NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb Performance Preview March 11, 2004

Introduction

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NVIDIA’s chipset evolution

First introduced nearly three years ago, NVIDIA’s original nForce chipset revolutionized the Athlon XP platform thanks to its dazzling array of features: Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, GeForce2 MX integrated graphics, and an innovative dual-channel DDR memory subsystem that was years ahead of its time, all put NVIDIA’s nForce chipset squarely on the Socket A limelight. However, due to delays and high pricing (the chipset was initially only available with integrated graphics), nForce got off to a sluggish start, ultimately VIA’s KT333 and later KT400 chipsets overshadowed it.

NVIDIA struck back with a vengeance with nForce2. nForce2 offered more performance, new features, and support for newer technologies such as AGP 8X and DDR400 memory. Even today, nearly two years since nForce2 was originally announced, it’s still the chipset of choice for the Athlon XP, and is largely responsible for keeping AMD competitive with Intel while they were preparing their 64-bit processors for introduction.

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nForce3

Much like the original nForce chipset, NVIDIA’s early 64-bit chipset efforts got off to a slow start with nForce3 150 and nForce3 Pro 150. The chipset lacked native Serial ATA support, relying instead on an external controller. In comparison, VIA’s K8T800 was more feature-rich and offered better performance, making it the early favorite among Athlon 64 users.

Now NVIDIA is back again with its follow-up to nForce3 150, dubbed nForce3 250. Whereas nForce3 was originally intended to compete in the workstation segment with nForce3 Pro 150, and eventually adapted to serve the needs of the consumer in nForce3 150, NVIDIA’s nForce3 250 merges the needs of the workstation segment (where features and performance often take a back seat to stability and reliability) with the speed and eye-catching features consumers want to see in a motherboard.

As its name implies, nForce3 250 builds on the roots of nForce3 150, but NVIDIA has incorporated many design changes and new features. The result is a product that is intended to restore NVIDIA’s position as the leader on AMD’s 64-bit platform. We’re here today to go over all the changes and provide a picture of the new platform’s performance. Does nForce3 follow nForce2’s lead of delivering a new scale beyond its predecessor? Read on to find out!



SIDEBAR: NVIDIA had intended to launch nForce3 250 in 2003, in fact NVIDIA’s original nForce3 press release mentions nForce3 250.

Features

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Single-chip design

One of the key architectural differences between NVIDIA’s nForce3 line and other competing solutions from VIA and SiS is their single-chip architecture. If you recall the design of traditional system chipsets, the chipset is usually composed of two chips: a North Bridge and a South Bridge. The North Bridge traditionally houses the memory controller, and is responsible for interfacing with the CPU as well as AGP. Of course, now that AMD has integrated the controller on the CPU itself the first role (memory controller) is no longer performed on the North Bridge. Meanwhile, the South Bridge handles I/O duties such as storage, USB, PCI, and networking.

The North Bridge and South Bridge are linked together by a serial pathway, with the actual implementation varying depending on the manufacturer. SiS is well known for its MuTIOL link, providing up to 1GB/sec of peak bandwidth, while VIA’s V-Link peaks at 533MB/sec.

With nForce3 150 and nForce3 250 however, the North/Bridge South Bridge architecture is scrapped in favor of a single chip design. In theory, this should reduce latency. In addition, the single chip architecture gives motherboard manufacturers more freedom with their board designs, giving them more room to add additional onboard features such as FireWire and additional storage controllers. Single chip designs also ease inventory management for motherboard manufacturers.

SiS’ SiS735 was an extremely popular single-chip solution, but SiS ultimately decided to abandon the single chip architecture. They found that integrating new features such as upcoming storage technologies and USB 2.0 often required a complete chip redesign, ultimately increasing the amount of time it took for them to bring new chipsets to market. With the North Bridge/South Bridge architecture, you can just swap out the older South Bridge with a newer one that supports all of the latest and greatest technologies. If true, this may help explain why it took NVIDIA so long to bring nForce3 250 to market.

Faster HyperTransport

One of the chief complaints that was voiced against nForce3 150 was its HyperTransport implementation, NVIDIA was limited to just 600MHz, while VIA’s K8T800 supported 800MHz. NVIDIA made matters worse by limiting HyperTransport’s upstream connection on nForce3 150 to just 8-bits, half the 16-bit width found on other solutions.

For nForce3 250, NVIDIA has completely reworked their HyperTransport interface. 800MHz HyperTransport support has been added, and nForce3 250 provides 16-bit links for both upstream and downstream. We also noticed that the nForce3 250 chipset retains the ability to lock the AGP frequency, which is an important feature when overclocking.



SIDEBAR: nForce3 250 is built on a 0.15-micron process and contains 22 million transistors

Networking

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GigE support

One new technology that has really taken off in the past 12 months is Gigabit Ethernet networking. Once an expensive accessory that was only found on high-end workstations and servers, Gigabit Ethernet has become increasingly popular in conventional desktop PCs.

While many of today’s motherboards provide integrated Gigabit Ethernet controllers, these controllers are often tied to the PCI bus, which is limited to just 133MB/sec of peak bandwidth. With Gigabit Ethernet peaking at 1,000Mbps, the network controller alone can easily saturate the PCI bus on one of these motherboards.

NVIDIA’s nForce3 250Gb variant provides a dedicated 2Gbps bi-directional link (1.25Gbps actual each way to compensate for Ethernet overhead/1.0Gbps effective), maximizing the full potential of the controller. In addition, unlike Intel’s Communications Streaming Architecture (CSA), nForce3 250Gb integrates the Gigabit Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) into the chipset. This gives NVIDIA’s controller direct access to the system memory via HyperTransport. In comparison, Intel’s external MAC uses CSA at 266MB/sec, which then sends data to system RAM via the North Bridge. This should give NVIDIA a performance advantage over CSA.

NVIDIA Firewall

One additional feature nForce3 250Gb touts is Firewall support. Unlike many Firewalls which are software-based, nForce3 250Gb’s Firewall is a native hardware-optimized solution. This lowers CPU utilization and improves throughput and protection, as you don’t have to wait for a software solution to load. NVIDIA’s Firewall solution can filter packets based on predefined settings, or settings that the end user provides. NVIDIA’s Firewall supports stateless and stateful inspection as well as remote management, which is helpful for accessing, configuring, and monitoring your PC while you’re away.

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More features

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Storage/Connectivity

As we mentioned earlier, one important feature NVIDIA left out of nForce3 150 was native Serial ATA support. This omission has been corrected in nForce3 250, as the chipset features dual Serial ATA controllers, with one device per controller. Like VIA’s K8T800, motherboard manufacturers can use an external physical layer to add support for two more devices, bringing support for up to four Serial ATA drives. (Silicon Image has been used frequently in the past, although other manufacturers can be used.) nForce3 250 also has dual parallel ATA-133 controllers (four devices supported total) for those of you with older drives.

nForce3 250 continues to offer RAID support. Levels 0 (striping), 1 (mirroring), 0+1 (striping and mirroring), and JBOD (just a bunch of disks) are supported, which can all be managed with NVIDIA’s NVRAID software. One feature that sets NVIDIA’s RAID solution apart from others is its support for cross-controller operation. This means that your RAID array can consist of both Serial ATA and parallel ATA hard drives. Competing solutions from other manufacturers only provide Serial ATA RAID support.

Besides cross-controller support, another cool feature NVIDIA's RAID solution supports is spare drive. With this feature you can install an additional hard drive that can be assigned as a spare; this spare drive can be used if a mirrored drive in your RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 array fails. If this occurs, the spare drive will kick in and automatically start rebuilding the array, replacing the drive that went down. The entire process is invisible to the user, you don’t have to power down and you can replace the bad drive later.

For connectivity, nForce3 250 supports USB 2.0 (up to 8 ports), 6 PCI slots, and AGP 8X. In addition, once PCI Express devices roll out later this year, nForce3 250 will be ready.

Audio/Video

Unlike the nForce/nForce2 family, one feature you won’t see NVIDIA heavily promoting with nForce3 150 or nForce3 250 is audio. The Dolby Digital audio processing unit (APU) found in previous chipsets didn’t make the transition to nForce3. The chipset does provide an AC’97 interface, which is capable of supporting 2, 4, or 6-channel audio, but this probably comes as a letdown to many gamers and hardware enthusiasts. Likewise, nForce3 250 lacks the integrated GeForce4 MX graphics found on NVIDIA’s nForce2 IGP.

NVIDIA feels that the typical Athlon 64 user is more of an enthusiast who already has their own graphics solution. As AMD’s 64-bit platform works its way down into the value market, NVIDIA plans to add an integrated chipset option, but you won’t see that today.

Processor support

Like nForce3 150, NVIDIA’s nForce3 250 chipset supports all of AMD’s latest 64-bit processors, Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, and Opteron. nForce3 250 also supports 2P configurations, meaning the chipset is capable of supporting two processors. This feature could allow NVIDIA to make a play into servers and high-end workstations. In fact, during our meeting with NVIDIA they had a dual Opteron system up and running based on an nForce3 250Gb reference board.

When AMD migrates to Socket 939 later this year, nForce3 250 will be ready. Manufacturers are validating their designs now so the transition should be seamless.



SIDEBAR: NVIDIA’s nForce3 networking team consists of employees from 3Com.

Test conditions

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System Setup

AMD Athlon 64 3400+

NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb reference board
ASUS K8V Deluxe

512MB PC3200 (DDR400) SDRAM

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
Driver version ForceWare 56.56

Windows XP Professional SP1

DirectX 9.0b

Benchmarks

SiSoft Sandra 2004
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
Lock On: Modern Air Combat (Mig-29 custom demo)
Call of Duty (demo0032 custom demo)
Quake III: Arena version 1.32 (fscrusher demo)
Unreal Tournament 2003 (T2 custom demo)
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles (The Black Death track)
Splinter Cell (FS custom demo)
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (paris demo)
Halo: Combat Evolved (stock benchmark)
Comanche4 (stock demo)






SIDEBAR: Hopefully NVIDIA’s System Utility will be a little more popular with nForce3 boards.

SiSoft Sandra 2004

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SiSoft Sandra 2004

Notes

With the Athlon 64’s integrated memory controller, one of the key differentiating factors between systems chipsets in SiSoft Sandra is largely gone, the NVIDIA and VIA systems fall within 1% of each other in memory bandwidth testing. In fact, the other tests are close as well, with K8T800 never pulling away more than 2% from nForce3 250.




SIDEBAR: The nForce3 250Gb chip on the reference board shipped without any cooling.

NASCAR Racing 2003

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NASCAR – OpenGL

Notes

nForce3 250Gb takes a slight advantage in NASCAR 2003, and when we say slight, we mean it, with the NVIDIA platform outperforming VIA K8T800 by less than two percentage points. NASCAR is a pretty good system level benchmark, so we initially assumed we’d see a larger margin between both chipsets with this benchmark.



SIDEBAR: Even without a heatsink on the nForce3 250Gb, it ran fairly cool and wasn’t hot to the touch.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles

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IL-2 Sturmovik: FB - OpenGL

Notes

Flight simulators tend to stress CPU performance with their demanding flight simulation models and AI routines, especially in the Black Death track where dozens of aircraft are battling for supremacy of the sky. Therefore its no real surprise to see both systems mirror each other in performance.



SIDEBAR: ASUS is one manufacturer that appears to be waiting on Socket 939 before making the move to nForce3 250.

Quake III

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Quake III - OpenGL

Notes

Quake 3 is an old favorite around here, as it’s excellent for highlighting subtleties like BIOS setting modifications, and in our case, motherboards. nForce3 250 is once again able to command a narrow lead, but we’re still looking at a 2% margin between both boards.



SIDEBAR: NVIDIA’s nForce3 Go recently got a design win with HP.

Comanche 4

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Comanche 4

Notes

Comanche, like IL-2 is more of a processor test, so based on the results we saw with that benchmark it isn’t surprising that both platforms turned in the same frame rate. It’s beginning to look like NVIDIA’s nForce3 250Gb isn’t a dramatic improvement over K8T800 however.



SIDEBAR: Wow, what a week for old benchmarks, first 3DMark 03 makes a reappearance in the DC article and now Comanche 4.

Unreal Tournament 2003

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Unreal Tournament 2003 – Direct3D

Notes

Once again both performance is a dead heat between both platforms.




SIDEBAR: Unfortunately, the nForce3 system didn’t ship with NVIDIA’s Firewall software so we weren’t able to check it out.

Call of Duty

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Call of Duty - OpenGL

Notes

We’ve found that Call of Duty places a little more strain on the CPU than does Quake 3, so it isn’t surprising to see the margins between both chipsets tighten up a little. The performance difference is less than one percent in all tests.



SIDEBAR: In a not so surprising move, Activision has decided to port CoD to PS2 and Xbox. Lets hope Infinity Ward isn’t working on this project, I’m ready for CoD2!

Splinter Cell

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Splinter Cell – Direct3D

SIDEBAR: Have you pre-ordered your copy of Pandora Tomorrow yet?

Tomb Raider

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Tomb Raider – Direct3D

Notes

We decided to disable some of Tomb Raider’s 2.0 shader effects in the hopes that it would help bring out some of the performance difference between both chipsets, but as you can see those attempts were unsuccessful – both platforms are essentially offering equal levels of performance.




SIDEBAR: Tomb Raider must have set a new record for getting its price slashed. It hit $30 only a few months after release.

Lock On: Modern Air Combat

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Lock On: Modern Air Combat – Direct3D

Notes

Again, with their complicated flight models, flight simulations tend to stress the CPU, more than any other benchmark. Therefore both platforms are running equally.



SIDEBAR: The developer on LOMAC is Eagle Dynamics.

Halo	Page:: ( 16 / 17 )

Halo

SIDEBAR: I still don’t understand why Halo 2’s been delayed for so long. Hopefully it won’t be more of the same with some new enemies to shoot at.

Conclusion

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NVIDIA’s nForce3 250 chipset is shaping up to be an incredibly flexible platform. nForce3 250Gb provides native Gigabit Ethernet networking, the first on an AMD platform, and brings with it the first native Firewall solution. With security becoming an increasing concern as security flaws continue to be exploited, this feature should come as a welcome addition to the typical home user as well as corporations.

NVIDIA has incorporated an enhanced HyperTransport interface into nForce3 250, addressing one of the nForce3 150’s chief complaints, and now has dual built-in Serial ATA controllers. This should please gamers and enthusiasts as well as A/V gurus, and motherboard manufacturers won’t have to rely on external solutions for Serial ATA support.

nForce3 250 and nForce3 250Gb are pin-compatible with nForce3 150 (688 pins total), so motherboard manufacturers can drop it right into their existing solutions. This eases development and manufacturing costs for motherboard manufacturers, in fact Chaintech has already announced their nForce3 250 board, the Zenith ZNF3-250. nForce3 250 is in full production now, with the first motherboards expected to hit retail this month.

Unlike previous nForce launches where NVIDIA limited itself to five or six board partners, NVIDIA lists 19 motherboard partners onboard for nForce3 250, with more likely on the way. Some of the launch partners we inquired with however mentioned that they will be waiting on Socket 939 before they introduce an nForce3 250 part.

Unfortunately, the Soundstorm audio found on nForce2 didn’t migrate over to nForce3 250, but NVIDIA is hard at work on a new discrete audio solution. We’re still holding out hopes that this technology somehow finds its way to nForce3. Remember that NVIDIA initially had no plans for an nForce product without integrated graphics, but less than a year after the chipset was introduced they released nForce 415D – a solution without integrated graphics. However, even if this doesn't occur manufacturers could still potentially integrate an external NVIDIA audio solution into their existing designs.

nForce3 250’s performance isn’t revolutionary. We found that it performed on par if not slightly better than VIA K8T800. When you pair this with the additional features nForce3 250 offers, it definitely puts NVIDIA in a better position to compete against SiS and VIA than they had with nForce3 150. We can only wonder what might have been if NVIDIA had been able to deliver nForce3 250 in the last half of 2003 as originally intended however.

Overall the nForce3 250 platform has a lot of good things going for it, but we’ll reserve final judgment until we have retail motherboards in our hands. We’ve been told that things will get really exciting for nForce3 250 once Socket 939 hits, but unfortunately that’s one story we can’t share with you until those processors are introduced later this year. We've also been told that all of the technologies found in nForce3 250Gb will soon find their way into NVIDIA's K7 line.

In the meantime nForce3 250 offers an excellent feature set and solid performance. If you were tempted by nForce3 150, you’ll love nForce3 250. And if the audio is a concern, Chaintech’s board offers VIA’s well regarded Envy24 7.1 audio. How’s that for irony!



SIDEBAR: Which Athlon 64 chipset do you plan on building your next system around, or do you already have a system setup and wish you waited? Share your thoughts in the news comments!