

However, with the increasing price of oil, I can't help wondering what the face of computing is going to look like five or ten years down the line. The average computer uses as much as the Mayflower worth of coal to run on any given day. Much of this is spent on wasteful peripherals we could do without, such as fancy 3D graphics cards or optical mice, but even more is being spent on processing power well beyond the needs of the average user.

Inefficiencies in microcomponent fabrication mean that a great deal of the electricity that goes into your computer is given off as heat. Techniques such as reversible or quantum computing hold much promise in the future for putting more energy into computation but today it is up to the consumer to safeguard the environment.

Define wasteful. People like their computers with fast 3D cards and optical mice. In many ways you can say most of human activity is "wasteful", in that it makes no sense and consumes lots of resources. For example, a weekend before christmas I'm flying to another city to visit some friends and have a few beers. If you want to get all objective about it, I could buy some beers at the local store and drink them here, alone. Much less wasteful, eh?

As far as the "vast" consumption of energy a computer has, I doubt it makes a dent in most people's budget. What else would I be doing? Watching TV, oh another screen. Reading a book? Yeah, in a good reading light that is quite bright really. Driving somewhere to meet someone, club, pub wheteever? On the whole, I don't think my evenings in front of my computer are the most expensive ones, if you don't consider the sunk cost of purchasing it.

Quantum and reversible computing are way off. Even if they do were to come through (this is like talking about cold fusion...) there's no reason to believe they'll function as general-purpose CPUs. The rules that define what operations are reversible are odd at best. And the essence is to control a piece of energy so well we do not incur entropy, which seems to be cutting it awfully close to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. It's an interesting line of pursuit but I'd be more surprised if it succeeded than if it didn't.

I've noticed that I've been holding on to computer equipment longer and longer these days. Oh sure, I have to fix a power supply here and a fan there, but besides slack engineering standards from software companies there is little reason to keep up with the hardware treadmill... and at least one compelling reason not to.

Best point of the whole post. If you look at the total life-cycle, the short time it's burning electricity in your house is nothing. Imagine all the consumption that goes into the manufacture and shipping of each chip, including the machines to produce them as well as dispose of them. Environmentally, I think you're better off making your gear last longer than looking at how much energy it consumes right now. An environmental box is one not located at a landfill.

Re:in related news...

[InvalidError]

You're right for the power and performance... but price-wise, Athlon FX and X2 are not particularly cheaper than their closest Pentium equivalents - for example, the cheapest X2 costs nearly $100 more than the cheapest Pentium-D and both companies' top chips bear the same $1000-ish price tag. Below the upper-mid-range, things do become very much one-sided in AMD's favour though.

As for why they need marketing, that is a matter of mindshare. It does not matter how good your platform is if you are unable to get big buyers to place orders because they do not know about your products or are not aware of them being potentially superior to the stuff they usually order. We know some CEOs&others from large companies have become aware of the performance, scalability and power advantages of AMD64 chips by the fact that Dell has started making calls to notify its suppliers that it may start building Opteron boxes. A little more marketing could go a long way towards cracking tough nuts like Dell.

via sure has taken alot of crap for the KT133

[atarione]

everytime I see VIA mentioned hordes of people who had problems with KT133 chipsets come out of the woodwork... but to be fair the KT133 chipset was total crap.

it's too bad they didn't realize that and start out with the KT133A to begin with.

I have a Shuttle AK31A v3.1 (KT266A board) i have had this since 2001 running 24/7 as a Domain Controller for my homenetwork. It has given my no grief... it has been 100% stable since day one (actually building this computer w/ the AK31A was the fastest smoothist PC build I have ever had.

The only thing that kinda sucks is the PCI implementation on the KT266A seems to cause rather shabby Raid performance ... I have a 3ware Escalade TX7000 and when I previously had it set for raid 0 the write speeds were pretty crappy when Installed in this Via board... Since I am not using this raid card for raid 0 but am using it for Raid 1 now I no longer really care.... as long as the data continues to be uncorrupted.

blah blah blah... anyway I will wait and see, It will be interesting to see if ATI and Nvida decide to allow Crossfire and SLI to work with these boards since the article seems to indicate that crossfire and SLI should be possible if allowed by driver support?

price

[stonefoz]

does this mean there will finaly be some mobo come out for 64 that don't cost an arm and a leg?