smokincpu Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 Can anyone shed some light on this? I called EVGA and told them I would be overclocking my new system. I ask what the difference is between the 790i ultra chipset and 790i, they told me absolutely nothing. Yet when you go to their forums, everyone is staying away from the 790i ftw because they say it doesnt have the ultra chipset. If there is no difference why all the fuss? Anyone have concrete info on this? Thank you very much. smokincpu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molten Posted September 27, 2008 Share Posted September 27, 2008 The difference between the 2 chipset is that the regular 790i chipset (which the FTW motherboard uses) has only official Nvidia (Nvidia makes the chipsets not EVGA) support up to DDR3 1333. The 790i Ultra chipset (which the Ultra motherboard uses) has official Nvidia support up to DDR3 2000. EVGA is guaranteeing their FTW motherboards can do DDR3 2000 regardless of the chipsets rated specs of DDR3 1333 but its not officially supported by Nvidia. This will be DDR3 2000 (O.C.) and not native DDR3 2000 support. The 790i Ultra chipsets are also "cherry picked" for their speed by Nvidia, this means they have been tested and meet a certain level of performance. The regular 790i chipsets either failed these tests or were never tested so have no guarantee they will perform to that level (some will, some chipsets that could have been Ultra will be missed and become regular 790i chips). The main benefit of Ultra chipsets and what your paying for is the fact they have been tested for a certain level of performance and passed. As for the FTW no one is really staying away from it, plenty are buying it and most are having a good experience. The problem is some that had the EVGA 790i Ultra motherboard have had trouble matching the performance/OC that was capable on the Ultra motherboard on their FTW. If you have never owned an Ultra motherboard you wont notice anything really since you have nothing to compare the FTW to. That doesnt mean there are not 790i FTW's just as good as Ultra motherboards because there are, some are having great success with the FTW. All this is irrelevant really since EVGA doesnt give you a choice, you either go for an 790i Ultra Motherboard with the 790i Ultra chipset but all its design flaws/short-cummings or you buy the better designed 790i FTW motherboard that uses the regular 790i chips. What i have noticed is the Ultra motherboards seem to have the better Memory Controllers but this makes sense since the chips were tested. The memory is one of the parts of the FTW motherboard where EVGA has made no design/component improvements, you could say this is where they made a cutback with the 790i chipset (official DDR3 1333 support instead of official DDR3 2000). The problem is the Ultra motherboard design is not the best and really even though you have to take a gamble with the regular 790i chips, the EVGA 790i FTW motherboard is probably the better buy. EVGA is probably doing its best to make sure all FTW's are capable of pushing DDR3 2000 but it seems some have fallen through the net. Ideally EVGA would have given the EVGA 790i FTW Digital the 790i Ultra chipset and gave the consumer the choice, do they really need 2 motherboards where the only difference is one has Analogue and the other Digital Phase Power system? This does not mean its a bad motherboard or to stay away from it, it just isnt what some of us were hoping for but it seems EVGA wants to push the 790i chipset regardless of what its customers said its willing to pay for. So far EVGA has only went as far as saying the chipsets have a "minimal" difference. The person you spoke to seems to be either badly informed, has no real idea of whats going on or doesnt want to tell you the truth for whatever reason. There is a difference even though it is "minimal". You could compare buying the 790i chipset/790i Ultra chipset to buying a Vanilla GTX280/GTX 280 FTW. The Vanilla GTX 280 may be able to OC and match the FTW's performance but its not guaranteed. With the GTX280 FTW, you know its been tested and you know what performance you will get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokincpu Posted September 29, 2008 Author Share Posted September 29, 2008 Thanks for the great insight I do appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r0b0tc0rpse Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 FTW will be all around better than the ultra regardless of what any one says. The nvidia memory controllers are of the highest caliber (best out there) and you should have no problem running at 2000. I hope the core i7 on board controller will be able to match it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokincpu Posted October 1, 2008 Author Share Posted October 1, 2008 Wow looks like the FTW DIGITAL PWM was released today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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