on page 2 you mention that "the most feature-laden combination" has a tv tuner.
i can see in the table above it has something called "tv encoder", i thought its something to do with tv-out though, certainly not a tuner.
i'd really like a cheap mobo with integrated tuner or atleast a video-in option, but i very much doubt anyone would release such a thing soon.
why does it sat Nvidia has 2 pipelines and ATI has 4????????? the following is from the article about the ATI chipsets here on Anandtech a few months ago:"Radeon Express 200G adds ATI's first DirectX 9 integrated graphics, which can be supported by both DVI (digital) and VGA (analog) outputs. The graphics core is a modified version of the discrete Radeon X300 core with only two rendering pipelines instead of four." so am i lost or does the ATI also just have 2? why has nobody else noticed this?
We have corrected the review to reflect the fact that BOTH the new nVidia 6100 and the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 use 2 pixel pipelines. We apologize for any confusion we created, but the article now reflects the fact that both chipsets use 2 pipelines.
Nice one Wes, reads perfectly now, I agree four pipelines would have been a good move from Nvidia but I guess price is of the highest importance here...I remember with the RS300 with the IGP Radeon 9000, the whole motherboard was the same cost as a discrete GF4MX440/R9000.
are we the only ones that noticed?? i wish they would correct this then. anandtech made the 2 pipeline nvidia sound inferior to the ati. everthing that i have seen says 2 pipelines for the ati too. i would like a correction or explanation.
To those naysayers thinking that nvidia is going to stumble under the 90nm process, it doesnt look good. Granted this chip is much simpler than the r520
Or could it be the reason it is only 2 pixel pipelines due to yield issues with the low nm? interesting....
I think there's about 50 to 100 million transistors in the typical chipset already, so adding ~25 million for a two pixel pipeline GPU isn't insignificant. (Just guessing on numbers - I could be off.) Certainly, we're not talking 300 million transistors like G70 or R520, but chipsets have a lot of other stuff without adding a GPU core. 475 MHz on the GPU sounds at least somewhat promising.
True. Of course, GPU manufacturers want to protect their discrete graphics markets. You also won't get discrete GPU performance without adding on-board (or on-chip) RAM, as the shared memory doesn't offer nearly enough bandwidth for a high-powered GPU. If ATI or NVIDIA could develop a board with high-powered IGP - like say 8 pipelines or more - but that chipset cost $100 instead of $50, board manufacturers and end users wouldn't buy it. They try to add as much power to the IGP as possible without increasing costs much, which leads to things like shared RAM and 2 pipelines. At least, that's my take.
I`m glad some1 mentioned windows vista
I`ll bet that this chipset all ya need for vista`s eye candy.
In that case it`ll be good for business users.
Maybe gateway will do well with this chipset ;)
only two pipelines while the X300/9600 integrated in ATis boards retain the 4 pipelines of their namesakes?
bleh.
dont expect fantastic performance.. definitely worser than a Turbocache 4 pipeline card
they had an opportunity to offer a good 4 pipelined, DX9 Shader 3 solution that would give a lot of people good performance for cheap. (475Mhz core 4 pipes would make a nice fast 6200)
It depends on clockspeeds and features as well. 2x475 (for the 6150) may compare well with the 4x[whatever] of RS480. All I know for certain is that Xpress 200 is hardly capable of playing any 3D games, so I expect similar performance from 6100/6150. For the all-in-one boards, though, hopefully the 6100 series has better overclocking support than RS480. (If you can go stably above a 205 MHz FSB, that would beat the RS480 testing I've done. LOL!) Not that overclocking is required for the market, but the ability to OC often says something about the quality of the design.
It would be nice for Nvidia to do one of two things.
1) Acknowledge there is a problem with ActiveArmor and that they are working on it.
2) Stop advertising a broken function as a selling feature.
As I've said before, there are WAY too many people experiencing problems with NAM/AA for it to be coincidence. Even when it's working, it normally breaks once a driver upgrade is attempted, and the only option is a rollback.
I have problems with my activearmor as well. Stupid 6.66 drivers don't let me download anything without corrupting the download, and it seems any version isnt' letting Norton Antivirus 2005 liveupdate to connect. If I disable activearmor, then it is all good, but I don't want to use a software firewall, due to the software implementation, so it definitely needs to be fixed.
Another point, is that other websites are advertising 10 USB ports, but AT is saying 8 USB ports. Current nForce4 solutions offer 10USB ports, so with imagining Nvidia taking their current design and adding a graphics core, I would imagine the total should be 10 and not 8.
Jason
nVidia specifications say EIGHT USB ports, not 10, on GeForce 6100 family. The chipset graphic in this review is a direct capture from Intel's release presentation and it also states EIGHT USB ports. Since no one received a board for review, the only info available is from nVidia, and I read my Press Release Kit.
I have had no problems with Active Armor in my testing on a clean install, but I have relayed comments from many users to nVidia. nVidia said they were not aware of any current issues with ActiveArmor, but they agreed to look into the issue further. If readers can email me links to Forum discussions of the ActiveArmor problems (any website) I will make sure they get to nVidia.
Cant say nothing about your situation. But start stressing the system with long multiple downloads and updating drivers seem to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people. So many as to cast serious doubt about the condition of AA and NAM.
Tons more but I think you get the picture. Something is broken with it. Or there is some non obvious way to set it up that only Nvidia and you know about :)
Further to that, a simple experiment is to simply install one of the previous nForce Platform driver sets (6.39, 6.53) and get the firewall up and running. Once you're comfortable, install any newer driver and activate AA/NAM. Chances are very good that you'll encounter instabilities and BSOD's before too long.
Just to head off people with "helpful" suggestions, I have uninstalled previous drivers, used Driver Cleaner Pro, etc all to no avail. I had 6.39 up and running without any problems, but every attempt to upgrade (using any method, to any newer driver set) results in BSOD's. I don't think it's reasonable to expect people to do a fresh install of Windows every time there is a new driver. I would have stayed with 6.39, but I was trying to resolve crashing issues in BF2, and part of their resolution steps include updating drivers. I can't really bitch about BF2 if I don't at least attempt their solutions.
quote: This is essentially nForce5 then? Or still using nForce4 for the southbridge chip?
No, not at all. This is like nForce4 for the mainstream/integrated GPU market, with no SLI support and the like.
This Nvidia integrated GPU platform does definitely look much better than ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 (RS480), which I have and use for gaming on integrated video. I'm getting a 6600 GT soon, though.
Man, Nvidia is absolutey crushing ATI in almost every department these days.
Article summary says it all... this has potential for being the all inclusive HTPC mainboard of choice. Anyone have info on what the HD audio will offer? Dolby Digital Live yes/no? If the integrated video has as good HDTV support as ATI (in my experience, nvidia cards on HDTV = suckage) then im sold on one.
nVidia says that installing a PCIe video card will NOT automatically disable on-board video. That sounds like the 3 monitor setup is an available option.
yeah, i really wish they took out those printer ports and even the keyboard/mice PS/2 ports. The DVI port is great but the other ports I can do without. If it really necessary to have those PS/2 ports ill pay an extra $3-5 bux for those add-on USB to PS/2 ports. Actually i preferred ALL future boards to go this route. Dont see why they cant make legacy ports an addon based either by charging a little more or making it a separate add-on to buy separately. Both works for me.
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44 Comments
Back to Article
mja28 - Thursday, September 22, 2005 - link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...Visual - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
on page 2 you mention that "the most feature-laden combination" has a tv tuner.i can see in the table above it has something called "tv encoder", i thought its something to do with tv-out though, certainly not a tuner.
i'd really like a cheap mobo with integrated tuner or atleast a video-in option, but i very much doubt anyone would release such a thing soon.
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
I have changed "Tuner" to "Encoder" so there is no potential for misunderstanding. Thank you for pointing this out.Questar - Thursday, September 22, 2005 - link
Proof reader on vacation again?Wesley Fink - Thursday, September 22, 2005 - link
Proffreaders don't catch errors like Tuner instead of Encoder ot 2 instead of 4. These two were all me.Leper Messiah - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
Seems like a good board for a HTPC or a DC computer, as long as its cheap and OC's okay. Don't need L33t video for F@H.toyota - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
why does it sat Nvidia has 2 pipelines and ATI has 4????????? the following is from the article about the ATI chipsets here on Anandtech a few months ago:"Radeon Express 200G adds ATI's first DirectX 9 integrated graphics, which can be supported by both DVI (digital) and VGA (analog) outputs. The graphics core is a modified version of the discrete Radeon X300 core with only two rendering pipelines instead of four." so am i lost or does the ATI also just have 2? why has nobody else noticed this?Wesley Fink - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
We have corrected the review to reflect the fact that BOTH the new nVidia 6100 and the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 use 2 pixel pipelines. We apologize for any confusion we created, but the article now reflects the fact that both chipsets use 2 pipelines.Johnmcl7 - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
Nice one Wes, reads perfectly now, I agree four pipelines would have been a good move from Nvidia but I guess price is of the highest importance here...I remember with the RS300 with the IGP Radeon 9000, the whole motherboard was the same cost as a discrete GF4MX440/R9000.Let's see if this gets rid of bold...
John
Phiro - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
And we're still in bold!Johnmcl7 - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
That was exactly what I was thinking, as far as I'm aware the Xpress200 integrated graphics card is only a two pipeline solution.John
toyota - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
are we the only ones that noticed?? i wish they would correct this then. anandtech made the 2 pipeline nvidia sound inferior to the ati. everthing that i have seen says 2 pipelines for the ati too. i would like a correction or explanation.Johnmcl7 - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
Looks like it, even though we seem to be stuck in bold now!It's a fairly large mistake, as it means the nvidia chip is likely to offer similar performance or better, rather significantly inferior.
John
TrogdorJW - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
Wow... we need to add editing to posts. At least for some of the admins/writers....Here, let's try to kill the bold.
Did it work? (I think there were two stray bold tags.)
TrogdorJW - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
Hooray! :Dxsilver - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
To those naysayers thinking that nvidia is going to stumble under the 90nm process, it doesnt look good. Granted this chip is much simpler than the r520Or could it be the reason it is only 2 pixel pipelines due to yield issues with the low nm? interesting....
JarredWalton - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
I think there's about 50 to 100 million transistors in the typical chipset already, so adding ~25 million for a two pixel pipeline GPU isn't insignificant. (Just guessing on numbers - I could be off.) Certainly, we're not talking 300 million transistors like G70 or R520, but chipsets have a lot of other stuff without adding a GPU core. 475 MHz on the GPU sounds at least somewhat promising.tfranzese - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
But, don't forget they split it into a two chip solution now. This isn't simply adding the transistor counts of the GPU to the previous chipset's.JarredWalton - Thursday, September 22, 2005 - link
True. Of course, GPU manufacturers want to protect their discrete graphics markets. You also won't get discrete GPU performance without adding on-board (or on-chip) RAM, as the shared memory doesn't offer nearly enough bandwidth for a high-powered GPU. If ATI or NVIDIA could develop a board with high-powered IGP - like say 8 pipelines or more - but that chipset cost $100 instead of $50, board manufacturers and end users wouldn't buy it. They try to add as much power to the IGP as possible without increasing costs much, which leads to things like shared RAM and 2 pipelines. At least, that's my take.Doormat - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
NEXT. No HDMI out = no hi-def video replay under windows Vista. Good thinkin' nVidia.tanekaha - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
I`m glad some1 mentioned windows vistaI`ll bet that this chipset all ya need for vista`s eye candy.
In that case it`ll be good for business users.
Maybe gateway will do well with this chipset ;)
tanekaha
DeathByDuke - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
only two pipelines while the X300/9600 integrated in ATis boards retain the 4 pipelines of their namesakes?bleh.
dont expect fantastic performance.. definitely worser than a Turbocache 4 pipeline card
they had an opportunity to offer a good 4 pipelined, DX9 Shader 3 solution that would give a lot of people good performance for cheap. (475Mhz core 4 pipes would make a nice fast 6200)
JarredWalton - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
It depends on clockspeeds and features as well. 2x475 (for the 6150) may compare well with the 4x[whatever] of RS480. All I know for certain is that Xpress 200 is hardly capable of playing any 3D games, so I expect similar performance from 6100/6150. For the all-in-one boards, though, hopefully the 6100 series has better overclocking support than RS480. (If you can go stably above a 205 MHz FSB, that would beat the RS480 testing I've done. LOL!) Not that overclocking is required for the market, but the ability to OC often says something about the quality of the design.bob661 - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
If a mobo with this chipset is around $80-90 US, I could use it a "cheap" machine.mja28 - Thursday, September 22, 2005 - link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...bob661 - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
Wesley,Does Azalia support DDL encoding on this chipset?
Tanclearas - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
It would be nice for Nvidia to do one of two things.1) Acknowledge there is a problem with ActiveArmor and that they are working on it.
2) Stop advertising a broken function as a selling feature.
As I've said before, there are WAY too many people experiencing problems with NAM/AA for it to be coincidence. Even when it's working, it normally breaks once a driver upgrade is attempted, and the only option is a rollback.
Wes, can you not get us any answers?
Myrandex - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
I have problems with my activearmor as well. Stupid 6.66 drivers don't let me download anything without corrupting the download, and it seems any version isnt' letting Norton Antivirus 2005 liveupdate to connect. If I disable activearmor, then it is all good, but I don't want to use a software firewall, due to the software implementation, so it definitely needs to be fixed.Another point, is that other websites are advertising 10 USB ports, but AT is saying 8 USB ports. Current nForce4 solutions offer 10USB ports, so with imagining Nvidia taking their current design and adding a graphics core, I would imagine the total should be 10 and not 8.
Jason
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
Jason -nVidia specifications say EIGHT USB ports, not 10, on GeForce 6100 family. The chipset graphic in this review is a direct capture from Intel's release presentation and it also states EIGHT USB ports. Since no one received a board for review, the only info available is from nVidia, and I read my Press Release Kit.
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
I have had no problems with Active Armor in my testing on a clean install, but I have relayed comments from many users to nVidia. nVidia said they were not aware of any current issues with ActiveArmor, but they agreed to look into the issue further. If readers can email me links to Forum discussions of the ActiveArmor problems (any website) I will make sure they get to nVidia.R3MF - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
nor me, AA works fine with the 5.10's.Live - Thursday, September 22, 2005 - link
Cant say nothing about your situation. But start stressing the system with long multiple downloads and updating drivers seem to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people. So many as to cast serious doubt about the condition of AA and NAM.Live - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
Anandtech forums are full of posts about Active Armor not working.http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...amp;thre...
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...amp;thre...
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...amp;thre...
Tons more but I think you get the picture. Something is broken with it. Or there is some non obvious way to set it up that only Nvidia and you know about :)
Tanclearas - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
Great links!Further to that, a simple experiment is to simply install one of the previous nForce Platform driver sets (6.39, 6.53) and get the firewall up and running. Once you're comfortable, install any newer driver and activate AA/NAM. Chances are very good that you'll encounter instabilities and BSOD's before too long.
Just to head off people with "helpful" suggestions, I have uninstalled previous drivers, used Driver Cleaner Pro, etc all to no avail. I had 6.39 up and running without any problems, but every attempt to upgrade (using any method, to any newer driver set) results in BSOD's. I don't think it's reasonable to expect people to do a fresh install of Windows every time there is a new driver. I would have stayed with 6.39, but I was trying to resolve crashing issues in BF2, and part of their resolution steps include updating drivers. I can't really bitch about BF2 if I don't at least attempt their solutions.
yacoub - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
This is essentially nForce5 then? Or still using nForce4 for the southbridge chip?Josh7289 - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
No, not at all. This is like nForce4 for the mainstream/integrated GPU market, with no SLI support and the like.
This Nvidia integrated GPU platform does definitely look much better than ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 (RS480), which I have and use for gaming on integrated video. I'm getting a 6600 GT soon, though.
Man, Nvidia is absolutey crushing ATI in almost every department these days.
segagenesis - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
Article summary says it all... this has potential for being the all inclusive HTPC mainboard of choice. Anyone have info on what the HD audio will offer? Dolby Digital Live yes/no? If the integrated video has as good HDTV support as ATI (in my experience, nvidia cards on HDTV = suckage) then im sold on one.tayhimself - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link
No soudnstorm or Dolby Digital Encoding support. I hope nforce5 has it. :(R3MF - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
about time nVidia implemented HD audio. :)two questions:
> "mATX only"?
> will there be triple screen support like the Xpress200 + ATI GPU combination?
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
nVidia says that installing a PCIe video card will NOT automatically disable on-board video. That sounds like the 3 monitor setup is an available option.R3MF - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
fantastic news. :DR3MF - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
now lets see who produces a board with a DVI vga output................Brunnis - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
Looks great! Nice that Nvidia seem dedicated to the AMD platform. Stuff like this make for great budget systems and HTPCs. :)rqle - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link
yeah, i really wish they took out those printer ports and even the keyboard/mice PS/2 ports. The DVI port is great but the other ports I can do without. If it really necessary to have those PS/2 ports ill pay an extra $3-5 bux for those add-on USB to PS/2 ports. Actually i preferred ALL future boards to go this route. Dont see why they cant make legacy ports an addon based either by charging a little more or making it a separate add-on to buy separately. Both works for me.