VIA KT400a Preview at AMDMB - VIA MAKES BOLD CLAIMS

[Adul]

site is kind of slow, so I pasted what was said.

http://www.amdboard.com/kt400a_preview.html



7th Generation Socket A Chipset From VIA

 VIA FastStream64? Technology Maximizes Performance with the new AMD Athlon XP 3000+ CPU, and leaves nForce2 trailing

 AGP 8X with VIA Hyperion 4in1 Drivers For Maximum Frame Rates in Doom ?III? Generation Games

 First to Market Native Serial ATA support in the VT8237 South Bridge

 VIA TidalWave Onboard Audio For Surround Gaming

DualDDR: Cost Without Benefit

 AMD 333MHz FSB is maxed out at 2.7GB/s, equivalent to the maximum theoretical bandwidth in a single channel DDR333 configuration

 Dual DDR configurations for the AMD Athlon? XP are overkill and needlessly raise the cost of the platform

 The key to performance is the efficiency of the North Bridge memory controller and CPU interface

FastStream64? Technology

 FastStream64? Technology enables the single channel 64-bit memory controller of the KT400A to out perform the Nforce2 Chipset in 128-bit mode

 VIA FastStream64? Technology uses an expanded array of prefetch buffers to reduce latency in the memory controller, extending performance at a lower transistor cost than dual channel implementations

 KT400A is designed to maximize performance in both synchronous (DDR333/333MHz FSB) & asynchronous (DDR400/333MHz FSB) modes

KT400A North Bridge Summary

Leading Edge Performance Features

 200/266/333MHz Front Side Bus
 Ultra-fast FastStream64 Memory Controller with 200/266/333/400MHz system bus
 Support for up to 4GB High-Speed DDR200/266/333/400 SDRAM
 8X V-Link Architecture
- Peak bandwidth of 533MB/s
 AGP 8X with 2.1GB/s of dedicated bandwidth for the GPU
 Supports full range of Socket A 462-pin AMD Athlon? XP processors including the new ?Barton? core CPU?s

VIA TidalWave Onboard Audio

Full support for the latest surround sound games:
Don?t get taken from behind

 VT1616 Codec solution in combination with VT8235/8237 SB with Sensaura Drivers
 Higher Quality and Fidelity Than Nforce2 mainboards featuring inferior codec solutions
 DualMax -- hardware downmixing technology
 CoolAmp ? reduced heat for consistent performance

Serial ATA - Native Support in Q2

 First to market native Serial ATA support in the VT8237 will finally realise performance potential of 150MB/s interface

 Bypasses PCI Bus and flies straight to the 533MB/s 8X V-link Chip Interconnect superior performance in the most data intensive applications

VT6420 - Full specs here
 1st Combined SATA, PATA & RAID Controller
 Supports 2 channels for up to 4 SATA Devices
 Supports 1 channel for up to 2 PATA Devices
 Supports RAID Levels 0,2,0+1 & JBOD
 SATAlite Interface allowing 2 additional channels with external phy
 Tiny 15mm BGA package

VT8237
 Supports up to 4 SATA Devices
 Supports up to PATA Devices
 Supports 8 X USB 2.0
 Supports 8X (533MB/s) & Ultra (1.06GB/s) V-Link Chip Interconnect
 Pin compatible with VT8235CE for simple mainboard upgrade


VIA Modular Architecture Platform

 V-MAP

- Pin-to-Pin Compatible South Bridge options

- Drop-in North Bridge replacement for KT400

 Seamless product transitions on a single motherboard platform

- Faster Time to Market

- Lower Product Development, Validation, and Production costs


KT400A + VT8235CE


 VIA FastStream? Technology

 DDR266/333/400 Support

 333MHz FSB

 AGP 8X

 8X V-Link

 USB 2.0

 ATA-133

 10/100 Fast Ethernet

 6-ch. AC?97 Audio

VT8235
High Degree of Integration

 8X V-Link
 USB 2.0
 VIA Ethernet MAC
 ATA 133
 6 Channel Audio
 MC?97 Modem
 LPC
 PCI Controller

KT400A + VT8237

 VIA FastStream Technology

 DDR266/333/400
Support 333MHz FSB

 AGP 8X

 8X V-Link

 USB 2.0

 SATA

 ATA-133

 10/100 Fast Ethernet

 6-ch. AC?97 Audio
]

 

[spanky]

bleh... previews??? when will the real review be available?

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: spankyOO7
bleh... previews??? when will the real review be available?

Anand is working on it now

 

[pillage2001]

YEAH MAN!!! I gotta get me one of this babies.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Adul

Originally posted by: spankyOO7
bleh... previews??? when will the real review be available?

Anand is working on it now

Ooooooh, the first direct comparo has GOT to be to the NForce2 chipset. Should be good.

 

[Shazam]

Ya gotta love competition.

 

[mechBgon]

It would have been nice if KT400 had incorporated some of these technologies so it wasn't so much like warmed-over KT333. They are sort of playing both sides of a double standard when they criticize nForce2's excessive bandwidth and then claim to have optomized asynchronous 333CPU/400RAM performance... what's the point of that, if excess memory bandwidth isn't good? Eh?

Anyway, they've got their work cut out for them and more power to them if they can deliver.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
It would have been nice if KT400 had incorporated some of these technologies so it wasn't so much like warmed-over KT333. They are sort of playing both sides of a double standard when they criticize nForce2's excessive bandwidth and then claim to have optomized asynchronous 333CPU/400RAM performance... what's the point of that, if excess memory bandwidth isn't good? Eh?

Anyway, they've got their work cut out for them and more power to them if they can deliver.

Ummm, PC2700 would match up with 333MHz Bartons and PC3200 would match up with 400MHz bus Bartons...so what's your point?

nForce has 5.4GB/s and 6.4GB/s. That is excessive if you're not using onboard video (which most of us aren't).

 

[chizow]

Bleh, still no official 400MHz FSB support. Clearly states FSB @ 333MHz, but DDR400 support asynch. That was the only reason I was considering it. Also, the benchmarks they provide show very marginal performance gains (almost non-existent) over the nForce2 and for some reason pair the nForce2 with DDR400 and not their own KT400A. Interesting, as I believe the nForce2 suffered from significant penalties when running async, especially in dual-ddr mode.

Chiz

Edit: Oh yah, and you could buy an nForce2 board 5 months ago

 

[majewski9]

Im still not impressed until I actually see a board out that will deliver all of these claims. Dual channel and better audio as well as sata are a step in right direction. I dont think this will hold off my Nforce2 purchase though.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: mechBgon
It would have been nice if KT400 had incorporated some of these technologies so it wasn't so much like warmed-over KT333. They are sort of playing both sides of a double standard when they criticize nForce2's excessive bandwidth and then claim to have optomized asynchronous 333CPU/400RAM performance... what's the point of that, if excess memory bandwidth isn't good? Eh?

Anyway, they've got their work cut out for them and more power to them if they can deliver.

Ummm, PC2700 would match up with 333MHz Bartons and PC3200 would match up with 400MHz bus Bartons...so what's your point?

nForce has 5.4GB/s and 6.4GB/s. That is excessive if you're not using onboard video (which most of us aren't).

The point is that they are boasting about having an optomized asynchronous 333CPU/400RAM setup, which obviously has more RAM bandwidth than the CPU needs. At the same time, they put down nForce2 for having more RAM bandwidth than the CPU needs. It's bad if nForce2 has it, but it's good if KT400A has it, I guess Shucks, we all know it's marketing on both sides, yeah, but I like the propoganda to at least make logical sense

 

[Adul]

i think it is definitely worth looking at

 

[chizow]

nForce has 5.4GB/s and 6.4GB/s. That is excessive if you're not using onboard video (which most of us aren't).

The theoretical max may be overkill, but there was an interesting article over at LostCircuits about a 3200+ Barton "preview" that ran identically clocked Barton's (2.167MHz I believe) at 333MHz and 400MHz FSB synchrounously. That difference alone was enough to justify the 3200+ hypothetical PR rating, as the 400MHz Barton showed significant performance improvements across the board. Totally changed my outlook on the "Athlon's Don't Really Need More Bandwidth" mentality. From other benchies it was clear that asynch set-ups at 333MHz/400MHz could be beneficial at Cas2, but no reviewers took the time to run synchronously at 400MHz.

Chiz

 

[yhelothar]

hmmm via makes the best memory controllers.. i wanna see how via would make this one..

i doubt they could get the onboard sound to be better than soundstorm though..

 

[mrman3k]

The FastStream64 seems like they are beginning to play the marketing game with the Athlon64 even though it is not released.

 

[paralazarguer]

OMG I can't even believe that they put this as part of their PR. Jeeeezz.....
"Full support for the latest surround sound games:
Don?t get taken from behind"

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: paralazarguer
OMG I can't even believe that they put this as part of their PR. Jeeeezz.....
"Full support for the latest surround sound games:
Don?t get taken from behind"

like in prison! :Q

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: paralazarguer
OMG I can't even believe that they put this as part of their PR. Jeeeezz.....
"Full support for the latest surround sound games:
Don?t get taken from behind"

Boxster (11:43 PM) :
Full support for the latest surround sound games:
Don?t get taken from behind


LOL!!
Boxster (11:43 PM) :
good for those prison gang rape games
Boxster (11:43 PM) :
haha
Adul (11:43 PM) :
HAHA

 

[mechBgon]

Ok guys, time to think auto-racing games here, ok?

 

[ElFenix]

it says a dual solution is overkill for a system where processor can take, at max, 2.7 GBps. they're not necessarily ruling out with that statement that a bit above that is wasted, just that double is, mostly, wasted.

 

[JavaMomma]

What I wanna know is does it
Unlock the multipliers on TBreds
Does it have a PCI/AGP bus locks?
Hopefully Anand's preview answers those.

 

[Whizzy]

Talk about bad (or good, depends how you read it) marketing...

-------------------------------

GP 8X with VIA Hyperion 4in1 Drivers For Maximum Frame Rates in Doom ?III? Generation Games

-------------------------------

WTF ? So if i put in my (Put video card here) with agp 8x transfer rates.. i *will* get good framerates...

Woohoo !

 

[FishTankX]

VIA"s logic is fundamentally flawed. I bet in games like DoomIII it's possible for memory usage to exceed 3GB/s with the CPU and AGP bus both saturated.

 

[FishTankX]

Logic about DCDDR being bad, not chipset logic! Their northbridges are allright. It just seems their southbridges aren't up to snuff.

 

[KDOG]

It will be WORTHLESS if it doesn't have full 400FSB support for the Bartons (because you KNOW nVidia will do it).... it has some nice other features though...