kt600 vs nforce2 OC potential.

Soulkeeper

Diamond Member
Nov 23, 2001
6,732
155
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stock performance is probably within about 5% margin of difference between the two in most things
the kt600 is a solid solution and basically represents what via shoulda released in the kt400
the oc potential of the kt600 is limited tho (atleast for fsb overclocking) because of the pci dividers
the memory controller on the athlon via chipsets has also always seemed to have pretty low latencies, and this seems to show in applications that don't need a whole lot of memory bandwidth and instead rely on quick response of the memory subsystem
i think the kt600 boards seemed to max out between 210 and the upper 22x
wheras the nforce2 gets over 230 and 240 with good memory

if you can get a kt600 for atleast 20 or 30 bucks cheaper and you don't plan on doing insane overclocking of the fsb then you'd probably be happy with the purchase
i recommend the abit boards either way you go for socket A
they seem to be very good, like the old days :)
 

Jeff7181

Lifer
Aug 21, 2002
18,368
11
81
I can't think of any reason to go with a Via chipset. You can get nForce2 motherboards for around $50... if you pay less than that you're probably going to get very low quality stuff that will be more likely to fail.
 

Werty

Senior member
Aug 12, 2001
322
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hmmm, nforce2's potential is only derived when used with DUAL-Channel mode, right? if were just gona use single channel memory, would nforce2 motherboards still be better or the same now with Kt600?
 

big4x4

Golden Member
Jul 29, 2003
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Athlons do not benefit from DC like Intels do. Since they are the same price, why not just go with an nforce2 board. I own both types of boards and I prefer the nforce2 chipset over the via one. Regardless though, both are very stable and reliable chipsets!
 

jagec

Lifer
Apr 30, 2004
24,442
6
81
Originally posted by: big4x4
Athlons do not benefit from DC like Intels do. Since they are the same price, why not just go with an nforce2 board. I own both types of boards and I prefer the nforce2 chipset over the via one. Regardless though, both are very stable and reliable chipsets!

well, they do benefit some, but not nearly as much as P4's. Only a few percent, according to the reviews I've seen.

It's still worth running DC if you have 2 matched sticks anyway.
 

Soulkeeper

Diamond Member
Nov 23, 2001
6,732
155
106
i think a few sites did a comparison of the nforce2 ultra400 and the kt600
the first ones showed the nforce2 taking most benchmarks like 8/10 or so
but via has updated their hyperion drivers several times and the newer reviews seem to reflect this
in single channel mode i think the kt600 could beat the nforce2
and then it comes close to winning when the nforce2 has dual channel it wins atleast 4/10 benchmarks against the nforce2 if i had to guess
 

myocardia

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2003
9,291
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Yeah, but if you're wanting to overclock, why would you go with a Via chipset? The reason the nForce2 boards outsell the Via boards by at least a 10-1 ratio is because they are so good for overclocking.;)
 

VIAN

Diamond Member
Aug 22, 2003
6,575
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well, they do benefit some, but not nearly as much as P4's. Only a few percent, according to the reviews I've seen.

It's still worth running DC if you have 2 matched sticks anyway.
The Northbridge benefits from the bandwidth.
 

nemesismk2

Diamond Member
Sep 29, 2001
4,810
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www.ultimatehardware.net
Originally posted by: Werty
hmmm, nforce2's potential is only derived when used with DUAL-Channel mode, right? if were just gona use single channel memory, would nforce2 motherboards still be better or the same now with Kt600?

I have a nf2 and I found the difference between dual channel and single channel to be small, the only game which really showed what dual channel can do was Quake3.
 

MegaWorks

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
3,819
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Originally posted by: BlvdKing
NForce 2 is better than KT600, trust me.

listen to what he said!

------------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon XP T-Bred B DLT3C 1700+ @ 2.3GHZ (1.775v) 400FSB = 3200+
Abit NF7-S V.2 (nForce2-U400)
Corsair TwinX XMS 3200LL 512MB @ 2-3-2-6 (2.6v)
Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
Antec TrueBlue 480W
Thermalright SLK-947U with 92mm Vantec Tornado @2800RPM
Antec PlusView 1000AMG
Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks THX 550 5.1
 

Werty

Senior member
Aug 12, 2001
322
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Originally posted by: nemesismk2
Originally posted by: Werty
hmmm, nforce2's potential is only derived when used with DUAL-Channel mode, right? if were just gona use single channel memory, would nforce2 motherboards still be better or the same now with Kt600?

I have a nf2 and I found the difference between dual channel and single channel to be small, the only game which really showed what dual channel can do was Quake3.

ic. so if ill get a new KT600 based via motherboard for my AMD, i wouldnt miss out on perfomance aside from overclockability, right? :D
 

SammieC

Platinum Member
Apr 24, 2000
2,474
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Same here that Lock is a godsend, helps tremendously. Also I am wanting to try that DFi board out, it seems to be the overclocking giant!

Nforce all the way!