Abit NV7m nForce mATX Motherboard Review

When using both slots, the CPU and GPU can access both controllers simultaneously. And since they're interleaved, CPU memory requests can be started ahead of time, thus providing nearly perfect bandwidth usage. Since each controller can provide 2.1Gb/s of throughput, theoretically the two combined can offer a whopping 4.2Gb/s of bandwidth. This also reduces CPU latency greatly. While this is nice, it also means that unless you have a pair of DIMMS installed, you won't be able to take advantage of the added bandwidth. As a matter of fact (as you'll see in the tests shortly), performance-wise using a single 64-bit controller sucks. Integrated into the MCP-D is a 10/100Base-T Ethernet controller (Realtek 8201L) and a 56k soft modem with HomePNA1.0/2.0 support. Finally, up to six USB ports can be used on the nForce and this chip handles that as well, along with whatever devices may be connected to it. As I mentioned earlier, most of these devices are isochronous and this is where nForce's StreamThru architecture steps in. This is an isochronous-aware internal bus which, when paired with AMD's HyperTransport, provides nearly flawless data transfer, thus eliminating in-game lag and packet loss when downloading.