NFORCE 2 Questions, PLEASE READ!!

[dguy6789]

Hi, Im probabyl going to get a Nforce 2 mainboard. I have some questions.

1. Does it support just ddr 3200, or can it use dual ddr 3200, and how does this dual setup work?
2. What kind of Video card is integrated into it?
3. Will this video card out perform my old geforce 2 MX400 64MB PCI?
4. By how much?
5. And what will happen if i use it in agp 8X mode on a 4 x video card?
Thats about it.

motherboard type is called : ASUS A7N8X, It is an NFORCE 2 model. here is a link to it

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7n8x/overview.htm

thanks in advance!

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
Hi, Im probabyl going to get a Nforce 2 mainboard. I have some questions.

1. Does it support just ddr 3200, or can it use dual ddr 3200, and how does this dual setup work?
2. What kind of Video card is integrated into it?
3. Will this video card out perform my old geforce 2 MX400 64MB PCI?
4. By how much?
5. And what will happen if i use it in agp 8X mode on a 4 x video card?
Thats about it.

motherboard type is called : ASUS A7N8X, It is an NFORCE 2 model. here is a link to it

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7n8x/overview.htm

thanks in advance!

1) It supports either, though I don't know if it "officially" supports it - you may have to overclock your processor a bit to get the 200MHz FSB speed. My understand of it is that, if you have one stick of RAM in, then the dual-channel thing doesn't function - you just get regular single-channel memory performance. If you put two sticks into the right slots (I think it's 1 and 3, but I'm not sure on that) then it enables dual channel (automatically, I'm guessing on this though too, as I only have one stick presently).

2) That depends on what board you're getting. For example, the Epox 8RDA+ has all sorts of extras - LAN, Firewire, USB 2.0, the good 5.1 sound...but no onboard video. The new 8RGA+ has a Geforce4 MX onboard; I don't know either what the memory situation is - if it has built-in RAM, or if it takes from the system RAM. I imagine there are reviews out there; search on Google for some.
Edit: Ok, I see that you mention the A7N8X - I don't think it has any onboard video.

3) It might - the reviews should tell more on that.

4) See #3

5) You can't. If the card only supports AGP4x, both the motherboard and videocard will run at that. The performance difference between AGP4x and 8x with current games is almost nothing anyway, maybe around 1-2%.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Jeff covered it pretty well so I'll just say, yes, you can put 2 same sized sticks of 3200DDR in slots 1&3 or 1,2&3 and it'll go to DC-DDR mode. If you get a IGP board and run DC-DDR the G4MX graphics can score 5000+ in 3DMark2k1se.

 

[Marshallj]

Also keep in mind that the Nforce2 likes to run the memory speed at the same speed as the front side bus. Inlike a VIA KT333 that runs the memory bus at 333 mhz and runs an 266 mhz FSB Athlon bus athlon at 266 mhz, with the Nforce2 it wants to run them both at the same speed.