NVIDIA Announces AMD Integrated Graphics
by Wesley Fink on September 20, 2005 1:08 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Our Take
NVIDIA C51 has been expected for quite a while. Without a real integrated graphics solution for the AMD market, NVIDIA had allowed that market segment to be controlled by ATI on the higher end and SiS on the lower end. Now that NVIDIA is introducing its own AMD Integrated Graphics solution, you can expect this market segment to heat up even more.
NVIDIA tells us that boards will be available in early October, but we have already seen at least one motherboard available online. Priced at just $80, the Biostar Tforce-6100 is a value oriented board. If you're interested in the more feature-rich 6150+430 configuration you will have to wait a bit longer. We should see more products hit the retail market in the near future.
Some of the options on NVIDIA's new chipsets are unique and promising, like the support for high definition Azalia audio and HDTV output in 1080i format. These features look very promising for multimedia PCs, a market also targeted by ATI with their Integrated Graphics.
There are also some disappointments in the 6100. No one expects the GeForce 6100 to be the choice of a gamer, but there was hope that nVidia would improve performance by using 4 pixel pipelines in the 6100. Instead, the shipping 6100 is only 2 pixel pipelines, the same as the ATI Radeon Xpress200. NVIDIA passed on the opportunity to bring 6200 level Graphics to integrated video. They have promised that most "mainstream" games will be playable on the 6100 series, but we are skeptical with just 2 pipelines.
We will be talking more about the GeForce 6100 when we get our hands on actual motherboards and systems. At this point, it looks as if the 6100 is stiff competition for ATI. In the end, competition brings value and even more innovation. It looks as if AMD Integrated Graphics will now be a hotly contested market, and that's good news for buyers of mainstream Athlon64 systems.
NVIDIA C51 has been expected for quite a while. Without a real integrated graphics solution for the AMD market, NVIDIA had allowed that market segment to be controlled by ATI on the higher end and SiS on the lower end. Now that NVIDIA is introducing its own AMD Integrated Graphics solution, you can expect this market segment to heat up even more.
NVIDIA tells us that boards will be available in early October, but we have already seen at least one motherboard available online. Priced at just $80, the Biostar Tforce-6100 is a value oriented board. If you're interested in the more feature-rich 6150+430 configuration you will have to wait a bit longer. We should see more products hit the retail market in the near future.
Some of the options on NVIDIA's new chipsets are unique and promising, like the support for high definition Azalia audio and HDTV output in 1080i format. These features look very promising for multimedia PCs, a market also targeted by ATI with their Integrated Graphics.
There are also some disappointments in the 6100. No one expects the GeForce 6100 to be the choice of a gamer, but there was hope that nVidia would improve performance by using 4 pixel pipelines in the 6100. Instead, the shipping 6100 is only 2 pixel pipelines, the same as the ATI Radeon Xpress200. NVIDIA passed on the opportunity to bring 6200 level Graphics to integrated video. They have promised that most "mainstream" games will be playable on the 6100 series, but we are skeptical with just 2 pipelines.
We will be talking more about the GeForce 6100 when we get our hands on actual motherboards and systems. At this point, it looks as if the 6100 is stiff competition for ATI. In the end, competition brings value and even more innovation. It looks as if AMD Integrated Graphics will now be a hotly contested market, and that's good news for buyers of mainstream Athlon64 systems.
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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.