Though Nvidia isn't saying anything about the pricing of its nForce integrated graphics chipsets we're getting a few numbers back from system builders.

The 64-bit nForce 220, formerly known as Crush 11, is priced at $45 without audio and the 128-bit nForce 420 - aka Crush 12 - is $55 because this has got the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

What Nvidia says is that is looking for the nForce to be included in $1,000 to $1,500 machines.

The mobo men expect to get their chipset samples in July and volume numbers in September. System builders should have machines out for the Christmas sales period.

Meanwhile Extremetech has come up with a preview of the nForce which seems to be getting respect from the hardware sites.

It says its not printed any firm benchmark numbers because Nvidia won't allow it, but "feel free to read between the lines..." Nvidia still considers the nForce to be a work in progress and Extremetech got an nForce with "beta BIOS, beta drivers and a pre-production motherboard".

Extremetech's conclusion states it "encountered zero stability problems - even that was simply a boot problem, not a stability issue when the system was running. All the benchmarks completed, there were no crashes during gameplay, no blue screens of death. Having just gone through a huge motherboard roundup, we'll just say the Nvidia reference board ran as smoothly as most, and more so than a few. In the end, we're quite encouraged by what we see."

"While this board clearly has some rough edges, they all seem fairly minor and generally fixable. In fact, for a product consisting of multiple beta pieces, it was surprisingly robust. Performance was impressive at this stage of development and we believe it will only get better. The Athlon may have found it's soul mate in the nForce." ®

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Related Link

ExtremeTech: nForce review