NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI Reference Platform Motherboard Pictured

[erocker]

Well, that's just with the new Core i7. It's too new to have more than one chipset. Not to mention that it does not, in any way, need anything more than X58, because X58 has everything. More revisions do not equal a better product.

If you want to compare Core 2, then you got 680i, 650i, 630i, P33, P35, P45, X38, X48, etc.
The only difference is that AMD is trying to sneak in backwards compatibility to win over consumers, at loss of performance.

Lets not forget P31, G31, G35, P41, P43.... There are plenty of Intel options that directly compete with AMD and do it in the same price bracket.

 

[cdawall]

Lets not forget P31, G31, G35, P41, P43.... There are plenty of Intel options that directly compete with AMD and do it in the same price bracket.

thats only on C2D's side though it has nothig to do with the single chipset available for i7. oh and from the way things are looking intel will be the only company making a chipset for i5 as well

 

[erocker]

thats only on C2D's side though it has nothig to do with the single chipset available for i7. oh and from the way things are looking intel will be the only company making a chipset for i5 as well

C2D competes with AMD processors with comparable performance and a wide range of chipsets/motherboards to use. Comparing PII to Core i7 just doesn't make sense to me. It looks to me like i5 is going to be fail.

 

[cdawall]

C2D competes with AMD processors with comparable performance and a wide range of chipsets/motherboards to use. Comparing PII to Core i7 just doesn't make sense to me. It looks to me like i5 is going to be fail.

that is true but the original post i was comparing to was intel only needs X58 which is utter BS and you and me both know that intel chipsets clock well but they do not offer the best of really anything else.

 

[erocker]

Their chipsets look cool and have awesome heatpipes and stuff though! I agree with ya.

 

[cdawall]

Their chipsets look cool and have awesome heatpipes and stuff though! I agree with ya.

oh well maybe AMD will have some i7 beating chips soon i have a feeling that the 6 core's server chips will hold an advantage in true multitasking over the i7 server chips since HT is not the same as another core....now if those 6 core chips hit the mainstream we might have an i7 beater 3.8-4.2ghz (air clocked) on the unlocked chips with 6 cores would be pretty BA

 

[PP Mguire]

Somebody was saying something about Asus boards?

Asus already has their 980a pictured on their site.

 

[Wile E]

it doesn't "support" it but go on AMD game forums and several users have old 480X boards with phenom II's on them. just about any board that supports phenom's will boot and run a phenom II it will just not take advantage of the added benifits of the chip IE unlocked chips wont give the full range of multi's




only issue i have is that the X58 chipset is still not all that great AMD chips show better scaling on there chipsets than i7 does on X58. this is true when you look at just about any multi card setup, there was a thread on XS with about 100 examples of this. same clocks on the cards and comparable clocks on the chips the single card was all X58 but as soon as they put a second card on the board AMD gained 20-30% intel may gain 15% max. AMD caught up in performance to i7 as soon as another card was added. tell how even x8/x8 790GX can scale multi card better than X58?

and 780i wasn't all bad with quads several people got good clocks out of it. not the best but good clocks for sure. 6xi supported all of the 65nm quads it may not have clocked them to a 1600mhz FSB but it supported them it however did not support even the same clocked 45nm quads which is what i was trying to say.

Links please. And are these tests done with the same OS, with the same exact tweaks?

 

[cdawall]

Links please. And are these tests done with the same OS, with the same exact tweaks?

no idea they were links on XS i would assume no but me and freaksavior are going to do the same tests i have a 9800GX2, 2x2600pros and he has 2xGTX285's we are going to test with. hopefully my 780a board will play nice with my phenom but if not we will run the ati cards and 9800GX2 only

 

[Wile E]

no idea they were links on XS i would assume no but me and freaksavior are going to do the same tests i have a 9800GX2, 2x2600pros and he has 2xGTX285's we are going to test with. hopefully my 780a board will play nice with my phenom but if not we will run the ati cards and 9800GX2 only

That's what I want to see. The same exact card at the same exact clocks, with the same exact OS tweaks on both platforms. There's just too much left to chance doing it any other way.

 

[cdawall]

That's what I want to see. The same exact card at the same exact clocks, with the same exact OS tweaks on both platforms. There's just too much left to chance doing it any other way.

i'll have XP Pro and windows 7 scores. with max oc's on phase rofl

 

[Kronos]

Realy?

The AsRock 780A does that

Does it? I don't see any specs for that anywhere. Pls post link.

 

[ShadowFold]

Does it? I don't see any specs for that anywhere. Pls post link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g1GtsiZ4go&feature=channel_page

They mention it later on in the video

 

[p_o_s_pc]

@cdawall you want to send me the PII 955 to put it on my Nvidia 6150/430? thats what is running my 5kBE ATM and it sucks compared to the 790GX (has nothing to do with the subject i know)

 

[jalyst]

Interesting, I just want to see how this perform agains 790FX/750 and what about temps

Don't you mean against a 790GX?
That's it's more direct competitor isn't it?

 

[btarunr]

Interesting, I just want to see how this perform agains 790FX/750 and what about temps

http://techreport.com/articles.x/17061

 

[jalyst]

http://techreport.com/articles.x/17061

But this doesn't compare the 790GX to the 980a SLI...
790GX has IGP like the 980a SLI, that would be a better comparison.

 

[btarunr]

They're not measuring IGP performance. 980a SLI is a high-end chipset, which can spare at least 32 PCI-E lanes for graphics cards, while 790GX only provides 16, hence this chipset compares to 790FX (which has 32 lanes to spare for graphics). The ASUS M4N82 Deluxe has the IGP permanently disabled.

 

[jalyst]

okay so the 980a SLI and 790FX are the two top-notch mobo chip-sets for AMD market atm.
Do either of these have motherboard implementations which happen to also include IGP?

 

[btarunr]

AMD 790FX (ATI RD790) physically lacks an IGP. NVIDIA nForce 980a has a GeForce 8300 IGP. If you want this chipset with an IGP, buy any motherboard with the nForce 780a SLI. It's the same exact chip physically.

 

[jalyst]

Sorry not quite getting you...

Why would I get the 780 SLI when the 980a SLI with IGP is now available?
Is there no motherboards yet taking advatage of 980a SLI IGP?

Surely there must be some differences between 780a SLI and 980a SLI?

Why would one looking for on-board GPU (infrastructure for 2 or more x16 cards, would still be nice) choose the 980/780a SLI over the 790GX?

Which is best from CPU/Mem subsys standpoint?
(I "may" be able to ascertain that from article you provided)

And which is best from an on-board GPU standpoint?

Would you prefer I be posting these questions in a separate thread?

Cheers,
Jed

 

[btarunr]

Sorry not quite getting you...

Why would I get the 780 SLI when the 980a SLI with IGP is now available?
Is there no motherboards yet taking advatage of 980a SLI IGP?

They're the same thing. Just like GeForce 8800 GT -> 9800 GT. There is no motherboard that uses 980a SLI that comes with its IGP enabled. In fact, the ASUS M4N82 Deluxe is the only 980a SLI motherboard in the market. The one in the news post is the NVIDIA reference design, which we then believed someone like EVGA or Zotac would sell, sadly that didn't happen.

Surely there must be some differences between 780a SLI and 980a SLI?

There are no differences. It's a rebranding. It is basically 780a, albeit "qualified" to support AM3 CPUs. There are no 980a + DDR3 boards around, nor are there any 780a SLI boards that don't support AM3 CPUs.

Why would one looking for on-board GPU (infrastructure for 2 or more x16 cards, would still be nice) choose the 980/780a SLI over the 790GX?

They don't. Nobody buys a >$150 motherboard over a simpler ≤$100 one, only to end up using its IGP. If you want the IGP the 980a comes with, at a lower price, buy a motherboard with the GeForce 8300 MCP chipset instead.

Which is best from CPU/Mem subsys standpoint?
(I "may" be able to ascertain that from article you provided)

The chipset technically has no role to play with the memory subsystem. It's care of the IMC that's packed into the AMD CPU.

And which is best from an on-board GPU standpoint?

Between GeForce 8300 and AMD 790GX, the 790GX is better as far as IGP performance goes. It's the fastest IGP you get for the AMD platform.

Would you prefer I be posting these questions in a separate thread?

I have no problems answering you here. They're in line with the topic.

 

[jalyst]

They're the same thing. Just like GeForce 8800 GT -> 9800 GT. There is no motherboard that uses 980a SLI that comes with its IGP enabled. In fact, the ASUS M4N82 Deluxe is the only 980a SLI motherboard in the market. The one in the news post is the NVIDIA reference design, which we then believed someone like EVGA or Zotac would sell, sadly that didn't happen.

It's only early days though... surely someone will implement a 980a SLI w/IGP?

Do these chip-sets get 'crippled' (compromised in performance) when the IGP enters the picture? E.g...
Would the 790GX and 980/780aSLI+IGP merely have less PCI-e lines because some are used by the MGPU, or is there more to it than that?

If there is, can you detail the compromises for both platforms? Assuming there's none or the compromises have the same hit 'performance-wise'......
Which is the better performer all-round, once GPU performance advantages are 'masked'...

There are no differences. It's a rebranding. It is basically 780a, albeit "qualified" to support AM3 CPUs. There are no 980a + DDR3 boards around, nor are there any 780a SLI boards that don't support AM3 CPUs.

OMG that's just plain bizarre....

They don't. Nobody buys a >$150 motherboard over a simpler ≤$100 one, only to end up using its IGP. If you want the IGP the 980a comes with, at a lower price, buy a motherboard with the GeForce 8300 MCP chipset instead.

That's precisely what I want; top-notch IGP for HTPC/PVR, but the 'potential' for top-notch workstation/gaming machine down-the-track....

Between GeForce 8300 and AMD 790GX, the 790GX is better as far as IGP performance goes. It's the fastest IGP you get for the AMD platform.

By "GeForce 8300" you're referring to the actual on-board GPU, not the chip-set? So the 790GX's MGPU has been verified as better 'all-round', k thanks...
I wonder if AMD/ATi software is still pretty shite` in GNU/Linux? I always had less problems with nVidia....

 

[cdawall]

it is not still the early days of 980A its been out what a month now. 780A is still the same exact chipset. GF8300 should be pretty close HD3300 in everything

 

[jalyst]

Yeah I've been filled in a little more here, excellent forum, very well informed answers!
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1160285

btarunr, some of my questions remain unanswered...
It'd be really appreciated if you could address them, but I understand if you grow weary ;-)

all the best