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Wednesday 26th March 2008

Zotac announces nForce 750a motherboard

Posted at: 12:01pm 26th March 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

The first nForce chipset for AMD CPUs since nForce 590

Zotac nForce 750a motherboard

It wasn’t so long ago that Nvidia only made chipsets for AMD chips, with nForce2, nForce3 and nForce4 SLI ganging up with AMD’s CPUs to laugh at Intel’s NetBurst chips. Of course, Intel’s Core 2 turned that around, but Nvidia still reckons that AMD’s processors are worth a shot as its nForce 750a chipset has now reared its head on Zotac’s new (imaginatively named) nForce 750a motherboard.

Originally announced at CES 2008 in January, Nvidia hasn’t made a big song and dance about nForce 750a, although a few companies such as Biostar have shown off pre-production boards at tradeshows. However, this is the first official release of an nForce 750a board, and Zotac reckons it’s going to be a winner with gamers on a budget.

The board supports a wide range of Socket AM2 and AM2+ processors, including AMD’s triple-core and quad-core Phenom chips, as well as Athlon 64 and Sempron processors. The board also supports PCI-E 2.0 and DDR2 memory, and it also comes equipped with an integrated GeForce 8-series graphics core that can use Nvidia’s new Hybrid SLI and Hybrid Power technologies, meaning that you can use the low-power GPU when working in Windows, while your discrete graphics card will only power-up when it’s needed.

As well as this, the board will also support Nvidia’s SLI Memory technology, and will feature two PCI slots and two 1x PCI-E 2.0 slots in addition to the two PCI-E slots for SLI. However, there’s no 3-way SLI support.

According to Zotac, the nForce 750a provides ‘high-performance computing experience at a value price.’ The company’s marketing director, Carsten Berger, said that ‘We aim to deliver the most performance-per-buck with the Zotac nForce 750a for AMD users,’ assign that ‘the Zotac nForce 750a is a no-compromise motherboard for users looking for a motherboard packed full of features with a budget price.’

No UK pricing has been announced yet, but at the right price, there’s a chance that the board could offer a good-value SLI setup if AMD’s triple-core Phenom chips are released at a good price when they reach retailers.

Would you be interested in a cheap SLI Phenom system, or is it now too late for AMD’s triple-core and quad-core chips? Let us know your thoughts.


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Decent CPU's

Q6600 > all current AMD offerings QX6850 > All Current AMD Offerings QX9775 > Technically enough Power to restart the world in a single CPU system QX9770 > I suppose if u need to start ur Planet then you could struggle without 2

Comment by Mizugetsu at 12:17pm 27th March 2008

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Mizugetsu... and if they do, we will never see another decent CPU hit the market.

Comment by NotFred at 11:50pm 26th March 2008

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Madness

Stop Encouraging AMD to make Cpu's and soon enough they will stop

Comment by Mizugetsu at 9:59pm 26th March 2008

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Excellent News for the Industry !

I just wonder if Intel's declared intention to step on the toes of both AMD and Nvidia by making On-chip graphics technology, is now tempting AMD and Nvidia to join forces against Intel. Is it pure coincidence that Nvidia is rumoured to have recently been in talks with VIA to buy a licence to make x86 CPU chips. I think not. I believe the 750a Chipset is likely to be the first of several new chipsets supporting AMD processors. The next 12 months will be very interesting to watch how things develop between the 3 big players. As a Gamer, I am currently holding off my wish to upgrade until AMD release 3Ghz+ 45nm Dual or Quad core Phenoms and either AMD or Nvidia release a single core graphics card significantly more powerful than the 3870 or 9800 so that I can ramp-up all the settings on Crysis. I would certainly consider a budget Mobo such as a Zotac nForce 750a as part of my upgrade.

Comment by leesmith at 5:55pm 26th March 2008

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I've set up a blog...

...so we can all tell MS what we'd like to see from the new edition of Windows http://custompc.co.uk/blogs/edarch/2008/03/26/windows-what-do-you-want-to-see/ playstation users press your [] button now then press O for 'yes' or [] for 'I do not like green eggs and ham'

Comment by EdArch at 4:10pm 26th March 2008

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MMMmmm... interesting

i think now that intel have joined the GPU market Nvidia has decided to go back to AMD due to AMD being enthusistic about competition. p.s. i'm writing this on a PS3 so sorry for any probz

Comment by NikoBellic at 3:09pm 26th March 2008

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lol

would laugh if nvidia's chipset for amd processors beat their own in benchmarks... how ironic... beaten in graphics and chipsets ... ding ding, round three!

Comment by NewParadigm at 2:17pm 26th March 2008

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I still regard nForce 4 as the peak of Nvidia chipsets for AMD CPU's.

Comment by l3v1ck at 2:09pm 26th March 2008

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well paint me purple & call me susan

didn't think I'd ever see an nForce m/b again since AMD bought ATi. I have an NF4 939 board and a 590 AM2 and they both work brilliantly. I do have an interest in this kind of boad as I'm not really interested in spending £150 on an AMD chipset board. I've also read that phhhrt cpu's o/c a bit better on 590 boards then on AMD's own 790 ones (not that I'm thinking of buying a phhrrt just yet). The on-board gfx power management looks interesting too, as I often underclock my cpu/gfx card when doing web browsing/paintshop pro/office so that would be a handy power saver. I son't know if it was nVidia's or Zoltac's decision to go ahead with this but it's a good alternative to an AMD-only setup. Would be good to see some benchmarks comparing this to AMD chipset boards whn the time comes...

Comment by EdArch at 1:25pm 26th March 2008

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