NVIDIA's 680i SLI Chipset Ready for Primetime

AnInkle writes, "The Tech Report conducts their usual exhaustive evaluation of NVIDIA's other big launch today, the nForce 680i SLI. The new chipset pairs an already proven south bridge chip with a new north bridge that has impressive overclocking potential and a redesigned (read: fast) memory controller. Combined with a motherboard design, production-quality BIOS and polished tweaking software that are all attractive and retail-ready, you end up with a 'complete reference platform that's perfect for picky enthusiasts and serious overclockers,' if you want to pay for it."

Du-du-du-pe?

[mi]

Same story... On the same page?

Re:

[pjbass]

Because TFA talks about the new Core 2 duo lineup being the target for this chipset...

Does the majority of /. readers just not read articles anymore, and trust the snippet commentary will fulfill their unbiased news consumption?

God Damn It!

[Dunbal]

I wish they'd stop doing that, I just BOUGHT a brand new motherboard with the 550 SLI about 2 months ago... now both my 79xx card and my MB are "obsolete" and some damned 13 year old will get this new stuff for xmas and have shinier graphics than mine!

Re:Du-du-du-pe?

[pjbass]

No....this article from today: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/ 08/1942207 [slashdot.org] is the GPU they recently released. The article from *this* post is about their new SLI-compatible chipset. Completely different hardware...

But ...

[Etyenne]

How well is it supported in Linux ? I don't care about the new glitz if I cannot make use of it.

Re:

[Goodl]

nope, this is about a new motherboard chipset, the other article is a graphics card

Re:

[pjbass]

Back in the day, I bought a PII 333 MHz from a pretty good mail-order source my father and I bought all our parts from. The PII 333 MHz was shipped 4 days prior to when I purchased it, so it was pretty much on the bleeding edge. The 7 days it was in transmit, the next PII was released. Having hardware become obsolete in 1 week to 2 months of it being released is just the way it is.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Incorrect, meat popsicle. Different story from same company of different product on same page.

(One's about the 8800 series of video cards and this is about Nvidia's new chipset.)

Re:

[JackieBrown]

I know the feeling. I bought a socket 939 board in February and that series started to phase out soon afterwards.

I bought that board so it would be relevant for a while.

Red Hat Support?

[mtnskiier]

How can the Linux community come to grips with a driver that remains closed source with distro partners (rhymes with Fat Cat) that refuses to support a closed source driver?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know how you could be posting on ./ without having seen this phenomenon before. Unless you have a budget of infinity dollars, your technology will always become dated, sometimes before you even buy it.

Scores wern't overly impressive

[Airconditioning]

It seems in the majority of benchmarks that any lead this new mainboard had was very slight. The best things the article had to say about the reference board was the arrangement of components to prevent clutter/collision and the array of options available in the BIOS. Good things, but all a little meh. Maybe I just like seeing CPU / Video card reviews because the difference in scores tend to be more obvious.

Re:Scores wern't overly impressive

[pjbass]

Just speculation, but the fact the layout of the motherboard to prevent clutter is more significant than you'd think. In systems with bleeding edge components, you will have components that will still be pulling a generous amount of power. If you have cluttered cables around main airways across the motherboard, you don't remove heat as fast as a well-designed and channeled system. If it's really bad, then you can overheat the machine and have components shut themselves down, or clock themselves down.

Something as little as component layout can make a huge impact.

Re:

[Meostro]

If you think this is bad, just wait until the Socket "4x4" [wikipedia.org] comes out from AMD.

This one really bugs me because AM2 [wikipedia.org] came out in May and F [wikipedia.org] came out in August, and yet this month they're going to be obsoleted. The worst of it is that Socket F has the same pin count (1207), but doesn't appear to be compatible.

I feel sorry for everyone who has their brand-new AM2 system that's going to get screwed by this. Lucky for me I've been waiting/saving up, so now I can get a 4x4 on the new chipset and have the best of b

Re:

[HairyNevus]

NEWSFLASH: Linux has the worst hardware support of any operating system, especially for gaming. [slashdot.org] So, be prepared to not care about a lot of glitz.

More In-depth Analysis Here At HotHardware.com

[MojoKid]

NVIDIA also launched a new enthusiast line of motherboard chipsets today in support of Intel's Core 2 Duo/Quad and AMD Athlon 64 processors. NVIDIA's nForce 680i SLI and nForce 680a SLI motherboard chipsets [hothardware.com] will also allow a pair of GeForce 8800 series graphics cards to run in tandem for nearly double the performance. The new chipset also offers a ton of integrated features, like Gigabit Ethernet Link Teaming, FirstPacket traffic priortization and MediaShield RAID technologies.

Chipset & Board marriage

[cloudkiller]

I've always had a thing for intel motherboards, at least when building computers for use at work. Something about having an intel chipset on an intel board always seemed to result in fewer motherboard setup problems. Sure some of the tweaking was not there, but for the "it just needs to work" systems i wasn't looking for tweaking. The only problem was having to use an intel processor. Now that nVidia is making motherboards, or so it seems, this should create a reliable solution in the AMD-flavor of moth

Re:Chipset & Board marriage

[cloudkiller]

i realize this is a core2 board (or i realize now, anyway). just mode me offtopic and be done with it.

Re:

[man_of_mr_e]

Because it's an intel chipset?

Re:

[remembertomorrow]

Adventures of a 20 year old Entrepreneur

Adventures of Slashcode gone horribly wrong O_O

Re:

[lagfest]

Why is this listed under Intel?

It's a chipset for Intels Core processor.

Re:

[Keaster]

Does your text editor work? I'd worry about that before Linux. If so please fix the link in your post.

Re:

[grommit]

NEWSFLASH: 3d video card company makes hardware for high end gaming machines, not business desktops. Details at 11.

Stop being so vain in thinking that every new piece of hardware posted on slashdot should be targeted at your market.

Re:

[Lt.Hawkins]

Core 2 Duo chipset?

Re:

[Lt.Hawkins]

one of the biggest thigns that the 680 series addresses is overclocking potential. The 590 is notably lacking in its ability to scale up beyond 300MHz or so.

Re:

[jbevren]

Because AMD64 and related (Sempron, Opteron, et.al) chipsets do not have a DRAM controller. The AMD64 architecture has an on-cpu ram controller, eliminating the need and presence of a northbridge DRAM controller.

This is why dual- and quad-socket boards have ram slots surrounding or near each processor socket. Fewer links, shorter path, faster memory. We hope.

Re:

[cheater512]

Which is exactly the reason why I use a computer which is 3-4 years old.
It gives me time to save up and buy something which is truly extraordinary. :)

Re:

[strider44]

I'm sure nVidia are just absolutely heartbroken that you might have to buy more of their stuff to regain your l33tness throne. Oh *darn*.

.... but.. but.. but...

[Shiny One]

> if you want to pay for it Aww... I was hoping it would be free..

Re:Chipset & Board marriage

[Dead_Smiley]

This new chipset and motherboard is for the Intel Core 2 Duo. What had that got to do with AMD or did I misunderstand what you were trying to say?

what does "production-quality BIOS" mean?

[Kuciwalker]

I mean, seriously, is that just a random marketing buzzword to make them sound special? Are other BIOS's not "production-quality"?

Re:

[At0miC]

Man I hope this is posted hoping to get a +1 Funny... When was the last time you had a motherboard that wasn't supported by Linux?

Re:

[DittoBox]

Gee...I don't know. Maybe it's because the new chipset is for Intel computers?

FTFA:

Rather than launching as a standalone chipset, the nForce 680i SLI is coming to market as a complete platform. I really hate to call the 680i a platform--that word is misused in far too many press releases these days--but that's really what it is: a complete platform, including the chipset, motherboard, BIOS, and software, built explicitly for PC enthusiasts. The question, of course, is whether it's the right platform for y

Re:

[Hoi Polloi]

Just do what I did. Wait for, oh, 3-5 generations of hardware to pass. Then when you build a new machine it is all the more satisfying. I'll miss my old ISA-Babbage machine.

Re:

[Psiven]

This is hilariuos bc that's exactly what they're doing with the extra horsepower these days.

Re:

[Psiven]

Ah shit, who got the millionth UID?

Re:

[julesh]

It seems in the majority of benchmarks that any lead this new mainboard had was very slight.

Which is the best you can hope for in an incremental motherboard improvement. What were you expecting, doubled frame rates?

No, the best thing about this is that it means that 590-based boards are likely to become a little cheaper in the near future.

Re:

[julesh]

'Cause it's a board for Intel CPUs?

Re:

[xx01dk]

How is this off topic? Oops, I forgot to say that I won an EVGA 680i SLI. There.

I can't wait to install this board.

Re:

[TheOrquithVagrant]

> Are other BIOS's not "production-quality"?

In my experience, that's unfortunately indeed all too often the case.

Re:

[AgNO3]

I am so glad you put a question mark. Did you bother to read the other story or the headline? One is about graphics cards and one is about mother boards and they link to 2 different stories.

Re:

[Rufus211]

You have made 2 posts with this account.

Both posts have the title "More In-depth Analysis Here At HotHardware.com".

Fuck off, spammer.

Same southbridge?

[TheThiefMaster]

Is it just me or are most of the board's advertised features part of the southbridge chip, which isn't new?

It seems the only change is the northbridge supporting the core2 now.

In other words, amd fanboys go back to sleep, nothing to see here for you.

Re:Chipset & Board marriage

[Goodl]

you obviously haven't tried to build a core2 duo system on the intel made 965 board, *shivers* www.intel.com/products/motherboard/DP965LT/index.h tm release bios was a pig, worst mobo experience since the hideous via chipsets of the socket a athlon era (seriously!) works ok now though, but took them 3 goes to get the bios in shape

Re:

[MojoKid]

And both posts have links to stories that actually DO exactly what they say. They have more analysis on TWO very different stories. READ the damn text of the post, not just the titles. Nice language too. Very mature. Get a life.

Re:

[Kjella]

Are other BIOS's not "production-quality"?

Some of them aren't (or at least weren't, I remember some early AMD motherboards), but I've never had anyone say they weren't. Just like certain games should be called "a f#%ing beta, not even an RC".

Re:

[Xugumad]

On top of which, while the improvements in speed are marginal, cost and power consumption are both way up compared to Intel 975 based motherboards. Now, sure, if you want SLI, you're going to want one of these, but personally I've never figured out why people like SLI (although I suppose if you're using a just massive monitor to play games on...)

Re:

[Mandrake.Eldorage]

Big deal. A year from now when you turn 13 you can turn the tables on him with the next model.

Sweet!

[supasam]

I'm gonna go out and buy this crap, just cause it was a slashdot article!! YAY!!! I'm glad that what ever bullshit next generation video card makes headline news here at slashdot, so I can throw cash at it!!!! Oh wait, I DON'T GIVE A GOOD GOD DAMN. Thats cause I'm not a windows gamer or someone looking to do high end graphics (read: commercial work-style graphics), on the cheap. Yeah, I forgot. My bad.

Re:

[Etyenne]

Motherboard themselves are mostly supported, but some components on newer chipset are often broken or not working at all in Linux at first. For example, support for the JMicron JMB361 disk controller, that is often coupled with Intel 965 to provide PATA, just got into the mainline kernel recently and still have to get picked up by most distro. Marvell Ethernet where notoriously not working with Linux for a long while (this is mostly fixed now). The NForce2 Ethernet, when it came out a long time ago, was

Re:

[Pascoea]

Have you even compared different BIOS systems from different mfgs? Nothing better then looking at a bios that presents you with 3 options, change boot order, load default settings, and exit...

Re:

[sago007]

So far all NVIDIA drivers except the graphics has been open source and build into the kernel itself.

The more interesting question is how long will the delay be then it first has to put into the kernel and then the distros must upgrade the kernel.

On one of my servers I had trouble with Debian stable and an ASUS motherboard with a Nvidia chipset. UNSTABLE worked but I don't run that on a server (ended up with Ubuntu server)

I would not want closed source software on my server.

Take with a grain of Salt....

[DarthVain]

I always get a laugh out of this sort of thing. The basic premis here is that at stock speeds it is about the same as other motherboards (Intel Core 2 Duo). However the differenace is that it overclocks like a motherfu*ker. If you look at its compitition in the Asus and Gigabyte using an intel chipset, they also overclock well (if not quite so much). The big kicker is that this new board costs about 300$ compaired to like 170$ or even 130$.

So the moral of the story is just because some piece of computer equipment does something really well, a better computer it does not make (within reason, most people have some sort of cost restrictions to their lives). What I mean by this is, why buy a 300$ motherboard to overclock a 210$ CPU, when you can buy a 170$ motherboard and use the extra 130$ to buy a better CPU to overclock in the first place? Thats the differance between an E6300 and a E6600, for those that know what that means. Of course if your like me, you think the money would be better spent on a E6400, and pocket the change, for say something really important like beer or possibly pizza.

Of course prices will go down, but so with the compitition (at least to a certain threshold), its all about finding that perfect (or as close as you can get it) balance of components and price.

  Just my 2 cents.... Cheers!