Quote Originally Posted by virtualrain View Post
Yeah, I'm not sure what the MCP55P is... I only find it in reference to AM2 boards when I google it. Can someone clarify?

It's still not clear how they appear to be offering full 680i functionality with the LT chipset.
Actually, if you look at the nVidia posted specs for the 680i LT chipset, the only difference listed is the "SLI-Ready Memory (MHz) with EPP" speed. All other specs are identical.

Of course this leaves nVidia without enough defining characteristics between the chipsets, so the 'LT' reference motherboard they produce has some additional limitations (one NIC, no x8 slot, etc) to help get the costs down to wedge the board into a niche between the 680i and 650i - a reasonable thing to do, IMO.

But that leads us back to the issue of non-reference 680i LT chipset based boards from other manufacturers... they (presumably) get the LT chipset at a reduced cost from nVidia, but the actual chipset is likely (speculation on my part) just the un-binned 680i chips. This means that the 3rd party board maker can basically drop the chipset into a 680i board, with full 680i functionality - except for some upper end 'rated' memory support.

Of course they still need to tell consumers that this is a 'LT' chipset (pretending it's not would get them into legal trouble). So the real question becomes - how well will this (and future) boards perform and at what price-point.