Nvidia 780a Chipset Preview
Introduction
Published: 9th May 2008 | Source: Nvidia | Price: N/A |
Introduction
Nvidia have just released the 780a chipset for AMD users and OC3D have been lucky enough to grab a board so we can take a better look at the latest and greatest from Nvidia. The board itself is an Asus Crosshair II which will have a full review of its own in the very near future and I will be referencing the board throughout but for now I want to give you a full run-down of the new chipset, its features and what new goodies it brings to the table.
Nvidia are no strangers to battling the CPU giants for chipset superiority, they have been waging war for years now and have been fighting battles on both fronts against Intel and AMD providing a worthy alternative. In the good old days, the nForce4 chipset even reigned supreme during AMD's heyday as it was an overclockers wet dream. Gamers were also supplied with the ability to SLI their high end GPU's and thus the 'Ultra gaming platform' was born. Nvidia were in pole position but somewhere along the line they lost the path of righteousness and thus nForce 5 and more recently nForce 6 were a very hit and miss affair, very akin to Marmite - you either loved it or you hated it. With nForce 7, Nvidia hope to turn back the clock and re-live a time when they were the teacher’s pet and shake off the 'unreliable', 'incompatible' shackles that have plagued the last two chipsets and are also keen to point out the 780a is a very different beast to the 780i, its Intel compatible sibling.
The 780a chipset is clearly aimed at the high end AMD enthusiast and have deployed every marketing strategy in their repertoire, hoping to lure users away from the AMD flagship 790FX based motherboards which is its main target. Obviously the most prominent attraction to the 780a is the ability to run 'TRI SLI' but looking beneath the skin of this new beast there is much more than that to distinguish the new chipset from any other.
Most Recent Comments
Some of the chipsets with onboard GPU's out now are really worth looking at when you consider HTPC's
Full HD output ftw tbh
.I was socked about the onboard VGA actually being able to run games let alone be playable.
Looks like a nice board.
.Tis a very nice board, I just wish we could have exploited it more....but that comes later
. i shall give it a full read when i return homegood to see asus havent abandoned AMD, and neither has Nvidia, back in the day they made some good boards, like mine, the A8N sli-premium
Asus board
Nforce 4 chipset
AMD processor
tis the shizz
good to see we're building back upto that
amd processors were never really good overclockers anyway, you were lucky if you got 500MHz out of your athlon 64 series....
I do hope AMD can get back inline with Intel as the support is evidently still there for enthusiasts with chipsets/motherboards like this.
You going to be doing more reviews webbo?
|
Originally Posted by name='teknokid'
yeah, tis looking good
You going to be doing more reviews webbo? |
:whack::banng:
:haha:Did you get my pm kemp?
|
Originally Posted by name='ionicle'
nice
good to see asus havent abandoned AMD, and neither has Nvidia, back in the day they made some good boards, like mine, the A8N sli-premium |
This new 780a chip looks packed with features, great (pre)review. The layout of the asus board looks spot on aswell.
1. The Price!
2. Current AMD processors.
Why pay £140+ for a motherboard that uses current AMD processors? When you could spend £140+ on an X48 board and get an Intel processor that is better than current AMDs. Who would buy a £140+ motherboard just for the onboard graphics and hybrid SLI when they would be combined with an AMD processor?
Spot on, cept DFI Lanparty SLI-DR, X2, 3gig DDR500Asus board
Nforce 4 chipset
AMD processor
tis the shizz
Im glad there will be another reiview on this board though. To really put it through its paces you need to test the tri-SLI capability, Quad-SLI, and have a Phenom 9850X4 BE. Also testing hybrid SLI to see how well that works and to see if there really is a dip in performance with it enabled.
For a (not so) little preview i thought this was great. Keep up the good work! And sorry ima bit late. This is the board im looking at getting in the near future so i wanna see the OC3D seal of approval before i decide on heading to Intel. (Which is going to be exspensive for me, QX9650, DDR3, 790i, ect)
CSS Valid
Review HERE