Date:
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Author:
Kyle Bennett
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VIA K8T890 Motherboard Chipsets

VIA brings PCI-Express to AMD's Athlon 64 platform. This technology preview gives a look at what this means to hardware enthusiast and gamers.

Introduction

What we are showing you here today is more of a pre-launch than the actual product launches we are used to seeing. While it has again become the norm to "paper launch" products, we did not want to put the same spin on the VIA K8T890.

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VIA came to us with the understanding that many of our readers are very interested in next-gen AMD motherboard chipsets, specifically ones that support PCI-Express standards. VIA brought in two very immature reference motherboards that proved to be more of a "proof-of-design" than what we usually cover in our normal chipset previews.

What VIA surely did show us is that PCI-Express based video is alive and well in the AMD camp and that "SLI" motherboards will be seen with VIA chipsets as well.

The VIA K8T890 and K8T890Pro

While in the past the addition of the "Pro" moniker to VIA chipset names has usually pointed to a fixed version or a better performing version of the chipset, this time we see it being used to identify a totally new feature set. The Pro feature set will have the ability to handle NVIDIA’s “SLI” technology. Interestingly enough, we are hearing from more than one source that ATI will have their own “SLI” technology and it seems as though the K8T89Pro will possibly support SLI video card setups from both major manufacturers.

What’s New

For the most part there is not much to dress up. Both the VIA K8T890 and VIA K8T890Pro chipsets are simply extensions of the already hugely successful K8T800 and K8T800Pro chipsets. VIA has added the PCI-Express support that so many folks are waiting for and of course the “SLI” support as well. VIA’s SLI implementation technology will be trademarked as “VIA DualGFX Express,” and will be a feature of their overall new product line referred to as “VIA Flex Express.”

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One of the other new implementations of PCI-Express technology that VIA will be including is the addition of two additional X1 PCI-Express lanes that will operate off of their VT8251 southbridge. As of writing this we have yet to see the VT8251 function as our test motherboards were configured with the well known VT8237 controller.