NFORCE 780a SLI Motherboard Comparison
BIOS and Overclocking
CPU Reference Clock | 150 - 500 MHz (1 MHz) |
Clock Multiplier Adjustment | Yes |
DRAM Ratio | All CPU On-Die Memory Controller Ratios |
PCIe Clock | 75 - 200MHz (1 MHz) |
HT Link Multiplier | 1x - 9x CPU Reference Clock |
CPU Vcore | 0.0000 - 1.5625 Volts (0.0125 Volts) |
MCT Voltage | 0.0000 - 1.5625 Volts (0.0125 Volts) |
HT Link Voltage | 1.20 - 1.35 Volts (0.05 Volts)* |
PCI-E Voltage | 1.20 - 1.35 Volts (0.05 Volts) |
nForce 780a SLI MCP Voltage | 1.10 - 1.25 Volts (0.05 Volts) |
DRAM Voltage | 1.80 - 2.20 - 2.70 Volts (0.05, 0.10 Volts) |
CAS Latency Range | tCAS: 3-7; tRCD: 3-6; tRP: 3-6; tRAS: 5-18 |
ASRock provides a unique range of processor voltage adjustments, perfect for underclocking as well as overclocking. Similarly, the HT clock can also be lowered or raised. While the highest processor voltage of 1.5625 volts will appear slightly limiting to the most enthusiastic overclockers, the HT clock limit of 500 MHz is well beyond the capabilities of the chipset or any AMD processor.
The highest HT clock we could reach was 253 MHz, even with HT multipliers as low as 5x, but the limit of CPU stability was a still-respectable 2934MHz at 1.45V.
The CPU Configuration menu takes up around two screens and offers all the standard overclocking adjustments experienced builders are most often familiar with.
Memory timings are found on the lower half of the CPU Configuration page, probably because the memory controller is on the CPU. The “Northbridge” voltage seen at the top of the page refers to the processor’s on-die memory controller, rather than the nForce 780a SLI.
The “Chipset” menu refers to the actual nForce 780a SLI chipset.
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a 6pack in so after reading all this.. i think im stickin with my 790FX. i was waiting for a quite a while for nvidia to pull something here with the 780a chipset. In my eyes its a fail.Reply
AMD's 790FX chipset provides significantly more lanes than nvidia. 3-way SLI is a novel idea but at x8 lanes for 3 slots.. not so much. while amd is providing full x16 support.
good info tho. if anything i would recommend the ASRock board also for nvidia's SLI path. -
johnbilicki I wan to see boards with two 16x slots and one 4x slot. Honestly I'm not interested in 100+ FPS at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 which is what you'll get in most games with triple SLI. The MSI board looks like they could have fit a couple more USB ports next to the useless firewire port. It's 2008 and I have yet to even see a product require a firewire port on products I'm only browsing on sales sites like Newegg or even just review sites. I liked Gigabyte's new quad gigabit port motherboard, finally 8 USB ports on the back! Also if no one shows up with a router at your LAN party three of your buddies can merely connect to your system any way (and who doesn't have dual LAN ports these days besides your cheap who cheaps out by five bucks on a north bridge).Reply
What is with the waste of brackets? Give us four USB ports on a bracket. If you upgrade even only once every four or five years you probably still have about five or six brackets laying around somewhere with all the firewire ports you could ever want...and if not your buddies do.
The dual-slot coolers on single slot cards, what a waste! If you're going to use a second slot don't waste the opportunity to move that hot air the heck out of the case!
My last criticism is the i-ram...DDR-1?! I love Gigabyte when it actually bothers to make boards using chipsets I'd want (they skipped the true 16X SLI and jumped on the then useless AM2 bandwagon however). So why aren't we seeing DDR2 RAM-drives? 4x4GB/32GB would be far out of most people's budgets but a 4x2GB/16GB RAM drive at $40/$160 dimm/total would *own* a raptor raid 0 any day in price/performance.
The manufacturers need to seriously start bringing some people in to the design rooms to question WTF they're thinking with their product designs because I see no reason to bother spending any money right now.
...and to clarify I enjoyed the article itself, it's just the products I hold disappointment in. The new chipset is great overall though. -
nukemaster DDR is still faster then any hard drive interface anyway(DDR 266 @ 2128MB/s), so why not? its actually limited by its sata 150 interface not the ram(it would also max sata 300).Reply
I agree DDR2 is the way to go, but only because the price is much lower and better capacities. When gigabyte designed the I-ram ddr was cheaper and ddr2 was new and expensive.
I think there is a DDR2 I-ram in the making -
I own an evga 780i and I am plagued with the video corruption problem like many other nvidia 7 series owners. BEWARE before you invest on these boards. Nvidia hasn't released a fix in 3 months. Many people can't watch video or play games without encountering a hard lock-up.Reply
Video of problem: http: //www. youtube. com/watch?v=TYHuzJSpORw
http: //www.evga. com/forums/tm.asp?m=253891&mpage=1&key=
http: //nvidia.custhelp. com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2190
http: //vip.asus. com/forum/view.aspx?id=20080407161030625&board_id=1&model=Striker+II+Formula&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
http: //forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2178960&FTVAR_STKEYWORDFRM=&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear
http: //digg. com/hardware/780i_nvidia_motherboard_graphics_corruption -
jabliese No comparison of just the integrated graphics? One of the selling points for the 790 is it's DX10 support, would like to see some kind of comparison between just the integrated graphics, say, maybe on HDTV playback.Reply -
unifiedonboarddecoder They should also do the test using an ATi video card. I would like to see those benchmarks as well.Reply