[Pc_Support] nVidia GeForce C51PVG (6150LE) and future MCP61 (71/72xx?) single-chip ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

I've been seeing more and more chipsets show up as the nVidia GeForce 6150LE.
Just know the 6150LE is _not_ much of a "downgrade" as the 6200LE is
from the 6200.

Referring to my nVidia GeForce 6/7 series blog article ...
http://thebs413.blogspot.com/2006/02/geforce-6-and-7-series-variants-nuts.html

Again, the GeForce 6200LE is _majorly_crippled_ from the standard
6200.  A 6200 typically has 4/3 pixel/vertex units, whereas the 6200LE
2/1 pixel/vertex -- half the pixel and 1/3rd the vertex units!

But the 6150 (and 6100 for that matter) is _already_ 2/1 pixel/vertex
units.  So there's really nowhere for the 6150LE "get any worse."  It
seems the clock of the 6150LE is dropped to 425MHz from the standard
475MHz of the 6150 -- 425MHz is same as the 6100.

AnandTech has an article and says the 6150LE is the "C51PVG":
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2555

It claims there is "PureVideo" in it, which is actually a GeForce 7
series feature.
It means that HDTV out could be standard as well (although not always
broken out).
It still requires a 2nd MCP (Media and Communication Processor) for peripherals.
The nForce 4xx series gets the call in the pairing.

It also seems to be a Socket-AM2-only (DDR2) option, although I've
seen it mentioned in the specs of a few Core [2] Solo/Duo products, so
it might be also an option for LGA-775 (also DDR2) as well.

In any case, it's still _better_ than a FX5200/5500/5700LE video card
as my blog talks about.  You have to have a _serious_ FX5800/5900 (or
maybe an _original_ FX5700, not the FX5700LE that is underclocked
45%!) to equal even the "crappy" 61xx series.

-- Bryan

P.S.  The AnandTech article also mention of the MCP61 series, which is
a _single_chip_ and removes the need for separate IGP and MCP.  There
are supposively 3 flavors, although AnandTech contradicts itself by
saying the "P" now only has 10 PCIe channels (8 for video), when this
article says the "S" and "V" will be such:
http://dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=1821

In any case, when those chipsets hit, the price will really drop --
possibly reducing cost of mainboards (at least in MicroATX) to sub-$40
new!