Feature Comparison

Here is a feature comparison of all four NVIDIA chipsets designed for the Intel platform. NVIDIA has highlighted the key differences in green.

Again, the nForce4 SLI X16 is the only chipset that can support two PCIe X16 slots simultaneously. The other SLI-capable chipsets can only run the both PCIe slots in X8 mode.

You can also see in the feature comparison that the two new chipsets lack what NVIDIA calls the ActiveArmor Secure Networking Engine. Basically, that's the hardware acceleration module for the NVIDIA ActiveArmor Firewall software.

It's interesting to note that the four chipsets seem to have A LOT in common. That got us thinking. Is it possible that all four chipsets are all based on the same dies, and created based on demand or quality? Is it possible that the new nForce4 SLI XE and nForce4 Ultra are crippled versions of the nForce4 SLI X16 and nForce4 SLI?

We asked Jean-Marc about it but he refused to comment about it. No matter how we tried, we couldn't eke out any information. So, would it possible for us to hack the SLI XE or Ultra versions into at least the nForce4 SLI? With not even a hint from NVIDIA, the only way to find out would be for us to try hacking it ourselves.

The Competition

In NVIDIA's eyes, the two new chipsets will definitely help them trash the competition and take in more share of the Intel core logic market. Here's a chart of the three chipsets, their competitors and NVIDIA's key advantages.

Current Board Partners

Here's a list of the current NVIDIA board partners for the nForce4 SLI X16, nForce4 SLI XE and nForce4 Ultra chipsets.

Currently, you can only expect to find nForce4 SLI X16 motherboards from ASUS, Gigabyte and Jetway. The new nForce4 SLI XE seems to be the most popular choice amongst motherboard manufacturers, with six of them signed up right now. However, we will only see the new motherboards by the end of January at the earliest. The same goes for the new nForce4 Ultra chipset.