Fri Oct 26 09:01:16 2001

Is nVidia an evil company? Do their actions warrant not buying their stuff.

Is it risky to buy a company's first ever chipset? Of course Via has quality/driver/compatibility problems of their own.

Also, I havent seen any reviews of the onboard video performance of nForce. I assume it would be similar to my GF2MX, maybe better since it would be with DDR ram.

Annother thing I want to bring up, is that I think nForce is going to be great for AMD. OEM's will jump on it like Clinton on an intern. It's got tons of integrated stuff, the nVidia drivers and support SHOULD be good. Of course it could have a lot problems too, but if it goes well, I see it as being a huge boost for AMD sales. The main problem for them isn't the procs obviously, its a little bit marketing, but a lot of it is OEM's shying away from Via boards, and Via's crappy level of support.

--end of rant--

(Edited by DuffMan at 4:03 am on Oct. 26, 2001)

Fri Oct 26 09:08:02 2001

Fri Oct 26 09:11:29 2001

I have a very big problem with it.  You pay the new stuff computer premium, and you take it in the ass, doing their development work for them, and you pay them to do it.

But, maybe I've not been around SF long enough, because I find that whole situation unbearable.

In other words, wait until the price drops, the bugs are worked out, and then buy, unless you really want to make the rich richer, and you poorer.

Socrates

Fri Oct 26 09:42:56 2001

So I wouldn't use the integrated video if I were you; it'd be a step down.

Sat Oct 27 01:51:58 2001

The information I have heard, and this is solely going by memory is that they will be comparable in speed to a GFMX400 *if* you get the 400 with the dual channel memory support.

Lemme see if I can find some linkage for ya.

Sat Oct 27 02:04:51 2001

Has *some* review information on onboard video comparing it to a Geforce 3. Not a real good way to get a base line feel for the speed vs a GFMX.

Anand Does some more comparison's on the various Nforce chipsets and 3d performance of it, compared to other video cards, internal and external on the 220 and 440. In the UT benches he shows a GFMX400 vs integrated Video, and as shown by *that* test, the integrated is noticeably slower than the external, however, it is still faster than a ATI 7500, with what I would think to be decent speeds.

Gotta, talk more later.

I was wrong earlier when I stated the 400, I should have said 440 chipset.

Sat Oct 27 02:11:37 2001

I'm We Todd Did.

Sat Oct 27 03:01:08 2001

Sun Oct 28 04:33:02 2001

Hmm, I really wanna get a dual athlon, but the nforce looks like a damn nice lan rig. :)

Sun Oct 28 08:09:23 2001

Yeah, dual Athlons would be cool, but the whole SMP athlon situation is fuged up. With the non-MP athlons not being supported, and not working half the time, and the MP's costing a premium for what appears to be basically nothing.

I wonder how AYB's dual athlon attempt worked out...

EDIT: UPDATE

Found some newer benchmarks:

32 bit quake - not good

16 bit 3dmark2000 is pretty close. 32 bit showed more of a gap. So i guess integrated video might be a step down. Still it might be worth it to save the costs, plus nForce has slightly better memory performance. I think it will come down to which has the least number of problems.

(Edited by DuffMan at 2:33 am on Oct. 28, 2001)

Sun Oct 28 08:40:06 2001

Hell, even with the 440 speed, it's still damn playable IMHO. I myself don't play in 32bit color on 98% of the games. So, if it saves some cash, I'd go for it. You can always upgrade to a AGP card later on.

Sun Oct 28 12:10:17 2001

But only as long as I have my V4.

Sun Oct 28 12:48:34 2001

Damn forced compromises -- I want the best of ALL worlds!

Sun Oct 28 12:48:56 2001

Is nVidia an evil company? Do their actions warrant not buying their stuff.

Depends on your definition of "evil company".  If perpetuating capatalist decadance is evil, then yeah, they're evil.

If, OTOH you reserve evil as propping up corrupt goverments in Nigeria, then no, they're not.

And if you own a car, you're buying from evil companies all the time.

Moral stances - aren't they a bitch?

Sun Oct 28 12:53:22 2001

Tue Oct 30 03:48:13 2001

http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=45000232

Still reading it now.

Tue Oct 30 09:26:02 2001

Tue Oct 30 20:12:29 2001

Wed Oct 31 03:01:17 2001

That alone, I think would make it worth it. Although I'd like to hear more about the audio capabilities of the board. It sounds like it's going to be a very nice audio solution. Didn't Nvidia hire a bunch of the Aureal engineers to help with the design of the audio?

I myself am trying to decide if I want to go Dual AMD MP or single w/ Nforce.

And the memory bandwidth is a nice setup, actually, the chipset design is much more efficient than other offerings from VIA and AMD.

Just my .02 $.