NVIDIA 680i: The Best Core 2 Chipset?
by Gary Key & Wesley Fink on November 8, 2006 4:45 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Features: nForce 600i Platform
While our testing will concentrate on the EVGA 680i motherboard designed by NVIDIA, it is important to point out that 680i is a member of a whole new family of NVIDIA chipsets for the Intel Socket 775 platform.
Across the line NVIDIA emphasizes that buyers can expect spectacular overclocking with their new 600i Series motherboards. Other features are basically a refinement of the feature set introduced with the NVIDIA 550/570/590 series this past summer. These include DualNet, Massive RAID 5, FirstPacket, and MediaShield which will be discussed in more detail in the features section. The 600i family also fully supports Intel Core 2 Extreme (dual & quad), Core 2 Quad, and Core 2 Duo processors.
NVIDIA nForce 600i Family Specifications
While our testing will concentrate on the EVGA 680i motherboard designed by NVIDIA, it is important to point out that 680i is a member of a whole new family of NVIDIA chipsets for the Intel Socket 775 platform.
| NVIDIA Intel Chipsets | ||
| Market Segment | Chipset | Price |
| Hard-Core Enthusiast | nForce 680i SLI | $249-$299 |
| Performance Gamers | nForce 650i SLI | $149-$199 |
| Mainstream Gamers | nForce 650i Ultra | $99-$149 |
Across the line NVIDIA emphasizes that buyers can expect spectacular overclocking with their new 600i Series motherboards. Other features are basically a refinement of the feature set introduced with the NVIDIA 550/570/590 series this past summer. These include DualNet, Massive RAID 5, FirstPacket, and MediaShield which will be discussed in more detail in the features section. The 600i family also fully supports Intel Core 2 Extreme (dual & quad), Core 2 Quad, and Core 2 Duo processors.
NVIDIA nForce 600i Family Specifications
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StriderGT - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
Also, some Intel chipset fans believe that Intel chipsets are best for a rock solid system (for the record, I'm not one of these people), I guess we'll see if nVidia will change thier minds.No it won't, its the same group of people that suggested the P4 was a more "stable" platform than the Athlon 64 platform. Its simply a psychological state of denial, when someone has paid more for less needs an excuse: "Stability"
skrewler2 - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
I agree with you on your two points.I also wish PM tech was standardized.. I just went through a headache researching what was compatible with what chipset etc, imo it should just all work. From what I understand, the SATA II standard isn't even really a standard at all.. anyways I agree that NV should start implementing Port Multiplier support!
yyrkoon - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
Yeah, I recently bought a budget Asrock board that SUPPOSEDLY supported SATAII connections. As per the standard, SATAII is supposed to support native command queuing (NCQ), and up to 3Gbit/s throughput on each connector. Anyhow this motherboard does not support NCQ . . . which is the majority of the reason to own a SATAII drive / interface, the rest is basicly marketing hype.Kougar - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
Wanted to point out all the tables on the Memory Performance page are mislabled as "980i".Also some power consumption figures would be good, even if not critical. With a chipset cooler that huge it's about a giveaway it is hiding a nice and crispy chipset! ;) Thanks for the article!
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
The perils of Table cut-and-paste are now corrected.Please see comments above above Power Consumption. That information will be added to the review since several have requested it.
Avalon - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
I was much more interested in the 650i Ultra boards, specifically how well they overclocked compared to the 680i you benched. Additionally, do you think it's necessary for an active fan cooling the northbridge when highly overclocked on this chipset, or does it run fairly cool?Gary Key - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
We will not have 650i boards until early December for review. The fan is required for upper-end 24/7 overclocking in my opinion, otherwise the board ran fine without it.yzkbug - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
tables in page 10: NVIDIA 980i -> NVIDIA 680iShoNuff - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
I'm impressed with the review. It was very thorough. In particular, I was amazed at your overclock with the X6800. I am looking forward to getting one of these boards in my hands.
It appears that NVIDIA has done it this time with respect to the on board memory controller. It is hard to imagine things getting better when the OEM's add their nuances to this board. If results are this good based upon the reference design, it is almost scary thinking about how good a board DFI would/could produce.
Oh…and btw…I like the new location of the front panel connectors. The new location will make it easier to "stealth" the wires.
hubajube - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
These are ass-kicking OC's!!! Can't wait to own this board.