650i or 680i?

[dmplssb]

What exactly is the differnce between 650i and 680i? I realize that 680i might not be as stable, but other thant hat what are the pros and cons?

Which would be a better motherboard for a primarily gaming pc?
ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX or
ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX

I am getting an 8800gtx and would like to add another sometime in the next year or so. Thanks for any help.

 

[BUFF]

http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce_600i_tech_specs.html

 

[dmplssb]

thanks for the help, based on what i see 680i would be much better for running 2 vid cards in the future, as they will function at 16x. Thanks again.

 

[BigPinkMonkey]

If I want to overclock an E6300, what's the difference between the 650 and 680? Do they have the same utilities for this? The same options?

I've never overclocked before and I'm not looking to build a superfast computer. I just want to squeeze a little extra performance into my budget. I'm not looking to add extra coolers and such.

Comments on the Intel chipsets are also appreciated.

 

[BUFF]

both 650i & 680i appear to overclock similarly.
680i just has a lot more features.

 

[BigPinkMonkey]

both 650i & 680i appear to overclock similarly.
680i just has a lot more features.

But what does "more features" mean? Are they features I will use if I'm just doing a basic overclocking? As a novice, I don't know what the features are.

 

[overlandpark4me]

Check out the link provided above and see if the added features are something you will want. "Are the added features something you will want?"

Do you want to spend 200-300 on a board?
Do you need 3 PCI Express slots?


Kinda like asking what kind of flowers to get for your girlfriend. Well, is she pain in the arse. Get her dandelion's. Roses if she is......etc

 

[BigPinkMonkey]

Check out the link provided above and see if the added features are something you will want. "Are the added features something you will want?"

Do you want to spend 200-300 on a board?
Do you need 3 PCI Express slots?


Etc....

So "features" are just things like expansion slots? I thought we were talking about overclocking features. For example, reading in other threads, it sounds like some chipsets allow you to modify fsb, memory, voltage, etc. Some don't. If I just want to boost performance a little, do I need that stuff? Or can you do that stuff with third party utilities?

I know I don't need SLI and I probably don't need too many PCIe slots. If that's all we're talking about I'll save the money.

 

[aBg_rOnGak]

have you read the table? Perhaps I'm not the one who provided the link, but he's good enough to find for you. So, just read it and make you own decision. We all can just give suggestion. Most chipsets nowadays allows overclocking, all with FSB overclocking while some others allows multiplier overclocking even on multiplier locked CPU. There's a lot differences between all 3 chipsets

 

[BigPinkMonkey]

have you read the table? Perhaps I'm not the one who provided the link, but he's good enough to find for you. So, just read it and make you own decision. We all can just give suggestion. Most chipsets nowadays allows overclocking, all with FSB overclocking while some others allows multiplier overclocking even on multiplier locked CPU. There's a lot differences between all 3 chipsets

Yes, I looked at the table. It says that the 680i is "best" for overclocking. I'm trying to determine what that means. If there are a lot of differences between all 3 chipsets, what are they? Give me an example of why I might want to choose one over another.

 

[aBg_rOnGak]

Well, roughly, if you want to have high OC with SLI, then 680i is your choice, 650i SLI for medium OC + SLI while 650i Ultra for med OC w/o OC.
Be wary though, only 680i give you SLI at 16x PCIe speed (not sure about SLI, but single card benchmark didn't show significant performance differences between 8x and 16x PCIe bus)
But, if you want high OC without SLI, IMO I'd suggest you P965 chipsets (Asus Commando/ Gigabyte DS3/DQ6 that I know, but other companies sure have a lot other options).

Edit: I reread your first post and realized you want to have SLI in a year or so, so either 650i SLI or 680i SLI may be better suites you

Or may be you can read all this and this, can't you?

 

[BigPinkMonkey]

I wasn't the original poster. I just piggybacked.

For my needs, I don't think I'll ever do SLI. I would say I want moderate OC. Well, whatever I can get without extra cooling. I'm mostly trying to boost the performance within my budget, so adding a bunch of extra cooling an other hardware to support high OC doesn't really fit with that.

Is the OC capability based more on the specific mobo? I read another thread that said Intel's 965 boards don't allow it.

 

[MxM]

The only difference performance wise for single GFX card I see is the "NVIDIA LinkBoost™ technology". From what I could find on NVIDIA cite, it probably means over clocking PCIe bus when NVIDIA GFX card is using.

What I am not sure though, is if the mobo manufacturer has to enable it. Can anyone confirm/deny that? Also, has anyone used this LinkBoost thingy?

 

[BUFF]

Thats no longer true. Asus now has a 650I board that runs both PCI-E lanes at 16X with SLI enabled. This board is actually recommended over the 680I's because of its superior stability and a few reviewers of the board have managed 475-500fsb which is as good as any 680I board.

That's a crossbreed using 2 different chipsets though - it neither qualifies as a true 650i (although 1 of the 2 chipsets is a 650i) or a 680i (although it has pretty much all the features).

650i is a good cheap overclocking platform - it's possible to do 500fsb+ on it & with native IDE support for 4 devices it scores over 965 if you have any IDE devices to use. For probably 90%+ of people it's good enough.

 

[aBg_rOnGak]

Be wary though, only 680i give you SLI at 16x PCIe speed

Thats no longer true.

Well, that proves that I'm too 'last-century'. Thank for the update RobX2-sama

Well, still keeping my money (and hopes) and still waiting for RD600's family to come and compare all the products available, and then choose the one on the sweet spot

 

[Spanki]

You might find some interesting information in this review: MSI P6N SLI Platinum: NVIDIA's 650i Part Two ...a RD600 board is included in the comparison, along with a couple 680i (ASUS Striker, Gigabyte DQ6) and another 650i (ASUS P5N), as well as some 965 and 975 based boards.

 

[merc14]

If you are confused here then don't be embarrassed as Nvidia and Asus have seemingly gone out of their way to mix us up regarding the two boards you noted and the chipsets involved. The P5N32-E SLI uses a pure 680i chipset suite. The P5N32-E SLI Plus uses a variant of the 650i which is a less cut down 680i. Note, the P5N32-E SLI P{lus uses the 680i chipset driver.

The Plus gets 32 lanes of PCIe graphics throughput as well as a third PCIe 16x slot with 8 lanes for physics cards. They do this by taking the 24 lanes of PCIe graphics available on the 650i and adding a 570 chips for the additional 16 lanes for graphics. You will never see the difference in performance.

As far as overclocking I haven't seen anything that says the 680i overclocks better than the 650i. Some reviews see a samll difference and some see the 650i going higher. I do know that the P5N32E-SLI does not overclock as well as the Plus. The Plus has a beefed up voltage delivery design using solid caps thsat delivers a much more stable Vcore.

You do lose a couple of things on the Plus like eSATA on the back, doublepumping of the gigabit ethernet ports and the LED display but that is about it. It is a beautiful board that overclocks well and is very stable. Given a choice get the Plus.

 

[keith97]

I have the p5n32-e sli plus and with my voltages on auto OC to 3.4 ghz with e-6700 and zalman 9700. I didn't spend much time OCing so it will go higher but I didn't feel like spending alot of time getting that last bit and I wanted a stable OC.

I doubt I will go sli as it is very fast already. I am very happy with this board-very stable and I am running vista 64 with 4gb ram.

 

[egel]

The 650i has worse cooling. For higher OC's, you will need extra coolers sooner than with a 680i. Less features (as already stated) but much cheaper.

 

[merc14]

I think you mean the boards generally have less cooling as the 650i chip runs much cooler than the 680i, hence the ability to run without much cooling which the boards manufacturers take advantage. To overclock you will have to cool any chipset bt the 650i boards, being cheap, usually have the worst cooling.

 

[alkesh]

i would like to buy a 680 or 650 mb. but which are available at the moment or when r they coming out

 

[merc14]

I really like this Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus. It is under $200, has 40 lanes of PCIe graphics and uses a 680i lite NB and 590i SB. The board is listed as a 650i in some places and as a 680i in others but uses the 680i chipset drivers. 8 phase power path, 6 SATA ports threee PCIe16x slot with 8 lanes for physics and a price tag below $200 make this the best 680i board on the market IMHO. Make sure it is the Plus version and not the earlier version.

 

[CaptKrunch]

I just RMA'd a NON plus of the p5n-e sli asus board and I sooo wish the plus version would have been available for purchase at the time I bought it. So I also got the MSI 650 platinum and a watercooled case on the way. I will probably save the watercooled case for the P5N-E SLI when it gets returned. You can clock the hell out of it as long as you got good cooling for CPU, NB, and SB.

 

[Aivas47a]

The only difference performance wise for single GFX card I see is the "NVIDIA LinkBoost™ technology". From what I could find on NVIDIA cite, it probably means over clocking PCIe bus when NVIDIA GFX card is using.

What I am not sure though, is if the mobo manufacturer has to enable it. Can anyone confirm/deny that? Also, has anyone used this LinkBoost thingy?

Linkboost can be enabled or disabled in the bios. If enabled, the feature automatically overclocks the PCIe frequency 25% if it detects an 8800 card in the slot. I experimented with the feature on a couple of Asus boards (regular P5N32-E SLI and the Plus edition) and found the feature to be worthless. At least in my experience, Linkboost provided no improvement in 3D performance as measured by 3DMark, and drastically reduced stability of the board when overclocking. It will also ramp up your southbridge voltages over 1.7 if you have that on auto, generating a lot of heat).

In short, if your board comes with Linkboost, I would recommend turning it off.

 

[harmattan]

The only difference performance wise for single GFX card I see is the "NVIDIA LinkBoost™ technology". From what I could find on NVIDIA cite, it probably means over clocking PCIe bus when NVIDIA GFX card is using.

What I am not sure though, is if the mobo manufacturer has to enable it. Can anyone confirm/deny that? Also, has anyone used this LinkBoost thingy?

Linkboost can be enabled or disabled in the bios. If enabled, the feature automatically overclocks the PCIe frequency 25% if it detects an 8800 card in the slot. I experimented with the feature on a couple of Asus boards (regular P5N32-E SLI and the Plus edition) and found the feature to be worthless. At least in my experience, Linkboost provided no improvement in 3D performance as measured by 3DMark, and drastically reduced stability of the board when overclocking. It will also ramp up your southbridge voltages over 1.7 if you have that on auto, generating a lot of heat).

In short, if your board comes with Linkboost, I would recommend turning it off.

Also, Linkboost is suspect #1 for why some people have been experiencing audio static/hissing/buzzing on 680i. The hypothosis is it over-saturates PCI bandwidth.

Regarding the original question, I'd go with 650i. The only advantages of 680i worth mentioning are the 3 PCI-e slots and 16X while running SLI. For the moment, it's been demonstrated that 16X in SLI over 8X is minimal-none. Also, I consider myself a power-user and think it's highly unlikely I will be using the third PCI-e slot anytime soon - more likely I will build a new rig before then, and even then physics processors/3rd video cards may not be needed. If 650i had been out 3 months ago, I would have bought that and saved $100.

As far as OC-ing, I have a feeling that 650i and 680i will be clocking the same once BIOS has matured. As of now, they are nearly equal, but 680i has a 25 - 35mhz FSB edge.