nForce 500: nForce4 on Steroids?
by Gary Key & Wesley Fink on May 24, 2006 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Basic Features: nForce 500 Platform
For the launch of socket AM2, NVIDIA is providing no less than four new product offerings dependent upon the market sector. With this product introduction NVIDIA is launching two new chipsets, the C51XE and MCP55PXE that form the basis for the four models. A quick summary of the new product choices can be found in the following table.| NVIDIA Chipset Breakdown | ||
| Market Segment | Socket 939 | Socket AM2 |
| High-End Enthusiast | nForce4 SLI X16 | nForce 590 SLI |
| Mainstream Enthusiast | nForce4 SLI | nForce 570 SLI |
| Performance Mainstream | nForce4 Ultra | nForce 570 Ultra |
| Value Mainstream | nForce4 4X | nForce 550 |
We expect the new socket AM2 motherboards to cost slightly more than their socket 939 counterparts, at least initially, but long-term they should have basically the same prices. The High-End Enthusiast segment will be around $200, Mainstream Enthusiast will be around $150, Performance Mainstream will be close to $100, and the Value Mainstream offerings will look to target the $80 or under market.
At the top of the product offering, the nForce 590 SLI consists of two chips, the C51Xe SPP and the MCP55PXE. This solution offers dual X16 PCI-E lanes for multiple graphics card configurations. While other features have changed, the overall design is very similar to the nForce4 SLI X16. The total number of PCI-E lanes is now 46, with 18 lanes coming from the SPP. Of those 18, two go unused at present and the remaining 16 are for the PEG slot.
One step down from the nForce 590 SLI is the nForce 570 SLI. This is a single chip solution, providing two X8 lanes for multiple graphics cards. A total of 28 lanes are of available, up from the 20 lanes that were available on the nForce4 SLI chipset. The 570 chipset also lacks the included LinkBoost technology but is otherwise the same as the 590.
The nForce 570 Ultra comes next, with a drop to 20 total PCI-E lanes. If the name didn't clue you in already, the Ultra also drops support for SLI. Basically, this is the "performance mainstream" offering, targeting users that are only interested in running single graphics cards. We do not expect a large difference in price between the 570 SLI and the 570 Ultra boards, and the $20 or so price premium might be worthwhile in order to have the extra PCI-E X16 slot. While at present only cards going into X16 slots are GPUs, depending on how long do you keep your next motherboard you might see additional options.
Rounding out the chipset offerings, the nForce 550 is the "value mainstream" product, taking over from the nForce4 4X. Several of the higher end options have been dropped from the 550 chipset, including support for dual Ethernet controllers, the FirstPacket technology, TCP/IP acceleration, and RAID 5. The number of natively supported SATA ports has also been reduced from six down to four. Whereas the other three chipsets are recommended for Athlon 64/FX/X2 users, the nForce 550 is recommended for Athlon 64 (single core) and Sempron users.
Here's a summary of the features and specifications of each chipset:
| Specification | |||||
| NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI |
NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI x16 |
NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI |
NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra |
NVIDIA nForce 550 |
|
| Segment | Enthusiast SLI (2x16) |
Enthusiast SLI (2x16) |
Performance SLI (2x8) |
Performance | Mainstream |
| CPU Suggestion | Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64 | Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64 | Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64 | Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64 | Athlon 64, Sempron |
| SLI Technology | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| NVIDIA LinkBoost | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| NVIDIA FirstPacket | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| NVIDIA DualNet | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Gigabit Connections | 2 | 2 - requires an external chipset | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Teaming | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| TCP/IP Accleration | Yes | Yes, ActiveArmor | Yes | Yes | No |
| MediaShield | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SATA / PATA Drives | 6 SATA 2 PATA |
4 SATA 4 PATA |
6 SATA 2 PATA |
6 SATA 2 PATA |
4 SATA 2 PATA |
| RAID | 0, 1, 0+1, 5 | 0, 1, 0+1 | 0, 1, 0+1, 5 | 0, 1, 0+1, 5 | 0, 1, 0+1 |
| NVIDIA nTune 5 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PCI Express Lanes | 46 | 38 | 28 | 20 | 20 |
| Links | 9 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| USB Ports | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| PCI Slots Supported | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Audio | Azalia | AC'97 | Azalia | Azalia | Azalia |
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DigitalFreak - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Does NTune 5 also work with NF4 boards?Gary Key - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Yes, but depending upon bios support several of the new features will not be active. We have an updated bios coming for a nF4 board so we can verify which features do and not do work with full nF4 bios support.
nullpointerus - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Does nTune 5 support multiple profiles and automatic profile switching? If so, do these things actually work properly? Unfortunately, nTune 3 was a mess on my MSI board.Gary Key - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Yes to multiple profiles and working correctly, what is your definition of automatic profile switching? You can setup custom rules that will dictate how the system should operate under different conditions, a game profile for max performance or a DVD profile that will instruct the system to go in to "quiet mode" once a DVD is inserted if you are watching a movie as an example. We are still testing the rules setup, but so far, it works. We only received the kits last Friday so all major features were tested first but I am following up on the bells and whistles now. nTune 5 probably deserves a small but separate article on its features. We just received a new build last night so testing begins again today.
We did report a bug to NVIDIA as the motherboard settings screen will not refresh correctly after loading a new profile. We had to exit to the main control panel and then return to the performance section for a refresh. I personally have close to 30 profiles setup for our test suites at this time. It is just a matter
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
Sorry - that was smy fault and I'll edit it. Written while not thinking I guess.R3MF - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
"If TCP/IP acceleration is enabled via the new control panel, then third party firewall applications must be switched off in order to use the feature."this statement presumes that non third-party firewalls (i.e. nVidia firewall application) would work fine with the TCP-IP acceleration function.............?
nVidia: here is a great function, but you can't use it without getting haXXoR3d
???
Wesleyrpg - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
hey anand,wheres this dodgy nforce4 networking article that you been promising for weeks?
Gary Key - Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - link
The nf4 tests with driver sets back to the 5 series is complete, waiting on release versions of the new 9.x platform drivers to see what actual changes have been made since 6.85 on the nf4 x16 boards.
Wesleyrpg - Thursday, May 25, 2006 - link
can people with the 'normal' nforce4 chipset use the 6.85 drivers or are we stuck with the bodgy 6.70 drivers.