EVGA 790i ultra Mobo....

[desertdesign]

Well i got tired of my phenom and my asus mobo(great mobo and phenom just wasnt feeling overclocking)...i switched to a q9550 and the new Evga 790i ultra chipset(had to pull extra cash money for ddr3..which i didnt relize until after i bought mobo).I here many mixed reviews nothing bad ...all good actually just when it comes to comparing the other 790i chipsets.I herd performance wise it is pretty stable with other the other boards.I herd when it comes to games this dominates the other boards..then i herd different in others that asus striker ll wins by a small margin.I also herd intel new mobo actually has the worst performance behind the asus stiker and xfx and evga 790i.Whats your guys thoughts on these new790i mobo.I got mine for 275$ but switching to ddr3 cost alittle bit G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual..150$ for 2 kits

Im also selling my asus m3n-hd/hdmi mobo and my phenom 9850BE only used for about a month.so if your interested tell me before i put up in ebay...

 

[spathotan]

The motherboard isnt a realistic measure of gaming "performance", dont know where you heard all that from. All that matters is it has the proper amount of lanes for the PCIe. My $140 P45 will game just as good as that $300 790i.

 

[cow_moo]

GET THE EVGA 790i ULTRA FTW EDITION ITS MUCH BETTER

 

[atomicWAR]

i have a evga 790i ultra myself (not the FTW) and I am happy with its performance, though any bios prior to P0 6 is crap. If you you plan of SLI its a great mobo though i agree the FTW is better by a hair. Wasn't out when i bought mine. I run a fairly standard overclock of my QX9650 @ 3.6ghz fsb@1600mhz linked and synced with ddr3 1600mhz. has no trouble at 4ghz but i see no reason to leave it there all the time as 3.6 is suffient in alomst every game (save crysis of course) for now. paired up with 3 8800gtx's i am a very happy gamer. you should be happy with your purchase desertdesign i know i am.

 

[bpogdowz]

I discovered that you can't use a PCI version of the sound blaster X-fi with this board with SLI enabled. Ordered a PCI-e version instead this weekend hope it does the trick.

 

[gamerk316]

I discovered that you can't use a PCI version of the sound blaster X-fi with this board with SLI enabled. Ordered a PCI-e version instead this weekend hope it does the trick.

For some strange reason, SB cards hate NVIDIA motherboards. Besides, the onboard sound on the 790i Ultra (and most NVIDIA boards) is actually quite good.

The 790i's only downside is that it requires DDR3. The ASUS board is a little better, but the diffrence is minimal to say the least.

THG did a review on all these boards about a month ago, but I can't seem to find the link...

 

[bpogdowz]

Whatever that's not true. On the AMD side it works just fine in Nvidia boards. BTW the on board sound is abysmal when playing Crysis and every other game as hardware demanding I would imagine so that's why you need a sound card.

 

[gamerk316]

I know for a fact the CivIV has sound issues with a XFi card when movies are playing on the 790i. I also know that Crysis causes sound corrution that gets worse as the game progresses. In both instances, the games work fine with onboard, and I can't tell the diffrence (except the non-scratchy music).

 

[spathotan]

Thats an X-Fi issue, not a motherboard issue. X-Fi + Vista = quite a few issues in random games and software. It took me about 4 different drivers to get my X-Fi XtremeGamer to work properly in 5.1 and with iTunes.

 

[atomicWAR]

I have tried both X-fi and onboard sound for my 790i. To be honest x-fi and vista are not the best of friends and i ended up prefering the onboard sound. Not to mention the only way to run an X-fi card with tri sli is to have either at least one water cooled single slot gtx otherwise you can only run two cards to still have a PCI or PCIe slot free. sucks its not my first choice but then again creative has done little to encourage the use of X-fi with vista. Its a bigger pain then help as it sits now. Pre-vista I always loved audigy/X-fi cards, sad to see the current state of affairs. Hope creative gets just that and quick.

 

[spathotan]

Its unfortunate that ASUS was so late (and so expensive) with their Sonar cards, because they could have REALLY capitalized on the early **** issues that the X-Fi's had with Vista.

 

[bpogdowz]

No one said it was a mobo issue but you and you're trying to make a point and it didn't work. Troll much?

 

[gamerk316]

Thats an X-Fi issue, not a motherboard issue. X-Fi + Vista = quite a few issues in random games and software. It took me about 4 different drivers to get my X-Fi XtremeGamer to work properly in 5.1 and with iTunes.

Only i run XP

Hell, creative admits their cards have issues on some NVIDIA boards, its a well known problem. (I'd give links, but my work blocks the creative web site...)

 

[spathotan]

Only i run XP

Hell, creative admits their cards have issues on some NVIDIA boards, its a well known problem. (I'd give links, but my work blocks the creative web site...)

Well then, learn something new every day. I had no clue about that, then again ive avoided Nvidia chipsets like the plague since my disasterous EVGA 680i SLi experience.

 

[bpogdowz]

Once again it's only the Nvidia chip sets on the Intel side.

 

[atomicWAR]

yeah all the nvidia based chipsets i have run with amd never once had an issue with a creative card...as for intel. Not suprised. I haven't had a card flat not run in my 790i been more of a physical space issue but intel has alway been IMO as upgrade proof as they can get away with. They want you buying a new board every ten months or so. You know just about the time your ready for some more CPU juice...Its why i don't like building Intel for the most part. My X-fi is now in a AMD dual 8800gts sli board with vista 64 ult running just fine.

With all the CF/SLI rigs climbing in slot usage I am really hoping the X-fi on a mobo takes off and sounds as clean as the discrete solutions... or companies need to give mobo's more slots to jam cards in, that and some cute gamer girls that come prepackaged with a full featured software bundle wouldn't hurt