VIA PT Series: VIA PCI Express for Intel
by Wesley Fink on January 31, 2005 12:01 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Our Take
VIA is delivering a very interesting group of 3 new chipsets for the Intel Socket 775 platform. If they had been available when Intel launched the new Socket 775 some six months ago, then VIA might have been a significant player in the Socket 775 market at this point. We say that because the new VIA chipsets perform very well - at least as good as the best from Intel - and they also have features that make the upgrade path to Socket 775 a much easier choice for enthusiasts who want to upgrade. With the PT880 Pro "step-up" boards, you can bring along your AGP card and fast DDR memory, and still have an upgrade path to PCI Express in the future. Or you can keep your DDR and use a new PCIe video card and a Socket T Pentium 4.At the Enthusiast end, the new 894 and 894 Pro chipsets deliver features available nowhere else - features like DDR2-667 support, 1066FSB on all PCIe chipsets, SATAII 3Gb/sec hard drives, RAID 5, and dual video card support for PCIe/PCIe at the top and AGP/PCIe on the 880 Pro. The excellent performance of the new VIA chipsets and the unique and desirable new features make them exceptionally competitive today. The 915/925x boards have not sold well and the new VIA options could persuade many that an upgrade to Socket 775 can be a good choice, one that is no longer prohibitively expensive from an upgrader's viewpoint.
The bigger question, however, is whether the new VIA offerings may be too little, too late. The features and performance are stand-out right now, but VIA will not actually have products to market for about a month to 6 weeks. At that time, we will also be seeing the new Intel 945 and 955x chipsets, which also support 1066FSB, DDR2-667, and SATAII - just like the new VIA chipsets - in addition to the new dual-core Intel processors and 64-bit extensions. We would hope that VIA has planned for these new CPUs and that the PT series will fully support the dual-core, which is not supported by current Intel 915/925x chipsets. If they have, and dual-core and 64-bit is no problem for the PT chipsets, then the new VIA chipsets should still compete very well with the best from Intel.
VIA will also be very aggressive in pricing the new Socket T chipsets, since part of their strategy is to undercut price points that are currently very high for 915/925X. This could mean buyers in the near future will be able to choose some very high-performance Socket 775 boards at prices that we have not yet seen in the Socket T market. This is good news for buyers and it could well hold the new Intel chipsets to more competitive pricing.
The new VIA chipsets are great at bringing to buyers what they have been asking for in Socket 775 boards. The new VIA chipsets are wonderfully flexible, allowing mix-and-match DDR, DDR2, AGP, PCIe, and dual video cards. However, they are coming very late to market - or very early - depending on whether the real competition is 915/925x or 945/955x. If VIA has done their homework and dual-core and 64-bit extensions are fully supported, then the new VIA chipsets should do very well in the market. Choice is always a good thing.
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ChineseDemocracyGNR - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
#14,we don't even know if the PT894 Pro will be more expensive than the PT894, or if it's just a name to help motherboard companies promote their DualGFX products. The nVidia nForce4 SLI is $20 more expensive than the Ultra.
As far as "restoring VIA's reputation", they're not going to focus on that when releasing new products. I have worked with their recent chipsets (PT880, PT800, KT880, KT600, K8T800, K8T800Pro) and I don't think there's anything else they could other than continue to bring good chipsets at low prices to make people that had a bad experience with them 5 years ago change their minds.
quanta - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
If the nForce4 Ultra/SLI mod is of any indication, the PT894[Pro] will be a crippleware scam! Unlike NVIDIA, VIA no longer have any marketing lead to afford ripping off motherboard makers. Support for DDR memory isn't going to restore VIA's reputation, especially with the emerging NVIDIA chipset on Intel platform...ChineseDemocracyGNR - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
Just for the curious, PCPer has pictures of PT880 Pro and PT894 Pro boards. So what? Well, the PT894 Pro is using the VT8251 southbridge. :)http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=114&type=...
These two look very much like Jetway boards from the color scheme. ABIT's PT880Pro is also there.
MS - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
"Amd socket 939 = socket 754 + 184 pin = 938 pin "That's not exactly how it works, there are a number of power and ground pins that are not tied to the CPU at all. In other words, the calculation comes out somewhat close to reality but that is just coincidence. Otherwise, the Socket940 which needs to use 8 extra data lines and additional clock input would have a much higher pin count than just one over 939.
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
ALL - We apologize for the confusion this morning. The article posted at 6AM when the VIA NDA was 12 Noon EST (9AM PST). As soon as we realized this the article came down and went back up at the correct NDA time.#6 - Corrected
Dranzerk - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
Wow, this will make for a nice upgrade path for people. If they show up on market fast enough, and ample supply they should do well.Jep4444 - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
Socket 754 and 939 have a few useless pins. I believe 939 has an extra useless pin.I'm not sure if thats how it works though.
nserra - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
The power of the DDR dimm is drained by the amd processor, or by board? If its the board how many pins are needed? Thanks in advance.#avijay thanks but you didnt answer my question:
- Amd socket 939 = socket 754 + 184 pin = 938 pin
avijay - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
#5 skt939 has dual channel memory controller, not single channel like skt754. I think you can add that for the extra pin in the pin count.avijay - Monday, January 31, 2005 - link
As always, a very nice article! Just one thing to point out:(Page 6) table:
VIA PT894 Reference Board Specifications
CPU Interface Socket 939 Athlon 64 ???
shouldn't that be skt 775!
you might like to correct that wesley.