KT400A in two weeks, and no Dual Channel DDR

[Hauk]

I emailed five worldwide PR contacts from Via's webpage and asked if the KT400A will be going dual channel DDR. Three guys wouldn't talk. One said chipset release in two weeks. Another said this:

David:

Thks very much for your email - and great support for VIA. Despite rumors to the contrary, we are not planning dual channel DDR on the KT400A - though I can assure you that the performance will be excellent.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Dual DDR for an Athlon XP really gives almost no performance benefits. It is largely marketing hype.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: DevilsAdvocate
Dual DDR for an Athlon XP really gives almost no performance benefits. It is largely marketing hype.

There are some areas where it does help significantly, as illustrated in the chart here (as of this time the page won't load because AnandTech is slammed, probably with people downloading the noise recordings for the GeForceFX versus Radeon 9700 Pro). The other situation where dual-channel could be beneficial is when using an onboard video core, of course.

As for VIA, they certainly do have their work cut out for them, and hopefully they'll rise to the challenge on this one. I'd like to see them abandon the traditional divider-based setup in favor of an nForce2-style design where the PCI and AGP busses stay at spec no matter what happens to FSB.

 

[Peter]

As if this hadn't been existing for ages. SiS chipsets allowed completely asynchronous bus speeds ever since the 5571 chipset ... and that was way back in the early Pentium days.

 

[Tab]

I think I will wait and see how the KT400A Performs, however I belive the nForce 2 will take the lead.

 

[DoubleL]

I think the KT400A will be worth taking a look at, With the new drivers the KT400 is just as fast as the Nforce2, At stock speed no program can tell the diff. in the speed and working with a KT400, Epox 8K9A2+ it is stable as a rock and yes I have a Asus nforce2 with a few other computers setting here

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Any idea as to how the onboard sound will be? Envy chip maybe?

 

[CraigRT]

I don't care if it's dual DDR as long as it works good and is fast.. i semi agree with the hype business.

 

[ahabeger]

Originally posted by: Peter
As if this hadn't been existing for ages. SiS chipsets allowed completely asynchronous bus speeds ever since the 5571 chipset ... and that was way back in the early Pentium days.

I really do hope VIA sees the light and implements fixed AGP & PCI with the KT400a, otherwise I'm buying my first non-VIA board in a long time.

 

[Soulkeeper]

My thoughts exactely
If it has a lockable or atleast a high enough pci divider (1/7th or atleast 1/6th) I'm getting one

I don't need dual channel ddr yet Any ddr is better than my pc-133 and a 100mhz fsb
bring on the pci lock thooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! and maybe integrated sata and slightly better memory/agp controllers

 

[Soulkeeper]

I wonder if it's lauch will coincide with the barton
that would be nice

 

[Soulkeeper]

I can't wait I hope it is truth

 

[Tab]

A Integrated S-ATA Controller would be awesome. Then we can see the true speeds of S-ATA! What is the Envy Sound Chip anyway? Compared to the AC'97?

 

[DrPara]

if via doesnt launch it with a 1/6 and/or a 1/7 PCI divider , they're out on the oc-market ; NF2 will still be #1

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Tabb
A Integrated S-ATA Controller would be awesome. Then we can see the true speeds of S-ATA!

Equally important, the SATA controller would be off of the PCI bus, leaving the full 133Mb/sec of PCI bandwidth for other stuff, such as a gigabit NIC or other PCI goodies.