Overclocking Testing and Conclusions
Overclocking with the QX6850
Being as we were testing this motherboard’s ability to play with the new 1333 MHz FSB processors, I thought it was topical to try and overclock the new QX6850 processor that Intel sent over last month. This is a quad-core processor; that has traditionally meant that FSB limits are a little bit lower than with dual-core processors.
QX6850 at stock speeds
Our default speeds show the QX6850 running at a 1333 MHz FSB with a 9x multiplier and a 3.0 GHz final speed. Pretty damn fast all on its own.
At 400 MHz FSB and 6x multiplier
I brought down the multiplier to its lowest option, 6x, in order to test the FSB overclocking ability of the XFX 680i SLI motherboard and our quad-core CPU. That brings the clock speed down to 2.0 GHz, hopefully giving us lots of headroom to push the FSB.
The shot above shows my first overclock of the FSB from 1333 MHz up to 1600 MHz, bringing the total to 2.4 GHz.
At 425 MHz FSB – our maximum
The highest stable FSB I could reach on this board with this CPU was 1700 MHz — any attempts to go higher caused us to get big, blank screens instead of POSTs. This definitely isn’t the highest overclock result we have seen on the NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI chipset, it is still pretty good.
Hitting 425 MHz and a 9x multiplier would overclock this CPU to 3.82 GHz — not too shabby for a quad-core setup.
Features
The XFX nForce 680i SLI motherboard doesn’t lack in the features department — it has just about anything you could want on an Intel-platform motherboard. High speed memory support, 1333 MHz FSB CPU support, SLI support, SATA and RAID options, lots of USB 2.0 and Firewire ports, on-board power and reset buttons, a third PCIe x16 slot for future applications, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, 8-channel HD audio and more.
The only feature missing is support for DDR3 memory which several of the P35 motherboards we have tested use. There is no doubt that DDR3 will be faster than DDR2 at some point, but for now, the performance differences aren’t very big but the price differences are! DDR3 is still very hard to find and when you do locate it, be prepared to pay a premium. So, maybe having the 680i chipset with DDR2 support isn’t so bad after all.
Oh, and NVIDIA has also mentioned that all the 680i and even 650i motherboards will support the upcoming Penryn core processors from Intel that will be available early next year.
Performance
Though I didn’t show you a standard application performance in our write up here, I tested the new XFX motherboard and BIOS with our 1333 MHz FSB processor and found no issue with speed. You can view my review of the 680i SLI chipset motherboards here to see how the features like SATA and USB speeds match up with competing offerings and you can read my Intel QX6850 processor review here for overall performance evaluations.
The basic result is that the nForce 680i SLI chipset is just as fast as any other Intel chipset on the market and CPU performance isn’t going to vary more than a couple of percentage points in either direction based on the platform. And since NVIDIA’s and XFX’s offering here supports the latest 1333 MHz FSB processors, I see no reason not to go with this chipset option for an enthusiast system.
Final Thoughts
The XFX nForce 680i SLI motherboard is another great addition to the Intel-platform ecosystem and should provide a great backbone for any gaming or enthusiast system you might want to build. The features that it offers including support for the latest 1333 MHz FSB Intel processors and even upcoming Penryn-based CPUs make it a stable platform for those looking for a long-term investment as well.
If you have any questions, comments or want to see what others are saying about this review, head into our forum to discuss!!!
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