Fyo, Re: When do YOU think the nForce will be available in motherboards? And do you think it will be stable?
Extreme Tech has already a sample nForce motherboard for testing:
extremetech.com
Stability:
We ran the system both with and without integrated graphics. Except for the reboot bug above, there were no issues with any of the tests. We ran several Ziff-Davis benchmarks, including Content Creation Winstone 2001, 3D Winbench 2000, Audio Winbench, and Winbench 99 disk tests. In addition, we used SiSoft Sandra's memory benchmark. Game tests consisted of Giants: Citizen Kabuto (the 1368 version with GameGauge support), Quake III, Serious Sam and a number of the GameGauge game tests. All of them ran without any problems, except for the reboot bug mentioned above.
Performance:
Another interesting problem is the issue of memory bandwidth. There is some concern, rightfully, about available system memory bandwidth when using the integrated graphics core. In theory, the CPU should always be able to grab memory bandwidth first. When using the built-in IGP graphics, the memory streaming tests came in about 15-20% lower than when a GeForce2 Ultra was dropped into the AGP slot. This is possibly related to their memory arbitration logic still being enabled and consuming cycles even when nothing else is truly vying with the CPU for memory access. This may seem like an issue of concern, but we also have to note that the lower number was still one of the best bandwidth numbers we've seen for DDR motherboards, and the higher number is considerably better.
Andreas |
