If you look at the recent Bit-Tech X38 vs. P35 Crossfire comparison, you see that there are times when it doesn't, but also many times where it does make a difference having the extra bandwidth. The 45nm CPUs don't offer much other then the extra L2 Cache and perhaps a bit more overclocking potential, but I don't think its worth buying a new motherboard to get them instead of like a Q6600. The new QuadGT? No idea, haven't seen any reviews of it.
can I be an ass and ask why you need to upgrade ? I mean a change of videocard definitely would help you in games but as for the rest of your PC, it seems pretty freaking good...at least I know I would take it
i guess some of us are upgrade addicts. its true. can't remember where i saw it, but somehwere someone said something like: don't upgrade with green eyes. i think we can all learn from that. except the rich among us.
im also very interested in the Abit ix38 QuadGT. after seeing my friend's Asus P5Kc and other friend's P5K-e's BIOS, i think im going to stick with Abit's uGuru for the next upgrade. now, im not sure about any need to upgrade at all, you've got good enough everything. if people are suggesting YOU've got everything top-shape, im now thinking shall i invest in a X38 QuadGT? the iP35 Pro is serving me rock solid, hasn't need to change ANY BIOS setting ever since i declared the 400x8 overclock is stable. whereas my friend's Asus needs to be changed and re-configured almost every week. so Abit is definitely the way to go.
I was the same but then I thought - what's it going to gain me? It's the same southbridge, I won't be running Crossfire & by the time that PCI-E 2.0 really becomes a concern X38 will be an old chipset ...
good point guys. thanks. iP35 for now waiting for Nalhalm or the next native intel CPU to upgrade to with new mobo and DDR3 RAM. now, 9800GTX here i come (puts 1 pence in my piggy bank)
Heh, I'll sell you my 9800 *Pro* (puts many pence in the piggy bank). There's some unparalleled power for ya.
go a step further...if you are not running vista, why even upgrade the vga right now? no need to go dx10 unless you go vista. the card you have prolly runs everything fine save for a few games at absolute max settings on a 22 in or larger.
FYI: Just been testing the IX38 and it's not a fast board, in fact it's slower than the Asus Formula and that was barely faster than the Abit IP35 Pro. I've tuned the memory timings to the nth degree but the latest BIOS just isn't optimised. Shame, it's a nice, stable board as well.
