NForce2
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- The correct title of this article is nForce2. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
The nForce2 Chipset was released by NVIDIA in July of 2001 as a refresh to the original nForce product offering. The nForce2 chipset was a platform for motherboards supporting AMD's Socket A CPUs along with DDR SDRAM. There were variations of the chipset including one with and one without an integrated GeForce4 MX graphics processor (IGP).
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[edit] Development
The nForce2 features two different southbridges, the MCP-P and the MCP-T. The two differ only in audio and ethernet integration. The latter is equipped with two 100 Mbit ethernet NICs (nV and 3Com 3C905) and the impressive NVAPU (SoundStorm) with hardware accelerated 3D audio and real-time 5.1-channel Dolby Digital encoding whereas the first features one 100 Mbit NIC and an AC97 audio controller. For audio, both MCP's were connected to an external codec chip, such as a Realtek ALC650. With the MCP-S, this codec provided all software-driven audio duties, while with the MCP-T it performed the DAC duties. Unfortunately, this low quality codec and unavoidably noisy motherboard circuitry (EMI/RFI) were detrimental to audio quality on even the MCP-T equipped boards and as a result the nForce audio solutions were never of high fidelity unless the optical output (TOSLINK or Co-axial) was utilized.
The nForce2 chipset was remarkable for several other reasons. It introduced a dual channel memory interface to the mainstream market, doubling theoretical bandwidth. This was deemed necessary largely because, with nForce2 IGP's integrated GeForce4 MX class video hardware, additional memory bandwidth was required to make sure the video hardware was a generational leap forward in 3D performance. It was also important not to overly burden the overall system by sharing memory bandwidth with the most powerful IGP produced for Socket A. Because Athlon XP's DEC Alpha EV-6 FSB was incapable of benefitting from the second channel by design, the second channel was almost exclusively available for the GPU. In dual-channel configurations of nForce2 without the IGP, Athlon XP only showed gains of 5% at most.
Among various fixes and refinements compared to the original nForce, nForce2 featured a fixed PCI/AGP clock, i.e. PCI and AGP frequencies will not change when changing the FSB. Resultingly, the nForce2 platform was known for its excellent results in overclocking AMD processors and was a favorite for years with the overclocking community. It was also known that the chipset produced poor results using FSB and memory at different speeds (asynchronous).
[edit] Refreshed
In 2003, NVIDIA released a refreshed nForce2, called "nForce2 Ultra 400". The nForce2 Ultra 400 and nForce2 400 represented official support for a 200 MHz FSB and PC-3200 DDR SDRAM, whereas the older nForce2 had only supported a maximum of 166 MHz FSB. Ultra 400 offered dual-channel support, while the plain 400 was single-channel PC-3200-capable. Both performed very similarly because neither had the IGP and again Athlon XP did not benefit significantly from the added bandwidth because the Athlon XP's bus was only capable of bandwidth matching a single channel of PC-3200. The new chipset again was partnered with several different southbridges, including one with (MCP-T) and one without (MCP) the NVAPU and dual ethernet NICs. A later southbridge, MCP-Gb, integrated Serial ATA and RAID as well. The NVAPU was never integrated into a -Gb southbridge.
[edit] Soundstorm
- Main article: SoundStorm
Some see the passing of SoundStorm as a classic example of the bottom dollar approach to building computers sweeping the PC industry, with component quality being gradually eroded, in favor of pricing considerations. Soundstorm was good competition for Creative Labs during its time, but did suffer from driver issues and performance problems. Many computer owners also had their own discrete audio solutions, such as the popular Creative Audigy series, the VIA Envy24, or various Turtle Beach boards, among other high end solutions offering superior analog quality. This made the NVAPU/Soundstorm a niche product in a market where keeping board costs low is essential to sales volume.
Soundstorm/NVAPU's existence was a direct result of Xbox development, with the APU being directly related to the technology used in Microsoft's console. As the technology aged and consumers and OEMs showed a lack of interest in purchasing the more expensive but higher quality chipsets, NVIDIA did not see reason to justify further R&D expenditures.
[edit] External links
- NVIDIA: nForce2
- Anandtech: NVIDIA nForce2 Preview
- Anandtech: NVIDIA's nForce2 Performance Review
- Anandtech: NVIDIA's nForce2 Part II: Diving Deeper
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