Thoughts
As is always the case with platform launches on this kind of scale, there's always stuff that you wish you had time to cover but had to push out of the way to make room for the basic analysis of core performance. In that look at core performance on nForce4 Ultra, testing shows that it's competetive straight out of the blocks, against K8T800 Pro. Had an nForce3 250 board factored into things, the outcome would have been little different. It's fast, that much is evident, and it should get even faster as time goes by and board vendors learn how to tweak the core logic to make it shine.And then we have all the things that nForce4 brings to the AMD table. SLI, something we'll evaluate very soon, looks very very promising on nForce4, even moreso than on Tumwater if my own early look at things is anything to go by. Stay tuned for that, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Rudimentary testing using the disk controller tells me it shows promise, but that there's maybe some issues in RAID mode that need some work. Features wise however, the controller is complete. You can hotswap disks easily and reconfigure arrays on the fly without data loss, it's just the performance that looks to need some slight work. Single disk performance looks excellent though.
The revamped firewall is very impressive, works well and is easy to setup. It's secure out of the box and the help system for it is friendly. My only gripe is that it's not hardware assisted on the basic Socket 754 nForce4 variant, something NVIDIA really should have enabled across the board. Cost doesn't really stand up as an excuse when it comes to basic PC security, especially for the cost of a few dollars in volume unit pricing.
Audio could definitely have been better, even without the DICE unit making a reappearance. Here's hoping board vendors use the best quality CODECs they can find or even discrete parts with hardware assist like Envy24, since audio is one area that NVIDIA could have done better with.
Then there's PCI Express support in a mass-market consumer core logic product, using AMD processors, for the first time. Performance was excellent with nary an issue during my entire time testing it over the last few days. I tried no less than eight PCI Express boards in the system in the first two days, to try and trip it up. It walked all over that challenge. Testing first generation core logic silicon, especially when so much has changed since the last generation, is always a challenge, for both the silicon and the reviewer. nForce4 Ultra never put a foot wrong.
nTune and the other supporting software have a new application of spit and polish and should help you get the best out of your board.
Socket 939 definitely gets the better end of the nForce4 stick. The Socket 754 version has lesser features and no SLI variant. The firewall is a standout feature on budget Socket 754 however, so customers in that part of the market get value, even if their CPUs are worked harder as a consequence.
It's a really excellent bit of core logic for AMD CPUs. I know many of you have been waiting for nForce4 before you upgraded to PCI Express graphics cards. It's here, it performs great, features are top notch and boards won't cost the earth.
Speaking of retail boards, I pray that all get the clock locking correct out of the box. I see no reason why that shouldn't happen, but we should cross our fingers nonetheless. I especially can't wait to see Oskar Wu's nForce4 Ultra board at DFI.
We now wait for retail availability and I'm assured that'll happen within a couple of weeks.
Look out for a full evaluation of nForce4 SLI in the next couple of weeks. Pro analysis will come a little while after that, for those wanting to use a pair of Opterons with the new core logic.
Athlon 64, PEG16X and a hot disk controller just hopped into bed together. I recommend you join the party, and definitely think about bringing a 90nm Winchester friend along for the ride if you don't have a steady Socket 939 partner already.
