NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition Launched

Spinnerbait writes "NVIDIA took the wraps off their nForce 4 SLI chipset platform for Intel Processors today and there's a full review and showcase with benchmarks up at HotHardware. As with NVIDIA's AMD version of this chipset, motherboards based on the technology will support dual PCI Express graphics cards for load sharing in 3D Gaming applications. What's perhaps even more interesting is how the new NVIDIA memory controller actually allows the platform to out-pace Intel's own i925XE in virtually all of the benchmarks."

Full article mirrored

Here [networkmirror.com]

Humans in my game

At this rate soon we will have processors that are capable of rendering real video instead of animation. Or say animation as real as videio footage. Imagine you can select characters like Brad Pit or Tom Cruse for the game. Way to go...

Re:Humans in my game

Imagine you can select characters like Brad Pit or Tom Cruse for the game

Or CowboyNeal...

Re:Humans in my game

At this rate soon we will have processors that are capable of rendering real video instead of animation. Or say animation as real as videio footage.

Hardly. Most game-style rendering today is mostly smoke and mirrors; while 3D graphics hardware has improved at a ridiculous rate over the last couple of years, there's still a long way to go before certain, everyday scenes can be rendered.

Something I'd like would be a 'city-renderer', capable of rendering a decent-sized European city (i.e. not a grid) from aerial views down to individual rooms. While a clever level-of-detail system could go a long way towards this, there would still be an utterly horrendous amount of geometry for a typical skyline shot [hylobatidae.org].

Now add traffic, crowds of humans (typical FPS-style games give up after about ten or so, strategy games use crude mannequins for more), properly reflective surfaces and whatnot, motion blur and decent HDR [daionet.gr.jp] and your quadruple-SLI Geforce 9000-Hyper-Pro-Matic setup will still grind to a halt.

Things are slowly getting there, but I'm still waiting - but like a gas, FPS-style generic corridors will expand in processing requirements until they saturate even the greatest hardware. Look at Doom 3, for example... ;-)

I heard that its isn't supposed to be as good

I remember reading on the Inquirer, that on a one on one comparison, the nForce Intel boards weren't able to keep up to the AMD ones, on more than just a processor basis. Was a few weeks ago though, so possible could have been fixed, i.e. driver probs

EM emissions

When are these things going to start spitting out microwaves? We're already into TV and FM Radio Band emissions at 200-400Mhz. Microwaves really aren't that far off.

While there are some radar bands from 1,300 to 1,600 MHz, most microwave applications fall in the range 3,000 to 30,000 MHz (3-30 GHz). Current microwave ovens operate at a nominal frequency of 2450 MHz, a band assigned by the FCC.

You'll be glad you kept your old steel PC case when we get this sort of speed out of MBs

Pete

Physics >> FCC

Current microwave ovens operate at a nominal frequency of 2450 MHz, a band assigned by the FCC.

I think you'll find that the physics of water molecule resonance had something to do with choice of this band.

Funny how every other country in the world chose the same band, despite not being ruled by the FCC ... :)

nVidia better than Intel

that nVidia were able to create a memory controller which out performed Intel comes as no great surprise when you look at the history of both companies Intel of course has the inside information on their cpu's but they have always been trying for a performance reliability compromise or the other hand nVidia try for cutting edge 300 miles per hour or nothing technology and thats why we love em of course nVidia have always pulled off this speed with stability anyway so you may not see where i am coming from

Re:nVidia better than Intel

breathe? [penny-arcade.com]

And what of...

All the motherboard manufacturers who dumped R&D into having to build alternative SLI solutions? One example being the Tyan S2895 which uses dual nForce4 chipsets to achieve true 16x pci-e in SLI mode. I'm hoping that nVidia didn't try to hold this information back from motherboard manufacturers otherwise we may see a lashback against nVidia. And considering I spent months hunting and waiting for a true 16x pci-e SLI solution I am a little disappointed in nVidia for waiting so long.

Re:And what of...

The Opteron/Nforce4 boards are still the only 16x/16x sli solutions available.

I just double checked on Intel's website, and the best I could find was 8x/8x (3 x8 and 1 x4 PCI express slots (28 lanes total)) And with that it is not possible to have multiple x16 slots (Heck, it's impossible to have 1) (It's possible I missed a better one. I was looking in the server section.)

The main reason that Tyan can do that is because of AMD's superior Hypertransport-based bus design in Opterons, over the shared bus favored by Intel. It's also the reason why Opteron scales a lot better than Xeon.

The other reason Tyan can do that is that Nvidia realized how easy it would be to make very slightly different chipsets that facilitated that. Basically they are just Nforce 4 chipsets, that can operate in parallel, giving 40 Pci express lanes (2-way) or 80 PCI express lanes for a 4-way Opteron. (Note a maximum of 4 x16s, as the other 16 can only be a max of x4, due to the 20 lanes per nforce4)

You can't do x16/x16 with any Intel Processor, as of now. (Though having seen how little x16/x4 or x16/x2 hurts benchmarks (vs standard x8/x8) I'm not convinced it's a big deal at all.)

nvidia

Sure benchmark is good when it reflects what most gamers have at home. ---- Sure they score 20 gazillions points with 3dmark but it's almost a machine fit for nasa that would cost around 3000$ to buy. ------ why cant they use a normal machine like a pentium IV 2,4 ghz with a ultra-ata 166 and 1 gig of ddr 400.That's more common and more realistic.

multi-everything

Seems like we're trending towards multiple everything recently.. multicore CPUs, SLI.. how long before this propagates to everything?

As a sys admin, I love the prospect of redundancy, but are there any benefits to bringing this multiplicity to anything else from a consumers perspective? Or does it stop here?

Re:multi-everything

Seems like we're trending towards multiple everything recently.. multicore CPUs, SLI.. how long before this propagates to everything?

Wouldn't doubt it.

You can only improve on things so long before you need a complete redesign. Adding more to the mix is a great stopgap that extends the usefulness of technology.

At some point AMD and Intel are going to have to perform a MAJOR redesign (even bigger than the dual-core). Granted this might not be until we reach the 7GHz mark, but there is an invisible line somewhere.

There is one big downside for the consumer though: increased prices. Dual-Core CPU's will be more expensive than regular ones. SLI graphics will require buying 2 cards. RAID storage requires multiple hard drives.

Personally I think it would be cool if my next computer were dual-core with SLI video ports and a RAID setup. Whether or not I can afford it, that's another story.

With the obvious effects of distributed and grid computing Sony's supposed cell tech might actually prove to be interesting (though I'd prefer it on a more local scale).

Already has

Seems like we're trending towards multiple everything recently.. multicore CPUs, SLI.. how long before this propagates to everything?

I have even heard about a guy with TWO complete individual PCs...

Humbug!

3D gaming, 3D schaming.
Back in my day we had the Voodoo 2's and the ol' 6mb of ram, 12 if you were rich! Couldn't even get two separate sprites on the screen without extreme lag... but we liked it!

Nice motherboard, but...

Will it work with the new dual core P4 CPU's? It doesn't make much sense to buy a high-end motherboard if you can't get the high-end CPU to go with it.

RAID 5

The one thing the Intel version has over the AMD version of this chipset is RAID 5 support. A RAID 5 controller card by itself is over 100 bucks. Dammit this is going to make me want to turn over to the dark side.

This is so cool...

Office and Zangband will now run faster on my computer. Yay!

Another Intel-funded CPU comparison?

Hmm, let's see. Let's take an Intel processor with these characteristics:

* Fastest consumer CPU they offer,
* Priced at about $1100, street

And compare it to the AMD offering, with these characteristics:

* Second fastest CPU they offer,
* Price of about half of the Intel offering.

Yes, that is a most fair review. It makes perfect sense to conclude that, on mostly identical chipsets, that Intel is faster.

How much are these sites paid under the table?

Re:Another troll who didn't RTFA?

OK, I'm responding to a troll that called me a troll :)

Normally, in a processor comparison, the processors are comparable for a reason - same positioning by the companies involved, same price point, whatever.

In this case, it appears that the only reason why the AMD proc was chosen was to give Intel "wins" in close contests, like LAME MP3 encoding, and to not make Intel's best look too awful in the cases where AMD won.

Point is, Intel was represented with its best game. Why should AMD be presented in a less favorable light?

There is little journalistic integrity with these enthusiast sites.

Where is PC Virtual Reality?

Maybe some knowledgeable /.ers can explain why VR seems to have died/stillborn on the personal computer? If we can get 100+ fps in Doom3 at 1600x1200 and wireless networking and battery consumption have dramatically improved, what's the deal? Is it consumer apathy? Is there some other technological hurdle that needs to be overcome (LCD's seem to be getting pretty damn small and good, ie PSP)

Obstacles to Mainstream VR

My wife operates a VR research lab (they still exist) and all the new hardware is just great for them. Unfortunately, it only addresses one of the concerns which must be addressed before we can all live in the world of "Snow Crash". The basic problems for mainstream VR are as follows:

1) The headsets really haven't "tipped" price-wise. Kind of like LCD screens for a long time, they stay expensive (around $10k) while slowly improving in features (e.g. resolution, motion tracking). Until they get "good enough" the prices won't trend downwards. (There are cheap headsets, but they make you sick pretty fast. Even the pricey ones make you sick after 30 mins or so ... so you won't be playing WoW in them.)

2) The big issues w.r.t. UI remain unsolved. E.g. a lot of VR setups involve complex motion tracking and setting aside a room for subjects to walk around in. Usually a second person watches the subject to prevent them from, say, running into a wall... There are rigs that allow you to suspend the subject to allow them to walk through theoretically infinite landscapes... we're talking six figures though.

3) Behavior capture. The solutions to tracking movement remain pretty experimental and invasive. All the stuff we've talked about so far will, at best, get you walking around in a virtual landscape, capture your head movements (kind of), and maybe capture some of your arm and finger movements. Even assuming your $500,000 suspension rig captures all your body movements perfectly, we still to capture facial expression and lip synch. (So far, spacial 3d audio is pretty primitive too ... Teamspeak is a long way from a person's voice emanating from their position in a shared world with lots of people.)

4) Force Feedback. All this VR is going to seem pretty lame when you can walk through solid objects or your hand passes through an item you're trying to manipulate. Arguably, this is a subset of item (3) above, but in fact just allowing people to walk around in an unlimited expanse is a big enough problem...

There are plenty of finer grained issues to deal with, but the rendering of VR scenes (at least, so far) has turned out to be the easy part. At the moment, if you wanted to play WoW in VR you'd need to set aside a large room, buy an expensive HMD, and a really expensive suspension rig. (Luckily, WoW lets you run straight through people so the UI will match this perfectly.)

Soundstorm

So, is Soundstorm gone for good?

The question is how well it performs in real world

I recall reading somewhere how the benchmark of memory interleave performance on 865/875 left most other chipsets in the dust, but in real world has only marginal gain over other chipsets.

How is the nforce4 Linux support

I just bought an SLI board (AMD) and was wondering how well the raid and SLI video configuration is supported under Linux.

I've booted my machine into it and to my suprise the ethernet devices worked out of the box with Xandros (based on debian sid). I still do not know about the raid or SLI video, however. I'm using a crappy old S3 PCI video card right now, but am about to receive two GeForce 6800 GTs in the mail. Can I use these bad boys in linux? Anybody know?

What about the drivers in the first place?

My biggest concern is the fact that NVIDIA can't get drivers right it seems... Their Unified ForceWare Drivers don't ever seem to work right all around the board, no matter what card or what version you're using... Maybe I just don't get it, but I think a 1 year old mongaloid chimp that's crippled in one hand could write better video drivers... Fix what you have before you release something else is my policy... Note: I own and only have owned Nvidia graphics cards since I have been gaming... It just frustrates me that this good of a chipset can get ruined by sloppy programming...