DailyTech - More NVIDIA SLI Chipsets Around the Corner

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Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - September 25, 2007 7:40 AM

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14 comment(s) - last by Silver2k7.. on Sep 28 at 4:36 AM

New SLI platforms for AMD and Intel

NVIDIA plans to unleash new nForce SLI chipsets for AMD and Intel processors in November – the nForce 780 and 750 series. The AMD variants include the nForce 780a SLI and 750a SLI, based on the MCP72 XE and MCP72 P. The Intel variants are based on C72 XE and C72 P and named nForce 780i SLI and 750i SLI.

New features to the nForce 780 series include three PCIe x16 Gen2 support with SLI. NVIDIA will cater the nForce 780 series to enthusiasts. The lesser nForce 750 SLI solutions only support two PCIe x16 Gen2 slots with eight-lane signaling.

Additionally, NVIDIA has one more Intel chipset variant slated for January of next year. The new NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI is an Intel only chipset with support for DDR3 memory. NVIDIA hasn’t revealed much details on this chipset.

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Question

By FITCamaro on 9/25/2007 8:36:33 AM , Rating: 3

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't PCI-E2 double the bandwidth of PCI-E1? So wouldn't two PCI-E2 8x slots be equivalent to two PCI-E1 16x slots?

Regardless, I'm sure these chipsets will cost even more out the @$$ than the current 6x0i series chipsets. Motherboard prices have gotten ridiculous. The cost of your motherboard now can easily exceed the price of your CPU. You can get a quad core processor for $260. And your motherboard for it can cost nearly as much.

RE: Question

By mdogs444 on 9/25/2007 8:45:03 AM , Rating: 2

The bandwidth may be increased - but im not sure with the current cards that you will even use all that bandwidth.
However, by populating two x8 lanes, you are still using two graphics cards and getting much more graphics power than by using a single one of those cards in a double bandwidth lane.

For example: 2 8600gts's in x8 lanes > 1 8600gts in x 16 lane

As far as motherboards go, thats been the story of intel for quite along time. Their enthusiast mother boards are always more than the enthusiast AMD boards....and their midrange boards are always more then AMD midrange boards...and so forth.

Im fairly certain though that when intel markets these expensive boards, they are not only marketing to those who intend of buying the cheapest processor and overclocking it. Its probably more geared towards those are want to buy the mid to upper range and then overclock.

Thats why they have budget & midrange CPU's. Im not calling a quad core a "budget cpu" per say, but since it is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to intels quad cores, it could be considered more of a budget item, but the board would not be budget item.

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RE: Question

By FITCamaro on 9/25/2007 8:53:31 AM , Rating: 2

My issue is that there's only one dual 16x slot motherboard for Intel CPUs thats under $200. Its an Asus 650i board with dual 16x slots thats like $180. All the rest are 680i boards which are at least $199. Sometimes you'll find one on sale, but its normally the crappy ones.

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RE: Question

By The Jedi on 9/25/2007 11:21:22 AM , Rating: 2

Fortunately dual x16 is rather unnecessary compared to dual x8. It would be needed really only for Quad SLI. However after poor experiences with nForce 4 AMD systems, coincidentally which were dual x8, and hearing that newer nForce 500 series AMD systems were rehashed nForce 4's, personally I was after a dual x16 just to get a genuine NEW chipset. But I think with the newer 'more bug-free' generations dual x8 ought to be no biggie.

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RE: Question

By StevoLincolnite on 9/25/2007 8:52:25 AM , Rating: 3

Dunno personally, but I am positive I read somewhere that not even AGP 8X's bandwidth has been used to the maximum yet, And another funny thing is, some nVidia on-board solutions used an AGP 16X or 12X and even 8X interfaces.

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RE: Question

By FITCamaro on 9/25/2007 9:03:00 AM , Rating: 2

Oh I know. It was just a question of curiosity. As in will you even need full 16x slots with PCI-E2 motherboards for future cards. Considering even with top end cards now, dual PCI-E1 8x slots are barely slower than dual 16x slots. So if dual PCI-E2 8x slots have the same bandwidth as dual PCI-E1 16x slots, then no you really won't. At least not for a while.

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RE: Question

By Silver2k7 on 9/28/2007 4:31:48 AM , Rating: 2

"but I am positive I read somewhere that not even AGP 8X's bandwidth has been used to the maximum yet"

Ive read somewhere else about a game developer that managed to saturate the current interfaces.. but where holding back on the details in the game not to saturate the interface..

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RE: Question

By SavagePotato on 9/25/2007 9:33:29 AM , Rating: 3

Those motherboards are expensive because they have become so complex. There are still cheap motherboards out there. However you aren't going to get a top of the line dual x16 sli motherboard for 100 bucks.

Proportionaly they are probably not quite worth the additional cost hike from said S10 micro atx board, for what they actualy cost in additional components. However I realy doubt $700 graphics cards are either.

Nvidia has always been expert at charging insane price hikes for marginaly improved products. like the $800 8800 gtx ultra.

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RE: Question

By SavagePotato on 9/25/2007 9:36:37 AM , Rating: 1

should read said $100 micro atx board.

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RE: Question

By omnicronx on 9/25/2007 2:26:05 PM , Rating: 2

They are more expensive to make, but not that much more. I am guessing they know that if you need a motherboard with dual x16 slots, then you also just shelled out a ton of money for two video cards. And if you have enough money to buy two video cards, you also have enough to shell out the extra 50-100$ for a premium motherboard. Furthermore buying a motherboard that good without buying a good video card is pointless, and the board makers have caught on ;)

In the end its really a niche market for people that money is not an issue.

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RE: Question

By Warren21 on 9/25/2007 2:57:22 PM , Rating: 1

QFT.

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RE: Question

By HexiumVII on 9/27/2007 7:10:28 AM , Rating: 2

Why are you buying such expensive boards anyways. I've been using $80 Asus 650i boards and they work great, and have all the features most expensive boards have and even more (eSata). So what if it ONLY has 8x dual. Current cards are not bandwidth starved. If you have enough money for waisting money on Dual GPU anyways, you wouldn't mind paying a measly $100 more for a better board along with your 30" monitor.

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RE: Question

By Silver2k7 on 9/28/2007 4:36:25 AM , Rating: 2

Ill have to quote Winston Churchill on that one ;)

"I am easily satisfied with the very best"

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High end board without all the junk

By DigitalFreak on 9/26/2007 11:00:01 AM , Rating: 2

How about a high end board using the 780/790 that doesn't have 10 SATA ports, 2 or 3 NICs, fancy heatpipes, etc? I certainly don't need all the extra junk I'll never use.

"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer