First Look: Nvidia nForce 780i SLI

Nvidia nTune, System Monitor and ESA

Seeing as Nvidia (and its partners) unveiled ESA last month, which was to be enabled with the nForce 700 series MCPs. The technical documents from Nvidia describe the funky new System Monitor, which is rendered in 3D using OpenGL, along with the updated nTune software that even now includes control for ESA-certified watercooling components!

All these things are cutting edge cool and Nvidia certainly has its finger on the button – developing a desktop platform where others have failed. However we were disappointed to find out this morning that it's not even ready yet!

Component manufacturers have the lot: ESA PSUs, Cases, Fans, Cooling, etc, boards will be shipping and we will have to wait until sometime in the New Year until we get the software to tie it all together. That’s a bit of a shame if we’re honest.

Despite saying that, we would rather use software that worked properly than something half assed and out earlier than it should be. We just hope the wait is not because of the Apple Cover Flow-esq component monitor taking its time in design.

Early Thoughts

We were prepared to be underwhelmed by the nForce 780i SLI, but in all honesty we’re actually impressed that it isn't simply an NF200 taped onto an nForce 680i SLI board – the nForce 780i SLI reference design looks far better than before and internally things have been re-jigged for the better. The BIOS has been improved a bit too and the new nTune looks frikkin awesome, on the proviso that it actually arrives at some point!

Overall, the nForce 780i SLI isn't a new chipset launch so much but rather a nip-tuck and facelift to the nForce 680i SLI, giving it a new lease of youthfulness to an ageing chipset. Thankfully this time around we should see some variety between the reference boards and custom versions from our favourite motherboard vendors, without having to pay through the nose for them. Although, having said that, as much as I want the new Asus Striker Extreme II, I also expect it to be significantly more expensive than the competition.

In comparison to the nForce 780i SLI, Nvidia hasn't really bothered to try with the nForce 750i SLI. The core technology is so far over the hill, it might as well make its goodbyes to the family before taking it outback to be put down. The whole "no Intel 45nm CPUs on 6-series chipsets" is a problem of convenience to Nvidia, where otherwise there would be absolutely no reason to buy an nForce 750i SLI over a current 650i SLI (that likely has a very mature BIOS after a year in the market).

It has no EPP, no ESA and, from what we understand, there’s no System Monitor support either. As far as we know, it's not even been respun using a smaller manufacturing node in order to make it cooler and smaller, therefore making it cheaper for all parties involved. Throwing on an NF200 is a cheap trick to make it look new while only actually making it another chip (which motherboard manufacturers have to cool) for just a one to two percent performance increase, according to Nvidia itself.

It looks like the nForce 780i SLI is likely to become a hit for Nvidia, but the nForce 750i SLI is shaping up to be a boring miss.