Unsure, Z68 vs P67 vs X58

Z

Zhain

n00b
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
Messages
4
I plan to upgrade my old system (E6850) in the near future (hopefully within the next few months). However, I am fairly stymied on which chipset to go for.

I will not be transcoding video, nor using Smart Response, so the value of Z68 is questionable to me. I really plan to use the machine mostly for gaming. My questions are these:

- Is it worth going for Z68 even if I do not plan on utilizing the Lucid or SRT features?
- If not, do the enhancements of P67 make up for going down to x8 x8 if I plan to SLI? I remember hearing that I would be limited to two cards in x8 as opposed to in X58.

If I didn't plan to SLI, P67 and Z68 still run the one slot at x16, correct?
 
I'll have to check when I get home but I thought my p67 pro ran one card at x16 and the other at x8.
 
Z68 is more like P67 than H67. It can run either a 1x16 or 8x8 configuration. It is also possible to pair it with an nForce 200MCP. If you aren't going to use SRT or Quick Sync then P67 is a better fit for you. Z68 offers no other advantages. Well you could count IPT, but I honestly don't think that's going to be a big deal. At least not outside of corporate space.
 
The drop from x16x16 (on the X58 board) to x8x8 (on the SB boards) isn't significant at all, so I wouldn't factor that into your decision. I would get a SB board, probably a Z68 since it has a few more features that might help resale value down the line - but a P67 board is a fine choice also.
 
I still haven't figured out yet if the z68 can use the integrated and discrete graphics at the same time on two different monitors?
 
Dan_D said:
Yes they can.
Click to expand...

Is this possible to use the Z68 graphics and a discrete graphics card in parallel for different monitors without using something like Lucid Virtu or Nvidia Synergy? I've had a H55 mainboard which automatically disabled any processor graphics if a discrete adapter was installed and even had some issues detecting non-graphics cards in the PEG slot. I did not try any H67 board yet.
 
omniscence said:
Is this possible to use the Z68 graphics and a discrete graphics card in parallel for different monitors without using something like Lucid Virtu or Nvidia Synergy? I've had a H55 mainboard which automatically disabled any processor graphics if a discrete adapter was installed and even had some issues detecting non-graphics cards in the PEG slot. I did not try any H67 board yet.
Click to expand...

Yes, this behavior is governed by the BIOS, not the Lucid software.
 
For gaming, with or without SLI I would go P67 in your case.

P67 gives you overclocking of a $300 CPU that gives you $1000 X58 CPU performance in gaming.

P67 has been around for a while, so you bugs are a more known quantity.

Z67 is newer, and does not cost a lot more, so it is better but an unknown quantity.

If you can wait and see how the Z67 pans out, and if Bulldozer brings anything into the equation I would do that.

But for gaming now, I would not look at X58 at this points.

This off course IMHO.
 
SpeedyVV said:
For gaming, with or without SLI I would go P67 in your case.
Click to expand...

There isn't much of a price premium to getting Z68 over P67. I'd say it depends on whether or not you need or want Quick Sync and potentially use the iGPU for anything. Also, if you don't want to run a dedicated SSD for your OS, then SRT may be attractive.

SpeedyVV said:
P67 gives you overclocking of a $300 CPU that gives you $1000 X58 CPU performance in gaming.
Click to expand...

So does Z68.

SpeedyVV said:
P67 has been around for a while, so you bugs are a more known quantity.
Click to expand...

Z68's only real issue is with switchable graphics. This will mature over time and right now you can run Z68 boards just like a P67 board with discrete graphics only. Furthermore not all Z68 boards have integrated graphics support. Z68 is just as stable as P67 from what I've seen.

SpeedyVV said:
Z68 is newer, and does not cost a lot more, so it is better but an unknown quantity.

If you can wait and see how the Z68 pans out, and if Bulldozer brings anything into the equation I would do that.

But for gaming now, I would not look at X58 at this points.

This off course IMHO.
Click to expand...

If you can wait then yeah, seeing Bulldozer at least before making your decision would be nice. I wouldn't call Z68 an unknown quantity either. SSD caching and iGPU aside, it works just like P67 does. Intel's launch drivers are usually really excellent. They also tend to mature very, very quickly. I wouldn't worry about that issue a whole lot.
 
If you CAN wait a bit more.....aren't the new X78 boards for the socket 2011 coming out in the fall?

I think that will be a killer gaming platform.:D
 
X58 for three or more cards. I expect intro prices will make the P67 the best buy.
What the Z68 can do (if the board supports video outs, not all do), in Lucid is use your video card for gaming and on chip graphics for everything else unless needed. So far reviews are good.
 
Honestly I'd opt for P67 / Z68 with nForce 200 and a 2600K if I wanted to use three cards in SLI. The only way to get similar results in high end SLI rigs using X58 is to pair it with a Core i7 980X / 990X and clock it to 4.4GHz or higher. Yeah technically X58 has more PCIe bandwidth, but the newer Sandy Bridge processors are much faster when it comes to gaming performance. At least where CPU limitations come into play. Aside from the Core i7 980X and 990X, the rest of the Core i7 9xx processors simply can't compete with newer Sandy Bridge processors. In high end / high resolution SLI setups, this is especially true. This seemed perfectly clear in the HardOCP NVIDIA 3-Way SLI and AMD Tri-Fire Redux article.
 
SpeedyVV said:
For gaming, with or without SLI I would go P67 in your case.

P67 gives you overclocking of a $300 CPU that gives you $1000 X58 CPU performance in gaming.

P67 has been around for a while, so you bugs are a more known quantity.

Z67 is newer, and does not cost a lot more, so it is better but an unknown quantity.

If you can wait and see how the Z67 pans out, and if Bulldozer brings anything into the equation I would do that.

But for gaming now, I would not look at X58 at this points.

This off course IMHO.
Click to expand...

Z68 is not "newer". It was released later, but it is the essentially same chip. I think Intel took the time between P67 and Z68 to complete the SRT function or just speculated that a lot of P67 "enthusiasts" would upgrade to Z68.

I personally would not upgrade because of the SRT function, I would use the money to buy a 256 or 300GB SSD.
 
Based on reading this thread, I was wondering if it would be possible to later upgrade from a 2600k to whatever 6/8 core chip Intel releases while using the same mobo.

As in, could I use a P67 mobo to upgrade to a hexa or octo core, am I stuck with quad, or do I have to bump up to the Z68?
 
Clockworks said:
Based on reading this thread, I was wondering if it would be possible to later upgrade from a 2600k to whatever 6/8 core chip Intel releases while using the same mobo.

As in, could I use a P67 mobo to upgrade to a hexa or octo core, am I stuck with quad, or do I have to bump up to the Z68?
Click to expand...
For now, it looks like you'll be able to go to Ivy Bridge, because all the information released about Sandy Bridge-E points to 6-core chips only going in LGA 2011 boards...
 
So is the Z68 even worth it? I've been hearing a lot of problems with it...

I don't really care too much for caching since I will have a 160GB SSD drive and a dedicated 2TB drive for all other things.

480GTX will be my graphics card with little to no video editing, I believe.
 
Last edited:
wtourist said:
X58 for three or more cards. I expect intro prices will make the P67 the best buy.
What the Z68 can do (if the board supports video outs, not all do), in Lucid is use your video card for gaming and on chip graphics for everything else unless needed. So far reviews are good.
Click to expand...

+1 X58 is a pretty niche market now. Even for tri sli you can get away with it on SB if you have a board with an nf-200, however it does add a bit of bus latency. If you don't know that you need what X58 brings then I'd say pretty much save the money, go z68 + 2500K/2600K.
 
I am restricting myself to air cooling, and I'd say probably limited to 2 cards in SLI, I more than likely wouldn't be going up to three.

Would I put X58 out of the running if I want to only run two cards, regardless of the bandwidth? Would 8x8 be sufficient, or should I wait for Bulldozer and/or Ivy Bridge?
 
Zhain said:
I am restricting myself to air cooling, and I'd say probably limited to 2 cards in SLI, I more than likely wouldn't be going up to three.

Would I put X58 out of the running if I want to only run two cards, regardless of the bandwidth? Would 8x8 be sufficient, or should I wait for Bulldozer and/or Ivy Bridge?
Click to expand...

x8x8 is sufficient for all but the highest setups (and even then it is a marginal impact). Really no compelling reason to go X58 for a new build.
 
Forceman said:
x8x8 is sufficient for all but the highest setups (and even then it is a marginal impact). Really no compelling reason to go X58 for a new build.
Click to expand...

This. Honestly the clock speed advantage of Core i5 2500K and 2600K processors while overclocking compared to say a Core i7 920 is too large to ignore.
 
The main and most imprtant reason (IMO) to go Z68 instead of P67 is proper BIOS upgrades from vendors in future, (for overclockers/enthusiast) that is.

Few vendors already started to favour Z68 BIOS upgrades (they release more) compared to P67. This is the main reason i will get an Z68 mobo.
 
psyside said:
The main and most imprtant reason (IMO) to go Z68 instead of P67 is proper BIOS upgrades from vendors in future, (for overclockers/enthusiast) that is.

Few vendors already started to favour Z68 BIOS upgrades (they release more) compared to P67. This is the main reason i will get an Z68 mobo.
Click to expand...

How much of that is just the fact that it is new, though? There are normally a bunch of BIOS releases for a new platform, which tapers off as the platform matures - that could be happening for the P67 now.
 
Forceman said:
How much of that is just the fact that it is new, though? There are normally a bunch of BIOS releases for a new platform, which tapers off as the platform matures - that could be happening for the P67 now.
Click to expand...

I think that's exactly the reason. P67 has been around for awhile and the need for BIOS updates have diminished.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top