Chipset - Is the chipset more important than processors?

[vagnermarks]

I want to buy a new motherboard, but there are some obscures informations and topics about chipset that create doubts. For example: which chipset would be the best for P4 or Athlon? (don´t mind which socket). Last month I could buy a motherboard with a determined chipset and today it is not up-to-date. Which criterions should I take as important to get a new motherboard and choose the correct chipset? Is the chipset responsible for a good performance? The chipset could be responsible for some kind of compatibility between some component ?
I am asking for orientation because I really could not find a specific text about chipset. Somebody can help me? Sorry for my inexperienced.

Marks

 

[PurdueRy]

The chipset is not that important. Mainly it has to do with feature. for the most part they don't greatly increase performance. To be safe just get an NVIDIA chipset

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

All chipsets for any given platform perform nearly identically. Some may be ever-so-slightly faster than others, but, for the most part, they are the same.

Some people claim that some chipsets are more stable than others, but I have seen no evidence of this.

If I were you, I'd get whatever is least expensive, as long as it has the features you need.

 

[sandeep108]

AFAIK, nVidia's nForce 4 ultra is the recommended for Athlon 64 and Intel's 925 or 945 for P4s. The 945 are newer and will support 64emt, dual core, 1066 MHz FSB, sata-II, etc. Otherwise not much difference between 915, 925 and 945, if you are going for a 5xx series P4. The nForce Ultra add pcx16, sata-II, better 939 socket support, etc.

 

[Continuity27]

Aye, for Athlon 64 I'd go with nForce 4 Ultra (Or SLI if you want to do that).

Only real difference between Ultra and SLI is the amount of PCI-Express x16 slots BTW.

 

[justly]

The main concern about chipsets are features and drivers. Drivers are really not a concern if you don't intend to experment with multiple operating systems. Features are really all it boils down to for most people, and even then a lot of the features end up being marketing hype. It is up to you to valadate your need for a specific feature.
Chipsets can have an effect on performance but if you really want to get into this you need to specify what brand chipsets you want to compare because almost every chipset has some area of performance that it excells in.
On an AMD system the chipset doesn't include the memory controller so chipsets have very specific areas where they excell, on a Intel system the chipset includes the memory controller so the memory controllers performance will have the largest effect on overall performance.

Motherboards can be just as important as chipsets because not all motherboads will utilize all of a chipsets features. Motherboards can also incorporate additional features (overclocking is a prime example of this).

Sorry if I just made your decission harder than it already was.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Shame to everyone who said the chipset is not important!!!

You are forgetting that the chipset is what runs the whole computer!! Of course it is important, and it extends much further than just features!

The chipset is typically split into two dies, the northbridge and the southbridge. The northbridge functions as an intermidiary between the processor and the memory, and the PCI/AGP busses.

The southbridge connects to the northbridge, and handles all the peripheral controllers (CD-rom HD etc)

Now thankfully there arent that many chipsets to choose from (for the A64 there is the nForce 3, the K8T800 and the updated PCI-E K8T890 and the nForce 4s)

For all the nVidia solutions, they use a one chip solution, meaning all the funtions of north and south in one, hence electrons don't have to travel as far, which equates to more speed. Also, the A64s have the memory controllers on-die rather than part of the chipset so the chipsets can be less intricate.

The chipset is the intermidiary between EVERYTHING....CPU, Memory, PCI, AGP, HDs, Floppy, Optical media, you name it.


For features, that is more dependant upon the Manufaturer. A chipset may support 16 USB 2.0 ports, but the manufuctuer (say Gigabyte) only chooses you use 8 of the 16 available.

Also, manufacturer's can rig stuff in, for instance an extra SATA controller on top of the K8T800's 2, they can add another 2 with a seperate controller, giving an overall total of 4....


Do not take chipsets lightly, b/c they are what defines the limits of your system.....you can get the best videocard and processor out there, but if your chipset is ineffcient and slow, your dead in the water.




If you wanted a explanation of chipsets, this should be of use.....if you are hunting for the best chipsets for a specific proc, check out reviews at such places as HardOCP.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
Shame to everyone who said the chipset is not important!!!

You are forgetting that the chipset is what runs the whole computer!! Of course it is important, and it extends much further than just features!

The chipset is typically split into two dies, the northbridge and the southbridge. The northbridge functions as an intermidiary between the processor and the memory, and the PCI/AGP busses.

The southbridge connects to the northbridge, and handles all the peripheral controllers (CD-rom HD etc)

Now thankfully there arent that many chipsets to choose from (for the A64 there is the nForce 3, the K8T800 and the updated PCI-E K8T890 and the nForce 4s)

For all the nVidia solutions, they use a one chip solution, meaning all the funtions of north and south in one, hence electrons don't have to travel as far, which equates to more speed. Also, the A64s have the memory controllers on-die rather than part of the chipset so the chipsets can be less intricate.

The chipset is the intermidiary between EVERYTHING....CPU, Memory, PCI, AGP, HDs, Floppy, Optical media, you name it.


For features, that is more dependant upon the Manufaturer. A chipset may support 16 USB 2.0 ports, but the manufuctuer (say Gigabyte) only chooses you use 8 of the 16 available.

Also, manufacturer's can rig stuff in, for instance an extra SATA controller on top of the K8T800's 2, they can add another 2 with a seperate controller, giving an overall total of 4....


Do not take chipsets lightly, b/c they are what defines the limits of your system.....you can get the best videocard and processor out there, but if your chipset is ineffcient and slow, your dead in the water.




If you wanted a explanation of chipsets, this should be of use.....if you are hunting for the best chipsets for a specific proc, check out reviews at such places as HardOCP.

I think we all know that...duh. The OP was asking in terms of performance, and comparitively between models there is very little performance difference. Thats all, he didn't ask for a report on what a chipset is, just which is the best to go with. In this case, most all are good, its tough to go wrong. So we are saying don't stress over it. We are not saying he could pull out the chipset and it would work fine. Jeez

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: rleemhui
So we are saying don't stress over it. We are not saying he could pull out the chipset and it would work fine. Jeez

"PMFG I TRIED WHAT YOU GUYS SED! YOU GUYZ SAID THAT A CHIPSET ISNT IMPORTANT SO I SOLD IT ON EBAY BUT NO ONE BOUGHT IT ... NOW MY COMPUTER DOESNT WORK "

^-- that would be funny if someone took your advice like that

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy

Originally posted by: rleemhui
So we are saying don't stress over it. We are not saying he could pull out the chipset and it would work fine. Jeez

"PMFG I TRIED WHAT YOU GUYS SED! YOU GUYZ SAID THAT A CHIPSET ISNT IMPORTANT SO I SOLD IT ON EBAY BUT NO ONE BOUGHT IT ... NOW MY COMPUTER DOESNT WORK "

^-- that would be funny if someone took your advice like that

Well the funny point is not how he manage to trust us, it's how he manage to sell his bare chipset on ebay

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Well....! That's because on another forum, someone must have told him that the chipset is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT part of his computer, so the guy's sitting there saying
"PMFG I ONLY HAVE AN NFORCE1 CHIPSET LEMME GET ANOTEHR CHIPSET AND GET AN NFORCE 4 SLI AND MY COMPUTER WILL BE FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111111111thirtythree"

.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
Shame to everyone who said the chipset is not important!!!

You are forgetting that the chipset is what runs the whole computer!! Of course it is important, and it extends much further than just features!

Sure, there's more to a chipset than features. But nothing justifies spending a bunch of money on the "best chipset" when you're going to get the same performance as the dirt-cheapest.

The chipset is typically split into two dies, the northbridge and the southbridge. The northbridge functions as an intermidiary between the processor and the memory, and the PCI/AGP busses. The southbridge connects to the northbridge, and handles all the peripheral controllers (CD-rom HD etc) Now thankfully there arent that many chipsets to choose from (for the A64 there is the nForce 3, the K8T800 and the updated PCI-E K8T890 and the nForce 4s) For all the nVidia solutions, they use a one chip solution, meaning all the funtions of north and south in one, hence electrons don't have to travel as far, which equates to more speed.

Sorry, but nVidia's chipsets are not noticeably faster than VIA's or SiS's. I bet they're actually slower, in some scenarios.

Also, the A64s have the memory controllers on-die rather than part of the chipset so the chipsets can be less intricate. The chipset is the intermidiary between EVERYTHING....CPU, Memory, PCI, AGP, HDs, Floppy, Optical media, you name it. For features, that is more dependant upon the Manufaturer. A chipset may support 16 USB 2.0 ports, but the manufuctuer (say Gigabyte) only chooses you use 8 of the 16 available. Also, manufacturer's can rig stuff in, for instance an extra SATA controller on top of the K8T800's 2, they can add another 2 with a seperate controller, giving an overall total of 4....

We didn't say that the chipset determines which features your system will have. We simply pointed out that different chipsets have different features. AGP/PCI locking, dual-channel memory, integrated graphics, etc... these all require support by the chipset.

Do not take chipsets lightly, b/c they are what defines the limits of your system.....you can get the best videocard and processor out there, but if your chipset is ineffcient and slow, your dead in the water.

I'm sorry, but that's just plain not true. Every single chipset for Socket 754, 939 and LGA775 performs nearly identically.

Want benchmarks?
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2301

 

[edmundoab]

i would say equally important

 

[RampantAndroid]

OK, first off, nVidia chipsets are faster. This is partially do to the one chip solution...look at benchmarks, the A8V (K8T800 Pro) is slower than the MSI K8N Neo 2 Plat. (nforce 3 ultra)


No, they don't perform identically....by your standard, I should just pull the plastic 939 socket out of my K8N, and solder my own LGA775 in, and it'd work...holy dogsh*t...NO!

Buying the best chipset? YES. When P4s were still northwoods, the diffference between a 865 and an 875 were huge performance wise, and small price wise. I don't regret getting the 875 chipset.

Please, don't lecture me on how a chipset is not impt. First, the question of how the chipset determines a computers workings was asked. Second, go take a microcomputer archetecure class at a nearby college, that'll explain why a chipset is so important!



Pull the chipset out of your mobo....hahaha, that'd be fun, you'd destroy all the multilayer traces on the PCB in the process.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
OK, first off, nVidia chipsets are faster. This is partially do to the one chip solution...look at benchmarks, the A8V (K8T800 Pro) is slower than the MSI K8N Neo 2 Plat. (nforce 3 ultra)

None of what you just said is true. First of all, those benchmarks aren't the greatest, because the VIA K8T800 Pro motherboards used AGP video cards, while the other boards used PCI-express cards. But even if you ignore that, the VIA chipset still out-performs the nVidia boards in many of the benchmarks. You have to look at all the graphs, not just the first one!

No, they don't perform identically.

Look back at my posts; I said "nearly identically." Look at the benchmarks, and you will see that is the case.

by your standard, I should just pull the plastic 939 socket out of my K8N, and solder my own LGA775 in, and it'd work...holy dogsh*t...NO!

What in the world are you talking about? When did I say LGA775 chipsets are compatible with s939?

Buying the best chipset? YES. When P4s were still northwoods, the diffference between a 865 and an 875 were huge performance wise, and small price wise. I don't regret getting the 875 chipset.

Say again? http://techreport.com/reviews/2003q2/intel-865/index.x?pg=7

Please, don't lecture me on how a chipset is not impt. First, the question of how the chipset determines a computers workings was asked. Second, go take a microcomputer archetecure class at a nearby college, that'll explain why a chipset is so important! Pull the chipset out of your mobo....hahaha, that'd be fun, you'd destroy all the multilayer traces on the PCB in the process.

About half of everything you post makes no sense. Take the above paragraph, for example.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
OK, first off, nVidia chipsets are faster. This is partially do to the one chip solution...look at benchmarks, the A8V (K8T800 Pro) is slower than the MSI K8N Neo 2 Plat. (nforce 3 ultra)


No, they don't perform identically....by your standard, I should just pull the plastic 939 socket out of my K8N, and solder my own LGA775 in, and it'd work...holy dogsh*t...NO!

Buying the best chipset? YES. When P4s were still northwoods, the diffference between a 865 and an 875 were huge performance wise, and small price wise. I don't regret getting the 875 chipset.

Please, don't lecture me on how a chipset is not impt. First, the question of how the chipset determines a computers workings was asked. Second, go take a microcomputer archetecure class at a nearby college, that'll explain why a chipset is so important!



Pull the chipset out of your mobo....hahaha, that'd be fun, you'd destroy all the multilayer traces on the PCB in the process.

Wow, so I can't use the intel chipset in a AMD board.....wow....I didn't know that....thanks mr obvious.

And if you look at them performance wise they vary very little chipset to chipset. Its not a good thing to decide on a MOBO solely on the chipset. As long as its compatible(added this for your sake), then there are other things to look at that are much more important IMO such as reputation of the mobo maker

 

[bcoupland]

It depends on the platform. For A64, there's little real-world difference between chipsets. This is mainly because of the onboard mem. controller. However, for processors such as the Intels and the Athlon XPs, where the northbridge (chipset) is between the Ram and the processor, there can be large performance differences between chipsets due to the reliance on the northbridge mem. controller.

 

[RampantAndroid]

hurts, you take everything so literally....ok, from now on when I'm being literal i'll tage it with *literal*

None of what you just said is true. First of all, those benchmarks aren't the greatest, because the VIA K8T800 Pro motherboards used AGP video cards, while the other boards used PCI-express cards. But even if you ignore that, the VIA chipset still out-performs the nVidia boards in many of the benchmarks. You have to look at all the graphs, not just the first one!

Wait, I said nForce 3.....(you even quoted me there) the nForce 3 has AGP!!!! Huh? K8T800 and nForce 3.....they BOTH have AGP....its the nForce 4 and K8T890 that have PCI-E!!!! Get it right, and don't tell me I'm an idiot until you do.

Edit: What benchmarks did you think I said I was using to compare them? I never said what I was using, so you con't even go and tell me I'm wrong due to lack of info!!!!!

There is a 1000 pt difference in 3DMark03 tests between the nForce 3s and 4s....that is a difference I'd say. And don't bring PCI-E into this, since nothing can even use that bandwidth yet....nothing is even pushing AGP 8x's theoretical bandwidth limit.

I look at all benchmarks, whether its a gaming bench, or a Sysmark CPU test, or even a simple Divx encode.......



When you quoted my "paraghraph", you tried to make me look stupid by mashing everything into one incoherent....thing. Look at my orginal post....when I said something about getting an education, I was still being serious. Then, I hit enter twice, started a new paraghaph, and responded to to the joke of selling your chipset on ebay. Pay attention to punctuation, it makes a world of difference!

Yes, the name "hurtstotalktoyou" is true...for once, the name descripes the person.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
hurts, you take everything so literally....ok, from now on when I'm being literal i'll tage it with *literal*

How else should I take it, when you say that chipsets make a significant difference in performance?

Wait, I said nForce 3.....(you even quoted me there) the nForce 3 has AGP!!!! Huh? K8T800 and nForce 3.....they BOTH have AGP....its the nForce 4 and K8T890 that have PCI-E!!!! Get it right, and don't tell me I'm an idiot until you do.

This is what you said:

nVidia chipsets are faster

But it's not true. I showed you benchmark testing results to that end.

Edit: What benchmarks did you think I said I was using to compare them? I never said what I was using, so you con't even go and tell me I'm wrong due to lack of info!!!!!

I showed you benchmarks all but proving my point. Where are yours?

There is a 1000 pt difference in 3DMark03 tests between the nForce 3s and 4s....that is a difference I'd say.

How do you figure? I've seen no benchmarks or any other kind of testing which would indicate that one chipset would be significantly faster than another. Again, where are you getting this wacky data?

And don't bring PCI-E into this, since nothing can even use that bandwidth yet....nothing is even pushing AGP 8x's theoretical bandwidth limit.

A test setup pitting one chipset and a PCI-express video card against another chipset with an AGP video card will not yield perfect results. It is therefore necessary to take the video differences into account when interpreting benchmarks.

I look at all benchmarks, whether its a gaming bench, or a Sysmark CPU test, or even a simple Divx encode.......

If that were true, then you should not be spouting nonsense about chipsets making a big difference in performance.

When you quoted my "paraghraph", you tried to make me look stupid by mashing everything into one incoherent....thing. Look at my orginal post....when I said something about getting an education, I was still being serious. Then, I hit enter twice, started a new paraghaph, and responded to to the joke of selling your chipset on ebay. Pay attention to punctuation, it makes a world of difference! Yes, the name "hurtstotalktoyou" is true...for once, the name descripes the person.

I didn't change your punctuation. Anyway, the quotes are a reference, to preserve context. Merging paragraphs does not impinge on that function.

 

[Arcanedeath]

As has been stated there are minimal performance differences between chipsets for the Athlon 64 due to it's on die memory controler, I'd still suggest an Nforce 4 or Nforce 3 250GB or Ultra chipset for AMD 64 though just due to features, also they tend to have slightly better graphics performance compared to Via and Sis, Sis tends to have the best IDE performance and via kinda splits the middle but tends to have the weakest graphics performance (eg has the poorest PCI-e and Agp implemtations although they are by no means bad) Generaly an Nforce based solution will have the most overclocking features, thats the reason I went w/ it. you can see the benches to prove this at just about any website on the net thats compared chipsets.

On Intel's end Nforce 4 SLI is the best performing solution for LGA 775, w/ Intel's DDR2 chipsets following up (eg 945, 925X, 915) I875 and 915 w/ DDR also perform nearly identical and provide good performance, I'd stay away from anyone but Intel or Nvidia's chipsets on the P4 platform

 

[RampantAndroid]

OK, really, this is getting old....

Here is why I don't bother showing souces: I don't give a sh*t what you say....I read so many sources I cannot tell the difference. Magazines, websites. Frankly, you are not worth the effort that it would require to prove my point.

If you are going to tell me to read the quoted paragraph, in an attempt to make me appear incoherent, then you damn well better put the quote in, unabridged, unaltered.

The only reason than it looks odd if because

you

deleted

the

seperation between paragraphs....

Plus, you have to watch not to put in words where there aren't any...my example is you telling me "those" benchmarks don't mean anything. Those? Which ones are you reffering to, I didn't name any. You just avoided that point.

In interest of getting other work done, and lack of enthusiasm for a flame war, I'm just going to ignore whatever you might say after this point, because it doesn't matter. You'll always avoid my points or answer them in a roundabout way.

Have a great day...

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
OK, really, this is getting old....

Here is why I don't bother showing souces: I don't give a sh*t what you say....I read so many sources I cannot tell the difference. Magazines, websites. Frankly, you are not worth the effort that it would require to prove my point.

If you are going to tell me to read the quoted paragraph, in an attempt to make me appear incoherent, then you damn well better put the quote in, unabridged, unaltered.

The only reason than it looks odd if because you deleted the seperation between paragraphs....

Plus, you have to watch not to put in words where there aren't any...my example is you telling me "those" benchmarks don't mean anything. Those? Which ones are you reffering to, I didn't name any. You just avoided that point.

In interest of getting other work done, and lack of enthusiasm for a flame war, I'm just going to ignore whatever you might say after this point, because it doesn't matter. You'll always avoid my points or answer them in a roundabout way.

Have a great day...

Here's two more benchmark testbeds:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1647383,00.asp
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1520&page=6

The numbers don't lie.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: RampantAndroid
OK, really, this is getting old....

Here is why I don't bother showing souces: I don't give a sh*t what you say....I read so many sources I cannot tell the difference. Magazines, websites. Frankly, you are not worth the effort that it would require to prove my point.

If you are going to tell me to read the quoted paragraph, in an attempt to make me appear incoherent, then you damn well better put the quote in, unabridged, unaltered.

The only reason than it looks odd if because

you

deleted

the

seperation between paragraphs....

Plus, you have to watch not to put in words where there aren't any...my example is you telling me "those" benchmarks don't mean anything. Those? Which ones are you reffering to, I didn't name any. You just avoided that point.

In interest of getting other work done, and lack of enthusiasm for a flame war, I'm just going to ignore whatever you might say after this point, because it doesn't matter. You'll always avoid my points or answer them in a roundabout way.

Have a great day...

Wow, way to look smart. Hurtstotalktoyou just got you there. What else you want?

 

[vagnermarks]

Thanks for all kind of information.
I am looking for the best system and I need to find the best configuration and solution for my project:

I need to buy 1 server and 15 PCs with different motherboards. It´s important because I will use these PCs to give hardware classes. So, how to find the best set (MoBo, Chipset, Processor, HD, RAM) without spend a lot of money because I am not rich !

I know, and you have already proved to me, the chipset is so important than processor.

I need to have a resistent configuration for 15 PCs and a server that support a big quantity of information. I do not go to work with games or graphic solutions.

Please I´d like to receive professional suggestions. I cannot make a mistake. Firstly because I have not enough money and the most important: I worked a lot to try to get my independence.

Your suggestions is very important and it can make all the difference !
AMD with nForce or Via or others? or
Intel with chipset Intel?
Of course we can find a lot of peculiarities and technics differences.

Thanks
Marks