NForce 4 vs. NForce 3

stelleg151

Senior member
Sep 2, 2004
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The only difference I see is Upgradeability. I am a gamer, so if I dont wait I will get 6800nu and softmod and OC, and if I do I will get 6600gt and OC. I know the 6800 system will be better, but it will also be more expensive.

I was originally planning on waiting, but I'm getting antsy, and the 6800 is looking very pretty for the price.

Opinions on whether or not I should wait appriciated.

Thanks
 

SkyBum

Senior member
Oct 16, 2004
844
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In Anands latest tech update posted tonight he mentions:

VIA is still quite present on the Athlon 64 motherboard roadmaps, however the chipsets are only being used as entry-level or mid-range solutions, the high-end appears to be completely dominated by the nForce4. What's even more interesting is that this is without even talking about the nForce4 SLI chipset; the motherboard manufacturers appear to be quite happy with NVIDIA's latest chipset in any incarnation possible.

When we look at nForce4 SLI, as we mentioned in our most recent article, the chipset will only be shipping in two motherboards this year from ASUS and MSI. NVIDIA has been going around the US demonstrating the ASUS nForce4 SLI board, and our most recent article was done exclusively on MSI's board.

The rest of the motherboard manufacturers will have to wait until December at the earliest to begin talking about their SLI motherboards. And that's just talk, from what I've seen don't expect to see any nForce4 SLI boards from anyone other than ASUS and MSI until next year. NVIDIA would very much like for the nForce4 SLI to become their mid-range chipset, found in motherboards priced at the $150 mark instead of closer to $200, with more manufacturers making boards next year it may be that by the middle of 2005 you'll be able to pick up some bargain nForce4 SLI boards at $150 or less. Until then you can expect prices to be in the $180 - $200 range at best.

SLI boards have been stated to hit the shelves somewhat later than the non SLI boards. If the above quote is accurate then we could expect that the vanilla NF4 should be on track for late Nov early Dec as previously stated. What will actually happen though is anybodys guess. Since I have no use for SLI, I decided to take my chances and wait for a PCIe. Sure is gonna be a tough wait though, NF4 PCIe is all that stands between me and a decent rig....
 

Spatulator

Member
Oct 13, 2004
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If you plan on using SLI mode than wait for the new boards by all means. But at this point there are no performance gains from benchmarks Ive seen between a 6800gt AGP and PCIe and I know that the next time I invest money into a video card I will probably have moved or will be moving to a new mobo, so upgradability wasnt a big selling point to me.
 

Slik

Member
Oct 28, 2004
130
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http://forums.anandtech.com/me...9419&enterthread=y

IMO, If you want SLI give it some time so they can work out the bugs on the new boards.
New boards (Nforce3 is a good example) usually have bugs to work out when they first come out.
So if you want to invest that much money, give it at least a month. (BTW, I think SLI won't be out till December, but the regular PCIe nForce4 will be out mid november.)

Goodluck!
 

gobucks

Golden Member
Oct 22, 2004
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PCIe is probably a good idea for you. Considering your graphics options, both will be very adequate for today's games, but that's just the problem. I can't remember a time when new games could bring brand new hardware to its knees so quickly. A 6600GT, with all the power of a 9800XT, still has to make some sacrifices for playability even in farcry, the least taxing of the big three new engines introduced. The 6800 is the same way. These will be fine for a while, in fact, I'm planning on a 6600GT myself. However, it is important to know that with these cards, an upgrade is definitely in your future. Because of this, make sure the platform you're on is the one that will facilitate this the best. AGP is dying, and not because it's inadequate. It still has plenty of bandwidth for today's cards, but it is being End Of Lifed by companies like Intel, nVidia, ATI, Dell, and Gateway, who are all pushing PCIe because of its brighter future opportunities. I don't want to make it sound like a conspiracy, since it will be a good thing in the long term, but the fact is, it's going to happen, and nothing will change that. In a year or 2, when you are looking to replace that card you get now, there will be a plethora of PCIe cards of all kinds. On the other hand, AGP cards will be much like PCI cards of today - hard to find, lacking in performance, and very limited in selection. Basically they will be the leftovers. It's already happening - out of all the native PCIe cards coming out, only 1 will be made AGP - the 6600GT, and no one knows when. No X700s, no X300s, no 6200s, etc. Anyways, waiting a bit to save yourself the headache later is worth it, in my opinion. Besides, you can save some money. The 6600GT is like $100 cheaper than the 6800, and CPU and memory prices will be dropping a lot, especially for the new 90nm CPUs, which are overpriced currently due to lack of supply.
 

Dynamix3D

Senior member
Oct 31, 2000
810
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0
Originally posted by: slash196
Nah. If worst comes to worst, a mobo is cheap to upgrade.

Like he said, Mobo's are cheap so I wouldn't really worry about wasting money on the newer generation boards.

Me I plan on getting the Asus SLI board actually for my new system. If it turns out to be a buggy board, which I highly doubt anyway since Asus is good with stability, then I will just sell it when something else better comes out (perhaps the DFI) and just get that board. I won't lose out on too much money either because the Asus board will still be fairly new, and price changes wont be much from the time Asus drops their SLI board, till the time DFI drops theirs...
 

Thermalrock

Senior member
Oct 30, 2004
553
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ok im guessing the 250 is lower end than the 250gb but where in there is the ultra? >250gb or <250 or inbetween?
 

spunducky

Member
Oct 20, 2004
59
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0
wait for the nforce 4 and sli even thou 2 6600gt cards (they only come with 128mb each ddr3) is still not as good as a 6800gt but u will have the option of having 2 6800 ultras if u ever wanted too. agp is on its way out

p4 3.4 lga775
asus p5ad2 premium
crucial ddr2 667 (512x2)
western digital raptor 10k 35gigx2 raid 0
evga 6600gt (waiting for a 6800gt but it outperforms a 5950 for 200 bucks so im not crying :)
pioneer dvr108 dvd 16x burner
lite on dvd/cd combo 52x burner
samsung 1.44 floppy drive
ultra x connect titanium 500 watt powersupply
danger den tdx watercooling system
asetek hard drive waterblocks
xoxide 3 1/2" thermal sensor

planning on overclocking to 4.0+ gig, ddr2 710+, 1066 fsb this is what dreams are made of :)
asus cpu free lock bios revision :)