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ASRock Z68 PROFESSIONAL GEN3 vs ASRock Extreme 7 Gen 3

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I'm going to be doing two way SLI with EVGA 570's, which of these two motherboards are better for that?

I like this one http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Fatal1ty%20... because it has one more PCI 3.0 Slot, and is Ivy Bridge future proofed, also it's cheaper.

I like this one http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68%20Extre...
because it is Ivy Bridge future proofed, has a lot of good features and is well received.

I don't like this board because of the lacking extra slot. It has NF200 but I really don't get what that would do for me or my build. NF200 is for VGA monitors? I'm going to be using HD or DVI. Will it run my video cards at 16x16 over the other board?

If I'm planning on getting these two EVGA cards or one 700 dollar video card, which would be better for either option?

If I'm planning on getting three crossfire cards (MSI's look great), which of these mobos is better?

Please remember that I'm planning on buying an Ivy Bridge processor and probably not going to upgrade the video cards for a while.

The only difference I can see between these two boards is one has less 3.0 slots and one has the NF200 chip.

I need some expert advice!

More about : asrock z68 professional gen3 asrock extreme gen

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Motherboard Master

First off, do not place PCIe 3.0 as the deciding point, because it will do absolutely nothing for you.

PCIe 3.0 x8 = PCIe 2.0 x16

A GTX590 (currently the most powerful card made, actually made of 2 processors) doesn't even full saturate a PCIe 2.0 x8 bus.

It is going to be a *very* long time before a 2.0 x16 bus is even close to saturated.

The difference between 2.0 and 3.0 is going to be mostly seen in storage devices that connect using the PCIe bus.

Again, you ask "Will it run my video cards at 16x16"

your cards won't even get close to saturating x8, x8 so it really shouldn't make or break the decision.

As the guy above me said the NF200 will help with micro stuttering, which will occur when you SLI cards I would go with the Extreme 7.

I just realized I have no need for a z68 board with discrete video cards. The z68 literally offers me nothing other than some bonus features I will never need.

This is where it's at - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
ASROCK P67 Extreme 4 Gen 3 , it has the gen 3 features I like and I don't need anything the z68 offers. The p67's also overclock better.

Dani - I really liked your post, can you offer me more advice as far as video cards with the mobo I just linked? Are you saying I shouldn't get one large card for three screen gaming because of saturation?

I can put down two way or even three way SLI on that board but if the difference in performance is moot I'd rather not waste the cash!

I really appreciate you guys posting in this thread. I want to understand the features of these boards and I can only get so much out of google.
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Motherboard Master

For Massive resolution gaming (5760 x1080 [3 x 1920x1080]) the biggest item you are going to want to look at is large VRAM since the amount of data held per frame is 3 times as big as for a standard render at 1920x1080.

Yes, you are going to need a fast card, but a large card is necessary, maybe even more so or else you are going to run into memory bottlenecks, and those are no fun.


Maybe a couple of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

will actually perform better than a 590 1342 processors vs 1024, 4GB vs 3GB, 700 MHz vs 630MHz

If you absolutely want the best

i would get 1 of these, wait a bit and get a second
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


and if you want every person on here drooling get one of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


Basically everything I was saying about saturating bus's was to point out that PCIe 3.0 should not be a deciding factor. All the x8 vs x16's aside, you are going to notice no difference on a single x16 or 2 x16 or 2 x8.

I really like EVGA and I wanted to go with them more than anything. What is you're opinion on the AMD solution for Eyefinity with that p67 motherboard?

Everything I read says that AMD has better options for a three monitor setup.

The 580's you linked would give me a QUAD SLI setup if I'm not mistaken?
Why not go with two 580's (the non 3gig ram ones) for double SLI? Is your suggestion based on that need for a lot of vram?

I'd really be interested in what you think about running two of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

vs two of these

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Cooling would be an issue since I'm not going to go liquid cooling off the bat (as of yet).
Motherboard Master

Well, the first link is a MB, so I would say the 2 6950's would perform better ;) 

I think you are asking would 4 1.5GB 580's be better than 2 3GB 580's? I would go with 2 3GB

ATI vs nVidia is always a huge can of worms....

ATI does produce more powerful cards, that is obvious by looking at the amount of processors, as well as the speed of the cards, but nVidia seems to run better due to their better drivers. But, AMD's eye-infinity is a really good multi monitor system
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