Abit NI8 SLI: nVidia SLI for the Intel Gamer
by Randi Sica & Wesley Fink on October 7, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
AMD has recently dominated the gaming segment, thanks to NVIDIA, their nForce4 SLI chipset, and the power of the A64 FX processor. During that time, the Intel camp has had little to cheer about, with Intel gamers forced to rely solely on single graphics card solutions. They could only watch as AMD users walked on by in fps performance. NVIDIA recently shook up that status quo by introducing NVIDIA SLI to the Intel market.
Abit fans expect that if anyone can make a worthy Intel gaming board, it will be Abit. Their BIOS' have been tuned, in particular, towards gaming performance. Their current Fatality line of boards is a testament towards that gaming market, which has always held high regard for the Abit brand.
In the last year, much has been written of Abit's financial woes and re-organization, but despite the new challenges, they continue to engineer and introduce new products as the technology evolves. Let's see if the NI8 can help Abit to recapture some of their past glory.
Abit fans expect that if anyone can make a worthy Intel gaming board, it will be Abit. Their BIOS' have been tuned, in particular, towards gaming performance. Their current Fatality line of boards is a testament towards that gaming market, which has always held high regard for the Abit brand.
In the last year, much has been written of Abit's financial woes and re-organization, but despite the new challenges, they continue to engineer and introduce new products as the technology evolves. Let's see if the NI8 can help Abit to recapture some of their past glory.
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TheInvincibleMustard - Saturday, October 8, 2005 - link
Thanks for clearing that up, Wesley ... here I was thinking that AT had gone off their rockers for a moment :D-TIM
jojo4u - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
A new Forceware was also used in the gaming tests.smn198 - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
Agreed. This is not a motherboard test.TheInvincibleMustard - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
QFT ... what's the point in testing a new board while conveniently slipping a new processor into it as well? That's akin to "Let's compare this Accord versus this Corolla, oh and by the way, the Accord has nitrous, aftermarket shocks, aftermarket brakes, aftermarket muffler ..."Thanks for an article that shows that dual-core is better than single-core in multi-threaded applications ... funny, I thought Anandtech did one of those articles a while back ...
-TIM
PS -- WTF is up with no Firewire on this board? Mobos http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">less than $80 shipped have IEEE1394 connectivity for cryin' out loud ...
TheInvincibleMustard - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
Err ... well ... I tried to QFT, but apparently it didn't work? Whatever, I still agree with you guys.-TIM
ksherman - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
Man, I REALLY like the passively cooled chipset... wish DFI did that in the nF4 boards...mongoosesRawesome - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
eh, not so impressed myself. what ABIT did looks expensive and it doesn't get the job done adequately. DFI includes temperature controlled fans in their BIOS, which makes their fans bearable. A nice thing about Nforce 3/4 boards is that you really only have one chip to cool.Who exactly is Abit targeting with this board? Who games with Intel? A64s are cheap, nforce 4 boards are cheap, and they perform better. I realize that in the corporate world, there are people out there that only use Intel, but I figured gamers were different. I just can't see this board really being that popular.
KristopherKubicki - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link
ASUS did it first with the "Premium" series stuff.Kristopher
emc2-1955 - Sunday, August 29, 2010 - link
I got an Abit NI8 SLI with an extreme processor and 4 gig of ram. The problem is that to takes forever to load. I've tried it with windows xp pro and windows 7 can anyone tell me what I chould check any tips