NVIDIA's 790i Arrives: SLI Rides Again
by Kris Boughton on March 18, 2008 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Enthusiast System Architecture and the Improved NVIDIA Control Panel
Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA) is NVIDIA's answer to the absence of a unified status collection and reporting protocol when it comes to monitoring all the components that go into one of today's advanced gaming systems. More than just a proprietary technology, NVIDIA envisions ESA as the next-generation, royalty-free industry standard for peripheral control and monitoring. NVIDIA hopes that by creating an open-standard interface and making it free for use there will be little resistance to the rapid, widespread adoption by all. By layering their logical data transport system on top of USB's physical link system, they can all but guarantee that every motherboard manufactured today is capable of connecting any component supporting ESA.
ESA-certified components are just now beginning to appear on the market, with companies like Cooler Master, OCZ Technologies, Tagan, Thermaltake, and CoolIT Systems leading the charge.
NVIDIA's new Control Panel and System Monitor package exposes nearly every aspect of system control, including all of the same tuning options normally only available for manipulation by restarting and entering the BIOS. Of course, many of these features require that your particular motherboard make and model support NVIDIA's Dynamic BIOS Access. Unfortunately this tool does not invalidate the need to reboot after adjusting many of the options like memory timings, certain voltages, link speeds, and the CPU multiplier; at least the interface is pleasant to work with and easy to navigate. Any changes made here are saved to CMOS and remain in effect until later modified or reset to default.
This monitoring suite uses a 2D/3D hybrid GUI capable of displaying real-time status for each selected component. It conducts XML data logging and allows for arming/disarming of user-adjustable alerts for nearly every system event imaginable. For example, an ESA-certified chassis could report the duty cycle of each case fan, in percent of full speed, while a PSU could do the same for input and output current, calculated efficiency, internal unit temperature, fan speed in RPM, and the actual voltage of each supply rail.
A convenient feature of the Control Panel is the ability to create rules. These rules can be used to define certain component behaviors based on other variable sensor input. For instance, radiator fans used in conjunction with a water-cooled system could be set to speed up or slow down depending on the current measured coolant temperature. This would allow for automatic control of other system temperatures, permitting additional cooling needed to maintain stability during performance workloads while simultaneous minimizing fan noise whenever possible.
Rules can then be grouped together with specific component settings to form custom profiles. Each of these can tailor key system characteristics depending on the types of operations being performed. Thus it becomes possible to quickly move between pre-established configurations best suited for the manner in which the system will be used - whether that's watching a DVD movie in a quiet environment, playing your favorite online first-person 3D shooter, or chatting with your friend half-way around the world. With customizable rules associated with individual profiles there's practically no limit to what users can accomplish.
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ATWindsor - Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - link
I couldn't agree more, features is all well and good, but only if things works and are stable. No wonder people find it daunting to build a computer, even when you have done it several times you risk going into som "trap" with things not working the way it should, more focus on this in reviews please.AtW
theYipster - Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - link
I agree with Lopri in every regard. AT needs to stop masquerading these technical showcase articles as reviews. In addition to what Lopri already mentioned, I would add that AT failed to a) address the long standing concerns held throughout the enthusiast community over nForce product quality (regarding the paragraph on PWM design... very undwerwhelming considering that it doesn't offer support to its claim) and b) failed to provide a fair assessment of the value proposition these boards provide. The article states that the 790i provides a noticeable step up in performance over previous generations, and that owners of previous boards would find upgrading worthwhile. This is a bold claim, as such an upgrade would cost nearly $1000 (when factoring in new DDR3 RAM) and would not even include a new CPU or graphics card. Yes, the NB runs a bit cooler and can OC a bit farther, but how and why is that worth $1000, even to the enthusiast who can afford it easily? Lets also consider the grander scheme of things. What worth is it for someone who enjoys the latest and greatest to spend $350 on a board when Nehalem will change all the rules in less than a year. At least previous generations (as well as Intel's X38) provide some shelf life.In any case, Overclock3d.net has a very informative review of the Striker II Extreme which covers almost everything Lopri mentioned.
ssiu - Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - link
"The EVGA 790i Ultra also handled our QX9770 sample with relative ease. We were able to benchmark and play games without incident at 400MHz FSB, our mark of excellence when it comes to quad-core overclocking."That is a low standard of excellence for a high-end chip. The Q9300/Q9450 overclockers are going to cry.
greylica - Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - link
Mwahaha, some will say :" Now we can finnaly play crysis ! "
Well done, 66 fps...
n0nsense - Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - link
We can for a very long time.I do it with 1920x1200 at all Med + 4AA
I have the 680i (P5N32-E SLI) + E6300@2.8GHz (not the maximum, but lower fan speed = less noise) + 4GB OCZ ReaperX @ 800MHz 4-4-3-12 1T and single reference design 8800GT from ASUS at stock clock (the only modified sing, is stock cooler replaced with Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 which reduced card temp by 25C)
As you can see MB - year old, CPU 1.5 years old.
I can't tell you the exact fps, but it's completely smooth playing.
I expect next generation to bring same smooth play at all very high + all filterings for existing games.
BTW, where 9800x2 in SLI tests on this 790i ?
SpaceRanger - Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - link
When do you think nVidia will be putting out these boards for AMD CPU's. The only thing I see for AMD CPU's are boards that support CROSSFIRE, but not SLI.ap90033 - Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - link
It just costs to MUCH. I got 8 GIGS DDR2 800 an E8400 and a Single 8800GTS 512 meg, and I have the CPU Running at 3.6 (I am looking to try 3.8 maybe) and I can play any game maxed except Crysis. I can play it at high at 1024x768. I looked at SLI but its to danged expensive, I had 1220$ to spend and decided to get the most performance for the money. I wish they would quit going up in price on these motherboards, hey Nvidia, you do know I can get a GREAT Overclockers motherboard with good features (NO SLI OF COURSE) for $80 right? Why would I pay $250+ more for the board, another $200+ more for DDR3 Ram, and another $250 for another 8800GTS just so "some" games would run 15% faster? Are you nuts??? 10-15% but it costs like $800 MORE???? I think Ill save my $800 or so and use it on my next video card upgrade, my next CPU upgrade, and the next video card upgrade after that! LOLkrnmastersgt - Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - link
Because this isn't meant at the people that want the best price/performance, this is for the uber-high end user, the extreme benchmarker/extreme gamer, of course by your logic SLI and CrossFire are stupid wastes of money since the performance doesnt scale linearly, but this is meant for enthusiasts and therefore you shouldn't compare it with something like a P35 board.crimson117 - Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - link
As an example, I was helping configure a Dell for a home office user, non-gamer, no video editing, etc, but he was fairly well-off money-wise. While picking options, at one point I said something about some component being "plenty for most users" and he replied (in a nice way) "I'm not most users"; so we went with the upgraded version even though the price performance, especially for his usage pattern, didn't make fiscal sense.The moral is there are people out there who get satisfaction over having the absolute best no matter the price.
Relatedly, an experiment found that people perceive $90 wine as tasting better than $10 wine, even when it was secretly http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9849949-39.html">the same exact wine.