NVIDIA 680i/650i- Folks, they are not going to work with Yorkfield....at least not yet.
by Gary Key on November 27, 2007 6:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Gary's First Looks
When NVIDIA's 680i/650i goes dancing with the Yorkfields, but this tango ends early-
We have official word from the motherboard manufacturers and NVIDIA that a BIOS update will not ensure full compatibility of the current 680i/650i boards with the new 45nm Yorkfield Quad Core processors. While the chipsets are fully compatible with the latest 45nm CPUs from Intel, it turns out a material change in the Yorkfield processor family between the initial test samples and final retail units require circuitry and component changes on the motherboards.
We have tried a couple of 680i motherboards with updated BIOS code and our retail QX9650 worked at the 1333FSB setting. However, overclocking past 1350 proved to be futile and stability at stock settings was comprised at times when all four cores were stressed during video encoding routines. We are still working with the motherboard manufacturers at this time to determine who will offer a revised 680i board or if they will only offer an nForce 700 solution for users who plan on purchasing a Yorkfield based CPU.
At this time, full Wolfdale compatibility is not a given with the 680i/650i motherboards and is another concern we are trying to pin down currently. However, NVIDIA has stated that Wolfdale should work fine in the boards as it does not require the same component changes. We should have further information by this weekend from the motherboard manufacturers as to who will offer revised 680i designs and those that are marching only to the beat of the nForce 700.
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tshen83 - Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - link
The issue is the BIOS and VRM specifications. The 780i chipset from Nvidia was also delayed for a couple of weeks due to Intel not giving Nvidia critical information on the Penryn specifications.But the BIOS issues are fixed on some of the 680i chipset motherboards. Asus ones now work. I believe EVGA ones don't because of hardware limitations so BIOS cannot fix it. The 780i is also fixed. Asus motherboards based on 780i will be available first week of December if I remember correctly.
warezme - Tuesday, December 4, 2007 - link
there are no 680i manufacturers with Retail working Yorkfields including Asus. Please provide link to one example of this working review???? Unless you can provide this do not post misinformation.tmouse - Thursday, December 6, 2007 - link
I think he means motherboards working with Wolfdale chips, but I could be wrong.AmberClad - Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - link
I've read the comments from HP/VoodooPC's Rahul Sood about this, and he seems to indicate that there's nothing wrong with the Yorkfield itself. It sounds like that Nvidia somehow wasn't informed about the materials change?Is this a turf battle between Intel and Nvidia, with Nvidia holding out on granting the SLI license and Intel holding out on providing info essential to get Yorkfield working on nForce?
crimson117 - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - link
"Intel holding out on providing info essential to get Yorkfield working on nForce"If so then nVidia should sue Intel for monopolistic business practices - especially if their CPU division shared this info with their own Motherboard division, but did not share it with competing motherboard producers.