MaximumPC 2004 12

14 MA XIMUMPC DECEMBER 2004

Tour De n&orCe

nVidia bakes up a brand-new chipset that delivers

massive power and immense functionality.

Maximum PC takes a bite

1uiCK3tart

The beginning of the magazine,

where articles are small

!

fter seeing the fourth-generation

nForce motherboard in action,

we fi nd ourselves wondering if

nVidia subscribes to the prevailing theory

regarding the quality of Star Trek movies:

Only the “even” numbers are worth a

damn.

When released—nVidia says it should

be available by the time you read this—the

nForce4 chipset will be the only consumer

chipset to support nVidia’s revolutionary

SLI technology, which combines two

videocards in a system for unprecedented

graphics-processing muscle. (For details

on SLI, turn to page 82.) Up until the

nForce4, SLI could only be used with

Intel’s E7525 Xeon-class chipset, which

usually meant the motherboard cost

in excess of $400. The nForce4 chipset,

which should appear in mobos in the

$200 range, will be compatible with

Athlon 64/FX/Sempron only, but will

support both Socket 939 and cheaper

Socket 754 motherboards.

But t he nForce4 is about much more

than just SLI; it will also be the fi rst

chipset with native support for next-

generation 300MB/s SATA drives that

include native command queuing and

hot-swappable capabilities. The nForce

chipset can even tell you if a SATA cable

has been knocked loose and where

the loose connection is located on the

motherboard. Like the nForce3 250GB,

Gigabit Ethernet will be integrated

into the chipset, but now with a beefed-up

fi rewall that features a friendlier GUI. True

hardware packet inspection for increased

network security will also be included.

Still, the most anticipated feature—the

one that has us drooling down our

Maximum PC bibs—is affordable SLI support.

nVidia’s spin on SLI will include two x

slots on the motherboard. Because the

north bridge supports only 20 PCI Express

lanes, nVidia will confi gure the chipset

for two modes. The fi rst is the standard

confi guration where one of the x16 PCI

Express slots operates in x16 mode. When

you decide to add a second videocard, you’ll

throw a hardware switch on the board that

will reconfi gure the board to operate both

support both Socket 939 and cheaper

Socket 754 motherboards.

he nForce4 is about much more

than just SLI; it will also be the fi rst

chipset with native support for next-

generation 300MB/s SATA drives that

include native command queuing and

hot-swappable capabilities. The nForce

chipset can even tell you if a SATA cable

has been knocked loose and where

the loose connection is located on the

motherboard. Like the nForce3 250GB,

Gigabit Ethernet will be integrated

into the chipset, but now with a beefed-up slots on the motherboard. Because the

artart

into the chipset, but now with a beefed-up

fi rewall that features a friendlier GUI. True

hardware packet inspection for increased

slots on the motherboard. Because the

north bridge supports only 20 PCI Express

support both Socket 939 and cheaper

he nForce4 is about much more

than just SLI; it will also be the fi rst

chipset with native support for next-

generation 300MB/s SATA drives that

include native command queuing and

hot-swappable capabilities. The nForce

chipset can even tell you if a SATA cable

has been knocked loose and where

the loose connection is located on the

motherboard. Like the nForce3 250GB,

into the chipset, but now with a beefed-up slots on the motherboard. Because the

nViDia DitCHes !uDio 5nit

Is hardware audio acceleration dead?

A fi eld that’s been shrinking for years just got even

smaller. nVidia has offi cially thrown in the towel on PC audio, telling

Maximum PC it has eliminated its audio division and has no plans to

introduce stand-alone audio hardware.

The public word offi cially deep-sixes hopes that the company would

export the advanced Dolby Digital processing from the original nForce and

nForce2 into a PCI Express soundcard. While the nForce/nForce2 audio

was a cult hit, the core never won the hearts of mainstream consumers

or manufacturers, who had diffi culty understanding its capabilities. As a

result, audio acceleration was yanked completely from the nForce3 core.

But for months the company had strongly hinted at plans to offer a stand-

alone PCI Express product based on the technology. With the dissolution

of the audio group, those plans are gone and nVidia joins Aureal, VLSI/

Philips, and ESS Technology as companies that see no future in PC-based

hardware audio acceleration. “It’s dead, it’s never coming back,” one

nVidia spokesman told Maximum PC.

With CPUs throttling up, 64-bit capabilities on the horizon, and the

imminent arrival of dual-core CPUs, it’s easy to argue that the need for a

dedicated DSP to process audio is going, going, gone. A further blow to

3D audio acceleration came a few months ago when id’s Doom 3 adopted

a CPU-based audio engine. Valve’s upcoming Half Life 2 and GSC’s

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl are also expected to feature their own

host-based audio processing instead of relying on DirectSound3D.

Microsoft offi cials say they’re not troubled by developers building their

own audio engines; they also say that future versions of DirectX audio

will include improvements that will help game developers implement

host-based audio. Despite the lack of hardware, Microsoft will continue to

support audio acceleration as well as the move toward host-based audio.

nVidia never released its Sound

Storm Pro bay, which was similar to

Creative’s Audigy 2 Drive.