Introduction

The shock was deep for many nForce 2 owners. Since you had brought with the brand new chipset by nVidia of not only one of the fastest maybe mainboards in his private collection and obliterated the forever reviled manufacturer VIA one, also with the guaranteed future of it looked rosy. Shortly before the launch of nForce 2 had launched AMD the FSB333 in life and in this combination, the team showed what performance from the elderly Socket A to bring was. Less than half a year later, it seemed to be over with the happiness.

Not slowly lose the connection in the race against Intel, AMD, decided with the could + raise the FSB on real 200 MHz (effective FSB400). KT333, KT400 and nForce 2 – how all who like hot, no chip set – up to the not yet available SiS 748 – was clear with this bar. Although there were occasionally nForce 2 copies, not refused to work and some users of the Northbridge via VDD mod properly shown – but when FSB400 the series could not and the producers hesitated with a share. VIA completely blew the sails and to the CeBIT2003 we learned that not to allow KT400A but only his successor, the KT600, the FSB400.

At nVidia, it was, however, longer in the dark. Rumors of a so-called C1 stepping and ABIT boards in the fabled Rev. 2.0 surfaced that long time precise details were known. Sure seemed to be only one: no nForce 2 with the new Athlon XP should run without manipulation.

The last few weeks brought clarity to nVidia yesterday ultimately own the new revision of nForce 2 presented A1 stepping, better known as nForce 2 ultra 400. This chip was used for some time on board as the A7N8X Rev. 2.0, the EPoX 8RDA3 + and the ABIT NF-7 Rev. 2.0.

Some weeks ago we had however said from circles of ABIT, that you may not want deny the step to the Athlon XP 3200 + also older boards and today Asus has released now officially all A7N8X (Deluxe) from revision 1.04 with BIOS 1004.002 for the FSB400, although this board just does not have the A1 stepping of the nForce 2.

That ASUS has examined in detail the thing before an official release, is it likely to. But at the expense of which was completed the “upgrade” of nForce 2? We have our A7N8X Deluxe Rev. 1.04, grabbed a could + and 2 x Kingston HyperX PC3500 and again recalculate.

Test system

• Processor
  • AMD Athlon XP 3200 + Barton FSB400
• Motherboard
  • Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev. 1.04 (nForce 2)
  • Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev. 2.00 (nForce 2 400 ultra)
• Memory
  • 2x256MB DDR400 Kingston HyperX PC3500
• Graphics card
  • ASUS V8460 ultra (GeForce4 Ti4600)
• Peripherals
  • ASUS CRW 4012A
  • IBM IC35LC040
• Driver versions
  • nVidia detonator 41.09
  • nVidia nForce driver package 2.03 (AMD)
  • Intel inf driver 5.00.1009 (Intel)
• Software
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP1
  • Microsoft DirectX 9.0

FSB400 – no problem?

When we took the A7N8X the revision 1.04 FB400 compliance ranging in January under the microscope, the stability limit was reached at a frequency of 191MHz. At 200 MHz Windows greeted us even for a few seconds, then broke the graphics together and shortly thereafter the rest of the computer.

We were armed with the could + us today so again to work. The BIOS can heard on the revision of 1001.E and was dated to the 27.11.2002. At eingetellten 200 MHz the boot prompt – presented us as otherwise was to be expected – an unknown CPU with the beat of 2190MHz – on the Windows BootScreen was then shortly afterwards concluded. Still sobering as in our test well four months ago.

After the most recent 1004.002 was flashed, the same attempt took place once again. Not only that the BIOS now presented us the correct CPU, the boot was clean through and after the first benchmarks seemed to stand firmly: it fits. 3DMark 2001, 3DMark03, DoD, flask, QuakeIIIArena, WinACE and Comanche ran without complaint.

A possible explanation for this “miracle BIOS”, which gives old chips new life, recently delivered the nForcersHQ page. There was the following information available:

≪ blockquote > originally posted

NVIDIA has a lot of the BIOS that cleans up a “noise” and would allow some older boards to hit 400FSB. However, it is still that BIOS if they are going to use up to the board maker and validate their board for official 400FSB support. NVIDIA feels that the board makers will vary on their response to this. Aggressive companies such as ABIT will release the BIOS and state you can overclock on it on others, most of them and support. More conservative companies like Asus – will probably use the BIOS for stability, but will only certify the newest boards to support 400FSB officially or unofficially.

Therefore (because nVidia programmed for reasons of secrecy all BIOS for nForce 2 Board itself) the programming combined with nVidia, succeeded to minimize so-called ‘noise’ on nForce 2 boards, to say the signals keep clean. nVidia, it would exempt any manufacturer here to make his old boards FSB400 or prefer to place ultra 400 on completely new boards with nForce 2.

How exactly this “noise reduction” of design gone, remains so far although uncertain. But is it possible that this also significantly speed affected was considered? For this reason, we have an A7N8X Deluxe with Rev. 1.04 and one with Rev. 2.0 – so officially compete FSB 400 compatible A1 stepping – let.

Benchmarks

Conclusion

After our test, which includes a series of benchmarks, we can give the green light for the FSB400 on A7N8X boards from revision 1.04 our, provided the BIOS 1004.002 or younger is installed. A blue screen, we had to complain about in the 3DMark03, could we attribute to the store and had therefore to deal with any problems. We assume that this result in stifling PC systems to reproduce, since – we have seen that in the case of nForce 2 in the last few weeks – a manufacturer is a long process of validation, rather he expresses his “guaranteed stamp”, which may be costly to him in case of doubt, on a product.

Not quite sure, we are the conditions under which the nForce was made suitable for 2 FSB400. The Rev. 1.04 ran some slower than the revision 2.00. In other cases, she held with well or went into flask for example in the lead. Overall, it seems easy but noticeably buckling particularly in 3D applications. Therefore we do not exclude, that the compatibility at the expense of top speed was bought. We even suspect that so the switching from XP3000 + (FSB333) and could + (FSB400) will provide barely a noticeable difference in performance. Tomorrow we will submit a XP3000 + on the revision 1.04 results, our theory to confirm or to refute.

At the end, we wanted to still know it and turned a little to the clock screw. Managed we used it the last time in 220MHz make a WCPUID shot. From 210MHz but there the image already in January.Overall, the FSB bar to 20 MHz seems turned upward with the new BIOS therefore has been to be