Review: ABIT NV7-133R

In TwinBank mode where you populate both memory controllers, the SPP-128 bridge gives you a maximum of 4.2GB/sec of bandwidth (2 x 2.1GB/sec with both memory controllers in operation). We've covered the benefits this brings to an Athlon system where at 133MHz front side bus, the processor is able to utilise roughly 2.1GB/sec from the available bandwidth, leaving 2.1GB/sec for the rest of the system.

With the other peripheral devices such as the Ethernet controller with it's StreamThru technology making use of this extra bandwidth under load situations, having it free from the CPU's bandwidth helps overall system performance. Overall, Athlon could do with a boost in front side bus to let it take advantage of more memory bandwidth, especially as we've seen recently that it can give a healthy boost to overall system performance.

This is especially the case with upcoming chipsets like nForce 615 (using the new 333 bridges), KT333 which is out now and KT400 which will support DDR400 (200MHz DDR memory) which all have a surplus of memory bandwidth, maybe too much than will be used by the system, even under heavy load. Giving some more to the CPU would be a good thing!

This isn't Abit's fault however! Dual DDR solutions will hit hard in the latter half of this year and not just from NVIDIA. Watch out for this technology and remember that NVIDIA were the first to bring it to the masses!