LDT Frequency in Bios

[jph1589]

Does anyone know what the LDT Frequency setting of 1x-4x would affect on an Nforce4 chipset for Intel? I would like to understand what it is and what other things it would affect and how.

My board has the option and I can't observe any difference from setting it differently. I have my own theory that it is a leftover option from their AMD nforce4 board and it doesn't do anything in an intel setup. Were they just lazy and didn't take it out? That is my guess.

[Lead Head]

I believe that is the LDT multiplier between the north and south bridge.

AMD CPUs use Hyper Transport to comunicate between the CPU and northbridge, nVidia chipsets use hyper transport to also communicate with the south bridge, both have controlable multipliers.

[jph1589]

Originally Posted by Lead Head

I believe that is the LDT multiplier between the north and south bridge.

AMD CPUs use Hyper Transport to comunicate between the CPU and northbridge, nVidia chipsets use hyper transport to also communicate with the south bridge, both have controlable multipliers.

Is there somewhere that I could look to monitor that speed to verify that the option was actually changing something?

Edit.......I guess that I am curious why even be able to set it. The defualt speed is 4x. So why would you want or need to change it?

I'm just trying to get a better understanding.

[gvblake22]

HAHAHAHA. Your Intel nForce4 board has an LDT multi?!?! That's nuts. That is totally dependant on an AMD system and I can't see it having any effect on an Intel chip. My guess is they somehow just left it in there, but that doesn't make any sense. I really have no idea why you have that option. I would just leave it on Default or Auto just to be on the safe side (if those options are available).

[jph1589]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

HAHAHAHA. Your Intel nForce4 board has an LDT multi?!?! That's nuts. That is totally dependant on an AMD system and I can't see it having any effect on an Intel chip. My guess is they somehow just left it in there, but that doesn't make any sense. I really have no idea why you have that option. I would just leave it on Default or Auto just to be on the safe side (if those options are available).

That is exactly what I thought. It seems to default to 4x. You can set it to 1-4x. But I'm pretty sure I've verified that those settings change absolutely nothing.

I hate to get on my box, but this is just another example of ECS being sloppy. The really sad thing that I've also seen is that they are taking problems from one board forward onto completely different boards.

For example, the C19-A SLI has that famous problem that the PCI express x16 won't run any faster than x8 with even with a single GPU card installed. So after hammering them mericlessly they finally changed the specs on their website. They made no attempt to fix the problem and blamed it on the Nvidia chipset. I noticed that when version 2.0 of that board came out on their website, it still shows that x8 speed on the single gpu pcie x16. I guess that could have been expected, but when they announced the nforce570 board 6 months later, it also has the same problem. They decided that it was more important to get the board to market than to fix what I consider to be a huge problem. I guess I forgot to mention that this PCIE problem first occured on the KN1 board. So it has gone from one to another to another now.

I've been going back and forth with how I feel about ECS over the past 6 months, but this LDT frequency thing seems to have been the final straw. They have had 3 revisions of the bios on this board to remove that option and they are just too lazy.

The camels back has been broken!! I am ordering an ASUS board!

[Lead Head]

Once again, I'll say this.

The nForce 4 Intel edition chipset comunicates with the southbridge using Hyper Transport. nVidia allows you at adjust the LDT.


The single chip nF4 AMD edition has all the southbridge functions and PCI-E/etc.. built into 1 chip, it also provides PCI-E lanes

On the gigabyte Quad Royal board, they used the intel NF4 as the northbridge, and used the AMD NF4 as the southbridge, , it gave the extra needed 16 PCI-E lanes, along with stuff that a southbridge would provide. This worked because nvidia uses Hyper Transport for NB-SB comunications. The only time setting to 1x would make a performence impacts would be if you were maxing the SATA, IDE, audio, and any other southbridge related things at the same time. Y

Even check nVidia specs if you want to see for yourself.

@jph, I strongly recomond you wait until for the DFI RD600 or C55 based nvidia intel boards. The c19 just isnt that great of a chipset

[jph1589]

Originally Posted by Lead Head

Once again, I'll say this.

The nForce 4 Intel edition chipset comunicates with the southbridge using Hyper Transport. nVidia allows you at adjust the LDT.


The single chip nF4 AMD edition has all the southbridge functions and PCI-E/etc.. built into 1 chip, it also provides PCI-E lanes

On the gigabyte Quad Royal board, they used the intel NF4 as the northbridge, and used the AMD NF4 as the southbridge, , it gave the extra needed 16 PCI-E lanes, along with stuff that a southbridge would provide. This worked because nvidia uses Hyper Transport for NB-SB comunications. The only time setting to 1x would make a performence impacts would be if you were maxing the SATA, IDE, audio, and any other southbridge related things at the same time. Y

Even check nVidia specs if you want to see for yourself.

@jph, I strongly recomond you wait until for the DFI RD600 or C55 based nvidia intel boards. The c19 just isnt that great of a chipset

I guess all I can say is excuse me for bringing up a sore subject. I am just trying to understand what exactly it would do on an intel board. By the way there is nothing in the nvidia spec that explains that.

If all that is true, I still don't have the asnwer to my question though. What does it actually change and what affects it? Does changing the FSB increase the LDT frequency? Does changing the memory speed change the LDT frequency? Or Vice versa......if I change the LDT to 3x or 2x.......what does that actually affect specifically!

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by Lead Head

The nForce 4 Intel edition chipset comunicates with the southbridge using Hyper Transport. nVidia allows you at adjust the LDT.

^^^That's the answer.

Originally Posted by jph1589

I guess that I am curious why even be able to set it. The defualt speed is 4x. So why would you want or need to change it?

Changing the LDT on an Intel platform could potentially yield better overclocking results, but performance as a whole is likely not affected very much at all.

[polobunny]

Last P5ND2-SLI Deluxe I saw had a 5x. :P

[Capper]

I guess all I can say is excuse me for bringing up a sore subject. I am just trying to understand what exactly it would do on an intel board. By the way there is nothing in the nvidia spec that explains that.

You didn't bring up a sore subject...you simply asked for clarification on something you didn't understand....which is why we are here....don't let someones opinion make you feel bad.

II'm personally a big fan of ECS.....I think they have made huge leaps and bounds, from a board maker people used to laugh at (you'd get a feee ECS board with a CPU in a Fry's bundle) to a very stable board that featured a great bundle. ECS may not make the best overclocking boards, but they are a great board for those who are happy running their systems stock or mildly OC'd. I kind of laugh when I hear people mention DFI and ASUS....as it is, every board maker has issues, bue it the BIOS, the layout, or the features....no board is perfect. A lot of the problems can be traced to the chipset makers....a lot of people are complaining about NVIDIA's INTEL offerings, VIAis basically hated in the enthusiast world, ATI is slow and methodical (not a problerm as I appreciate a company that values doing things right), and INTEL's offering are really a mess).
My philosophy on motherboards is different than most. I honestly don't understand people that go buy the biggest and baddest processor, then match it with a high end motherboard....those proccessors have the smallest headroom, and the extrweme motherboards are simply a waste of money....why not match that CPU with a board that maybe isn't a great OC'er, but a board thats incredibly stable and feature rich......on the other end of the spectrum, match that ES6300 or 3800+ AM2 that has much more headroom with a extreme board that does OC well, so you are getting the most out of both.