650i vs. 680i whats the diff?

[Vista_Nueva]

i'm looking at the p6n platinum but it only has a 650i instead of something newer. is that such a big deal?

 

[T8RR8R]

650i SLI should be good enough for most people wanting SLI. The 650i SLI won't hamper your performance much if at all even if you had 2 8800GTX's.

 

[erocker]

Is that true? The 680's run two PCIExpress lanes at x16. The 650's run two PCIExpress lanes at x8, half the speed. Worst yet there are a couple of 650 boards out there that are locked at x8 no matter if there is one or two cards in it. I do know that any 8800 has trouble running in non-sli at 8x speeds, so is that true for x8 SLI?

 

[T8RR8R]

I haven't heard of them having "trouble" running at 8x, but I'd assume that some mobos like the ecs 650i that run at 8x no matter what might hamper the performance of a single card COMPARED to a board that allows full 16x. As far as I know the ecs mobo is the only "crippled" one out there of all the 650i boards.

Two 8x channels like on the 650i SLI mobos should be decent enough for even dual 8800GTX's but may hamper some performance. For example you might loose a few FPS on 8x+8x compared to 16x+16x.

Check this out.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/24/seven_650i_sli_motherboards_compared/

 

[sparky79]

The 650i is different in a few ways and depends on what you are going to do with the board. Alot of the 650i boards dont have the overclocking features that 680i has and you are limited to x8 sli. I have the p6n sli platinum and it is a very good board for the money. Has alot of overclocking features that most 650i boards dont have. I am currently running my e6600 at 3.1ghz with no voltage changes. If you are only going to be running one graphics card it will run at x16.

 

[T8RR8R]

Here's one of the best comparisons I've seen.

http://www.techspot.com/review/45-nvidia-nforce-650i-sli-vs-680i-sli/

Sparky is right, it all depends on what you wanna do. In my opinion the 650i SLI is the best price/performance chipset out there and it allows you the "option" to upgrade to SLI later.

 

[lumper]

here is a good read right here on Toms,

Seven 650i SLI Motherboards Compared

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/24/seven_650i_sli_motherboards_compared/

Lump