Mini OC Review EVGA 790i FTW DIGITAL PWM

[Pedro Rocha]

Thanks to AquaPC - Portuguese distributor of EVGA - I have the chance to test the new EVGA 790i FTW DIGITAL PWM..

You can here information and specs of the new motherboard - http://www.evga.com/articles/00431/


Setup:
- EVGA 790i FTW DIGITAL PWM
- Retail E8600 Air Cooled by TuniqTower
- 2 EVGA GTX280 in SLI


Photo of the setup :




Mas FSB on Air - bench stable:



560Mhz FSB for a 790i mobo on Air it's really nice


Everest Memory Bandiwth:




Test of Crysis a 1900x1200 AA=4x High Detail

04-10-2008 18:10:56 - XP
Beginning Run #1 on Map-island, Demo-benchmark_gpu
DX9 1900x1200, AA=4x, Vsync=Disabled, 32 bit test, FullScreen
Demo Loops=3, Time Of Day= 9
Global Game Quality: High
================================================== ============
TimeDemo Play Started , (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
!TimeDemo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 37.57s, Average FPS: 53.24
Min FPS: 35.98 at frame 156, Max FPS: 79.59 at frame 913
Average Tri/Sec: -34675476, Tri/Frame: -651361
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.41
!TimeDemo Run 1 Finished.
Play Time: 30.82s, Average FPS: 64.90
Min FPS: 35.98 at frame 156, Max FPS: 83.92 at frame 85
Average Tri/Sec: -42159696, Tri/Frame: -649604
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.41
!TimeDemo Run 2 Finished.
Play Time: 30.53s, Average FPS: 65.50
Min FPS: 35.98 at frame 156, Max FPS: 85.90 at frame 109
Average Tri/Sec: -42483624, Tri/Frame: -648600
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.41
TimeDemo Play Ended, (3 Runs Performed)
================================================== ============

Completed All Tests

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>>--SUMMARY--<<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

04-10-2008 18:10:56 - XP

Run #1- DX9 1900x1200 AA=4x, 32 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Overall Average FPS: 65.20

Average framerate of 65FPS with 1920x1200 HighDetail AA=4, with this setup seems Crysis is finally playable :




And, of course, I have to run my favorite game :



More than 100K All Air on the 1st atempt quite easy


Next I will do some QX9650 testing, since is with QuadCores that the added stability of Digital PWM's really shine..


First impressions:
- Motherboard is really stable, voltages are quite good (1.65v on vFSB really helps) and the vdroop is inexistent.
- Motherboard layout is almost perfect - for example, even with 2 GTX280's in SLI all 9 SATA headers are acessible.
- Due to the Digital PWM's, the heat produced CPU surrounding area realy low, realy a big diference from the 790i's with analog PWM's..


Great work EVGA

[Oliver]

Sweet work Pedro, the 2k1 is awesome

[tiborrr]

Looking good, Pedro! How's the max FSB? Any chance of better SPP yields on this revision?

Greets,
N.

[systemviper]

First, i want to thank you for taking the time to do this and post here, I have seen your work and respect you level of knowledge. So we appreciate your time and effort !

I am a growing overclocking hobbyist, and want to keep growing my talent. I only use water and settings to get my best numbers
so my questions relate to that part of overclocking, not using Dice, TEC's or LN2 (yet )

My question is:
I just purchased the 790i FTW and love it, what real world gains would i get by switching to this "DIGITAL PWM" board.

I am asking some specific questions but i am only looking for general answers for a common guy with growing skillz.

- Will this make overclocking easier.
- Will i be able to get higher overclocks/FSB's with this board and in what range, 2%, 10% 40%
- Does this only effect the CPU voltage or Mem voltage also.
- Do you see this as the future of PWM or just another "bells and whistles" addition.
- So for us growing enthusiasts, should we go-out and sell the FTW an get the FTW DIGITAL PWM. If funds were not an issue.
- In the scheme of motherboard growth, is this a big gain/improvement or just part of the evolution of the technology.

thanks again for your time and effort, i am sure i will have more questions.

regards/Steve

[DMH]

If you already have the FTW version I don't think you need to change unless you want to

[Pedro Rocha]

@systemviper

Thanks for your words..

I don't see any strong reason to change to change from the regular 790i FTW to the FTW Digital PWM.

Maybe for extreme overclocking with quad cores makes senses the change from the regluar to FTW Digital PWM.because:
- It's much easier to mount pots or cascade evaporators since the space surrounding CPU socket is free of capacitors
- With extreme OC / high VCore with Quad Cores the Digital PWM version may give bit more OC since the VCore is, at least in theory, more stable.

In short for moderate OC keep your 790i FTW it is a great board !

[Pedro Rocha]

As I predict where the Digital PWM's make the diference is really with Quad Cores..

Here is some results with QX9650 Air Cooled ..




490Mhz FSB with 4 cores


And a quick 3Dmark run at near 480Mhz FSB




This high FSB with Quad's really offer good potencial with low multi cores - e.g. the Q9550 and Q9450...

Even with Quad's the heat on the PWM's is quite low

[7499richard]

any comparisons with the same hardware to the 790i Ultra?
Since they cost the same which is the better buy?

[Pedro Rocha]

any comparisons with the same hardware to the 790i Ultra?
Since they cost the same which is the better buy?

For QuadCores - the 790i FTW DIGITAL PWM no doubt, this version gives much more high FSB and stability with Quad's than the standard 790i Ultra

[7499richard]

hmmmm....would love to upgrade my 680i, it will run my QX6700 bench stable at fsb 425 which is pretty good since people always bash the 680i. I'm not defending it I am just thinking that maybe my cpu is a good one and with a good board I may be able to get some good numbers

[dinos22]

benchmarks look good there Pedro
i think you are right there

this really is a quad core benchers board
i will however test mine on dual core and try and extract FSB as much as i can

[Warboy]

I get mine on wed, then I'll test it with my X3360. So far, My S2E has been dying so hopefully this board will make me happy. 500 x 8.5 on air? Maybe...Hopefully lol.

[Deathspine]

WarBoy you have gone over to the dark side. If you must leave us Asus Strike Extremee II users, please keep us updated with some comparisons between the two boards. Did Asus's design not improve on the reference boards? My Striker is stable but the overclock is minimal 20%.

[7499richard]

asus is the dark side...lol

my horrendous experience with the original striker extreme is thereason i will never buy asus again... the switch to evga was so easy and the boardsperformed like night and day...

really want to hit the buy button on this....trying to resist....not going too well hah

[Warboy]

WarBoy you have gone over to the dark side. If you must leave us Asus Strike Extremee II users, please keep us updated with some comparisons between the two boards. Did Asus's design not improve on the reference boards? My Striker is stable but the overclock is minimal 20%.

I'll try to keep you guys updated. I'll still have my S2E, Just it will be in RMA for a bit.

[dinos22]

my baby's in
will give it a whirl this weekend

[Warboy]

yea, Mine should be here within the next few hours and straight to benching ^_^

[Lestat]

1.52v air cooled quad ? might have been air cooled but your quad was on fire, not to metion 1.5v will kill it.(eventually)

how does the 790i handle GTL voltages etc etc ?
what about memory clocking? they still using unlocked ram-cpu so you can dial in your own ram speed ?

[Planet]

Unlinked is still there. You are also able to tweak GTL Ref voltages. Try -80 for both 0 and 1 for dual cores. For quad I believe -50 works best on all 4. I will double check when I get some time.

[JacobF]

Wow nice results

[Lestat]

Unlinked is still there. You are also able to tweak GTL Ref voltages. Try -80 for both 0 and 1 for dual cores. For quad I believe -50 works best on all 4. I will double check when I get some time.

thanks for the heads up, unfortunately, at over $325 for this big boy, i will never own one... ever....

i see the original 790i FTW is on sale for 269 i believe, after rebate.

[Ming@s]

nice results

[Pedro Rocha]

Today I mount the EVGA 790i FTW DIGITAL PWM in the Cascade with the Quad Core, here is some results:




480Mhz FSB with 4 cores enable easy


A quick 3DMark 2006 run with the graphic cards with low OC:



29K easy


This motherboard is in fact impressive with Quad Cores - even with high OC and voltages the VDroop is almost inexistent ..

Bravo EVGA - great work

[BATISTA]

Good Work nice Reult what abot max Fsb ?

[M3kk]

Nice .

Can you try E8600 + Cascade with this board?