NVIDIA Launches 780i Enthusiast Chipset

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
From our front-page news:
NVIDIA has released their highly anticipated 780i chipset and both Tech Report and AnandTech have a look at what's new. Surprisingly, "new" is the wrong word to use, since not much is new at all. The 780i chipset is essentially identical to the previous generation 680i. The primary difference is the nForce 200 chip that adds PCI-E 2.0 support and also enables 3-way SLI.

Performance-wise, not much has changed. The 3-Way SLI can make rather sizable differences of course, but that's primarily for those who wish to run really high resolutions, such as 2560x1600. If Penryn and SLI are in your plans, then the 780i is -the- chipset you will want to go after, even if you plan to stick with a single GPU. The mid-range chipset, 750i, will be released in January, however, and might appeal more towards enthusiasts with mid-range rigs.

We will have a review of the ASUS P5N-T 780i board in the coming week.

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I can't help but think it fitting that Nvidia is launching the 780i SLI during a time of year when bands release greatest hits albums to capitalize on the holiday sales rush. In many ways, the 780i feels like Nvidia's greatest core logic hits; you have some old tracks, represented by the 570 SLI MCP, paired with a remixed north bridge and one new song, the nForce 200.

Source: Tech Report
 

andreich94

Obliviot
780i Chipset

Hello Rob, hello everybody! I wish buy a new computer now, but i don't know what is good to chose between 680i and 780i chipset. I saw some reviews on the net, and the difference between chipset is 1%. 680i - 2x8800gtx in SLI and the 780i - 3x8800gtx in 3-Way SLi mode: -> difference 1%:(. The chipset 680i is old, but i preffer the 780i because 3-WAY SLI is for gamers and is PCI Express 2.0 compatible, and the 680i is not. If you can help me, do it please:)
Sorry for my bad english:(, and happy holidays to everyone!
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
The "ultimate" solution would be the 780i thanks to good SLI 3-way support, but as has been seen, even 680i can handle that with a BIOS update. I think you should go for whatever fits the budget. I am not sure what 780i boards are retailing for right now, but if they are high, it might make more sense to stick with the eVGA 680i board. The fact that 780i offers support for PCI-Express 2.0 doesn't mean much since the video cards are not utilizing that yet.

So to future-proof, 780i might be the better choice. But if you have no intentions of upgrading within the next few years, a 680i board with nice SLI GPUs will treat you well.
 

andreich94

Obliviot
Ok, thank you Rob! Can you tell me what processor to choose between Intel Quad Core Q6600 and Core2Duo E6850...i preffer the q6600 because it has 4 cores and the e6850 has just 2 cores but it has fsb 1333mhz and 3ghz. I need some professional help to build a good gaming rig. Can you recomend a processor,video card and other components for gaming ? I have a max. budget of 1700$. Thank you again!
 

MakubeX

Partition Master
Well, I'm on EVGA's queue for the 680i -> 780i upgrade offer. I hope it doesn't disappoint.
 
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