Any know if the NForce can take a AIMM module?

[Windogg]

Looking at the NForce 420 board it appears that most if not all will include an AGP slot. The onboard graphics will be more powerful than thing we have seen but it will still use shared memory. On the Intel i815 board a 4MB AIMM module can be purchased to take the load off the system memory. Anyone know if NForce will have the same option? Imagine a 16MB, 32MB or even a 64MB AIMM module running 266Mhz or even 333Mhz DDR SDRAM. That would be a great cheap upgrade.

The engineers at NVidia are not idiots. I certainly hope they kept it in mind.

Windogg

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

havent we seen reference board pictures? id imagine if there was one someone would have noticed and asked what the slot was (provided they didnt know). or we would have heard about it since it would have been a pretty good idea.

pic

would reference boards have included this? also, why do they only have 3 ddr sockets? i mean the whole idea is to install them in pairs, at least let us have four

 

[Windogg]

Sorry if I wasn't too clear. AIMM stand for AGP Inline Memory Module. The AIMM plugs directly into the AGP slot so no special socket is needed. It seems strange to me that a "integrated value" boards would all have an AGP slot when the majority of OEM would simply go with shared memory and skip the AGP slot. Looking at the reference boards from MSI, MiTAC,and ASUS it seems they all include a AGP. It might disappear as they enter full scale production but for now it can only hope that it's there for some good reason.

Windogg

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

<< Sorry if I wasn't too clear. AIMM stand for AGP Inline Memory Module. The AIMM plugs directly into the AGP slot so no special socket is needed. It seems strange to me that a "integrated value" boards would all have an AGP slot when the majority of OEM would simply go with shared memory and skip the AGP slot. Looking at the reference boards from MSI, MiTAC,and ASUS it seems they all include a AGP. It might disappear as they enter full scale production but for now it can only hope that it's there for some good reason.

Windogg >>

didnt know it goes into the agp slot. i knew what they were, just not where they go kind of embarassing. just assumed they were like old cache modules that had their own socket ill shut up now.

 

[Alkaline5]

Theoretically, the integrated GeForce core in the nForce should not drain away from system memory at all, as long as there are one or more DDR DIMMs in each of the two RAM banks. Current Athlons are said not to be able to utilize more than 2.1 Gb/s of memory bandwidth, which would still leave a full 2.1 Gb/s for the graphics core provided that the above conditions are met. So I doubt AIMM will be supported.

That said, the addition of more memory (and therefore bandwidth) specifically for the MX400 equivalent graphics may boost it up to GTS or PRO performance levels. So while it would be nifty, I doubt that we'll see it.

 

[TunaBoo]

Why 3 slots? You install say 256 in slots 1 and 2, and 512 in slot 3.

1 and 2 are interleaved together. Then the combo of that is interleaved with the 512 chip. In effect, you get transfer from all 3 banks at once

 

[nightowl]

Alkaline5: An AIMM is is not used to help with memory bandwith it is used to help reduce the amount of shared system memory which effectively takes away from the memory available to the system. Because in a shared memory acrhitecture, the integrated graphics chip has no memory of its own, it uses the system memory instead. But the extra memory bandwidth available on the nForce will help alleviate potential bandwidth problems.

 

[Alkaline5]

<< Because in a shared memory acrhitecture, the integrated graphics chip has no memory of its own, it uses the system memory instead. >>



Ah, yes. I got so caught up in thinking about the bandwidth benefits of the nForce's dual RAM banks that I had forgotten that the amount of RAM available to the rest of the system was diminished. Putting half your video RAM in an AIMM module and leaving half to eat up some of your system memory would still make for an interesting arrangement, though.