NVIDIA 680i: The Best Core 2 Chipset?
by Gary Key & Wesley Fink on November 8, 2006 4:45 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Test Setup
NVIDIA designed the 680i chipset motherboard that is being released as the EVGA 680i SLI.
The 6-phase, 6-layer motherboard is passively cooled for normal operation. An accessory fan for the chipset is included for extreme overclocking. Since this is a review of the new 680i chipset there will not be in-depth comments on the board layout. However, readers should be aware of the horrible location of the front panel connectors in the middle right edge of the board. They are stacked in line on-top of the auxiliary 12V Molex and the IDE connector, with the memory slots on the other side.
This busy location makes it impossible to do much of anything in setup without dislodging the front panel LEDs and switches. The color code for the front panel connector is also wrong, and does not match any case setup we have tested. Color coding is a good idea but colors should match common setups. NVIDIA is aware of the issues with the location of the front panel connector and the color-coding and they have told us both issues will be fixed in a future revision of the motherboard.
The EVGA 680i SLI was used for all testing of the 680i chipset.
The AnandTech launch article for the NVIDIA 8800 GPUs provides test results with the 680i, 8800, and Core 2 Duo and Quad processors. This chipset review in contrast concentrates on comparing performance with our standard setup of the E6700, 2GB of DDR2 running DDR2-800 3-3-3 timings, and the NVIDIA 7900GTX to other tested Socket 775 Core 2 motherboards.
NVIDIA designed the 680i chipset motherboard that is being released as the EVGA 680i SLI.
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| Click to enlarge |
The 6-phase, 6-layer motherboard is passively cooled for normal operation. An accessory fan for the chipset is included for extreme overclocking. Since this is a review of the new 680i chipset there will not be in-depth comments on the board layout. However, readers should be aware of the horrible location of the front panel connectors in the middle right edge of the board. They are stacked in line on-top of the auxiliary 12V Molex and the IDE connector, with the memory slots on the other side.
This busy location makes it impossible to do much of anything in setup without dislodging the front panel LEDs and switches. The color code for the front panel connector is also wrong, and does not match any case setup we have tested. Color coding is a good idea but colors should match common setups. NVIDIA is aware of the issues with the location of the front panel connector and the color-coding and they have told us both issues will be fixed in a future revision of the motherboard.
The EVGA 680i SLI was used for all testing of the 680i chipset.
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (X2, 2.67GHz, 4MB Unified Cache) |
| RAM: | 2 x 1GB Corsair TCM2X1024-9136C5D Tested at DDR2-800 3-3-3 2.2V |
| Hard Drive(s): | Hitachi 250GB SATA2 enabled (16MB Buffer) |
| System Platform Drivers: | NVIDIA - 9.35 |
| Video Cards: | 1 x EVGA 7900GTX - All Standard Tests 2 x EVGA 7900GTX - SLI on NVIDIA 1 x ATI X1900XTX - ATI Standard Tests on Intel 2 x ATI X1900XT (Master+Standard) - CrossFire on Intel |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA 93.71 ATI Catalyst 6.10 |
| CPU Cooling: | Tuniq Tower 120 |
| Power Supply: | OCZ GameXstream 700W |
| Motherboards: | EVGA 680i SLI ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe (Intel 975X) Intel 975XBX (Intel 975X) ASUS P5B Deluxe (Intel P965) ASUS P5N32-SLI (nF4 SLIX16 Intel) Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe (Intel P965) Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 (Intel P965) DFI Infinity 975X/G (Intel 975X) ASRock 775Dual-VSTA (VIA PT880 PRO) |
| Operating System: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
The AnandTech launch article for the NVIDIA 8800 GPUs provides test results with the 680i, 8800, and Core 2 Duo and Quad processors. This chipset review in contrast concentrates on comparing performance with our standard setup of the E6700, 2GB of DDR2 running DDR2-800 3-3-3 timings, and the NVIDIA 7900GTX to other tested Socket 775 Core 2 motherboards.
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fenacv - Tuesday, January 8, 2008 - link
http://www.pricebat.ca/EVGA-122-CK-NF67-T1-LGA-775...">http://www.pricebat.ca/EVGA-122-CK-NF67...-SLI-ATX...If you don't really care the prefermace, I found it's onsale just buy one only 138 bucks. It's cheap.
TheBeagle - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
I'm wondering if these touted new 680i boards are vaporware, especially the Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 board. Ever since you first alerted us to the fact that the 680i chipset was replacing the 590 version, I've been waiting to see this whole new array of motherboards. However, aside from a few boards (ASUS and a few others) the major board manufacturers haven't been forthcoming with these products. Maybe this is just going to be some sort of a big Christmas present that Santa delivers on the holiday. If you guys at AnandTech have some info on this, I'd sure like to hear about. Thanksmbf - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
I, for one, am going to seriously miss the native hardware firewall of the nForce3 and nForce4 chipsets, so I'm anything but "thankful" for seeing it "jettisoned into deep space." Actually, this was one of the coolest features of the nForce chipsets and truly innovative.nVidia's stance as to removing it because the functionality is built into Windows Vista doesn't ring true. A software solution can never work as efficiently and transparently as a hardware solution. And what of the people having no intention to switch to Windows Vista, and there are many reasons for not wanting to. They're practically left out in the cold.
I second the opinion that nVidia probably botched the hardware in some form or other, although the hardware firewall works quite well on my nForce3 250gb based system, once you get familiar with its quirks. This actually doesn't bode well for nVidia's "inventiveness" and "forward-thinking" (think DualNet), since chances are nVidia will drop support completely rather than work out the bugs that inevitably will be there. Removing the hardware firewall is the best example of this.
Also, and this is a bit off-topic in regard to the rest of this topic, wasn't there supposed to be ECC memory support in the new northbridge for the 680i chipset? I remember reading about the northbridge also being used in the new nForce Pro series chipsets. Another feature that has been removed in the mean time?
skrewler2 - Monday, November 13, 2006 - link
How was the Tuniq Tower 120 on the board? I've heard lots of people complaining about backplates not fitting right on this board because the back of the mobo has lots of capacitors... Did you need to do any modding or did it just work?Gary Key - Monday, November 13, 2006 - link
I used the Scythe Infinity in my testing, Wes used the Tuniq. I did try the Tuniq and it was okay with an extra pad on the backplate that negated any damage to the capacitors.mlau - Monday, November 13, 2006 - link
Did you test a recent Linux kernel on this board?Which components are supported (I don't care about "raid"),
and how buggy are the HPET, (IO-)APIC and ACPI implementations?
Governator - Saturday, November 11, 2006 - link
First off, very well done article guys, but I've a question on the layouts with regards to PCI slots so far with the Asus and Evga; are we to expect similar layouts with upcoming boards from other manufacturers? I ask because I'm planning on a water cooled SLI setup upon a 680i and am planning on an X-Fi card but not sure if I'll be able to use the middle PCI slot, TIA...Gov
Gary Key - Sunday, November 12, 2006 - link
Most of the 680i boards have the same basic layout. On the Asus Striker board you should be able to use the X-FI with most watercooled SLI setups as an example. It will all depend on your setup but you can kiss the middle PCIe slot good-bye. ;)Governator - Saturday, November 18, 2006 - link
Hi Gary, sorry I meant to reply sooner but thanks for this. I'm hoping I'll be in good shape with the fact that I'll be using the new 8800GTX water block codeveloped by BFG Tech from Danger Den which appears that it'll only take up one slot allowing for that bottom PCI slot to go to the X-Fi card, thoughts? TIA ;)deathwalker - Friday, November 10, 2006 - link
I wonder if there are Matx mobo's in the future for the 600 series chipsets.