nForce 500: nForce4 on Steroids?
by Gary Key & Wesley Fink on May 24, 2006 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Improved Feature: Control Panel / nTune 5.0
One of most interesting features of the nForce 500 launch is the revamped control panel and nTune 5.0 performance applications. NVIDIA has combined all of their various program applets into an integrated control panel to provide a common user interface, a common interface that certainly makes it easier for the user to control the various functions of the board and video (NVIDIA based) from a central point. |
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The new control panel offers configuration sections for 3D Settings for NVIDIA GPUs, Display settings, Networking options, Performance, System Stability testing, Storage, and Video/Television settings. The majority of information contained in each section will already be familiar to those with nForce4 boards, only with the same look and feel as the other control panels as well as some extended configuration options.
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A new application being featured is a System Stability test program that will run application level stress testing on the platform or on an individual component for a user specified amount of time. We found the application would generally fail settings that were a little more conservative than we utilize in stress testing, but it is nice to know the program will err on the safe side.
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The most interesting application is nTune 5.0 that can be found by clicking the Performance icon. nTune has undergone a complete transform and now includes the ability to dynamically write a significant number of performance settings directly to the BIOS without requiring a reboot. You also have the option for letting the system dynamically create an overclocking profile and automatically adjust the BIOS settings under the Automatic Tuning section.
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The Adjust Motherboard Settings section is certainly the most interesting of the performance oriented applets as changes in these fields are dynamically written to the BIOS. The settings can be saved in profiles that can be loaded within Windows without having to reset the system and enter the BIOS. This can help with situations where optimal settings for games might differ from those for audio/video playback. The system also allows for automatic or direct fan speed control on supported board headers.
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The Dynamic BIOS Access section offers the ability to change BIOS setting in four different categories that will take effect on reboot. The two sections not displayed are for power management and peripheral settings.
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NVIDIA also includes a System Information utility along with a Windows based monitoring application. Overall, the polished look, feel, and operation of the new control panel along with the performance improvements offered in nTune 5.0 has raised the bar for user enhancements offered by the core logic and motherboard suppliers.
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artifex - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
If they want the TCP/IP acceleration to be a draw for that crowd, they'd better fix this thing with firewalls not being supported. I could not imagine running a corporate server like that. And it's a bit much for them to hold out Vista as a possible fix, as many of us would like to wait a while before dropping Vista into production environments. Like a couple years. :)
Jaylllo - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Is it just me, or do ATI/NVIDIA/INTEL make up a boatload of stupid names for simple features?afrost - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
So when do we get low power chipsets to go with our low power CPUs?Nvidia's mid to high end GPUs use less power than ATI GPUs....but it's the other way around for chipsets......????
seems odd
Gary Key - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Rumor has it, in the late fall. ;-)
FinFET - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
On this page http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?... the nForce 550's summary reads"Several of the higher and options have been dropped from the 550 chipset"
I believe you meant
"Several of the higher end options have been dropped from the 550 chipset"
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Corrected.peternelson - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
How can you say there is not improvement?
The 590SLI gives increased number of PCIE lanes to total 46.
These are available as 16, 16, 8, and six individual 1x connections.
Assuming some slots on the motherboard:
x16 slot: card x16 nvidia graphics card
x16 slot: card x8 ARECA EIGHT SATA 300 HARDWARE RAID CONTROLLER
x8 slot: card x8 MYRINET 10 GIGANET hardware accelerated LAN
I'm not particularly interested in consumer level SATA and LAN but consider them a free bonus. What MATTERS is that there is enough BANDWIDTH to use some PROPER peripherals without bottlenecks.
Egglick - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
The only new "feature" I'm really interested in is the TCP/IP acceleration, which lowers CPU usage. The rest of it is a bunch of gimmicks and garbage as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather not use those "features" at all, as they're much more likely to cause problems than any sort of performance boost.When I think of that, coupled with their stupid SLI Memory program (another gimmick), my view of NVidia's chipsets is significantly lowered. When the time comes for me to upgrade, I'll be strongly considering ATI's chipset offerings instead.
bob661 - Thursday, May 25, 2006 - link
Egglick,Your name should be Buttlick with that comment. So, let me get this straight (or gay depending on which way you swing), these extra features that Nvidia is giving us are apparently no good since you say so. The rest of us might as well just shut off our computers, grab a pr0n mag, and spank it like it's 1999. Jesus, who needs a brain with you around.
Pirks - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Yeah, right... ATI are completely smoke'n'mirrors free guys... cool! :)