FIC takes the wraps off NVIDIA Socket 754 IGP boardWith the impending demise of the Athlon XP and the planned transition of the Socket 754 platform into the entry level / mainstream segment, it looks like NVIDIA is finally ready to go with an IGP chipset for the K8 market, something they had claimed the market was not ready for in the past.?X-bit Labs has a few shots of a FIC board sporting a mini-ATX NVIDIA 754 IGP chipset that shares a large number of features with the nForce 4.
It is very likely that the chipset features GeForce 6200-like graphics core which incorporates memory controller enhancements that can reduce the impact high latency memory access, which is a result of memory controller integrated into AMD Athlon 64-series processors. Still some sources suggested that the C51 sports GeForce 4-like integrated graphics unit.
With the heavy emphasis on the video processing capabilities of the GeForce 6 core, this may make one heck of a HTPC. It has been a long time coming since the introductino of the nForce 2 IGP and while this may not be of much interest to gamers, it is a definite alternative to the ATI and VIA boards with integrated graphics. This could also bode ill for Intel sometime in the future - NVIDIA is concentrating just on the high end right now for their Intel lineup but should they decide to go after the 865G/915G market, a nForce IGP board is very attractive especially with all the desktop enhancement features found on ForceWare that is not available for Intel integrated graphics.Article Link: FIC nForce 4 IGP Board
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