14 DAY TRIAL // The next generation of Intel compatible mainboard chipsets made by Nvidia will be launched as part of the 700i line of products and the top of the line 780i offering hides a few surprises under its hood. While there are many rumors flying around forums and hardware related Web sites that concern the new 780i Nvidia mainboard chipset, it looks like it is not an entirely new design, but more of an improvement over the current line.
According to the hardware news site fudzilla, Nvidia once again takes on revamping an older product, in this case the 680i motherboard chipset, by adding one more PCI Express controller as well as a number of smaller additional improvements over the old design.
The already in production 680i chipset is aimed at Intel compatible desktop computing platforms and Nvidia is using it, together with the BR04 chip in order to make the 780i. The BR04 chip acts as an additional PCI Express controller as the 780i needs more full speed lanes that are available on the 680i, because the manufacturing company decided that users might be interested in a motherboard with extended SLI capabilities.
The 780i will power motherboards compatible with Intel's next generation of central processing units, while offering the possibility of a multi graphics cards setup that supports up to three Nvidia centered graphics cards, or a three-way SLI for short. In order to make this concept a reality, Nvidia needed three full speed x16 PCI Express lanes and the old 680i chipset was designed only for two. The BR04 chip is used to add the third x16 PCI Express line, while also providing support for the second iteration of the PCI Express protocol, but no real benefits are likely to be born from this contraption.
The same hardware site reports that a mainboard that is centered around the new 780i chipset was presented by Nvidia and that this new product comes with a seriously big active cooling solution on its northbridge, while the smaller southbrigde is actively cooled too, but with a small fan and radiator assembly. While most mainboard manufacturing companies will most likely try to switch to a passive cooling solution in an attempt to deliver a quieter, this may not be very feasible as the presence of the additional BR04 chip may heat up things a little too much.