The nVidia GeForce 6100 series chipset brings integrated video to the AMD Athlon64 in a low cost, fully integrated solution had been lacking for this platform. The GeForce 6100 'C51' GPU has been embraced by cost-concious users and system integrators ever since. It shares 128MB of memory with the system, so install a good 1GB or 2GB of RAM right from the start.

All current socket 939 and socket AM2 AMD Athlon64/X2/FX and Sempron processors are supported. The Epox EP-AF550G Pro is one of the new generations of GeForce 6100/nForce 430 motherboards, and in this case the two chipsets have been integrated into one. Previously both chipsets were both discrete solutions.

The GeForce 6100 chipset utilizes a 1 GHz 16-bit wide upstream and downstream Hypertransport connection between itself and the Athlon64 processor. The GeForce 6100 is a little less feature packed than the Geforce 6150 model, and thus does not support a TV encoder, TMDS/DVI, 1080p/1080i HD playback, or high quality 5x4 video scaling. Instead, video scaling is pegged at basic quality (2x2), and MPEG-2/WMV9 playback at standard definition (4:3) video playback.

The Geforce 6100 graphics core operates at a slightly lower speed than its brethren too, 425 MHz as opposed to 475 MHz. All Geforce 61XX-class chipsets support a total of 18 PCI Express lanes, 16 for the videocard and two for miscellaneous devices. In addition to the PCI Express x16 graphics slot, motherboards like the Epox EP-AF550G Pro with a Geforce 6100 chipset are only allocated a single PCI Express x1 slot, instead of two as with the Geforce 6150.

Here is a chart detailing the different combination of features pertaining to the Geforce 61XX-series chipsets available on the market. The Epox EP-AF550G Pro falls under the second column (6100/430), and the most basic set of features.

NVIDIA GeForce 6150 and NVIDIA nForce 430 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 and NVIDIA nForce 430 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 and NVIDIA nForce 410 CPU Socket 939/AM2 Athlon 64/X2/FX / Sempron PureVideo Yes DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3.0 Support Yes TV Encoder Yes No TMDS/DVI Yes No Graphics Clock 475 MHz 425 MHz PCI-Express (1) x16 (2) x1 (1) x16 and (1) x1 MPEG-2/WMV9 Playback high-definition (1080p/1080i) standard definition Audio HDA (Azalia)/AC97 Video Scaling high-quality (5x4) basic (2x2) SATA/PATA drives 4/4 2/4 SATA speed 3Gb/s RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 0, 1 NVIDIA MediaShield Yes NVIDIA ActiveArmor Firewall Yes No Ethernet 10/100/1000 10/100 USB ports 8 NVIDIA nTune Utility Yes

The nVidia nForce 430 is Serial ATA II compatible, and it even includes the option of setting up a RAID 0/1/0+1/5 array among the four SATAII ports. The nForce 430 chipset supports two IDE channels as well. The NF430 incorporates Gigabit LAN and nVIDIA's hardware ActiveArmor Firewall.

Connecting the two chipsets together is a 800 MHz Hypertransport connection which has an 8 bit wide Up/Down data bus. The nForce 430 chipset is also compatible with Intel's new Azalia 7.1 channel high definition audio codec. Perhaps the most important feature of both the Geforce 6150 and 6100 chipsets is PureVideo, and that's what we'll be looking at next.