The nForce4 is a motherboard

chipset In a computer system, a chipset is a set of electronic components on one or more integrated circuits that manages the data flow between the processor, memory and peripherals. The chipset is usually found on the motherboard of computers. Chips ...

released by

Nvidia Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...

in October 2004. The chipset supports AMD 64-bit processors (

Socket 939 Socket 939 (also known as Socket AM1) is a CPU socket released by AMD in June 2004 to supersede the previous Socket 754 for Athlon 64 processors. Socket 939 was succeeded by Socket AM2 in May 2006. It was the second socket designed for AMD's AMD ...

Socket AM2 The Socket AM2, renamed from Socket M2 (to prevent using the same name as Cyrix MII processors), is a CPU socket designed by AMD for desktop processors, including the performance, mainstream and value segments. It was released on May 23, 2006, a ...

and

Socket 754 Socket 754 is a CPU socket originally developed by AMD to supersede its Athlon XP platform ( Socket A, also referred to as Socket 462). Socket 754 was one of the first sockets developed by AMD to support their new 64-bit microprocessor family kn ...

) and

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

Pentium 4 Pentium 4 is a series of single-core central processing unit, CPUs for Desktop computer, desktops, laptops and entry-level Server (computing), servers manufactured by Intel. The processors were shipped from November 20, 2000 until August 8, 20 ...

LGA 775 LGA 775 ( land grid array 775), also known as Socket T, is an Intel desktop CPU socket. Unlike PGA CPU sockets, such as its predecessor Socket 478, LGA 775 has no socket holes; instead, it has 775 protruding pins which touch contact points on th ...

processors.

Models

nForce4/nForce4-4x

nForce4 is the second evolution of the Media Communications Processor (MCP) and incorporates both Northbridge and Southbridge on a single

die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

(the first was

nForce3 The nForce3 chipset was created by Nvidia as a Media and Communications Processor. Specifically, it was designed for use with the Athlon 64 processor. Features of the nForce3 When the Athlon 64 was launched, the Nvidia nForce3 Pro150 and ...

). The

version of the board has the

HyperTransport HyperTransport (HT), formerly known as Lightning Data Transport, is a technology for interconnection of computer Processor (computing), processors. It is a bidirectional Serial communication, serial/Parallel communication, parallel high-Bandwi ...

link clocked to 800

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

(6.4 GB/s transfer rate). Motherboards based on early revisions are mostly referred to as "nForce4-4x" (relating with their ability to handle HT speeds of 4x). *Support for up to 20

PCI Express PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a high-speed standard used to connect hardware components inside computers. It is designed to replace older expansion bus standards such as Peripher ...

(PCIe) lanes (up to 38-40 lanes for the nForce4 SLI x16). Reference boards are set up with one x16 slot and three x1 slots, leaving 1 lane unused. *Support for up to 10

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

2.0 ports. *Support for 4

SATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard ...

and 4 PATA drives, which can be linked together in any combination of SATA and PATA to form a

RAID RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical Computer data storage, data storage components into one or more logical units for th ...

0, 1, or 0+1. *Nvidia RAID Morphing, which allows conversion from one RAID type to another

on the fly On the fly is a phrase used to describe something that is being changed while the process that the change affects is ongoing. It is used in the automotive, computer, and culinary industries. In cars, on the fly can be used to describe the changin ...

. *Nvidia

nTune NVIDIA System Tools (previously called nTune) is a discontinued collection of utilities for accessing, monitoring, and adjusting system components, including temperature and voltages with a graphical user interface within Windows, rather than th ...

, a tool for easy

overclocking In computing, overclocking is the practice of increasing the clock rate of a computer to exceed that certified by the manufacturer. Commonly, operating voltage is also increased to maintain a component's operational stability at accelerated sp ...

and timing configurations. *Full 1000 MHz speed on

(8 GB/s transfer rate). *Eight-channel

AC'97 AC'97 (''Audio Codec '97;'' also MC'97 for ''Modem Codec '97'') is an audio codec standard developed by Intel Architecture Labs and various codec manufacturers in 1997. The standard was used in motherboards, modems, and sound cards. The specif ...

audio. *Onboard

Gigabit Ethernet In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use in ...

. *Nvidia

ActiveArmor The nForce4 is a motherboard chipset released by Nvidia in October 2004. The chipset supports AMD64, AMD 64-bit processors (Socket 939, Socket AM2 and Socket 754) and Intel Corporation, Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775 processors. Models nForce4/nForce4 ...

, an onboard firewall solution. (Not available on regular nForce 4) *Does not support

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95. It was Software ...

Windows Me Windows Me (Millennium Edition) is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the successor to Windows 98, and was released to manufacturing on June 19, 2000, and t ...

nForce4 Ultra

The Ultra version contains all of the features of the nForce4-4x version with the addition of: *Hardware processing for the

to reduce CPU load. *

Serial ATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host adapter, host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PAT ...

3 Gbit/s interface with 300 MB/s transfer speeds for SATA 3 Gbit/s drives. Enthusiasts discovered early after the release of nForce4 Ultra that the chipset was identical to nForce4 SLI other than a single resistor on the chip package itself. By modifying this resistor as the SLI is configured, an Ultra can be turned into an SLI.

nForce4 SLI

The SLI version has all the features of the Ultra version, in addition to SLI (Scalable Link Interface). This interface allows two video cards to be connected to produce a single output. This can theoretically double framerates by splitting work between the two

GPUs A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal ...

. On a standard (non x16) nForce4 SLI motherboard, the system can be configured to provide an x16 slot for one graphics board or twin x8 slots for the SLI configuration. A jumper bank must be altered to set these options.

nForce4 SLI Intel Edition

Unlike its AMD Athlon 64 sibling, the Intel Edition is an older chipset as it has both a northbridge and southbridge. As with the older

nForce2 The Nvidia nForce2 chipset was released by Nvidia in July 2002 as a refresh to the original nForce product offering. The nForce2 chipset was a platform for motherboards supporting AMD's Socket A CPUs along with DDR SDRAM. There were multiple ...

chipsets, Nvidia calls the northbridge the "System Platform Processor" (SPP) and the southbridge the "Media and Communications Processor" (MCP). This change in design was necessitated because, unlike the Athlon 64/Opteron, the

does not have an on-board memory controller thus requiring Nvidia to include one in the chipset like in older nForce2. In addition to supporting Pentium 4 processors (with up to a 1066 MHz FSB) the chipset includes support for

DDR2 SDRAM Double Data Rate 2 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR2 SDRAM) is a double data rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) interface. It is a JEDEC standard (JESD79-2); first published in September 2003. DDR2 succeed ...

. Also like Nvidia's older chipsets, the MCP and SPP communicate through a Hypertransport link, in this case only at (1.6 GB/s. transfer rate) Apart from these differences, the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition shares the same features as the regular nForce4 SLI. An oddity of the Intel Edition is the fact that while it works with the

Pentium D Pentium D is a range of desktop 64-bit x86-64 processors based on the NetBurst microarchitecture, which is the Multi-core processor, dual-core variant of the Pentium 4 manufactured by Intel. Each CPU comprised two cores. The brand's first process ...

830 (3.0 GHz) and 840 (3.2 GHz), as well as the Extreme Edition of the 840, it does not work with the Pentium D 820 (2.8 GHz) because the 820 has a much lower current draw than the 830 and 840. Attempting to boot an Intel Edition board with an 820 will cause it to shut down so as to avoid damaging the processor. Nvidia have stated that they do not consider the 820 to be an enthusiast (because it is older) processor, and as such will not be enabling support for it. However, the nForce4 SLI X16 supports it.

nForce4 SLI x16

The nForce4 SLI x16 has similar features to the nForce4 SLI, except it now provides 16 PCI-Express lanes to both graphics cards in an SLI configuration (as opposed to only 8 lanes per graphics card with the original SLI chipset). This is the only version of the nForce4 for AMD processors that has a separate northbridge and southbridge. It comprises the existing nForce4 MCP for the southbridge and a new AMD nForce4 System Platform Processor (SPP). The two chips are connected via the HyperTransport link. This solution provides 38 PCI-Express lanes in total, and can be divided over 7 slots. It is also available for Intel processors, whereby it provides 40 PCI-Express lanes, which can be divided over 9 slots.

Southbridges

nForce400/405/410/430

The nForce400/405/410/430 refer to nForce4 based southbridges which are used together with GeForce 6100/6150 series northbridges to form a chipset with integrated graphics. The combination is a follow-up to the popular

IGP chipset.

Driver Availability

Nvidia offers nForce4 chipset driver downloads for NT-based Windows versions from 2000 up to and including Vista in the "Legacy" product type category on their download page. However, there is no official support for Windows 7 or newer, but Windows 7 has a built-in driver for the nForce 6 chipset, which is very similar.

Flaws

Nvidia's nForce4 chipset suffers from several unresolved issues. The

hardware firewall is nearly non-functional, with many unsolved bugs and potentially serious instability issues. Installing

can cause BSODs for users of certain software, especially

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...

applications. Some programs, such as

μTorrent μTorrent, or uTorrent (see pronunciation), is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client owned and developed by Rainberry, Inc. The " μ" (Greek letter " mu") in its name comes from the SI prefix "micro-", referring to the program's small memo ...

, go so far as to have warning messages about using Nvidia's firewall in combination with their software. ActiveArmor also has a high probability of causing corruption of file downloads. Nvidia has been unable to solve these issues and points to hardware bugs within the chipset itself, problems which they are unable to work around. There have also been data corruption issues associated with certain SATA 3 Gbit/s hard drives. The issues can often be resolved with a firmware update for the hard drive from the manufacturer. The nForce4 chipset has also been blamed for issues with PCI cards, relating to Nvidia's implementation of the

PCI bus PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Pro ...

. RME Audio, a maker of professional audio equipment, has stated that the latency of the PCI bus is unreliable and that the chipset's PCI Express interface can "hog" system data transfer resources when intense video card usage is occurring. This has the effect of causing audible pops and clicks with PCI

sound card A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term ''sound card'' is also applied to external audio ...

s. Gamers have noticed this effect, especially with Creative's

Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Blaster X-Fi is a lineup of sound cards in Creative Technology's Sound Blaster series. History The series was launched in August 2005 as a lineup of PCI sound cards, which served as the introduction for their X-Fi audio processing chip, ...

and Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound cards. Compatibility issues between these sound cards and nForce4 motherboards have been ongoing, including reports of serious and irreversible damage to crucial motherboard components. Driver updates were also found to be unsuccessful.Creative Sound Blaster Forum
accessed September 5, 2006. Latency issues are more readily apparent with sound cards than other addon cards because of the direct user feedback the audio problems demonstrate.

References

External links

Nvidia: nForce4

Anandtech: nForce4: PCI Express and SLI for Athlon 64

Techreport: Nvidia's nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset
{{Nvidia chipsets Nvidia chipsets