The GeForce 6100 Family

There are two Northbridges, the 6100 and the 6150, and 2 Southbridges, the 430 and 410, that can be mixed and matched to cover a wide range of Integrated Video Solutions.

Specifications: NVIDIA GeForce 6150
NVIDIA nForce 430
NVIDIA GeForce 6100
NVIDIA nForce 430
NVIDIA GeForce 6100
NVIDIA nForce 410
CPU Athlon 64 or Sempron Athlon 64 or Sempron Athlon 64 or Sempron
PureVideo (High Definition) Yes Yes Yes
DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 Support Yes Yes Yes
TV Encoder Yes No No
TMDS/DVI Yes No No
Graphics Clock 475 MHz 425 MHz 425 MHz
PCI-Express 1x16
2x1
1x16
1x1
1x16
1x1
MPEG-2/WMV9 Playback HD(1080p/1080i) SD SD
Video Scaling High Quality(5x4) Basic (2x2) Basic (2x2)
SATA/PATA drives 4/4 4/4 2/4
SATA speed 3Gb/s 3Gb/s 3Gb/s
RAID 0,1,0+1,5 0,1,0+1,5 0,1
NVIDIA MediaShield Yes Yes Yes
NVIDIA ActiveArmorTM Firewall Yes Yes -
Ethernet 10/100/1000 10/100/1000 10/100
USB ports 8 8 8
NVIDIA nTuneTM Utility Yes Yes Yes

While nVidia did not include this specification in their release, there is one large potential negative with GeForce 6100. 6100 uses only 2 pixel pipelines, the same number of pixel pipelines used in ATI's Radeon Express 200. Since the gaming performance of the ATI was barely acceptable, even for the low end, the performance of the 6100 is not likely to be very exciting.

On the positive side, GeForce 6100 does NOT automatically disable on-board graphics when a PCIe Graphics Card is inserted. That means the integrated graphics plus graphics card can drive up to 4 monitors if the motherboard supports both integrated video outputs. This is also a feature on the ATI Radeon Xpress200 chipset.

The most feature-laden combination is the GeForce 6150 with the nForce430, including unique features like TV Encoder, High Definition (1080ip/1080i) playback, and Gigabit LAN.

More basic configurations are available for use in applications where the top features are not needed, or price is a big concern. NVIDIA has no plans to provide SLI capabilities on the GeForce 6100 boards. The boards are ATX and aimed more at the mainstream market served by system builders, system integrators, and OEMs.
Index GeForce 6100 Chipset
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  • R3MF - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link

    nor me, AA works fine with the 5.10's.
  • Live - Thursday, September 22, 2005 - link

    Cant say nothing about your situation. But start stressing the system with long multiple downloads and updating drivers seem to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people. So many as to cast serious doubt about the condition of AA and NAM.
  • Live - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link

    Anandtech forums are full of posts about Active Armor not working.

    http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...amp;thre...

    http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...amp;thre...

    http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...amp;thre...

    Tons more but I think you get the picture. Something is broken with it. Or there is some non obvious way to set it up that only Nvidia and you know about :)
  • Tanclearas - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link

    Great links!

    Further to that, a simple experiment is to simply install one of the previous nForce Platform driver sets (6.39, 6.53) and get the firewall up and running. Once you're comfortable, install any newer driver and activate AA/NAM. Chances are very good that you'll encounter instabilities and BSOD's before too long.

    Just to head off people with "helpful" suggestions, I have uninstalled previous drivers, used Driver Cleaner Pro, etc all to no avail. I had 6.39 up and running without any problems, but every attempt to upgrade (using any method, to any newer driver set) results in BSOD's. I don't think it's reasonable to expect people to do a fresh install of Windows every time there is a new driver. I would have stayed with 6.39, but I was trying to resolve crashing issues in BF2, and part of their resolution steps include updating drivers. I can't really bitch about BF2 if I don't at least attempt their solutions.
  • yacoub - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link

    This is essentially nForce5 then? Or still using nForce4 for the southbridge chip?
  • Josh7289 - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link

    quote:

    This is essentially nForce5 then? Or still using nForce4 for the southbridge chip?


    No, not at all. This is like nForce4 for the mainstream/integrated GPU market, with no SLI support and the like.

    This Nvidia integrated GPU platform does definitely look much better than ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 (RS480), which I have and use for gaming on integrated video. I'm getting a 6600 GT soon, though.

    Man, Nvidia is absolutey crushing ATI in almost every department these days.
  • segagenesis - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link

    Article summary says it all... this has potential for being the all inclusive HTPC mainboard of choice. Anyone have info on what the HD audio will offer? Dolby Digital Live yes/no? If the integrated video has as good HDTV support as ATI (in my experience, nvidia cards on HDTV = suckage) then im sold on one.
  • tayhimself - Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - link

    No soudnstorm or Dolby Digital Encoding support. I hope nforce5 has it. :(
  • R3MF - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link

    about time nVidia implemented HD audio. :)

    two questions:
    > "mATX only"?
    > will there be triple screen support like the Xpress200 + ATI GPU combination?
  • Wesley Fink - Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - link

    nVidia says that installing a PCIe video card will NOT automatically disable on-board video. That sounds like the 3 monitor setup is an available option.

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