nForce vs. SiS 735 questions

[Bard09]

I'm going to be upgrading my CPU and motherboard in August, so the SiS 735 and nForce motherboards were looking appealing for obvious reasons since I'm going DDR.

Got a few questions for those out there that have sifted through the hype enough to know the dirty stuff about these boards....

1) Which has a better speed/architecture without all the "features"?

2) Since I already have a GeForce2 MX and will probably be upgrading to a Geforce3 or somesuch by August, do any of you know if any manufacturers are going to be producing the nForce *without* the integrated video? I love the integrated audio, but that integrated video would just be extra dollars gone to waste if the nForce was the better motherboard.

Thanks for any light you can shed!

-Troy

 

[Coligeon]

I'm guessing the Nforce will be better in the Long run. It has 128 bit DDR and I think the Sis's is still 64 bit, Unsure on that though. I'm sure you can disable the onboard video, but yea it is wasted Money. Not sure if they will, but I think they obviously should, not everyone would want have the Geforce. I think you should also look into the KT266 chip, it has great potential, I'd look around in July to see how it will be doing, Abit plans to release the KR7 on that chip, should be awesome, or I hope so anyway ^_^, I'm looking into that chip for my new sys. Nforce should be neat though.

 

[boran]

first off all .. the nForce wil ALWAYS come with an integrated 3D chip (maybe next versions of the nForce wont have it, but the first one that comes out in about a month has it so nutting u can do about it ..)

Anyway I'd reccomend one hell of a PSU when going to a Geforce 3, that card needs quite some power (e.g if u go with a 1,2 Ghz athlon a 350 watt PSU is minimal if u combine it with GF3)

 

[AppleTalking]

Like boran said, nVidia will not sell an version of the northbridge (or whatever the heck they call it) without the integrated video. So that answers your second question.

As for the speed of the boards, there are definite advantages to each. The SiS 735 has the northbridge and the southbridge integrated into one chip, providing an efficient internal pathway between the two. The nVidia board, on the other hand, uses a dedicated bus (similar to the V-Link Via has) between the two, which would bring it close to the speed of the SiS 735 in that regard. The nForce definitely holds the advantage in terms of memory, having two dedicated DDR buses instead of the one that the SiS has.

Overall, the nForce will probably perform better and have more bells and whistles, but the SiS 735 will be cheaper.

Nick

 

[IntelConvert]

Answers provided here to your questions are nothing but speculation (at best). Sometime this summer, evaluation boards will find their way to TomsHardware, AnandTech, and a few other hardware sites. Then and only then will we get a true idea as to not only which is the better performer of these two chipsets, but also how much better they are than existing DDR chipsets.

At that time, you may also find that the extra $ for the nForce is worth it even if you will not be using its integrated video (and then again, maybe not)!