More on NVIDIA's nForce 590 SLI
With the nForce 590 SLI brimming with new networking buzzwords, the chipset's additional Serial ATA ports are almost an afterthought. The nForce 590 SLI supports up to six Serial ATA devices—two more than other core logic chipsets. Those drives can be configured in RAID 0, 1, 0+1, and 5 arrays, and with support for six drives, it's even possible to run a pair of three-drive RAID 5 arrays side-by-side. Unfortunately, NVIDIA admits it hasn't done much to improve the performance of its chipset RAID 5 implementation. We experienced dismal write performance when we tested RAID 5 on the nForce4 last year, and although NVIDIA is aware of the issue, it has been hesitant to employ performance enhancements because it's worried about inadvertently compromising data integrity.
Speaking of performance enhancements, the nForce 590 SLI's Serial ATA controller can be fine-tuned to maximize performance for specific hard drive models. Each hard drive model has unique performance characteristics, and tweaking things like the Native Command Queuing queue depth can make a difference with some drives. Thus far, NVIDIA has only created a performance profile for Western Digital's latest 150 GB Raptor, but there are plans to profile additional drives that are popular among enthusiasts. Support for performance profiles will also make its way to the nForce4 family through a driver update, although NVIDIA isn't keen to let users fiddle with profiles on their own.
While bulking up elsewhere, the nForce 590 SLI has dropped an ATA channel, limiting support to just two ATA devices. That limitation is shared by ATI's SB600 south bridge and even Intel's ICH7, so it's hardly a new phenomenon.
We may not be surprised to see NVIDIA dropping an ATA channel from the nForce 590 SLI, but we're a little shocked to see support for AC'97 audio missing from the nForce 590 SLI spec. NVIDIA has taken seemingly forever to offer an alternative to AC'97, and rather than straddling the fence, it's moving the entire nForce 500 series over to the "Azalia" High Definition Audio spec. NVIDIA sees no need to retain compatibility with the older audio standard, and we're inclined to agree. AC'97 support would give motherboard manufacturers additional flexibility to use cheaper codec chips, but we'd rather they not have that option.
Asus' M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wi-Fi Edition motherboard
Rather than simply giving its board partners a basic reference platform for the nForce 590 SLI, NVIDIA says it put a lot of effort into designing a quality reference board with an intelligent layout, a feature-laden BIOS, and loads of overclocking headroom. Foxconn has fully implemented that reference design in a retail board, but unfortunately, our sample didn't arrive in time for testing. Instead, we'll be using Asus's new M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wi-Fi Edition to evaluate the nForce 590 SLI. Expect more in-depth coverage of the Foxconn board and other nForce 590 SLI platforms soon.
Plenty of plumbing to cool the nForce 590 SLI
Although the M2N32-SLI Deluxe doesn't follow NVIDIA's nForce 590 SLI reference design exactly, it's worth noting that its chipset cooling is considerably more aggressive than that of ATI's CrossFire Xpress 3200 reference board. The nForce4 SLI chipset has a reputation for running hot, and given the extensive array of heat pipes and cooling fins on the Asus board, it would appear that the nForce 590 SLI isn't much cooler.
Oddly enough, the nForce 590 SLI's north bridge component is manufactured using 90-nano fabrication technology, just like the CrossFire Xpress 3200 north bridge. Like the SB450, the nForce 590 SLI MCP is a 130-nano chip, although its more extensive feature set likely requires a significant number of additional transistors.
NVIDIA is taking advantage of the nForce 500 series' launch to unveil the latest version of its nTune system utility. This latest rev offers an impressive number of new features, including more extensive BIOS tweaking, better hardware monitoring options, and support for multiple profiles that can be invoked based on system variables or application launches. NVIDIA is also eager to promote the nForce 590 SLI's support for what it calls SLI memory. SLI has nothing to do with memory, of course, but NVIDIA appears determined to apply its SLI brand to as many platform components as possible. SLI memory merely refers to memory that adheres to the open Enhanced Performance Profile spec NVIDIA developed with Corsair. Enhanced Performance Profiles are a good thing, but support for them appears to be more of a BIOS feature than a chipset attribute.
Thus far, we've only discussed the flagship member of the nForce 500 family, the nForce 590 SLI. NVIDIA is also introducing several other members of the nForce 500 series today, including the nForce 570 SLI and nForce 570 Ultra. Both 570-series chipsets have dual hardware-accelerated Gigabit Ethernet controllers with support for DualNet and FirstPacket, and both feature six Serial ATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 0+1, and 5. However, neither member of the nForce 570 series features LinkBoost. The nForce 570 SLI also only offers eight lanes of PCI Express to each of a pair of graphics cards in SLI, while the Ultra derivative doesn't support GPU teaming at all. Both are single-chip implementations, though. That makes us suspect that the nForce 590 SLI's south bridge component is physically the same chip as the nForce 570 SLI.
