VIA's KT266A Looks To Be Serious Competition For NForce

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  • Bing Fung
    Ultra Senior Member
    • Aug 2000
    • 6521

    VIA's KT266A Looks To Be Serious Competition For NForce



    I just read that the soon to be released VIA KT266A looks to have solved some of the problems plauging the original release of their DDR chipset (less that stellar performance out of the box for 1). Apparently the memory bandwidth of the new chipset has been increased some 21% over the nearest competitors (SIS735), and actually enjoys a 30% margin in some specific benches. It is speculated that Nforce may have some serious competition for the AMD platform crown.

    Intial tests show that Via has certainly stepped up to the plate with this one.

    Read The Full Report @ AnandTech




    Bing
    Bing
  • JonMarsh
    Mad Max Moderator
    • Aug 2000
    • 15261

    #2
    Good news Bing, it will be interesting to see how these chipsets mate up with Palamino's and Morgans with the improved pre-fetch, with real world Apps, to see what the improved bandwith really buys us.

    I've been frankly puzzled by Intel's approach with the P4- it's architecture can be shown to use/require a lot more bus bandwidth (up to double) than a PIII or Athlon on some benchmarks, while it doesn't actually run the benchmarks appreciably faster! Now, how is that going to work with their new low cost chipsets designed to work with plain old PC133 SDRAM? Sounds like a disaster in the offing- like combining a tax cut and higher gov spending when tax revenues are dropping rapidly! (oops, didn't mean to get into politics, but it was the first metaphor that pops into mind.

    So can I get my MSI board retrofitted with the KT266A?

    Or will I just have to hand that MSI mobo down to my daugher? (poor girl; all these digital cast offs!)

    Regards,

    Jon




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    Comment

    • Bing Fung
      Ultra Senior Member
      • Aug 2000
      • 6521

      #3
      Funny analogy Jon

      Apparently the P4 is a bandwidth hogg, but VIA has been working on a DDR chipset that may satisfy the P4 platform (P4X266). It is speculated the same inhancements are found in the KT266A by way of an improved memory controller and deeper internal buffers. Still, the question you posed remains, DDR can still be considered a performance hit for the P4 platform compared to Rambus. I think Intel should have been paying lipservice to Nvidia to develop Nforce for them first, but you know how Intel works, control everything and licence nothing. They are currently dragging VIA through court over licencing issues for the P4 chipsets, now how is that a way to treat somebody that is trying to help you? :W You also remember when VIA was just an obscure chip maker and Intel was basically strong arming all MoBo makers to not use a VIA based solution, thus leaving AMD with no platform for the fledgling Athalon??? Ahh... what a difference 2 years will make :B

      If only it was a easy as plugging in the new Northbridge chip into our MoBo's :W MoBo Development time is said to be lessened because it is pin compatible with the old northbridge and uses the same Southbridge chip.

      Most folks would clammor for your digital casts offs...LOL, To witt, I will be casting off my KT7A-RAID to my 9 yr old daughter or relegate it to server duties.

      The KT266A may be a good upgrade for those of us that don't require the built in stuff Nforce is bundled with. Certainly the performance gain of the KT266A looks to be a worthwhile upgrade. Coupled with the newer CPU cores, it will be interesting to see how the NForce stacks up.




      Bing
      Bing

      Comment

      • SiliGoose
        Senior Member
        • Aug 2000
        • 942

        #4
        The early benchmarks for the KT266A look very impressive. I'm a little peeved at Via for experimenting on those of us who bought in to the original KT266 chipset. Mine was obviously a defective board but even when it worked I didn't get near the performance I'm now seeing with my AMD 760 based board.

        Bing,

        Correct me if I'm wrong but I think one of the reasons Intel didn't court nVidia is because they're getting exclusive support for ATI's forthcoming motherboard chipset. I'm pretty sure the ATI chipset will be only for Intel CPUs.




        -Sili
        www.campmurphy.net

        Comment

        • Bing Fung
          Ultra Senior Member
          • Aug 2000
          • 6521

          #5
          You may be right Sili.... They don't need no steenkin nvidia :W




          Bing
          Bing

          Comment

          • KennyG
            Moderator Emeritus
            • Sep 2000
            • 745

            #6
            I'd suppose my new htpc is sporting this new chipset, and if so, I can say this beauty is running just wonderfully!
            I'm using the Micro-Star MS-6380LE with VIA apollo KT266 chipset.

            Comment

            • Bing Fung
              Ultra Senior Member
              • Aug 2000
              • 6521

              #7
              No actually the MSI has the older KT266 chip which Sili is scorning VIA over. The KT266A is the difference as in the KT133 vs KT133A boards.

              It's good to hear that your PC is running well though. You shouldn't have any reeal issues with it. The older KT266 runs solid, abeit maybe slow by DDR standards during benchmarks, it probally doesn't factor much in real world applications, except games. For the application you are using it for HTPC, it shouldn't matter.

              Have Fun!




              Bing
              Bing

              Comment

              • Jariten
                Senior Member
                • Jun 2000
                • 271

                #8
                let's not forget that the architecture for the KT266A is not the swame as the NForce chipset..
                also the NForce will have built in decoding in the southbridge...

                Schweet..

                ^_^

                Comment

                • Bing Fung
                  Ultra Senior Member
                  • Aug 2000
                  • 6521

                  #9
                  Well it looks like the Nforce isn't as good as it was hyped to be, Let me rephrase that, the Nforce is as good as it was hyped to be, however the Via KT266-A kinda steals the thunder from it because it's just as fast, if not faster.
                  Nforce 420




                  Bing
                  Bing

                  Comment

                  • Jariten
                    Senior Member
                    • Jun 2000
                    • 271

                    #10
                    Hmm the KT266A is just a better KT266 Chip...because as usual VIA just throws the chipsets out of the door faster than anybody else

                    and of course their 686B southbridge still flaky

                    Ah well

                    How can you compare the KT266A with the nForce chipset anyway?

                    they have NOTHING in common


                    Weeeeeeeeeeeeee

                    Comment

                    • Bing Fung
                      Ultra Senior Member
                      • Aug 2000
                      • 6521

                      #11
                      Just a better KT266? :? maybe so, but it's redefined and raised the bar for socket A mobo performance. I would say "it's a whole lot better" and bet it will be one of the top chip sets on the market for sometime.

                      Yes Via's have the reputation of being flaky, but that doesn't preclude that it's a bad board. Would I buy another? You bettcha! Don't forget that even the KG7 still uses this "flaky southbridge" in the AMD760 chipset.

                      No comparsion, they both look to be good boards depending on what a person needs. I already have a graphics card and sound card, so I don't need to pay the premium for the Nforce's performance with all the integrated stuff, when I can just buy a KT266-A. I'm not saying the Nforce is a bad chipset, on the contrary, I think it's top of the line stuff with lots of ground breaking ideas and features, however at this point in time, I'm not rushing to buy one as I had anticipated I would. Why? Because dollar for dollar, I'm very interested in the KT266-A solution for now, until all the cards are on the table.

                      Nothing in common? How about being 2 of the fastest platforms for the AMD Socket A CPU? :B

                      Cheers!




                      Bing
                      Bing

                      Comment

                      • SiliGoose
                        Senior Member
                        • Aug 2000
                        • 942

                        #12
                        How can you compare the KT266A with the nForce chipset anyway?
                        Um...with benchmarks? Call me a radical but that ought to do it.

                        they have NOTHING in common
                        That's a silly statement.




                        -Sili
                        www.campmurphy.net

                        Comment

                        • Bing Fung
                          Ultra Senior Member
                          • Aug 2000
                          • 6521

                          #13
                          Sili, you are a bit Radical :W




                          Bing
                          Bing

                          Comment

                          • JonMarsh
                            Mad Max Moderator
                            • Aug 2000
                            • 15261

                            #14
                            It's good to see such great performin OPTIONS available to Athlon users now- in the past it was often one fairly decent option, and a couple of semi-flaky ones!

                            If I had to recommend a new MB for my girlfriend's teenage boys, I'm sure an nForce would be at the top of the list.

                            For myself, as a Radeon and Audiophile 24/96 user, I'd go with a KT-266A based solution. I'm actually quite happy with the MSI board I currently have, using the original KT-266. It didn't realize the full potential, but it's still the hottest system I have, of four Athlon systems. But then, I practically have a one man history of Athlon development- starting with a Slot 1 600 MHz (now my Audio test PC, 'cause it has an ISA slot for my CLIO board), up to the MSI board with the KT266, inluding an ABIT KT7 Raid and Asus A7V in between.

                            VIA's problems have seemed to revolve more around their drivers than the hardware, and they're getting pretty good these days- I don't have any operational problems with my systems.

                            So many decisions- I'd really like an MP motherboard for my main desktop, but I'm not doing so much simulation or other stuff that I can't get by with just a fast standard box.

                            Probably I'll just go with a KT266A for the next system and hand down my current A7V 750 MHz desktop to my daughter. She'll want me to "upgrade" it from WIN2K to XP, though; I'm not sure I ever should have let here play with the XP beta's!

                            Regards,

                            Jon




                            Earth First!
                            _______________________________
                            We'll screw up the other planets later....
                            the AudioWorx
                            Natalie P
                            M8ta
                            Modula Neo DCC
                            Modula MT XE
                            Modula Xtreme
                            Isiris
                            Wavecor Ardent

                            SMJ
                            Minerva Monitor
                            Calliope
                            Ardent D

                            In Development...
                            Isiris Mk II updates- in final test stage!
                            Obi-Wan
                            Saint-Saëns Symphonique/AKA SMJ-40
                            Modula PWB
                            Calliope CC Supreme
                            Natalie P Ultra
                            Natalie P Supreme
                            Janus BP1 Sub


                            Resistance is not futile, it is Volts divided by Amperes...
                            Just ask Mr. Ohm....

                            Comment

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