ASRock P67 Fatal1ty and Extreme 6 on Newegg

stahlhart

Super Moderator Graphics Cards
Dec 21, 2010
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So what's Fatal1ty F-stream? What you hear when you frag him in Q3?

Apart from the paint job and the proprietary mouse port, I'm having trouble discerning the $40 premium over the Extreme 6. Looks cool, though.
 

stahlhart

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Dec 21, 2010
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It looks like if I went with either the 6 or the 4, it would be choosing between having NF200 or being able to put discrete audio in the top 1X slot, thought I think that there are one or two other options (the Sabertooth) that have lower-profile cooling there that a board will pass over.
 

Spike

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Aug 27, 2001
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The NF200 buys the ability to run dual cards in x16 mode, is that right? Is there much of a difference running SLI in dual x8 vs dual x16? I also heard (probably wrongly) that the new x8 on a P67 is actually faster than the old x8, is that correct?

Wait, the specs say it's still just 2 x8 ports. What does the NF200 do?
 

stahlhart

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Dec 21, 2010
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Wait, the specs say it's still just 2 x8 ports. What does the NF200 do?

Looks like it holds up a billboard for Johnathan.

I'm guessing that 1 x 16X or 2 x 8X is probably a P67 limit that the NF200 can't overcome, and it's only there to support tri-SLI/CrossfireX, as compared to P67 boards that don't.
 

Spike

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Aug 27, 2001
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Looks like it holds up a billboard for Johnathan.

I'm guessing that 1 x 16X or 2 x 8X is probably a P67 limit that the NF200 can't overcome, and it's only there to support tri-SLI/CrossfireX, as compared to P67 boards that don't.

So without it you can only run 2 cards as opposed to 3? If so I don't regret my extreme 4 purchase at all. I have never run dual, let along triple, cards.
 

stahlhart

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Dec 21, 2010
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I have a lot more to learn about the NF200's functionality -- but if the main reason for it's presence here is support for three GPUs, since I doubt that I'm ever going to run more than two I'm kind of in your camp there.

My main misgiving about it is that on many of these boards it comes along with a heat sink that obstructs what to me appears to be an ideal location for a 1X slot for a discrete audio board, which I am pretty sure I'm going to prefer to onboard audio -- but if you look at the Asus P8P67 Deluxe, its heat sink looks to have a low enough profile that allows a card in that adjacent 1X slot to pass over it, which if it's true is a really neat touch. The second choice here looks to be to use a bottom PCIe slot, if there's one there out of the way of a possible second GPU. I don't think that I want to invest in any more PCI cards at this point.

Edit: that heat sink appears to be there just for appearance, as is the case on the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 -- but at least it's still not in the way of the 1X slot like it is on the Gigabyte board...
 
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Dark Shroud

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Mar 26, 2010
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To try to make this simple, the NF200 manages the PCI lanes & bandwidth. It does not make more PCI lanes or bandwidth. The trade off is that it increases board latency and it can cause "hiccups" if something goes wrong.

If you want Crossfire or SLI get a board that will switch to x8/x8. Right now you won't notice a difference between that & x16 & x16. If you want tri-fire or triple SLI just wait until LGA 2011 Sandy Bridge in the second half of this year. X68 or whatever its called will have a lot more PCI lanes with even more bandwidth.
 

stahlhart

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Dec 21, 2010
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To try to make this simple, the NF200 manages the PCI lanes & bandwidth. It does not make more PCI lanes or bandwidth. The trade off is that it increases board latency and it can cause "hiccups" if something goes wrong.

If you want Crossfire or SLI get a board that will switch to x8/x8. Right now you won't notice a difference between that & x16 & x16. If you want tri-fire or triple SLI just wait until LGA 2011 Sandy Bridge in the second half of this year. X68 or whatever its called will have a lot more PCI lanes with even more bandwidth.

Thanks much -- I think the way it's going to work out for me is a P67 board as an interim bridge to a Z68 board later this year, so I'm probably going to go more basic for the former (looking at the UD4 now) and splurge a little more for the latter.

I'd just wait until then, but I've got the 2500K on the way here, and I'm chomping at the bit now to put this old Socket A machine out to pasture. o_O :)
 

Castiel

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Dec 31, 2010
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Easiest way to explain how the NF200 works on the P67 is this...

2 cards in SLI and Xfire. Both X16, 8 lanes come from the processor and the other 8 come from the NF200 chip
 

stahlhart

Super Moderator Graphics Cards
Dec 21, 2010
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Will be interesting to see if anyone does some comparisons on the P67 board to see how SLI on, say, a UD4, compares to something like the Fatal1ty or UD7, 16X versus 8X.

People still seem to be arguing about those two things a lot here -- whether or not you need 16 lanes on each GPU, and whether or not 1Gb is enough for 1080p and 4X AA. Someone somewhere needs to run the tests to settle it, so people here can move on to the next thing to argue about. :)

/remembers the IDE vs. SCSI war on Usenet
 

Hogan773

Senior member
Nov 2, 2010
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Prices as of right now...


Thoughts on value vs Extreme 4? I dont need 3X GPUs. Wondering if 16+2 power phase is at all meaningful vs 8+2 on the Extreme 4? On another thread there was complaint that someone couldn't get above 4.4ghz (at 4.5ghz they couldn't boot) and he speculated it could be due to mobo power.......

that said, I am likely to be a voltage wimp anyway and probably won't want to take it above 1.3 - 1.325 range anyway, so perhaps it doesn't matter to me I guess? Perhaps not worth paying up to get Extreme 6
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
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Thoughts on value vs Extreme 4? I dont need 3X GPUs. Wondering if 16+2 power phase is at all meaningful vs 8+2 on the Extreme 4? On another thread there was complaint that someone couldn't get above 4.4ghz (at 4.5ghz they couldn't boot) and he speculated it could be due to mobo power.......

that said, I am likely to be a voltage wimp anyway and probably won't want to take it above 1.3 - 1.325 range anyway, so perhaps it doesn't matter to me I guess? Perhaps not worth paying up to get Extreme 6

From what I have read from reviews and also some users both are good boards,the Extreme 6 has two LAN plus as you know has more power phases which may help with overclocking,gold caps do look nice,end of the day you can't really go wrong with either.

One user did comment on about not letting Windows Update install drivers on his Extreme6 board since it messed up his LAN,he uninstalled the Windows driver to fix the problem.

I have decided on the Asrock Extreme 6 but going to wait a little while.

Btw Italian review got it at 5.2GHz stable not bad all http://www.pcbrain.it/index.php/articoli/3-motherboard/963-asrock-p67-extreme-6-prestazioni-alla-portata-di-tutti.html?start=17
 
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Hogan773

Senior member
Nov 2, 2010
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From what I have read from reviews and also some users both are good boards,the Extreme 6 has two LAN plus as you know has more power phases which may help with overclocking,gold caps do look nice,end of the day you can't really go wrong with either.

One user did comment on about not letting Windows Update install drivers on his Extreme6 board since it messed up his LAN,he uninstalled the Windows driver to fix the problem.

I have decided on the Asrock Extreme 6 but going to wait a little while.

Btw Italian review got it at 5.2GHz stable not bad all http://www.pcbrain.it/index.php/art...estazioni-alla-portata-di-tutti.html?start=17


Am I accurate though re: power phases? (I dont really know what a "power phase" even is......) Does more power phases just mean the board can send more voltage safely? Or does it mean it is able to deliver it "cleaner" without power fluctuations? If its just MORE voltage then I guess I don't care cause I'm not going to be pumping 1.55V and frying my chip.

I just don't know what I am paying for and getting in a 16+2 vs 8+2 (or 12+2 in Asuses etc)
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
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Hogan773 :I'm no engineer but I believe more power phases helps with stability on overclocking and also reduces heat as well,I'm sure some experts on this subject will chime in with more info.
 
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Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
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ASRock P67 Fatal1ty does not seem to offer much more over the Extreme6,I know you get a special mouse port that you can run at 100 to 1000Hz,however my Razer mouse does 125 and 500Hz(my default) on USB or even 1000Hz if I want.

I think the Extreme6 and 4 are the better boards when you take features and price into consideration.

I don't like the BIOS display on the Fatal1ty, it would be good if you could remove the image of that guy.
 
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