| Nvidia has been really busy the last year and a half. Up until about four years ago, Nvidia was simply known for its GPUs, taking the 3D market by storm, not only managing to defeat 3Dfx as the top contender for the graphics accelerator market, but also staying steps ahead of companies like ATI and S3.
Now we come to the battle between AMD and Intel during the Athlon Socket A era. Intel had finally dropped the ball when it came to the CPU race. Sure some of AMD's past CPUs were questionable, but nothing was available on the market to really challenge those Thoroughbred CPUs, Athlon XP was what really gave Intel a giant scare, and Nvidia took notice of this. nForce 2 chipsets came out only supporting AMD processors, not a single Intel based Nvidia chipset was available.
It was not until nForce 4 made it to market that we saw any Intel based Nvidia chips, and even this was not really pushed hard. Whether there was internal pressure from Intel on Nvidia for a chipset for the Pentium 4 series or Nvidia wanted to get SLI graphics cards into the P4 market is not clear, but nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition did not last long. In fact there were only two versions, twin x8 slots or twin x16 slots while nForce 4 for AMD also had budget versions and integrated graphics versions, none of these were available for Intel.
Nvidia also only released one chipset in its nForce 500 series for Intel, however, since it was based on the older, poorly overclocking nForce 4 SPP northbridge, Nvidia quickly dumped 500 series for Intel, which gave birth to nForce 600i series chipsets. Today there are four chipsets in the 600i series, 680i SLI, 680i LT SLI, 650i SLI and 650i Ultra in order from high-end to value.
nForce 680i SLI while offering the best features and performance also costs an arm and a leg for just the board, leaving little in the budget for a high-end CPU. Nvidia has however come to the rescue with a slightly cut down version of the 680i SLI, the LT SLI series.
Today we are testing out XFX's offering of the 680i LT SLI chipset. Can a manufacturer of graphics cards cut it in the motherboard world? Let us see how it compares to a similar board from the likes of DFI.
Specifications of the XFX 680i LT
CPU
Supports Intel Core 2 Duo, Quad and Extreme Series CPU
Supports Intel Pentium D 800 - 900 Series CPU
Supports Intel Pentium 4 500 - 600 series CPU
Supports Intel Celeron D 300 - 400 Series CPU
Does not support Pentium Extreme 800 - 900 Series CPU
Chipset
Nvidia nForce 680i LT SLI
Nvidia 680i LT SLI (C55SPP) northbridge
Nvidia MCP55P (C55MCP) southbridge
System Memory
4 DDR2 SDRAM 240-pin DIMM Sockets
Supports DDR2-533/667/800MHz
64/128-bit dual-channel
Supports up to 8GB total memory (4x 2GB)
Bus Frequency
100/133/200/266/333MHz Internal
400/533/800/1066/1333MHz External
Expansion Slots
2 PCI Express x16
2 PCI Express x1
2 PCI
Connectivity
1 Parallel ATA port supporting 2 IDE Drives
6 Serial ATA ports
1 Gigabit Ethernet Port
Expansion Ports
1 PS2 keyboard port
1 PS2 mouse port
8 USB 2.0 ports (4 rear accessible, 4 via expansion bracket)
6 Stereo audio ports
2 Firewire ports (1 rear accessible, 1 via expansion bracket)
1 S/PDIF audio port (TOSLINK)
Package and Contents
For a motherboard based in the more mid- to high-end market, XFX has used a very large box for what actually comes inside. A lot of cardboard has been used in the packaging for shipping purposes so no damage can happen in transit. Well that is the theory behind it, in all a smaller box would be OK to cut down on costs here. The front of the XFX box is pretty bare with just the model and company logos.
On the back of the packaging XFX has gone the full hog and decked it out with quite a lot of info on the board's features as well as a large colour photo of the board itself. We are particularly fond of companies displaying photos of the boards they sell now, as it does eliminate a lot of confusion; if you are after a stylish board you know what you are getting and not a mystery prize as in the past.
XFX has not skimped on documents for the board or on its software. There are a total of two manuals; the black one is a quick install manual that gives you info on the headers as well as the front panel orientation. The white and green user manual gives full detailed descriptions as well as BIOS setup help. The software CD contains Windows XP, XP64 and Vista drivers so you are all set for whatever OS you want to run.
The cables and accessories supplied are reasonable, out of the six onboard SATA ports the board boasts, you only get four data cables and two SATA Y-splitters. That gives you out of the box support for four drives. Want more? You are going to have to beg, borrow, or steal (or buy) extra cables. There are single rounded and sleeved IDE and FDD cables for those drives.
As part of the reference design you get two PCI cover brackets. One contains a four port USB setup and the second gives you an extra Firewire port. If your case has a Firewire front port you can wire it up to the onboard header and eliminate one of the extra covers. A double spaced SLI PCB bridge is included so you can setup SLI if you so desire, and an ATX rear I/O cover is supplied for installing the board into any standard ATX case.
Motherboard
XFX's 680i LT SLI board is based directly around Nvidia's reference design earning it the Designed by Nvidia approval stickers. The board is a full 30x24cm ATX layout on a green PCB. Reference designs in the past have not been the cleanest layouts available; however, Nvidia really put its time into this design. The 24-pin power, IDE and FDD ports are all located behind the four memory slots on the right-hand side of the board. The 8-pin power connector gets placed just behind the PS/2 ports on the board away from the CPU. XFX has not changed anything on the reference design, so it gets big points for keeping a clean layout for its first board.
Because XFX has gone full reference specs, you get the recommended six phase voltage regulation system that is cooled by passive heatsinks. The SPP and MCP both have active heatsink and fan coolers to keep them running at top efficiency, especially if you plan to overclock.
Even the rear I/O ports are set up as in the reference design layout from Nvidia; there are no more and no less ports than specified. We would like to have seen a bit more initiative from XFX to add a Silicon Image 3132 SATA controller and have these ports routed to a couple of eSATA ports, but it has decided reference all the way.
Being based on the nForce 680i LT SLI chipset, you get the same benefits of full speed SLI that the more expensive nForce 680i SLI boasts, you simply do not get the third PCI Express x16 slot for physics. Nvidia has taken this feature out of the MCP along with one of the two Gigabit LAN controllers. Both PCI Express x16 slots run at full x16 speeds all the time, so you can run Quad SLI on this board. You can see that the PCB used is the same one as the 680i SLI boards, as there are solder points for the extra PCI Express x16 slot on the board; it is just missing. Rounding up the last of the expansion slots are two PCI Express x1 and two PCI legacy slots. The LAN subsystem id provided by the MCP's integrated Gigabit LAN controller, the only additional feature is a Texas Instruments PCI based Firewire chip.
BIOS
When the nForce 600 series chips were designed, Nvidia not only made a great reference board, but even the BIOS too. Nvidia has dubbed it NV BIOS and if you want to use Designed by Nvidia branding you need to use the NV BIOS settings, which, of course, XFX has done. Award 6.0 modular BIOS is used with the Overclocking submenus located under the Advanced Chipset Features Menu.
Frequencies
FSB Clock (QDR): 400MHz to 2500Mhz in 1MHz increments
Mem Clock (DDR): 400MHz to 1400MHz in 1MHz increments
PCIe x16_1: 100MHz to 200MHz in 1MHz increments
PCIe x16_2: 100MHz to 200MHz in 1MHz increments
SPP <-> MCP: 200MHz to 500MHz in 1MHz increments
Voltages
CPU Core: 0.90v to 1.60v in 0.025v increments
CPU FSB: 1.2v to 1.5v in 0,05v increments
Mem: 1.8v to 2.5v in 0.1v increments
nForce SPP: 1.2v to 1.5v in 0.5v increments
Overclocking
As with our DFI board, we did not get the same speeds out of the 680i LT SLI as we did out of the 680i SLI as it is a more cut down version.
We managed to get 2MHz lower FSB with the XFX compared to the DFI, toping out at 485MHz FSB with the RAM running at 1:1 ratio. Lowering the RAM ratio did nothing to increase overclocking so we left it at 1:1 for tests for best memory performance.
Important Editor Note: Our maximum overclocking result is the best result we managed in our limited time testing the motherboard. Due to time constraints we don't have enough time to tweak the motherboard to the maximum and find the highest possible FSB as this could take days to properly find. We do however spend at least a few hours overclocking every motherboard to try and find the highest possible overclock in that time frame. You may or may not be able to overclock higher if you spend more time tweaking or as new BIOS updates are released or "burn in" time might come into play if you believe in that.
Test System Setup
Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (Supplied by Intel)
Memory: 2x 1GB DDR2-1066 Corsair at 1:1(Supplied by Corsair)
Hard Disk: 500GB Seagate 7200.9 SATA (Supplied by Seagate)
Graphics Card: MSI Radeon X1950 Pro (Supplied by MSI)
Cooling: Gigabyte Neon775 (Supplied by Gigabyte)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
Drivers: Nvidia nForce Platform Driver 9.53, ATI Catalyst 7.3 and DX9c
Today's test systems consist of our previously reviewed DFI 680i LT SLI motherboard. As normal we run the same suite of benchmarks such as Everest, PCMark, Worldbench, Adobe Premiere Elements, 3DMark06, Prey, Far Cry and HD Tach.
Tests were completed at stock speeds of 266MHz x 11 with a memory ratio of 1:1. Overclocking reached 485MHz x 7 for 3395MHz on the XFX while the DFI ran 487MHz x 7 for a slightly higher 3409MHz. We will be running a single graphics card configuration.
Let us get this show on the road and see what we have here!
Everest Ultimate Edition
Version and / or Patch Used: 2006
Developer Homepage: http://www.lavalys.com
Product Homepage: http://www.lavalys.com
Everest Ultimate Edition is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning Everest Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems.
Everest shows both boards have almost identical memory scores at overclocked. Stock speeds are also dead even.
PCMark
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.2.0
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/pcmark04/
PCMark05 is a multipurpose benchmark, suited for benchmarking all kinds of PCs, from laptops to workstations, as well as across multiple Windows operating systems. This easy-to-use benchmark makes professional strength benchmarking software available even to novice users. PCMark05 consists of a series of tests that represent common tasks in home and office programs. PCMark05 also covers many additional areas outside the scope of other MadOnion.com benchmarks.
PCMark puts the two boards dead on each other again.
WorldBench
Version and / or Patch Used: 5.0
Developer Homepage: http://www.pcworld.com
Product Homepage: http://www.pcworld.com
WorldBench 5.0 is the fifth generation of PC World's industry-standard benchmarking application. Designed to measure the performance of today's wide range of personal computers, WorldBench has been in continuous use at PC World for nine years.
WorldBench 5.0 uses the following applications to gauge system performance: ACD Systems ACDSee PowerPack 5.0, Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1, Adobe Premiere 6.5, Ahead Software Nero Express 6.0.0.3, Discreet 3ds max 5.1 (DirectX), Discreet 3ds max 5.1 (OpenGL), Microsoft Office XP with SP-2, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9.0, Mozilla 1.4, Musicmatch Jukebox 7.10, Roxio VideoWave Movie Creator 1.5 and WinZip Computing WinZip 8.1.
Worldbench, like PCMark gives us identical scores.
Adobe Premiere Elements
Version and / or Patch Used: 2.0
Developer Homepage: http://www.adobe.com
Product Homepage: http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/
Our test with Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 is performed with a raw two hour AVI file. It is then compressed into DivX format using the latest version codec. We measure the time it takes to encode, and then record CPU usage.
DFI gains a slight lead but only by a few seconds in the encode stage when at the overclocked level.
HD Tach
Version and / or Patch Used: 3.0.1.0
Developer Homepage: http://www.simplisoftware.com
Product Homepage: http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach
HD Tach has been around for a long time and is excellent when it comes to testing hard drive performance. It is also a very handy program when it comes to testing the controller used on particular motherboards. Tests such as read, CPU utilization and burst are available at a click of the button and give you a good idea of how the hard drive can perform from system to system.
HDD scores are identical due to the same SATA controller and HDD used on both platforms.
3DMark06
Version and / or Patch Used: Build 110
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/
3DMark06 is the very latest version of the "Gamers Benchmark" from FutureMark. The newest version of 3DMark expands on the tests in 3DMark05 by adding graphical effects using Shader Model 3.0 and HDR (High Dynamic Range lighting) which will push even the best DX9 graphics cards to the extremes.
3DMark06 also focuses on not just the GPU but the CPU using the Ageia PhysX software physics library to effectively test single and dual-core processors.
3DMark06 puts the DFI, only just, in front.
Prey
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.2
Timedemo or Level Used: HardwareOC Custom Timedemo
Developer Homepage: http://www.humanhead.com
Product Homepage: http://www.prey.com
Prey is one of the newest games to be added to our benchmark lineup. It is based off the Doom 3 engine and offers stunning graphics passing what we have seen in Quake 4 and does put quite a lot of strain on our test systems.
Prey is limited by the graphics card but you can see there is no advantage to either board here.
Far Cry
Version and / or Patch Used: 1.3
Timedemo or Level Used: Benchemall Default Demo
Developer Homepage: http://www.crytek.com
Product Homepage: http://www.farcrygame.com
While Far Cry is now one of our older benchmarking games, it is still able to put pressure on most computers systems as it is able to utilize all parts of the system. Utilizing PS2.0 technology with the latest versions supporting Shader Model 3.0 with DX9c and offering an exceptional visual experience, there is no denying that even some of the faster graphics cards get a bit of a workout.
Our final tests show the two boards dead on. Even with the slight overclock to the DFI there is no real gain.
Final Thoughts
Nvidia's 680i LT SLI chipset certainly has a good place in the chipset market due to its price point. When 680i SLI was announced the price was not set. Boards over $500 AUD are now starting to show up and even higher price points have been seen. Due to Nvidia's pricing strategy, the only way to avoid it was the cheaper 650i SLI which splits the PCI Express x16 slots into two x8 slots when running SLI. This is something we would rather not do, especially since it means you cannot run Quad SLI on the 650i.
680i LT SLI mixes the sweetness of twin full speed SLI with a sub US$200 price point for the boards, and what a relief that is. Now you can save money on a board with twin x16 slots and get a good processor, and if you want to, spend some hard earned bread on a Quad SLI setup if that is what floats your boat.
XFX has done a good job with its board in that the board represents what Nvidia wants from its partners, but that is all. The board is too plain reference; there is no character to distinguish it from the other reference boards. In fact, if you did not see the box, you would simply think its Nvidia's reference board straight off the factory production line.
Performance of the board was on par, as was overclocking. The 680i LT SLI is not designed to match the speed of the 680i SLI, so if you want FSBs in excess of 500MHz you are simply going to have to bite the bullet and get a 680i SLI.
In terms of performance we cannot fault the XFX board, but when you compare the whole package to what you get from the DFI offering in comes up looking anaemic. Overall the XFX has come up with just another reference design - a cake without the cherry.
- Pros
Clean layout
NV BIOS
Eight channel HD audio
Twin full Speed X16 slots
Supports 1333FSB CPUs
Firewire
- Cons
Plain Reference design
No eSATA ports
Rating - 8 out of 10
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XFX 680i LT SLI Review - Can a graphics card builder make a good motherboard?
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