AM3, 1090T and SLI

[rafarataneneces]

Hello. I currently have the Asus Crosshair IV Formula and it includes AM3 support

I have a few issues/doubts

1) will it be compatible with Bulldozer?
I KNOW for a fact that there is a motherboard out there compatible with Bulldozer, I believe it's a motherboard for Opteron servers

2) Why it doesn't includes support for SLI?
all the Intel motherboards have SLI/Crossfire support, all ATI cards have only CrossFire support

3) Is the 790a too old to buy it now?

4) If you would HAVE to chose between the Asus Crosshair IV Formula or a 790a motherboard (like the MSI one), which one will you chose?

5) I have the ASUS Intel Core i5 motherboard in my closet now. Should I instead use that motherboard and buy the Intel Core i7 875k?

THE MAIN OBJECTIVE of buying a motherboard right now is
1) features
2) future proof

I don't want my motherboard to be obsolete within 6 months, and knowing Intel, that's precisely what will happen if I chose the Intel mobo

The Asus Crosshair IV Formula is neat because it has Soundblaster, USB 3.0, and Sata 6gb/sec

however, Sata 6GB/sec is something I don't use, USB 3.0 is something that I can buy ( a separate USB 3.0 PCI Express card), and Soundblaster is something I can add too.

In other words, will you dump USB 3.0 and Sata 6.0 GB/sec in order to have SLI?


Can I add USB 3.0 via a PCI express card?

What about Sata 6.0 gb/sec? I don't think I'll need that for a while

Thanks for your answers guys, I am really confused about what technology to get


I like Nvidia because it has CUDA (Adobe Premiere CS5 Mercury Engine), and PhysX (Batman Arkham Asylum). Plus the control panel is 5x better than ATIs

The Nvidia GTX 460 looks really neat, the temperature is acceptable, and I bet it scales great with SLI

I don't really know if I'm going to use it though

I plan to use my computer to play video games on 120Hz, on a 60" DLP (Mitsubishi), so I might need extra graphic power for AA and AS

I mean 60" is big

I might also play 3D Vision with the 120Hz 60" TV

I mean, I have big plans this year, and I just don't see USB 3.0 and Sata 6.0 gb/sec being more important than a nice Nvidia with SLI

 

[rafarataneneces]

The ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme seems to be a response since it includes the Lucyd Hydra chip

The MSI 870A-GD60 also includes the Lucyd Hydra chip

Another solution that is more affordable and that is REAL (I can't live 2-3 months waiting for these motherboards to arrive), is the 790a motherboard

I will google the reviews on USB 3.0 PCI cards, I think honestly that's the best solution so far

 

[Maziar]

Hello
1_No one can tell you,since they aren't out yet.
2_I don't know the exact reason but all AMD 890FX/GX chipsets support CrossFire only,maybe that's because AMD wants users to use CrossFire only(because it owns ATI)
3_Yes,you have a rock solid board,why change it ?
4_Only if SLI is a must,otherwise i would stick with the Crosshair since its a solid motherboard
5_Let me tell you something,if you want something future proof,then you can't every buy anything,because there is something around the corner.

So if SLI is a must for you,then go with either 790a/P55,otherwise keep your motherboard.Also PhysX isn't very useful,few games use it and when its enabled you'll notice a great performance drop.

 

[rafarataneneces]

Well the problem is that I edit videos for a living.

So PhysX is VERY important

Actually not PhysX, but CUDA, since Adobe Premiere CS5 uses Mercury Playback Engine

so it's not only for Batman

Besides with the Nvidia GTX 460, Nvidia has FINALLy designed a video card that doesn't runs as hot as a 100C oven

these cards load at 60C-70C, and they rock

With $450, you can have GTX 460 SLI, which is pretty sweet.

You could even use one card for games, one for PhysX

You can turn AA on, and AS on, for all games.

Now, remember I want to play games on a 60" Mitusubishi DLP, maybe even with 3D Vision

So, I just don't want SLI to be left out of my motherboard

I really don't like GTX 470 or GTX 480 too much, they are too costly for the marginal performance increase over the GTX 460

Anyway, I did my research and this seems to be the 'perfect' motherboard

MSI 870A FUZION AM3 AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
FUZION Technology allows VGA mix & match
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130297&cm_re=MSI_Fuzion-_-13-130-297-_-Product


Does anybody knows if the Lucid Hydra chip will allow me to use SLI normally?
Or will I have compatibility problems?

It will definitively be nice to scale ATI + Nvidia, just for the heck of it

Right now I'm stuck between the MSI 870A Fuzion or the MSI 790a motherboard

The 870A definitively seems better, with USB 3.0 and Sata 6.0 GB/sec

I would also like to know if using the 870 NB chipset over the 770NB chipset decreases the 'overclockability' and/or speed of the 1090T processor

 

[belltollsforthee]

Woah! man im almost in the same boat as you, but a little cheaper

im so glad you posted about the Fuzion, i thought i was stuck with only nVida mobos for AMD!



I want to run 460 SLI, but on an 955BE preferably, cuz of the cost of an i5



will SLI be decreased any by this Lucid Hydra chip? cuz this thing sounds like a beauty to me, and MAN WHY IS IT SO CHEAP?!


any one out there please help!

 

[belltollsforthee]

sad news

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2910/5

i guess there isn't a lot of options for running AMD with SLI


BTW im wondering if the nForce 980a will run SLI with Directx11
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131636

 

[rafarataneneces]

Well I am confused

I read that Lucid will allow SLI, that is why Asus is building the Asus Crosshair IV Extreme or something like that

However, after investigating about Lucid, it's pretty much a competition to SLI and Crossfire, it's SOFTWARE based. So, it is SOFTWARE based, and it allows you to have games in

A mode (ATI)
N mode (Nvidia)
X mode (ATI + Nvidia)

The first drivers only allowed A mode and some X mode, N mode was 100% unsupported.

You can read about their drivers here:
http://www.lucidlogix.com/driverdownloads.html

anyway, I decided to switch to Intel, because I sold my Asus P6T deluxe and a guy payed me $200 for it and gave me an Asus P7P55D FREE

I think the BEST CPU + GPU combination now will be

MSI AM3 motherboard with nForce 980a Northbridge
460 GTX SLI
Phenom II X6 1090 T overclocked to 4.2Ghz-4.4Ghz (Turbo disabled, C1E and Cool N' Quiet disabled)
Cooler Master V8

That right now will be better than Intel Core i7 875k overclocked to 4.13Ghz

I think a Phenom @ 4.4 Ghz will run similar or better than an Core i7 875k @ 4.13Ghz

Intel is better than AMD, AMD with 6 cores is barely better than Intel with 4 cores.

However, AMD is better than Intel since 6 cores ARE FASTER than 4 cores, even if the difference is marginal.

Now, I am afraid of one thing.

I think (this is my gut talking), that Intel with SLI works MUCH BETTER than AMD with SLI

I remember I had AMD Phenom 965, and I bought GTX 260 SLI

Crysis went from 32FPS to maybe 36FPS

According to the internet reviews, I was supposed to get 36FPS with a single GTX 260

So I switched to Intel, I bought Asus P6T Deluxe with Intel Core i7 920

I was able to play Crysis at 70 FPS

So in other words, with AMD, SLI gave maybe 5% increase, with Intel it gave maybe 95% increase

I would like to read an article that tests the Phenom X6 1090T processor with SLI

So far, since the ONLY motherboard that supports SLI is the MSI AM3 nForce 980a, I am afraid to say that the 1090T is a bad option for gamers

just think about it

they only have ONE MOTHERBOARD, ONE for AMD AM3 X6 users

Intel users maybe have 100 motherboards for the Intel Core i7, Core i5, Core i3 users.

I read in a lot of reviews that Crysis will run at 32 FPS with 1090T, and it will run at 38 FPS with Intel Core i7

I wouldn't be surprised if I will be able to play Crysis at 60FPS with the 1090T, and at 76FPS with the 1090T

Anyway, from my personal experience with the AMD X6 1055T, the frames per second were really low, but once you overclocked it, the FPS increased dramatically

I was able to play Crysis, 1920x1080, at 52 FPS with the GTX 470, and the 1055T overclocked to 4000 Mhz

However, with Turbo disabled, my FPS dropped to around 10FPS-40FPS
Only when I enabled Turbo, the FPS went up

My conclusion is that the 1055T and 1090T are GREAT CHIPS for gamers ONLY IF you are a good overclocker

Without overclocking the game will run bad, maybe 20FPS-45FPS
with overclocking the game ran at 40FPS-52FPS

My dream computer will be this

1090T @ 4.4Ghz
MSI AM3 SLI
GTX 460 SLI
Ultra 1000 watt power supply

that will be a perfect machine for gaming, video editing, and windows in general

Last but not least, Intel 875K uses less wattage than the 1090T, that's another thing to consider (maybe 100 watt less in full load, but, it gives you 2 less cores)

 

[rafarataneneces]

there are currently no boards out right now that have all of the features you want on one board, i was looking for the same thing couple of weeks ago. the best you can do is but a crossfire board and try the SLI hack on it. are you trying to fold of are you actually trying to SLI? here is the link to the SLI hack

http://xdevs.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.30

Damn, I sold my Asus Crosshair IV Formula with the 1055T processor

Maybe an Asus Crosshair IV Formula with the 1090T and the SLI hack IS THE SOLTION

Anybody with experience with the SLI hack?

the SLI pretty much encrypts the communication, it's a proprietary standard

I remember the PhysX hack was a virus, I downloaded all of them

Only when I downloaded the BETA driver:
258.96_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_english.exe
I was able to use AMD for the graphic card and Nvidia for PhysX

So in other word, the hack never worked, but when Nvidia released that beta patch by accident, then it worked great

 

[rafarataneneces]

Good news guys

With the Asus IV Crosshair Formula you CAN RUN SLI!!!

AMD 890FX (ASUS Crosshair IV) + 2 x GeForce 8800GTS by Reagan

I downloaded the patch and it seems pretty simple, will NOT harm your computer

I checked with 42 antivirus, file by file, all came 100% clean

Great, now I just have to buy the Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard and the 1090T processor

In general terms, if I overclock the 1090T to 4.4Ghz, damn, with SLI, and soundblaster enabled, and 890GX, damn, that machine will look pretty damn good in a 60" TV

and for the OS, it will work great, Windows 7 does benefits from multiple cores

for Adobe Premiere CS5, damn, it will be the ***!

 

[belltollsforthee]

Well, i dont know about you, but i wouldn't trust a SLI hack, if nVidia drivers change to support a new game or something happens then BAM! im out of SLI. This really blows but i was hoping to run a

955BE
ASUS M4N98TD EVO AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI
460s SLI


I just need someone somewhere who can help find out if the nForce will:
A) support directx11
B) run SLI just as good as an intel mobo