X38 vs. nForce

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Philm08

New Member
I'm building a new desktop, and I was wondering about some motherboard issues. First of all, I heard only nVidia boards run SLI, which I am considering in the future. If I were to go with an X38 (Intel chipset), would running a 9800 GX2 (which uses 2 GPUs together on 1 card) be an issue because it is basically SLI? (Shaky on those details). Second, how good are the overclocking capabilities on the nForce motherboards? I've heard the X38 is extremely good for overclocking, and I'm planning on E8500 cores, hopefully getting from 3.16 GHz to at least 4.0GHz. Which board would be a better option? Thanks for your opinions :-).

Edit: Grammar.
 
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If you get an X38 chipset the only option for dual GPU's would be the 9800GX2 or the 3870X2 (9800GX2 is better). But I hear the new GTX 200/280 is going to be a blast so I'd wait for that and just get a cheap videocard.

For OC'ing also the X38 would be better. Though I am sure 680i's will get up to 4Ghz and perhaps some 750i's and 780i's/790i's as well.
 
Timo said:
If you get an X38 chipset the only option for dual GPU's would be the 9800GX2 or the 3870X2 (9800GX2 is better). But I hear the new GTX 200/280 is going to be a blast so I'd wait for that and just get a cheap videocard.

For OC'ing also the X38 would be better. Though I am sure 680i's will get up to 4Ghz and perhaps some 750i's and 780i's/790i's as well.
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do you have a link or a review saying the x38 overclocks better? im not disagreeing, ive just never read anything that says its better
 
..

Thus ? 8800GT's in SLI do better then 3870's in CF... And for the same price, that is all I need to know :)
 
no... two 3870's outperform SLI 8800GT's. Single vs. single, the 8800GT has a small lead.

But not in multiple card setups.
 
Timo said:
That depends if you turn on AA or not... I turn on AA ;)
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I would say that depends on the game and the benchmark. 3870 cf is better in several games with AA, based on the single benchmark I could bother looking at. :D

Arch keeps saying the 3870's use less power as well, so that's something to think about if choosing between the two.
 
All I know that in the games I am playing and plan to play, the 8800GT's SLI'd is a better choice then the 3870 CF. Also, the 680i board I picked is cheaper then a good CF board. Another thing is that the 8800GT's I picked cost 135 euro's... Which would be about 15 euro's cheaper then the cheapest 3870 I could find in the shop I am buying.

In some game CF might indeed scale better (even with AA on), though I've only looked in the parts of the reviews that has my games in it :).


(and the power they consume; http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/3161/slivscfirepsuwr8.jpg it's a difference indeed, which I already knew. Though I'm not the one paying the bill nor do I care much for the envoriment if the governement doesn't either. I sent my letter to the governement with all the suggestions I could ever have about getting energy, it's to up to them to do something with it.)
 
I would say that depends on the game and the benchmark. 3870 cf is better in several games with AA, based on the single benchmark I could bother looking at.

Arch keeps saying the 3870's use less power as well, so that's something to think about if choosing between the two.
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I'm pretty sure they do consume less power. Also being 55nm, uses less power. Not sure about the GDDR4 power usage though.

And the AA problem was more of a problem on the last gen. ATI cards ;)
 
GDDR4 uses less power than GDDR3, a main reason why ATI's 4xxx series are using GDDR5 memory cuz their more power efficent.

HD 3870x2 is slightly better than crossfire 3870.
 
darksideleader said:
GDDR4 uses less power than GDDR3, a main reason why ATI's 4xxx series are using GDDR5 memory cuz their more power efficent.

HD 3870x2 is slightly better than crossfire 3870.
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Actually, crossfire 3870's is slightly better than 3870X2.

Two single 3870's with GDDR4 with their own dedicated PCIe x16 slot will outperform a 3870X2 with GDDR3, with two GPU's sharing one PCIe x16 slot.
 
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