VIA Launches KT333 Chipset

Fuck VIA, I owned 2 of their chipsets, one of them was a KT133 if I recall, this chipset (from memory) would run ram @ 133 but CPU's @ 100, you put in 133 cpu's - no speed bonus.

You get the KT133a you get "proper" support for the cpu - 133 all around, you also get a nice new problem with Sound Blaster 16 crackling and SB Live crashing (CLEVER me decided I don't care for a Live, I'll use my 16 and solve the SB Live issues, OBVIOUSLY very few people have SB 16's left, because I could complain 10x more about the SB 16 in my Via board than my Live in the VIA board,.. can you say EVEN WORSE???)


So now as Toraz Chryx has said, we have 333mhz bandwidth to our memory, but only 266mhz bandwidth to our CPU, so what @#$%ing good is 333mhz bus speeds, UNLESS we overclock the "EV6" athlon bus out of spec, which may or may not cause system instabilities.

Then we have an Nforce which has 266mhz DDR x 2 bandwidth for the ram, but again only a 266mhz CPU which means performance increase in "double" mode for the ram is SFA (hence the nforce benchmarks showing this, it's not the nforce's fault, it's the CPU)


We need a nvidia chipset supporting Dual channel 333mhz ram or 400mhz
despite what you read, I hear 400 will be very very rare and hard to create, may not happen for quite some time
We need an option to unlock the CPU's multiplier so we can FSB overclock the CPU to the following.. (see example)
Instead of an Athlon 1.6 (2000+? shrug) running at 12x133 mhz we need it to run @ 9.5x333 which will make things faster.
Infact, the ram will be running at 166mhz x2 (DDR) x2 channels which means effectively we will have 666mhz ram bandwidth (NON DDR) so we need the cpu running @ 666mhz effective non ddr speeds. (of course the cpu would be running @ 333mhz DDR then, which is mighty bloody fast vs the 133mhz DDR we have now.

I don't even know if they can wire the 470? 423? / however many pins there are from the chipset -> CPU close enough to acheive 333mhz (DDR) speeds properly, but if they can, it is going to mean mighty quick increases.

The speed increase from running a cpu @ 666mhz (effective) with 666mhz (effective) ram vs 266mhz (true) and 333mhz (true) speeds even at the same clock speed would be _AMAZING_ (sigh)
It's all in the chipset and the CPU specifications (protocol it uses etc)

What is interesting about all of this, is the P4 uses 100mhz x4 "quad pumped" to the chipset which is 400mhz QDR?
Now the P4 is moving to 133mhz soon or 533mhz speeds from the CPU -> chipset.
Nvidia DOES have an intel license.

You may well see a nvidia dual channel 266 or 333mhz board which actually gives the CPU it's full 533mhz of bandwidth with such a chipset!
This would be nothing short of "oh shit AMD is err getting left behind" - hence me waiting out this tech curve so to speak until mid this year to spot the next "celeron 300a / musthave combo!"

To wrap all this up, you might be able to pick up a .13 micron "northwood" P4 with a 20x100 (QDR) setup for 2000mhz, run it @ 133mhz = 2660 mhz and it's still in "board spec" no more overclocked AGP, PCI etc nice stable machine - and the ONLY thing you will be depending on for this speed increase is the cpu.

If it's not stable cool it more
If it's not stable add more voltage.
If it's not stable cool it more.
etc.
If it's still nto stable try a "pre tested" one?

Definately worth sitting out and waiting for the next batch of cpu's to come out I think :)

yeah yeah, okay, can we have a 166Mhz FSB now please AMD?

better yet, get Nvidia to work on an SMP chipset..

Nforce SMP would make me it's bitch.

<cheesy announcer voice>

The VIA KT333, crashing your computer at twice the speed!

</cheesy announcer voice>

why no news about the sis 745?

this is already obselete

KT400 is due which is the proper 333FSB mobo

While the kt333 seems real nice, the kt333a which will probably be out late Q2 or earlier Q3 is probably a better wait. It adds AGP 8x and the improved v-link speed up to 533mb, I beleive. And while 8x AGP wont be supported I'd rather have it for the future, as I tend to upgrade my mobo every year or year and a half or so.

VIA wasnt the greatest mobo chipset maker, but they have come leaps and bounds. I am a big fan of their products.Speaking of which there km line of mobo's are somewhat interesting. They integrate S3 graphic solutions... Haven't seen much talk of them yet though.

but 333 > 266 so it's faster, right? RIGHT?!!!!

I really don't know what the big deal is.
I've run via chipsets (DARE I SAY IT?) since the K6-2 days.
Yes the 4in1's are can bug at times, but hey! MS Os's has that little thing called "windows update". Even in XP if you have windows update on Automatic (god forbid! I like the control), you still have to reboot after the update.

Via chipsets have really never given me any of the problems that I've read on the shack. I think the ONE time I did have a problem with BSOD's had an ending result in bad memory.
I dunno. Maybe its becuase I'm just a wrench monkey and I love to work on my own hardware.

I work on Server and Networking hardware all day long as my job so I guess I'm use to it.
The KT266A is the shit - Price to performance, there's no comparison.
Maybe its just me, but I think VIA realises its past mistakes and are trying to change that image.

that should read epox 8kha+

i have a via kt266a system (epox kha+) with an athlon xp, and it has no problems at all, and im not using any 4in1 drivers whatsoever.

i did have a couple of troubles at the start, which were fixed with changing some bios options. for some reason the default pci latency is fucked up, and caused some problems with the sblive. but after that was changed its been perfectly stable.

Via chipset problems?

* O V E R B L O W N ' D *

It isnt much faster since the CPU is still running on a 266mhz bus..

Instead of deleting my post Goldstein, you COULD have been polite and replied with a "Thank you DN"..

come on, he misses SLI ;-)

villagers want... multiple AGP slots! :)