680i SLI + Yorkfield = NOTHING.

[warezme]

I had posted an earlier thread after ordering a spanking new QX9650 chip for my Evga 680i SLI mobo. I was hoping to get the chip in and do some benchmark comparisons with my old OC'ed Q6600 compared to the new chip, OC'ed...,

I had heard speculation that this was not going to work from folks who had already recieved their chips a couple of days before I did. Assuming they my have been running the older AR model of the board instead of the newer A1 like I have along with the new P31 bios I was hoping mine would still work.

WRONG! Its all over the Evga forum along with my rant. Evga had promised that all new Penryn based chips including Yorkfield would be supported by the 680i SLI boards. We all believed this to be true since the ES QX9650 were running smartly on 680i SLI boards with testers like Guru3D, and hitting close to 5Ghz in some extreme cases.

So what happened?? Well Evga in particular, don't know about other 680i manufactures, won't say but they claim a board layout issue. Many say Intel changed the microcode of the new Yorkfield retail chips because of Nvidia's refusal to sell them the SLI technology for their X** chipsets.

I don't know, I don't care. What I do care about is that us users with 680i SLI mobos are the ones getting the big middle finger. Personally if I had a third choice other than Nvidia or Intel chipset mobo that supported both Xfire or SLI I would go with them.

So you guys with Q6600's thinking of stepping up to a new Yorkfield chip on a 680i board, forget it. It ain't happening. The final word I got from Evga was a definite no, even with a new bios which will be released in early December the board would still be unstable and locked at a 6X multiplier, hardly what one would expect from a high end enthusiast board.

I love my dual 8800GTX's as there is no comparison with performance of any other video combination so I'll wait until Nehalem chips and mobos make their entrance along with next gen video before I worry about upgrades again. An OC'ed Q6600 can still outperform a stock QX6950 so I'll be fine until the next round of new hardware.

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

Meaning new board for yorksfield?

 

[warezme]

Meaning new board for yorksfield?

Yup, and ones like the 780i or 790i that haven't even been released yet unless you go Intel board and single Nvidia graphics.

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

I was hoping for my 680i to keep up.

 

[pogsnet]

Its not the SLI technology that caused it.
a quote from tom's review "Looking into the future with the Spider platform, AMD seems to be the less expensive than Intel, since the chip giant has already announced that its current high-end platform X38 will be incompatible to the next generation of high-end CPUs at the beginning of next year. In the end, if you're looking to make the most of a long-term investment, AMD is without a doubt the better platform choice."
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/11/19/the_spider_weaves_its_web/page42.html

Even the X38 will be outdated soon why not the 680i.

When Intel releases new processor chip with revised architecture, it always happen that new mobo chip is needed, since P4. Learn from history so dont wonder again in the future.

Mobo upgrade according to AMD. They know already.

From Conroe -> New Mobo -> Kentsfield -> New Mobo -> YorkField -> New Mobo and etc... -> Nehalem

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

Ehhhh whatever. As for the chart shut up AMD! The chart is for distracting people from how crappy the phenoms are. Not to you only to AMD

 

[warezme]

Its not the SLI technology that caused it.

I don't think anyone knows that for sure. The fact that the ES (engineering samples) of the QX9650 ran perfect on existing 680i based motherboards ought to tell you something? Intel changed their chip on the retail release.

I'm not chasing technology, I've had the 680i since last year and it has done well for me as it has for many other 680i users and bios's have matured well. Maybe it is to much to expect from a chipset over 12mo old but the facts remain that the 680i was compatible with the Yorkfield QX9650 at one point and now suddenly it is not.

Unless your head is in the clouds as a die hard fanboy for one side or the other, than you have to admit something is horribly amiss!!!

 

[tlmck]

Yup, and ones like the 780i or 790i that haven't even been released yet unless you go Intel board and single Nvidia graphics.

Such is the life of early adoption.

 

[warezme]

Such is the life of early adoption.

I ain't worried, Newegg took my QX9650 back full refund RMA, no restock fee and free UPS return label , I love Newegg. My system is still wicked and I can "putter" along with it for a bit longer before deciding which way to go on upgrades for the future. I decided well last year with the 680i SLI and dual 8800GTX's, when everyone was screaming wait for the 2900's.

I feel bad for some folks with recently purchased 680i's though.

 

[jimmysmitty]

There is a reason I prefer to go with Intel based chipsets. First off their chipsets tend to perform better, OC better and has better memory bandwidth.

No it wont be able to do SLI but thats NVidias fault since they want to make even more money by selling chipsets. I myself will probably wait till Nehalem at the 32nm process and then hope Larabee comes out earlier.

Also if Intel states their chipset will support up to a certain chip then it will. So for anyone claiming they never knew thats a lie. For every chipset Intel releases it states up to C2xxx or P4 XX (as long as its the same socket)and even when you buy the mobo the manufactuer will state it on the box or in the specs what it will support up to.

SLI is nice to a extent but man spending 400 x2 on GPUs is crazy for such a little gain such as in Crysis. Only 30% gains in performance using 2 8800GTX's in SLI. Of course thats not using 2 16x PCIe lanes but Intel has that already where as we are waiting for NVidia.

But I feel sad too that you can't have the Yorkfeild as thos so far rock the socks.

 

[Heyyou27]

Why you even really wanted to upgrade is beyond me. Heck, I'm still happy with my CPU and it's ancient! :lol:

 

[warezme]

Why you even really wanted to upgrade is beyond me. Heck, I'm still happy with my CPU and it's ancient! :lol:

LOL!..., to overclock the SNOT out of it of course! But alas, the writings on the wall and I fear the 680i series is coming to an end..., it was fun while it lasted.

 

[Heyyou27]

LOL!..., to overclock the SNOT out of it of course! But alas, the writings on the wall and I fear the 680i series is coming to an end..., it was fun while it lasted.

I hear that! Having a QX9650 overclocked to 4GHz+ would be pretty awesome.

 

[boner]

Yup, and ones like the 780i or 790i that haven't even been released yet unless you go Intel board and single Nvidia graphics.

do you know when the new chipsets are gonna come out??? (790i or 780i)

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

December

 

[boner]

oh man!!!! oh well ok thanks

 

[pogsnet]

If AMD knows...so should the mobo manufacturers or maybe from their spies. I am not advertising AMD here. I just show the chart given by AMD that if you are kentsfield and want to upgrade to Yorkfield you need new Mobo.

Intel keep on releasing same sockets but incompatible to each other. So be cautious, for sure Intel chips are more accurate on saying about compatibility. Maybe Intel gave different chips to nVidia and different to retail, wahaha! They wanna throw nVidia out of mobo market, to gave way to ATI/AMD and Intel QUAD Crossfire mobo design soon come to reality Q12008 when new driver comes out.

At this point why buy a 780i or 790i board just to need another board when Nehalem is released next year???

 

[Grimmy]

Ooophh... well, I still have some hope. I found that MSI redid that support page:

Wolfdale E8190 (2.66GHz, rev.C0) sample 1333 8 UNDER TESTING
Wolfdale E8200 (2.66GHz, rev.C0) sample 1333 8 UNDER TESTING
Wolfdale E8400 (3GHz, rev.C0) sample 1333 9 UNDER TESTING
Wolfdale E8500 (3.16GHz, rev.C0) sample 1333 9.5 UNDER TESTING
Yorkfield Q9450 (2.66GHz, rev.C0) sample 1333 8 UNDER TESTING
Yorkfield Q9550 (2.83GHz, rev.C0) sample 1333 8.5 UNDER TESTING
Yorkfield QX9650 (3GHz, rev.C0) sample 1333 9 UNDER TESTING

Just can't seem to remember what CPU rev they tested that passed. It prolly was the ES one.

They also have the Diamond P6N (680i), which shows basically the same thing. I'll keep an eye on it for awhile. What kinda bugs me, is that they still have under testing for older CPUs. :lol:

 

[FatFunkey]

uh yea guy u need a new chipset for Penryn/Yorkfeild and then another new chipset for Nahalem..welcome to Intel its more expensive here..


The 680i supports added FSB1333 via BIOS update for the Conroes and Kentsfeild but not the 45nm chips only the X38 and P35 ATM can support Penryn/Yorkfeild 45nm chips, The 780i will but all it is; is 680i with PCI-E 2.0 and Support for the 45nm chips.

you WILL NOT see the 680i Support 45nm parts i promise you that due to the fact of the change in voltage...

 

[cfvh600]

interesting times...

 

[Grimmy]

I dunno... I still have hope though:

Date: October 29th, 2007
Topic: Motherboard
Manufacturer: Various
Author: Gary Key

Motherboard Compatibility for Wolfdale and Yorkfield Processors

The situation with the NVIDIA designed chipsets for the Intel market is a little different. The 680i SLI, 680i LT SLI, GeForce 7150, and GeForce 7100 chipsets officially support Wolfdale and Yorkfield. The 650i SLI and GeForce 7050 chipsets will support these processors, but it seems as if that will be a supplier to supplier decision at this time. Of note, we have several 680i SLI motherboards that are currently undergoing qualification testing at this time, not for lack of chipset support, but for board designs. The reference board A1/T1 designs from EVGA will only require a BIOS update to work as an example, while motherboards from Gigabyte, ECS, abit, Biostar, and Foxconn are questionable at this point. We will have an update on these particular motherboards shortly; in the meantime, it appears the revised 680i boards from NVIDIA's launch partners along with boards from ASUS, MSI, and DFI should be fine with nothing more than a BIOS update.

If you look through up to the MSI support:

MSI has already posted full Wolfdale and Yorkfield compatibility testing on their website for each of the boards listed above. We have to hand it to MSI for being ahead of the game when it comes to customer support in this area. MSI will be providing additional performance optimizations in their BIOS spins over the course of the next few weeks.

I hope thats true, and not misleading. But then again, only time will tell.

Edit:

On the quick take of the article:

The only "current" chipset family that seems to have any questions at this time is the NVIDIA 680i SLI. This is not due to the chipset itself, but the designs of the motherboards that use it. Several of the original 680i SLI motherboards had to be revised for the Kentsfield family of processors to work correctly. Those that were not revised are subject to the supplier performing extensive qualification testing on their motherboards before official support is granted. Otherwise, it appears that only a BIOS update will be required to provide full support for the 45nm processors - basically the same requirement for most of the Intel chipset boards.

Hmmmm, wonder what the specific design that will not allow the 45nm CPUs to work.

 

[eeto]

uh yea guy u need a new chipset for Penryn/Yorkfeild and then another new chipset for Nahalem..welcome to Intel its more expensive here..


The 680i supports added FSB1333 via BIOS update for the Conroes and Kentsfeild but not the 45nm chips only the X38 and P35 ATM can support Penryn/Yorkfeild 45nm chips, The 780i will but all it is; is 680i with PCI-E 2.0 and Support for the 45nm chips.

you WILL NOT see the 680i Support 45nm parts i promise you that due to the fact of the change in voltage...

hmm, nope Makes me wonder how are you so sure in the first place .... look at the P5N series from the link below.

http://event.asus.com/mb/45nm/

 

[jimmysmitty]

So even a P965 will support the Penryn/Yorkfeild. Interesting. Same with the 680i series. I think its just up to the mobo manufactuer to get the BIOs in shape.

But I am still impressed that a 2+year old chipset will support the Penryns.

This is also why I love ASUS. Always trying to make stuff work that should work.

 

[FatFunkey]

hmm, nope Makes me wonder how are you so sure in the first place .... look at the P5N series from the link below.

http://event.asus.com/mb/45nm/

look from what i've read and heard the 780i will support 45nm and the only chipsets THAT OFFICIALLY support it is he X38 and the P35 intel chipset...i'm almost certain that the 680i WILL NOT SUPPORT them, they only released a bios updates to support 65nm FSB1333 parts..

i don't know what that asus document is spewing but its full of crap. no way the 965 supports Penryn/Yorksfeild.

a lot does have to do with BIOS true, in total truth almost no P35 support it right now except Abit due to BIOS, however the X38 (at least i know for Abit) does support Penryn/Yorkfeild out of the box.

However he Voltage regulations has a lot to do with it also and the P965 chipset/motherboards don't support it.

By all means if you think your 680i is going to support it go buy it...just don't make a post complaining that it doesn't work.

 

[eeto]

speechless.....

I think Asus will be in hella trouble if they make things up. If you click on the P5B series motherboards, it's even listed in the product page itself say "Support Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-core CPU"

EVEN, if it didnt work at the end. I dont see anyone who was "deceived" by this claim dont have a right to complain since it's from their official site. Maybe they arent tell the whole story, maybe there's something wrong, maybe the "v" there means pending test or this motherboard has a usb, maybe they dont want people to spend $ on new mobos, maybe they meant "Support Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-core CPU, we wish". All in all.. i just wanna say, never be too sure in anything. Since you voiced your opinion, i'll change towards a speculative attitude to that Asus official document.

I'm not knowledgeable to care about the inside mechanics, I just want to know "yes we do support" or "no we don't support".