NVIDIA’s got another homerun product on their hands with the nForce 680i chipset. While it’s an evolutionary progression from the nForce 590 SLI, NVIDIA has definitely delivered a revolutionary product with nForce 680i.
Not only did nForce 680i deliver better performance than Intel’s P965 and 975X chipsets in our gaming performance tests, memory testing with Everest indicates that that the tweaks NVIDIA has implemented in the nForce 680i’s memory controller is definitely an improvement over Intel’s chipset offerings as well.
What’s really got our attention though is the overclocking prowess NVIDIA has built into nForce 680i. Whereas NVIDIA’s previous Intel chipsets had a hard time breaking beyond 370MHz FSB, we hit bus speeds of 451MHz with our EVGA nForce 680i motherboard, and other online reports are just as robust – it clearly looks like NVIDIA has delivered on their claims of 1333MHz+ FSB speeds with the new chipset. And with 1200MHz SLI memory support also built-in to the chipset, the nForce 680i platform is clearly built to appease the performance crowd, nothing from Intel even comes close in comparison.
On top of that, you’ve also got features unique to NVIDIA such as teaming and FirstPacket. With FirstPacket, latency sensitive applications such as VoIP and online gaming will be put ahead in the queue, reducing, or completely eliminating any lag, and preventing dropped connections. Teaming and Failover double the available bandwidth of the network connection on the motherboard, while also providing redundancy, a spare connection that will keep the transfer going if one connection goes down (or if someone trips on a wire). MediaShield is the industry’s easiest way to setup and maintain multiple RAID configurations. NVIDIA also provides a PATA controller built in to the chipset, so motherboard manufacturers don’t have to provide an external storage controller to support DVD drives and IDE hard drives.
And of course, NVIDIA’s nForce SLI chipsets are the only game in town if you want to combine two graphics cards for SLI.
nForce 680i SLI motherboards won’t come cheap though. Right now EVGA’s nForce 680i SLI motherboard sells for about $250+ putting it in the same price range as many 975X Core 2 motherboards. If this is too much for you, NVIDIA and their board partners will be offering nForce 650i and 650i Ultra motherboards shortly. The nForce 650i SLI should replace the nForce 570 SLI chipset in the $150+ price range, with the Ultra selling for a little lower than that. We haven’t had a chance to test a motherboard based on either of these chipsets yet, but if the nForce 680i SLI is any indication, both of these chipsets should be excellent platforms for gamers and enthusiasts on a budget. We just hope motherboard manufacturers don’t water down their boards based on these chipsets too much. We’ll have to wait and see on that one though.
But for the high-end gamer or enthusiast who wants to build the fastest Core 2 system possible and has the budget to do so, it doesn’t get any better than nForce 680i SLI right now. NVIDIA’s got all the features (and then some) that you’d expect from a high-end chipset, and as we just saw with EVGA’s nForce 680i SLI motherboard, the chipset has the performance numbers and overclocking potential to best any other chipset that’s currently available on the market. NVIDIA really has outdone themselves with this one!
Batman: Arkham City PC Review Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s smash-hit action game Batman: Arkham Asylum. As the name suggests, you will be reprising your role as the Caped Crusader and going against an even larger 'prison' filled with Gotham's criminals and villains. A textbook example on how to do a proper sequel, Arkham City takes what worked in the original, excised or improved upon what didn’t, and elevated everything to an even greater scope. The PC version suffered from a few months of delay, but in that time, Rocksteady worked closely to NVIDIA to implement some familiar technologies from the last game, such as PhysX and 3D Vision, along with new DirectX 11 optimizations. But how well was the whole package executed? Read on to find out!
Saints Row: The Third PC Review Saints Row is one of most unique series of games to build upon the open-world action template forged by Grand Theft Auto, and has met with plenty of critical and commercial success since it began on consoles back in 2006. This latest iteration, titled Saints Row: The Third promises the most outlandish fun and freedom of customization of them all, and in a much more PC-friendly package than its predecessor. Does it live up to those expectations and, more importantly, is it worth the price of admission? Find out in Will's latest review!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Softworks’ latest offering in their series of epic fantasy RPGs, as well as one of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of 2011. As the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, prepare to take the fight to the mythical beasts that have returned to the realm after centuries of slumber, all the while exploring a huge and highly-detailed open world.
The PC version of the game promises enhanced graphical fidelity, standard RPG trimmings such as hotkeys and quick-save, as well as unbridled mod support, something we’ll all be thankful for once they release that SDK. Skyrim has already sold millions of copies and set records for play-time on Steam... Find out why in today's review, which happens to be one of the biggest and most in-depth articles on the subject out there!
L.A. Noire Complete Edition PC Review L.A. Noire, as the name clearly states, is a video game built on the tropes of one of the greatest periods of American cinema: film noir. Developed by the now defunct Australian developer Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this title has been out on consoles for a full six months before finally making its way to the PC. This “Complete Edition” of the game features improved graphics, keyboard/mouse controls, and every bit of previously-released DLC for free. But was it truly worth the wait? Read on and find out!
Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E Performance Review
Today marks the launch date for Intel’s Sandy Bridge-E line of processors, a new family of high-end Core i7 products based on the LGA 2011 platform. This new socket is poised to replace the existing LGA 1366 specification used by the more powerful Nehalem and Westmere parts from the past couple years, specifically Bloomfield and Gulftown, the Core i7-9xx+ line of CPUs.
With 6 cores, 15MB of cache, and support for quad-channel DDR3-1600 memory, the Core i7-3960X sounds like quite a catch. Want to know more about it and how it performs? Read on!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 Review
The self-appointed "most anticipated game in history" launched worldwide this past Tuesday. Why, it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, of course (of course), what else? Unsurprisingly, the military FPS debate between this and Battlefield 3 rages on, but now that both have been released, surely we can take a look and objectively evaluate them both? Luke's taken the Xbox version of MW3 for a spin this week, so to find out what he thinks of it in today's review!
Stronghold 3 Review
The latest sequel in the long-running real-time strategy franchise from FireFly Studios, Stronghold 3 is all about building your dream castle and defending it against sieging enemies. Almost exactly one decade after the first game was released, this new title promises a return to the classic and well-received gameplay that has been strayed so far from in more recent iterations. Does it live up to those expectations? Will (AKA Synchronous Failure) tells us all about it in his first official FiringSquad review, so read on!
Battlefield 3 PC Review - Single-player Impressions
One of the most highly-anticipated PC games of the year is upon us; Battlefield 3 is now available in North America! EA/DICE have finally delivered a sequel to the core Battlefield franchise, a proper follow-up to BF2. Having played through the game's single-player campaign already, ahead of the multiplayer festivities kicking off around midnight, I figured I'd share my impressions ASAP. Is it really a worthy addition to the core Battlefield series, or just another bullet point on the back of the box? Read on and find out!
Wrecked: Revenge Revisited Supersonic Software Interview
Following up on our hands-on preview from earlier this month, here's an interview with Supersonic Software, creators of Wrecked: Revenge Revisited. The game's coming out on XBLA and PSN in a matter of weeks, but for now, Luke chats with the developer about its predecessors Mashed and Micro Machines, how difficult it can be to get an indie game published, the closure of Codemasters' Guildford branch, and more!
Orcs Must Die! PC Review Orcs Must Die! is the first release from an independent developer named Robot Entertainment. Fans of classic real-time strategy games may have heard that name before, as the outfit is comprised of many veterans from Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires series.
Equal parts action and strategy, this is a tower defense game that not only puts you in command, but on the front lines of combat, as well. Slaughter thousands of orcs, ogres and other vile creatures of fantasy that invade your fortresses through 24 levels of the story-based campaign. With high levels of replayability thanks to its scoring and leaderboard functionality, multiple difficulty levels, and various styles of play, it sounds a steal at only $15. Does it deliver on all that’s promised, though? Read on and find out!
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