A new high-performance motherboard designed for value-minded gamers and enthusiasts?
If you're not yet completely aware of NVIDIA's nForce 750a chipset, don't worry, it's because NVIDIA is yet to officially announce it.
Don't however tell that to ZOTAC, as the Hong Kong-based motherboard and graphics card manufacturer today revealed its ZOTAC nForce 750a motherboard.
Pictured above, the ZOTAC nForce 750a is a board which ZOTAC claims "combines the high-performance of AMD Phenom, Athlon and Sempron processors with NVIDIA SLI technology for a performance shattering combination."
We'll wait for some official figures before we deem it "performance shattering", but on paper, it does pack a few punches.
Powered by NVIDIA's forthcoming 750a SLI media communications processor, the board boasts features such as NVIDIA's Hybrid SLI, GeForce Boost and Hybrid Power.
Featuring an integrated GeForce 8 graphics core, the board provides support for DX10 and Shader Model 4.0. NVIDIA's Hybrid Power will allow users to add an additional GeForce card and have it power-up only when additional 3D power is needed.
Carsten Berger, ZOTAC's marketing director states "NVIDIA Hybrid SLI technology is the future of high-performance platforms. The technology allows our customers to have extreme flexibility with graphics performance when building new systems."
"We aim to deliver the most performance-per-buck with the ZOTAC nForce 750a for AMD users. The ZOTAC nForce 750a is a no-compromise motherboard for users looking for a motherboard packed full of features with a budget price."
It's almost refreshing to see an NVIDIA-based AMD board these days, they've almost all but dried up since AMD's ATI acquisition. One has to wonder however, with AMD touting its "complete platform solutions" as the way forward, are the days numbered for NVIDIA-AMD boards?
The board is AMD Phenom, Athlon and Sempron quad, tri, dual and single-core compatible. It offers HyperTransport 3.0, DDR2 memory support and native Gigabit Ethernet.
The complete specification, as provided by ZOTAC, is as follows:
| Product Name: | ZOTAC nForce 750a |
Chipset: |
nForce 750a SLI MCP |
Supported processors |
AMD Phenom, Athlon, Sempron single, dual, tri and quad-core |
Socket |
Socket AM2+ |
Memory Technology |
DDR2 (dependant on processor) |
DIMM slots |
4 |
NVIDIA SLI Technology |
Yes |
Expansion |
2 PCI Express x16 (one full-speed or two half-speed) |
PCI Express 2.0 |
Yes |
SATA/PATA |
6/1 |
SATA Speed |
3.0Gb/s |
RAID |
0, 1, 0+1, 5 |
Networking |
10/100/1000Mbps |
USB ports |
12 |
IEEE1394 |
2 (one internal, one rear panel) |
ESA Compatible |
No |
Other features |
DirectX 10 with Shader Model 4.0 compatible, NVIDIA CineFX 4.0, NVIDIA Intellisample AA, NVIDIA PureVideo HD, VGA, DVI/HDMI output |
Windows Vista capability |
Windows Vista Premium Certified |
Official press release: ZOTAC Announces New High-Performance and High-Value AMD Platform
