Sandman said:
Hi,
I'm looking at this board since its inexpensive, but read some
weird things about graphics card support? Any opinions either way? I
won't be running any major games or anything on it, and was looking at
the ASUS Extreme N6200TC/TD video card....
Sandman
It is weird.
*******
http://www.nvidia.com/page/gpu_mobo_tech_specs.html
Geforce 6150 Nforce 430
PCI Express 1x16, 2x1
Geforce 6150 Nforce 410
PCI Express 1x16, 1x1
Geforce 6150 Nforce 400 <--------
PCI Express 2x1
http://www.nvidia.com/attach/881700?type=support&primitive=0
Geforce 6100 Nforce 405
PCI Express 1x8, ?x1
*******
Basically, it means some Nforce 6100/6150 motherboards will have
a PCI Express x16 connector, but it won't have the full bus wiring.
In theory, well designed graphics cards should be able to deal with it,
if plugged into such a slot. But as some people have discovered, this
is not always the case.
The motherboard designer can install a x16 video card connector,
and only wire the slot for x1, x2, x4, or x8 if they feel like it.
For some reason, Nvidia is carrying a couple of entries in their
product lineup, that encourage such a configuration.
In the case of your proposed GA-M61VME-S2, it is advertised as using
GeForce 6100 / nForce 400, which means the video card slot is only
wired for x1 rate. And that means you get a slot bandwidth of 250MB/sec
bidirectional. Making the video slot slightly better than a couple
PCI busses.
When I look at a picture of the motherboard, it seems to have more
coupling caps next to the video card slot, than is needed for x1
bandwidth. Yet, the downloadable manual confirms it is wired for
x1. The downloadable manual has a list of video cards that have
been tested with it.
If your video card is a TurboCache model, then Turbocache uses
system memory for part of the graphics memory. A certain amount
of graphics memory will be soldered to the video card. If a game
needs more texture memory than is held on the card, then the
card can DMA transfer over the PCI Express bus. This works fine
when the bus is x16 (bandwidth 4GB/sec). If the bus is restricted
to x1, then whenever the card uses Turbocache, performance will
suffer (don't ask me what the visual symptoms would be).
If you aren't a gamer, 2D graphics would probably be supported
just fine with the GPU built in to the chipset. In this case,
I don't know if installing a 6200TC is really going to help matters,
unless it has different DirectX or shader model support or something.
About the only advantage to this scheme, is perhaps the Northbridge
chip will run a bit cooler. Otherwise, it is a crock. Based on the
above table, if this was my purchase, I'd search for a product with
6150/410 or 6150/430, so we won't be filling the landfill with
rejected x1 video card slot motherboards...
In the reviews of this 6150 / 430 motherboard alternative, people
note that the chipset gets burning hot. Meaning a fan should have
been used. (Burning hot means the heatsink is at 55C or hotter.
Which does not necessarily mean anything bad. If the built-in
GPU misbehaves, then you know a potential reason why. Pointing
a fan at the heatsink would give some relief from the heat.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813131014
For hot chipsets, there are solutions like this. But having to
retrofit something like this, really means a better motherboard
for the job should have been selected in the first place.
Thermalright HR-05 family:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109128
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109131
The two types are selected from, depending on how best to clear
any plug-in cards using the PCI Express or PCI slots.
http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_support_installation_hr05_cliptypes.htm
http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_support_installation_hr05sli_cliptypes.htm
Best advice, is to read the reviews for the various products, as
seen on Newegg, to decide which is the best compromise.
Paul
