Hardware First Look: Nvidia nForce 790i Ultra SLI

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/03/19/first_look_nvidia_nforce_790i_ultra_sli/1

Nvidia has launched its ultra powerful, ultra expensive "enthusiast" DDR3 chipset - nForce 790i Ultra SLI is here! We dive into the technology behind it in this first look to see what all the fuss is about.

 

hmmmz

I'm really curious wat it was that was crashing the OCs. Not that i'll be able to afford stuff like this in the coming 10 years, but it seems like there's something tiny in the way of getting some really epic overclocks...

 

We did get a new BIOS sometime late yesterday but the board wouldn't take it so I gave up - it was just a first look after all. I'm going to have another splash with the Asus Striker II Extreme in a few weeks once the BIOS' have settled down a bit. I'll source some Corsair EPP-een 2.0 too, see if that makes a difference

 

Page One: "Most of will be looking at DDR3 in Q4 this year and into 2009 when prices are expected to drop, Nehalems will arrive on DDR3 only and DDR3-based AMD CPUs will be just around the corner"
Are you missing the word "us" or "The people on the modern edge of enthusiast computing and the technology behind it" in between "of" and "will"

Otherwise, great First Look. Shame the OC's did not meet par. And that is a strange place for a sata port...

 

oc's worse than intel boards, will be very expensive, ddr 3 only, no ground breaking new features, someone must be really desperate for sli if he buys one of those...

 

haha, thanks!

 

ok looking at the 790i ultra boards i have a question. I was looking on newegg.com and it says that the motherboards support DDR3 1066/1333 but can support up to DDR3 2000, so does that mean i can install a DDR3 1866 stick without having to overclock the board or no?

 

Yes, to some degree because the board supports memory dividers that keep the CPU FSB speed lower, although if it doesn't have EPP 2.0 you'll have to do the settings manually etc.

 

That's an awesome looking board, and should be a great 'clocker once they give 'em a new BIOS. Far too pricey though, £282 is a bit rich for my tastes...

 

ok so if I put the DDR3 1866 with a QX9770 the processor wont be effect? Wait I just looked is there a single EPP 2 based ram out yet? If not when is the release date?

 

Looks like a physically nice board, and the bundled black cables really look nice, but unless the board/chipsets are going to perform atleast as well as the intel chipsets then I cant see how they are going to sell even to people with more money (and want for SLI +ddr3) than sense.

 

If the board is half what my 680i is, it's an amazing board. I don't think I would use the tri Sli thought, I'm just starting with 2 lol.

 

Corsair, OCZ and Crucial have some, others will follow in time.

If you have a QX9770 I'm not sure if you can run 1866 - the only available "linked" options are 5:4 and 3:2 or Sync. Other than that I would recommend running the memory slower or overclocked rather than unlinked simply because it affects memory performance more negatively than running it slower.

If I had a QX9770 in my own system I'd Sync the memory and CPU 1:1, overclocking the CPU (what a QX is designed for) - the jump from 1600 to 1866 isn't that much and Syncing yields the maximum performance.

 

the problem is that the design is all wrong instead of high speed ddr3 they shud focus bak on ddr2 im using an evga 680i sli based rig with a quad core (Q6600) stock clocks and 1 bfg 8800gts 320mb oc'ed and i can play crysis with high and very high settings with x2 aa and 1024x768 res. wich is just heaven. i will never buy another mobo just new gfx cards as mine becomes outdated in 2 years