CPU Overclocking - 3.7GHz!

     By boosting the CPU voltage to 1.5v, we were able to easily hit 3.7GHz with stock air cooling! That's right, 3.7GHz without changing anything but a few bios settings. The chart below shows are actual settings.

SiSoft Sandra Processor Arithmetic

Sandra Processor Arithmetic results shown above in red: 33962/23551

SiSoft Sandra Processor Multi-Media

Sandra Processor Multi-Media results shown above in red: 203305/144691

     I don't care who you are, a 1GHz gain in CPU speed is impressive! Again, this was accomplished without any kind of special cooling or mystery tweaking by lowering the performance of other hardware to gain stability.

Video Performance

     Next we have a look at the video performance of the EVGA 680i SLI. As mentioned earlier in the review, we are using a pair of EVGA GeForce 7600GT graphics cards running in SLI. The 7600GT cards are not going to set any world records, but we wanted to show our readers what SLI can do. We want to keep the benchmarks short, sweet and to the point so we are not going to run 50 different benchmarks 72 different ways. Instead we are going to use the latest version of 3DMark2006 and benchmark a single card and then with 2 cards running in SLI.

Single Graphics Card
(default benchmark settings at 1280 x 1024)

Dual Graphics Cards running in SLI
(default benchmark settings at 1280 x 1024)

     Going from a single to 2 graphics cards running in SLI really gives the user a huge performance boost. The benchmark score isn't quite twice as fast, but you get the point. So instead of pulling your old graphics card for something faster, you can add a second SLI ready card for a lot less money than a single high end upgrade. For more information on SLI and what it can do for you, visit the NVIDIA SLI Zone.

Conclusion

     Only time will tell if EVGA's new 680i SLI motherboard will stand up to long term abuse of gamers and overclockers, but from what I've seen so far, it blows away any Intel based motherboard I've ever seen or used. For any company to have a high performance board like this is impressive, but for a company who's reputation has been built strictly on graphics cards to put out an incredible motherboard based on new technology before the big boys could do so is mind blowing. EVGA has given enthusiasts a high performance 680i SLI motherboard first and done it right on the first try. I congratulate EVGA for their success and our entire staff is looking forward to seeing many more cool products from EVGA in the months and years to come!

The EVGA 680i SLI motherboard is available at www.clubit.com

Innovation:	10 out of 10
Performance:	10 out of 10
Quality:	10 out of 10
Stability:	10 out of 10
Overclocking:	10 out of 10
Software/Drivers Pack:	9.5 out of 10
Value:	9.5 out of 10
Overall Rating 10
Project Skill Level (10 being most difficult)	6 out of 10