I sure would like to get 2 8800 gt's in SLI for Crysis, but I don't want to go thru the hassles everyone seems to have with their 650/680 boards. Even the (seemingly) best one, the A1 revision, is not available on Newegg. Is there any one board that is better than the others? The one that has the least problems maybe?
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Reliable Nvidia Sli board? (for Crysis)
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DaNotoriousDOM
Gawd
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That's why I'm hoping ATI can come through so I can crossfire a reliable Intel based mobo.
All the 680i SLI boards seem to be roughly equal in terms of reliability. As for overclocking performance the EVGA boards are probably your best bet.
I've worked with all of them and I've owned quite a few of them. Basically, I feel that SLI is worth the hassle for those running higher resolution displays, but if you don't have a 30" monitor you probably don't need to screw with it. Get yourself a good Intel chipset based board of your choice and call it a day.
I've worked with all of them and I've owned quite a few of them. Basically, I feel that SLI is worth the hassle for those running higher resolution displays, but if you don't have a 30" monitor you probably don't need to screw with it. Get yourself a good Intel chipset based board of your choice and call it a day.
Well, I don't have a 30 inch monitor, so that resolves that. p35/x38 here I come!
Thanks.
I am in the same boat. I would really love the solid intel x35/x38 chipset preformance + SLI. Dang it nvidia make nice and play with intel!
It has nothing to do with playing nice. It has everything to do with the fact that NVIDIA doesn't want to hurt their own chipset sales. Honestly NVIDIA chipsets wouldn't sell if SLI were available on Intel chipset based motherboards.
Hopefully, but that will depend on how much the reference design of the 780i SLI matches that of the 680i SLI. Hopefully the voltage issues and other problems are resolved by the updated board.
I can't agree. It can give you more AA and AF, but otherwise a single 8800GTX can handle any game at 1920x1200 and deliver a great gaming experience. Really my system doesn't struggle to the point of needing SLI on most games until I kick the game up to 2560x1600. The ASUS P5N32-E SLI isn't any better than the other 680i SLI boards either. So in this instance going ASUS won't make things any better.
Good luck with that. If it's used, it's probably used because someone got sick of screwing around with the issues that many 680i SLI boards have.
snaggletooth
Supreme [H]ardness
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after all the stories i've heard about flakey 680i/650i performance, i'm re-valuing my p5n-e sli at $200.
4-up ram : check
working sata2 : check
original 0202 bios : check
stable overclock : check
NB runs hot : check
that's the only problem i have with mine and i keep my fsb limited since i didn't replace the stock cooler on the NB and haven't added a fan. imo, creeping up into the 400's was dangerous with both the 650i and the 680i without aftermarket cooling on the NB...based on, "good god damn, that's hot!!!"
i'm looking forward to "testing" my next nvidia chipset, most likely the 750i. sli must be an option for my gaming computer and if i can repeat or increase my current clock on my e4300 without modifying the 750i's NB cooling, well then that's great.
4-up ram : check
working sata2 : check
original 0202 bios : check
stable overclock : check
NB runs hot : check
that's the only problem i have with mine and i keep my fsb limited since i didn't replace the stock cooler on the NB and haven't added a fan. imo, creeping up into the 400's was dangerous with both the 650i and the 680i without aftermarket cooling on the NB...based on, "good god damn, that's hot!!!"
i'm looking forward to "testing" my next nvidia chipset, most likely the 750i. sli must be an option for my gaming computer and if i can repeat or increase my current clock on my e4300 without modifying the 750i's NB cooling, well then that's great.
Manny Calavera
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780i boards were supposed to be launched Nov 12, obviously that hasn't happened. Only thing I've heard is they're being held back for better 45nm CPU support. If that's the case, it's probably worth the wait, just hope it's not too long.
With the awesome performance/value of the 8800GT in SLI, I'm just waiting for the right components to show up to build my first SLI rig for myself.
With the awesome performance/value of the 8800GT in SLI, I'm just waiting for the right components to show up to build my first SLI rig for myself.
officermartinez
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I have to agree with ya Dan_D.. I've owned my fair share of 680i boards as well.. On my current one, an EVGA 680i LT, it has been a very solid performer. In terms of overclocking (with the help of some phase change), I was able to O/C my QX6700 quadcore to 3.9ghz. The board does have solid O/C'ing potential. As for the FSB, I am actually VERY happy with my current settings (24/7 use) of a 400 FSB (1600 quad pumped).. Extremely stable and reliable. I've owned several 680i's and 680i LT's and I must say this EVGA 680i LT has been the best yet. Unless you need the (2) extra USB slots, MORE than 1.6vcore option in the bios and that 3rd PCI-E slot, you might want to consider the 680i LT option. They cost less and perform nearly identical to their "bigger brother"..
thatbiggbadwolfy
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I bought a open box P5N-E SLI (680i) from Newegg last week for $140... needless to say, I only intended on replacing my AMD mobo (n590 SLI - Gigabyte). So yeah, I've read so many bad things about this motherboard.. I've gotten BSODs already.. but I think that's because of the NV 169.09 beta drivers.
Do you have any links to the aftermarket NB coolers? It all seems to be connected to that pipe. Unless you're talking about fans? Let me know which fans! The NB is incredibly hot. I also noticed that there is no heatplate on the back of the ASUS motherboard. I had a copper one on my Gigabyte.
officermartinez
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835199003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109018
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109019
There are several but those are just a few to mention.. If you plan on keeping your stock cooling solution in place, like I mentioned before, you can fabricate a bracket for a simple 120mm fan that will blow directly on your area(s) of concern.
I can't give you exact information on that. I can tell you that I haven't received any 780i SLI chipset based board samples to work with yet. Even if I had completed an article/review on a 780i SLI board I couldn't tell you when the review would actually go live on the site.
zmjone2992
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what about the dfi 680i board? I haven't heard anything bad about it yet.
baronzemo78
Weaksauce
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Does the 780i have support for any IDE? I still have some IDE burners I want to use as optical drives.
Manny Calavera
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It should. According to the rumors it's just a 680i SLI chipset with an extra chip providing PCIe 2.0 and extra PCIe lanes. If that's truly the case then yes, it will support IDE as the 680i SLI chipset does.
Pretty much everyone else has completely abandoned IDE support so anyone wanting to use an IDE device needs to use the horrid JMicron controllers integrated into most boards.
I'd like to know what you did to get Crysis running steadily at 30+ fps with a single 8800GTX at 1920x1200 resolution on a 24" monitor. I got that setup and I've had to lower my settings to medium to get anything resembling a stable playable framerate with no AA or AF forced in the drivers. I'm pretty sure I would get a healthy boost if I got a sli capable motherboard and added another 8800 GTX.
I got a C2D E6600, 4Gb pc 6400 ram, 8800 GTX, 2x250Gb harddrives in raid 0, Soundblaster X-fi. Everything but the cpu is running stock settings.
Battl3fr0nt
Limp Gawd
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what about a 30" montior?? what does that have to do with anything? with crysis even on a 19 inch montior need sli if you want 60-fps even on mid/high settings.. I would say SLI is for anything 1080p and up.. and some game's.. (crysis) even 1650x1050 and up..
Actually I never did it with a 24" monitor. I'm running a 30" monitor and I never got it to run at 1920x1200 like that. I have to run it at 1680x1050 to get those frame rates. A second GTX only nets me an additional 10FPS.
I can run almost any game on a 30" monitor at 2560x1600 with AA and AF. Crysis, COD4, and UT3 are the exceptions to that rule. SLI isn't typically needed for displays under 24" in size and that the truth. Crysis being the one real exception to that rule. So I agree with you on that point.
I have no idea.
Commander Suzdal
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So is there going to be a 750i SLI? Will it retain the legacy support of the current 650i SLI boards?
NVIDIA has made no official announcement concerning mid range or lower end 700 series boards. There is no way to know but it seems likely there will be. As for the second question, I can't say as I don't quite understand what you are asking.
farfromhome
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I'm guessing (don't shoot me if I'm wrong, Commander Suzdal!
) that, in this context, "legacy support" means a serial port, a parallel port, and/or two parallel ATA channels.With my GTXs in SLi, I can get 30-50fps (depending on the environment/action) @ 1680x1050 w/ all high settings and 4xAA.
I'm a fan of the eVGA 680i mobo, but my iteration (C00) is dated, and doesn't get along with quad cores... if you can find an A1 revision (D00), go for it. I know there's lots of horror stories with SLI boards, but there's also plenty of success stories.
I'm a fan of the eVGA 680i mobo, but my iteration (C00) is dated, and doesn't get along with quad cores... if you can find an A1 revision (D00), go for it. I know there's lots of horror stories with SLI boards, but there's also plenty of success stories.
I'm guessing (don't shoot me if I'm wrong, Commander Suzdal!
I have no way of knowing, but I would imagine so. If the rumors are true the 780i SLI will retain those features on a chip level, but that doesn't mean that the boards will actually have them.
Again, probably so, but I don't know for sure. Personally I don't care. I know I don't need them and I think most people don't need them either.
zmjone2992
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. I thought Crysis had an issue with SLI or Crossfire systems either having worse or very little improvement over 1 card setups.
I get about the same frames on my single gt. So yes, they still have many problems
Commander Suzdal
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farfromhome guessed my meaning correctly. I'm an incremental upgrader who discards nothing if it still works and suits its purpose. I have a parallel-only laser printer that I got for free from work, I have a PS2 mouse and keyboard, and all my drives are IDE. In fact, the mouse, keyboard, DVD writer, and one of my two hard drives were freebies from work also now that I think about it. It helps to be friends with the hardware/workstation support guy. He always seems to have cabinets full of system pulls that he keeps around "just in case" and offers to a fellow computer nut who can use them. I didn't pay for my first two video cards either!
Replacing all of that perfectly functioning equipment would add $300-400 to the cost of a system upgrade, which would be quite a hit and would definitely encounter spousal resistance. Anyway, what I love about the 650i SLI boards is the full feature set, the good overclocking, and the support for older equipment. If the 7xx series turns out to be "what the 6xx series should have been" and there is a 750i SLI with the same support, so much the better for me. If not, prices on 650i's should drop. A 650i Ultra board would really be nice because of the even lower price point (I don't really need SLI support), but the Ultra boards change up the chipset in a way that eliminates all the legacy support. Ironic, strange, and disappointing, given their "budget" target.
. I thought Crysis had an issue with SLI or Crossfire systems either having worse or very little improvement over 1 card setups.
The demo performed worse with SLI enabled. The full version performs better as long as you have the latest drivers. I get about a 33% performance increase which is a long way from good SLI support but at least there is some improvement.
farfromhome guessed my meaning correctly. I'm an incremental upgrader who discards nothing if it still works and suits its purpose. I have a parallel-only laser printer that I got for free from work, I have a PS2 mouse and keyboard, and all my drives are IDE. In fact, the mouse, keyboard, DVD writer, and one of my two hard drives were freebies from work also now that I think about it. It helps to be friends with the hardware/workstation support guy. He always seems to have cabinets full of system pulls that he keeps around "just in case" and offers to a fellow computer nut who can use them. I didn't pay for my first two video cards either!
Replacing all of that perfectly functioning equipment would add $300-400 to the cost of a system upgrade, which would be quite a hit and would definitely encounter spousal resistance. Anyway, what I love about the 650i SLI boards is the full feature set, the good overclocking, and the support for older equipment. If the 7xx series turns out to be "what the 6xx series should have been" and there is a 750i SLI with the same support, so much the better for me. If not, prices on 650i's should drop. A 650i Ultra board would really be nice because of the even lower price point (I don't really need SLI support), but the Ultra boards change up the chipset in a way that eliminates all the legacy support. Ironic, strange, and disappointing, given their "budget" target.
I can understand that. Still it seems silly to have IDE drives in a newer computer given that SATA has been around for several years now and SATA drives are just as cheap.
farfromhome
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There are (sadly) reasons to keep a PATA optical drive around, even if SATA hard drives work flawlessly in any situation I've seen. When I gave my old MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI away, I had upgraded most things besides my hard/optical drives. So the person I gave it to needed a new one. I suggested the highest-rated SATA optical drive on the 'Egg (a Samsung), and it works wonderfully for ripping and burning. Unfortunately, it does not work at all for Acronis backup software (which is far superior to Ghost otherwise), and some Linux Live CDs do not boot properly with it. For True Image, BartPE provides a good workaround. Sadly, there is no Disk Director Suite plugin for BartPE. If I would have known that were going to happen, I never would have suggested getting a SATA optical drive.
Sure, it's not the SATA drive's fault, but if there's no hassle with PATA optical drives for the same price, there's at this point little reason to go with the SATA version. By the time all software supports SATA optical drives correctly (which will hopefully be before PATA ports completely disappear), it won't be a problem to buy a new $30 SATA optical drive; it's cheap compared to most components on the computer.