XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard

Vote: Thumbs Down or Thumbs Up Our Rating: 91%       Manufacturer: XFXforce

BIOS

When it comes to the BIOS, XFX has gone the exact same design, look and features as the ZOTAC board; no surprises here as they are both direct reference designs.

Buses

FSB (QDR): 400 - 2800 in 1MHz Increments

Mem (DDR): 400 - 2500 in 1MHz Increments

PCIe x16_1 & x16_1: 100MHz to 200MHz in 1MHz Increments

PCIe x16_3: 100MHz to 200MHz in 1MHz Increments

SPP to MCP Ref Clock: 200MHz to 500MHz in 1MHz Increments

Voltages

CPU Core: 0.5125v to 2.0v in 0.0125v increments

CPU FSB: 1.2v to 1.55v in 0.05v increments

Memory: 1.5v to 2.275v in 0.025v Increments

nForce SPP: 1.3v to 1.55v in 0.05v increments

nForce MCP: 1.5v to 1.75v in 0.05v increments

GLTVRef Lane 0: -155mV to +155mV in 0.05mv increments

GLTVRef Lane 1: -155mV to +155mV in 0.05mv increments

GLTVRef Lane 2: -155mV to +155mV in 0.05mv increments

GLTVRef Lane 3: -155mV to +155mV in 0.05mv increments

Overclocking

With all the overclocking options in the BIOS available to us, we managed to hit a healthy 558MHz FSB which is a mere 2MHz higher than our ZOTAC motherboard. So, nothing exceptional here; we had to tweak all the voltages to get this speed out of the system, so it’s running as high as it could do. Even with more time we doubt we would see much if any increase from the FSB on this board.

Important Editor Note: Our maximum overclocking result is the best result we managed in our limited time of testing the motherboard. Due to time constraints we weren’t able to tweak the motherboard to the absolute maximum and find the highest possible FSB, as this could take days to find properly. We do however spend at least a few hours overclocking every motherboard to try and find the highest possible overclock in that time frame. You may or may not be able to overclock higher if you spend more time tweaking, or as new BIOS updates are released. “Burn-in” time might also come into play if you believe in that.