When we think about what is perhaps the one draw-back that enthusiasts and gamers could point to with respect to an Intel chipset-based motherboard, historically, it was lack of NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU support. Though you could drop more than one AMD ATI Radeon-based graphics card into a P45, X38 or X48-chipset based motherboard, for the most part, SLI was a no-go, save perhaps for a few custom OEM solutions. This wasn’t too much of a problem for gaming purists that wanted in on NVIDIA powered multi-GPU action, since there was always the most recent revision of the nForce chipset in support of Intel’s platform architecture; that is of course until the launch of Intel’s Core i7 platform.
Intel’s fledgling new desktop platform offers several new architectural advancements, in addition to native support for NVIDAI SLI technology. Though motherboard manufacturers like Asus need to have their board “certified” and enable SLI via hooks in their BIOS firmware, you can in fact now have your cake and eat it too, so to speak. Curiously, we have yet to hear from NVIDIA regarding an upcoming nForce motherboard chipset platform in support of Core i7 and from the sound of the recent banter between the two companies, we probably never will. Though, in this industry, never is a very long time. It will be interesting to see how the landscape shakes out for all parties involved.
- Introduction and Specifications
- A Closer Look
- BIOS and Overclocking
- Test System and SANDRA Testing
- Futuremark PCMark Vantage Testing
- Cinebench Rendering and Lame Encoding Tests
- 3DMark06 CPU and 3DMark Vantage CPU
- Low Resolution Gaming Test - Crysis
- High Res Gaming Testing, 3-way SLI with Far Cry 2
- High Res Gaming Testing, 3-way SLI with ET: Quake Wars
- Performance Summary and Final Thoughts
0 comments:
Post a Comment