Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
NForce2
The nForce2 Chipset was released by NVIDIA as a refresh to the original nForce product offering.
It features an asynchronous PCI/AGP clock, i.e. PCI and AGP frequencies will not change when changing the FSB. The nForce2 platform is known for its very good results in overclocking AMD processors. The nForce2 features two different Southbridges, the MCP-P and the MCP-T.
The latter is equipped with two 100 Mbit ethernet NICs, high-quality SoundStorm 5.1 audio and loads of other integrated features whereas the first features one 100 Mbit NIC and a Realtek 5.1 audio controller.
The nForce chipset was remarkable for several reasons. It introduced dual channel memory to the mainstream market, doubling theoretical throughput, offering excellent performance most especially in workstation class benchmarks. This was deemed necessary largely because NVIDIA expected with integrated GeForce 4 MX class video hardware, the era of high performance onboard graphics had finally arrived. Fast high bandwidth main memory was required, to make sure the video hardware was not constantly stalled waiting for the main memory. However, with the discrete solution (no onboard video), all of this memory bandwidth was of no use to the Athlon XP, which was limited by its FSB from taking much advantage of the added troughput. Use of dual channel memory with the Athlon XP produced 0 to 5% increase in performance.
However, graphics technology changed so fast, that what looked like competitive performance at introduction, rapidly fell away, and discrete video solutions retain large performance advantage. With this in mind, a later cheaper OEM version was developed after the 2 revision of the board was completed, with single channel memory, that retained a surprisingly competitive performance. Sadly, this was not to be the last time NVIDIA was to remove features from its motherboards to reduce the price point.
The Asus Deluxe version rapidly became a favorite for hardware enthusiasts, with the integrated SoundStorm chip especially noted for providing high quality Dolby 5.1 output, while maintaining extremely low CPU usage. Many people also welcomed the consumer choice SoundStorm offered, in the face of a near market monopoly held by Creative labs for PC audio.
The board became a focus of nostalgia and frequent letter writing for hardware enthusiasts, because in the next generation of nForce boards, the SoundStorm audio was dropped, reportedly due to cost considerations. NVIDIA stated that other motherboards with inferior audio were seemingly never marked down in reviews, so the extra manufacturing cost of Soundstorm was not justified.
Some see the passing of SoundStorm as a classic example of the bottom dollar approach to building computers sweeping the PC industry, with component quality being gradually eroded, in favor of pricing considerations.
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