Hardware.fr reviews nForce 420-D

[Guilty]

Saw it at amdmb.com, http://www.hardware.fr/html/articles/lire.php3?article=381- Yes it's in french, but graphs are graphs.
They have the 420-D winning every bench, impressive. Makes me wonder why everyone threw their support behind the KT266A when it took some of the benchmarks by a very small margin according to Anand? nForce still looks like the most attractive socket A chipset out there to me.

 

[AGodspeed]

What did I tell you people. Nvidia tweaks their drivers and guess what...KT266A loses out.

I will be getting an nForce 220-D once the 1.6GHz XPs come out. I'm ready to upgrade (not really).

I bet we'll be seeing some nForce reviews tomorrow.

 

[ArchAngel777]

I sure hope it is good, this P.O.S. Shuttle of mine has givin me more than enough trouble... Though if you study the graphs enough, it becomes apparent that the KT266A was not set for aggressive memory timings... Trust me, I am using the Shuttle AK31A... It's fast, and well, it stable as we speak, but that took 3 days to get it that way, and that was starting from High Quality parts... This shuttle board was more difficult to get stable that those damn Abit boards... Which are generally easy most of the time... But hell man this was the biggest pain in the @$$ upgrade I have ever done... I finally got the kinks out of this board, and I will not upgrade for at least a year... for fear of wasting 3 days of my life...

No more VIA chipsets for me....


Anyways, AnandTech does the best testing... I would trust him over this french hardware site... anyways, if you look closely the KT266A *BARELY* beats the SIS735 chipset board... And It get's smoke in anand's review... And the sis735 smokes the 760 DDR.... So That is why I doubt the nforce is *that* much faster if at all.... But you know what? I hope I am wrong, I love nVidia... Been a zealot of theres for quite some time... But I try and remain realistic about things...


Peace out.

 

[Guilty]

This is what I dont understand. Regardless of which benchmarks you chose to beleive, they're marginal either way. What does it matter if one gets 210FPS in Q3 and the other gets 200? I mean seriously, think about the difference. I'm more intrested in simplicity, stability, and quality over bragging rights to say I benchmark 1% higher than the next guy.

 

[NFS4]

<< I sure hope it is good, this P.O.S. Shuttle of mine has givin me more than enough trouble... Though if you study the graphs enough, it becomes apparent that the KT266A was not set for aggressive memory timings... Trust me, I am using the Shuttle AK31A... It's fast, and well, it stable as we speak, but that took 3 days to get it that way, and that was starting from High Quality parts... This shuttle board was more difficult to get stable that those damn Abit boards... Which are generally easy most of the time... But hell man this was the biggest pain in the @$$ upgrade I have ever done... I finally got the kinks out of this board, and I will not upgrade for at least a year... for fear of wasting 3 days of my life...

No more VIA chipsets for me....


Anyways, AnandTech does the best testing... I would trust him over this french hardware site... anyways, if you look closely the KT266A *BARELY* beats the SIS735 chipset board... And It get's smoke in anand's review... And the sis735 smokes the 760 DDR.... So That is why I doubt the nforce is *that* much faster if at all.... But you know what? I hope I am wrong, I love nVidia... Been a zealot of theres for quite some time... But I try and remain realistic about things...


Peace out. >>


LOL, from everyone on this board that got one, you seem to be the only one that had any serious problems (besides the genious that left a mobo standoff under the mobo and burned it up). tough luck

 

[AGodspeed]

this P.O.S. Shuttle of mine has givin me more than enough trouble...

Sorry to hear that. Knowing VIA however (and Shuttle for that matter), I knew that board probably wouldn't be that stable or flawless.

Hope you can keep it rock solid for a while though.

Anyway, at least the site reports the accurate order of performance. AMD 760, SiS 735, KT266A, and apparently nForce 420-D.

What does it matter if one gets 210FPS in Q3 and the other gets 200?

That's what I was saying when Anand reviewed the nForce a few weeks ago. Everyone was like "Well the KT266A is superior to nForce in Q3A and..." If one gets 223 FPS and the other gets 216 FPS does it really matter? Especially in 640x480 resolution!??!!??

Either way you look at it, it so far seems that both nForce and KT266A are equal performance wise. I don't know about the rest of you, but when there's some $120 nForce 220-D boards out there, I'm getting it, even though the KT266A might be 7 FPS faster in Q3A (in addition, I need good sound and a good NIC. Which reminds me, does everyone here have a good sound card and NIC laying around. Otherwise, why shouldn't you be jumping all over nForce).

 

[ArchAngel777]

<<< LOL, from everyone on this board that got one, you seem to be the only one that had any serious problems (besides the genious that left a mobo standoff under the mobo and burned it up). tough luck >>>


I know man, can you beleive it? Did you read my post in the motherboard forums? This motherboard is possessed or something. I use only high quality parts in my rig, yet this crap happens... I mean it is so frusterating... I am not sure if maybe I got a bad board or something... Everything is running smooth now... but like it was possessed the last 3 days... out of all my computer problems, this has been the biggest headache... However I beleive I attributed the problem to the Dram command rate of 1 instead of the more stable 2 for the Crucial memory sticks... I have tried everything known to man! So anyways, I upped my DDR voltage to 2.7. What I find is odd though, that when I try and run my Tbird @ default 100Mhz bus... Then windows refuses to boot... Weird eh? For a full explanation check out the official Shuttle thread in the AT motherboard forum... Anyways, I am thinking I may have gotten cheaper memory from Crucial, or that my motherboard is a bit flaky... I know I cannot base all AK31As off of my experience... But I tell you man, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth...


<<< Hope you can keep it rock solid for a while though. >>>


Thanks man, I apreciate it!


<<< Either way you look at it, it so far seems that both nForce and KT266A are equal performance wise. I don't know about the rest of you, but when there's some $120 nForce 220-D boards out there, I'm getting it, even though the KT266A might be 7 FPS faster in Q3A (in addition, I need good sound and a good NIC. Which reminds me, does everyone here have a good sound card and NIC laying around. Otherwise, why shouldn't everyone be jumping all over nForce). >>>

The more I thought of it last 2 weeks we had that convo, your right... I knew it too, but I have this obession, at times if I don't catch myself, I find myself looking for the best, no matter how much faster... But, I think nVidia can pull off a better qulity board than Via anyday....


Peace out...

 

[AGodspeed]

But, I think nVidia can pull off a better qulity board than Via anyday....

Not something VIA would like to hear. It's not good when a newcomer beats you.

 

[ArchAngel777]

<<< Not something VIA would like to hear. It's not good when a newcomer beats you. >>>


LOL, yeah no kidding! I guess I wish Via would have more quality control in testing.. And no I am not refering ot my experience with Shuttle... But if you read on the forums, people have more issues with Via then all the others combined... Kinda makes you wonder why the hell they can't get it right ever.

EDIT

BTW, nVidia is not your Average "newcomer" I tell you, everything they do, they do it right... I am fully confident that issues with their chipset are solid, and if one is found, you can bet they will release a driver to fix it... But hey, thats nVidia.. Not all companies are that great.

 

[Pabster]

Seems to me it's just VIA. Shuttle's boards are actually pretty damn good for the price.

nForce is looking good, that's for sure. Whether it takes the top spot in benchmarks makes zero difference to me. It's gonna be close. The difference will be stability, reliability, and compatibility -- with VIA lacking seriously in all 3 major areas. So nForce would have to be a major phuckup for me to avoid it.

 

[ArchAngel777]

<<< nForce is looking good, that's for sure. Whether it takes the top spot in benchmarks makes zero difference to me. It's gonna be close. The difference will be stability, reliability, and compatibility -- with VIA lacking seriously in all 3 major areas. So nForce would have to be a major phuckup for me to avoid it. >>>


LOL well said... but this still leaves me with a 100 dollor board that is mediocre... Oh well such is life... It always bytes you in the azz..

 

[oldfart]

Nforce may even be enough for an Intel guy like me to go AMD. VIA has kept me away from AMD until now. Lets see once these boards hit the streets if they are stable. Fast is a given. As others have said, a few FPS here or there doesn't make a difference. I want a stable motherboard.

 

[kgraeme]

For straight benchmarks, I think we'll see that it's a wash. The KT266A will win some and the nForce will win some. It will come down to features like on-board audio, LAN, and video, and of course stability.

I'm still disappointed in the performance of the built-in video. I was really hoping for something closer to MX400 level. I'm also a little put out by the mATX configurations that only have 2 PCI and the AMR to use the built-in audio/lan. My plans to build a super small lan box with no cards added seems to be dwindling.