Several weeks ago, details about the upcoming 600 series, featuring mainly 650i and 680i products, flooded the official channels. The rumor then became a fact: Nvidia was going to replace 500 series with the new 600 series.

Actually, this information could have well remained just a rumor. But then PR representatives from Nvidia sent this picture to various internet sites, confirming the news. Nforce 680i SLI series was ready.

As for the board itself, the images first leaked and then confirmed by Nvidia show a motherboard manufactured by eVGA aimed at the enthusiast market, using no less than 3 PCI-E x16 connectors. The 3rd PCI-E slot was designed to work with video cards which possess 2 SLI connectors, making possible a 3 way SLI configuration. This is an interesting idea, not only because of the processing power 3 G80 boards have, but mostly because one of them could be used to process physics calculation using Nvidia's Quantum Physics Engine. This being said, Nvidia claims its technology is totally comparable to the one found in Ageia PhysX PPUs. Pretty cool, huh?

Above all this, the new Nvidia products are based on the same technology used by the 500 series. From the HD audio to the SATA II connectors, nothing is missing. There is no official support for FSB 1333 or DDR2 1200 with Enhanced Performance Profile, but that doesn't mean it's a lousy competitor. Performance is unknown at the moment and so is the exact price, but the final version will be launched at the same time with the G80 series.