nForce 790i SLI/Ultra chipset mobos - Reviews/OC/Guides

[Donster]

At this point, neither of them... Either wait for the chipset bioses to mature or look at another platform, 100% stability is ONLY achievable by "Luck" or "patience" at this point and unless you're and extremely lucky individual you'll need some OCing skillz even in order to stabilize stock speeds.

So these boards arnt even stable @ stock? what the F*** lol! whats the X48 chipset like? id consider one of these as i wont be going SLI ... i did it once and its just too expensive and you dont really see a HUGE improvement

[slim142]

Guess what people

Q9450 @ 450Mhz FSB = 3.6Ghz Running 100% Estable on Striker II Extreme on AIR and so far no corruption or weird problems

Stay tuned...

[gcardinal]

EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI The Black Pearl


No info on how their pick boards for BlackPearl, no info on the WC fittings size etc
or anything about what makes it almost a board that costs 1000$ (in Norway).

"More" info about the board...

[Broly]

I'd still rather have my striker over that ref board.
My second striker is OWNAGE.

[slim142]

No solid caps and I bet still using 6 phase system which is good but 8 would be pretty nice.

[Roger_D25]

Unfortunelty slim142 our Strikers are really only a 4-phase system, despite looks! Granted there are definately 8-inductors but because of the PWM controller there are actually only 4-phases "working" at any given time depending on the load. So under sudden load the system will only pull current from half the phase while other other 4 sit idle (thanks Anandtech for information). With that said the reference design 6-phase system might actually be a better choice? Please correct me guys if I'm spewing BS here!

By the way great job getting that Q9450 running stable at 450Mhz FSB (Make sure to share your settings with us in the near future)!

[gcardinal]

Yeah reference is 6-phase system as far as I remmber.

I just think its simply sick to ask 1000$ for MB without releasing ANY information about what is so special about it?
EVGA forums are full with comments like "Fix the errors before asking for more money (corruption)".

Black Pearl suppose to be a cherry picked board, but how and who decide what is a "cherry" ?
Is it the board wich can do 550-600 on bus speed ?

[Roger_D25]

I highly doubt that eVGA does any in-house speed binning of these boards before throwing a few waterblocks on them (of course I could be wrong however, wouldn't be the first time). With that said I guess eVGA might specifically ask for better binned chipsets from Nvidia, then they specifically use them in these "Black Pearl" boards, but again I highly doubt it!

[slim142]

Unfortunelty slim142 our Strikers are really only a 4-phase system, despite looks! Granted there are definately 8-inductors but because of the PWM controller there are actually only 4-phases "working" at any given time depending on the load. So under sudden load the system will only pull current from half the phase while other other 4 sit idle (thanks Anandtech for information). With that said the reference design 6-phase system might actually be a better choice? Please correct me guys if I'm spewing BS here!

I also heard something related to the power phases been actually a lower number than what was offered. Like Gigabytes 10 phase power was really 4 or something like that and ASUS upcoming 16 phase power wasnt really gonna be 16 phase power. I would like to know more info about this since this 8 phase power has been around for a long time, but people still bought them and havent complain.
I dont know if the eVGA is a better choice, but probably is because of the support. Also, remember it doesnt use solid caps so that might be a disavantage.

By the way great job getting that Q9450 running stable at 450Mhz FSB (Make sure to share your settings with us in the near future)!

Thanks
I will share my settings for sure, just give me some time. Right now im in the process of lowering the voltages as much as I can, but right now I must say my voltages are pretty safe and Im pretty happy with what I have accomplished. However, my RAM had to be lowered (1333) for me to achieve this so after I finish tunning my voltages, I will mess with the RAM and if I have no luck, I still have 0702 and 703 to try out (and I heard they act much better and allow more memory oc) and I can always tight the timings if clock speeds dont work well... we will see.

But I promise to post my settings w/ screenshoots and everything.

Yeah reference is 6-phase system as far as I remmber.

I just think its simply sick to ask 1000$ for MB without releasing ANY information about what is so special about it?
EVGA forums are full with comments like "Fix the errors before asking for more money (corruption)".

Black Pearl suppose to be a cherry picked board, but how and who decide what is a "cherry" ?
Is it the board wich can do 550-600 on bus speed ?

I dont think they are hand picked. Remember that eVGA always charges a premium price for the Black Pearl products (same with VGA cards). With all this problems around, I doubt they get good sales.

I highly doubt that eVGA does any in-house speed binning of these boards before throwing a few waterblocks on them (of course I could be wrong however, wouldn't be the first time). With that said I guess eVGA might specifically ask for better binned chipsets from Nvidia, then they specifically use them in these "Black Pearl" boards, but again I highly doubt it!

I think eVGA will wait for a couple more BIOS revisions before they release the black pearl to see if this fixes peoples problems.

[slim142]

Version 0703 2008/05/16 update

Description BIOS update file for Striker II Extreme (Version 0703)
1)Enhance compatibility with certain CPUs.

**Note how it mentions CPUs, not one, but many CPUs unlike 0701 which was specifically for QX9770...

[5010]

So these boards arnt even stable @ stock? what the F*** lol! whats the X48 chipset like? id consider one of these as i wont be going SLI ... i did it once and its just too expensive and you dont really see a HUGE improvement

x48 is pretty decent though I dopn't own one myself....

SLI makes an enormous improvement in CRYSIS(almost double FPS) but for any other game I don't even bother enabling SLI since one of my 8800's can handle any other game maxxed.

[golfjam]

never mind...

[gcardinal]

I think eVGA will wait for a couple more BIOS revisions before they release the black pearl to see if this fixes peoples problems.

Then it would not worry me at all The problem it is on sale and even in stock in some norwegian online stores without any information availabel what so ever

[Tyke]

Then it would not worry me at all The problem it is on sale and even in stock in some norwegian online stores without any information availabel what so ever

Had three Black Pearl 680i boards...all rubbish. Asus all the way for me.

[Donster]

x48 is pretty decent though I dopn't own one myself....

SLI makes an enormous improvement in CRYSIS(almost double FPS) but for any other game I don't even bother enabling SLI since one of my 8800's can handle any other game maxxed.

ooo i didnt realise that ... ill be getting a 280 GTX tho ... this should run crisis on its own no probs

[Guacamole]

ooo i didnt realise that ... ill be getting a 280 GTX tho ... this should run crisis on its own no probs

Maybe it will, we shall see..

I must admit I love SLI even though I have more problems and a bunch of headache with this board I like it way better than my old Maximus Formula.. Intel boards have their own unique issuse as well with the memory dividers and such, and they can be very limiting especially for a multi GPU system God forbid you have to rock ATI NO THANKS!!!

[slim142]

I love NVIDIA boards, even though people have 1000 problems, my only problems are only OCing disabilities on nForce chipsets but thats nothing I can complain since is all about skills and luck ^^ and it looks like my 790i loves me

[sullysnet]

sorry to bother, I have a friend that has the striker 780 and he is complaining that it will freeze even when he is in the BIOS. He is using Ballastics and I have read many people have had issues with that RAM. Wondering if you guys had any suggestions for him. I have him trying one stick of RAM at a time to see if that helps. He tried resetting to BIOS defaults with still no luck. Any info would be welcome

thanks all

[nachthymnen]

I love this main
Received yesterday and started to try it

Boot @ this speed, P1&P2 Enabled, HT 5X:


Big v-drop but really stable

[manyga]

very niice Nachthymnen!!

Regardss

[aussie-revhead]

Im looking at getting an EVGA 790i , can someone tell me what rams are a good starting point for the upgrade to ddr3 ? Most 1800Mhz rams are quite dear , what is a good value ram that over clocks well ?



Actually , would any of these be good ?

Ebay- Project-X 1800 or Patriot 1600 or Corsair 1600

Thanks guys.

[Roger_D25]

At least here in the States DDR3 prices are dropping like crazy (just like DDR2 did)! Anyway there seems to be many great PC3-12800/14400/16000 for under $300, just a few weeks ago PC3-1333 kits were $300+ even for crappy kits! With so many great kits that are cheap its hard to recommend a single kit? Kits from Super Talent, OCZ, Crucial, Patriot, and many others use great IC's and will overclock very well (binning will be different for different kits however). A great place to start looking would be right here in the "Extreme Bandwidth" section. There are many great reviews there and should help you to find a better value kit that overclocks just as good as the more expensive kits! Good luck revhead!

[aussie-revhead]

Thanks Roger , it can be hard to get stuff shipped to aus from usa , thats why Im looking on ebay first , no dramas there ...

[Guacamole]

Nachthymnen,

Careful with your CPU voltage that seems really high voltage even on water, 1.44 in CPUZ equates to about 1.57 or more what are your temps?? Can you do an Everest Memory benchmark for bandwith I would love to see your results with the Cell Shock at those speeds.. Overall that is a really awesome OC I must admit I would love to run at 4.5 but My SH*T would melt.. Anyway, Kudos...

[Roger_D25]

I'll second that Guacomole, what kind of VCORE were you running for those screenshots Nachthymnen? In anycase great job, very impressive clocks all around!