HotHardware reviews EVGA NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI motherboard
Nvidia had been somewhat slow getting out of the gate with their initial Intel Core 2 compatible chipsets. Their first nForce 4 and nForce 5 series products for the Core 2 weren't very well received by enthusiasts, who mostly opted for more stable and less power hungry Intel based chipsets, unless Nvidia's SLI technology was an explicit requirement. While it has taken them a bit longer than expected to get their footing for this new processor architecture, it seems like Nvidia is truly hitting their stride with the nForce 600 series of products.
Currently, Nvidia is producing three chipset products in the nForce 600 lineup for Intel processors. At the high-end, you have the nForce 680i SLI chipset, which has all of the bells and whistles. Many of these high-end features were cut for the mid-range nForce 650i SLI platform, although it still offered SLI Multi-GPU support, albeit in a somewhat limited manner (only 8 x 8 lanes instead of a full 16 x 16). On the low-end, Nvidia is producing the nForce 650i Ultra, which drops SLI support from the mix, and hasn't been well adopted by motherboard makers and OEM markets. This is possibly due to the fact that the nForce 650i SLI has dropped in price significantly since launch, making it viable even for mid-range desktops who don't specifically need SLI... [read more]
