Best mobo for an ATI X800XT PE? -- Also...are NF3/4 boards a bad choice?

[Dodgeball Cannon]

Hello everyone,

First time post.....long time lurker.

I'm about to build a new A64 3500 (939 90nm) rig and I'm going to put a PE card in it and me and some of my buddies were discussing the merits of whether or not to completely avoid NF3 or NF4 boards as some were saying that it would be a BAD idea to put in a board for a competitor's card to run on.

While I can see their point in saying that I just personally don't put too much stock into that.

But....it has made me stop to think about it and for that reason alone I wanted to know what some of you thought about what kind of board would be best paired up with the PE.

Is VIA an idea I should consider or does it really make any difference? I personally think the NF3 boards that are out are mature and stable. I can wait for NF4 too.

But yeah.....my curiousity is piqued. I want to be sure I pick a great mobo and I would love to see what some of you have to say on this matter!

Many thanks all.

dbc

 

[CaiNaM]

the nf3 250 is the better chipset imo. i've always had nagging issues of some kind w/ via chipsets, tho the latest PROs seems decent.

a bit early to tell on the 939 stuff itself tho, as it seems it usually takes awhile for the latest and greatest to mature.

 

[Dodgeball Cannon]

Thank you CaiNam.

So for the most part, would most everyone agree that having an NForce based mobo to house an ATI card (a competitor's card at that) is not a problem in terms of getting the highest and best possible performance out of a system?

I certainly wouldn't think so but you never know. Would Nvidia be petty / low enough as to knowingly create a situation where a mobo of theirs would not run an ATI card as well as possible? Sure. It's because their not the same that I can see that.....but would there be long running issue / conflict to worry about if I did go that route?

Not sure.......hence, why I am asking you guys.

 

[imported_Bleh]

Shouldnt be a problem. People have ati cards running on all types of nforce chips with no problems.

 

[Aries64]

So for the most part, would most everyone agree that having an NForce based mobo to house an ATI card (a competitor's card at that) is not a problem in terms of getting the highest and best possible performance out of a system?

Dodgeball Cannon,

At first blush logic would dictate that Nvidia-based video cards would run faster and with better compatibility than on Nvidia-based mobos, but I don't think Nvidia would shoot themselves in the foot by making purposefully programming bugs into coding. Think of all the consumers who own or plan on buying ATI-based video cards. If compatibility became a widespread issue Nvidia would lose a lot of mobo sales.

It still may be true that Nvidia-Nvidia combos work better than Nvidia-ATI combos but I haven't seen any tests to substantiate this performance differential. Maybe someone else has some links to comparisions.

I have an ATI X800 XT PE-based card and it runs great on my K8N Neo2 system. While one test on a Direct-X game is CERTAINLY NOT CONCLUSIVE my Halo numbers are the same as in the Anandtech review of the K8N Neo2 at 1024x768 where the Anandtech test system was using an MSI K8N Neo2, FX-53 (S939), 2 x 512MB Mushkin PC3500 Level II OR 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3500 Platinum Ltd, and an Nvidia 6800 Ultra card.

Heres a link to that review page:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/sh...c.aspx?i=2128&p=16

My system used Catalyst 4.8 drivers at the time. 1024x768 = 122.175 fps (everything "OFF") and 103.575 fps everything on "HIGH"). No AA or AF enabled (just like in the Anandtech review).