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Hardware nForce 590 Details Leaked
Kristopher Kubicki (Blog) - May 8, 2006 10:31 PM
Print 29 comment(s) - last by smn198.. on May 10 at 8:47 AM
Next generation nForce gets official... on paper... again... really

We just got our hands on the newest NVIDIA core logic roadmap.  Several weeks ago, NVIDIA announced the nForce 500 series chipsets based on the MCP55 controller.  The 500 series family includes plans for an nForce 590, 570, 550 and SLI derivatives.  NVIDIA has made announcements to its partners that it will now "officially" launch its MCP55 lineup on May 23, 2006, for both Intel Conroe and AMD AM2 motherboards.  Expect availability of nForce 590 on both platforms on launch days for each new processor core.

nForce 590 will be the highest performance NVIDIA chipset for AMD AM2 and Intel Socket 775.  The chipset will be specifically tweaked for SLI and Quad SLI and feature a new technology called "LinkBoost."  LinkBoost will, supposedly, offer increased bandwidth between GPU and MCP if, and only if, the system uses NVIDIA-only components.  Currently, only the 90nm GeForce series graphic cards will support LinkBoost, but future high end cards will as well.

The nForce 590 SLI, 570 SLI and 570 Ultra chipsets also features an option called "FirstPacket."  FirstPacket apparently is NVIDIA first attempt at packet prioritization, or Quality of Service on the NVIDIA firewall.  The new chipsets will also feature a "teaming" feature that will allow for some rudimentary traffic shaping while using both Ethernet connections on the MCP.

The nForce 590 is a two chip package.  The SPP uses 90nm TSMC packaging while the MCP is a 130nm TSMC package. Other MCP55 will use similar setups, but will not "relaunch" until later this year.  NVIDIA MCP61 showed up on company roadmaps earlier this year and will be the company's first single core motherboard chipset in many years.

And yes, NVIDIA's slides also confirm high definition audio will appear with nForce 590.  SoundStorm2 proponents may or may not see this as a sign of the apocalypse.

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RE: Sweet
By OrSin on 5/9/2006 9:08:55 AM , Rating: 2
Do don't get things too much in a uproar about the Link Boost. I doubt it will have any real advantages for the high end cards. The PCI-E bus is not full so any type pf boost will most likely be very small (less then 2%). What it might help with is the lowend cards that use system memory. This would make more sense and would give a reason why it would only work with Nv cards.


RE: Sweet
By Trisped on 5/9/2006 1:29:13 PM , Rating: 2
Not to mention the fact that NVIDIA likes to release "finished" products in a beta testing stage, like with the 4GPU cards. I hope early adopters are still able to use the boards without problems. I would hate to upgrade my MBoard just to end up with one that doesn't work with my 7900GTX SLI set up.


RE: Sweet
By akugami on 5/9/2006 3:15:28 PM , Rating: 2
I also can't help but get the feeling this is nothing more than a SLI booster and for low end cards that use system memory. I believe ATI does something similar when using their cards in Crossfire mode but don't quote me on that. For mid-range systems and high end single card systems, this is likely to do nothing.


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