questions/confusion about the z68 mobos

[combination]

Hello, having read a lot of stuff on z68 and sandy bridge, there's still some confusion. Please help me clarify the following questions. Maybe others may also benefit from the answers

1. Quick Sync technology - helps in minimizing transcoding times. Now, if the z68 board like many of the Gigabyte boards doesn't have a video out on the motherboard, then this board will not be able to use the quick sync onboard graphics processor? For example the following gigabyte mobo doesn't have on board graphics http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128500

2. now IGP (integrated graphics processor) is located inside the CPU (i3,i5,i7) or on the mobo? i assume if there are vga/display out ports then it might on the mobo but i read that the sandy bridge cpu's are suppose to take advantage of the hardware encoding so confused where this is located.

3. are all the IGPs the same for the z68 processors? are these the intel hd 3000. how do we know if they're hd 3000 or 2000

4. a gigabyte motherboard which has the IGP is less expensive than one that doesn't have IGP. For example, let's compare the following two mobos

a)
13-128-502 Virtu, Touch BIOS, Smart Response SSD, 2-Way SLI, HDMI GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard


b) Touch BIOS, 2-Way SLI, Smart Response SSD, VGA Card Required GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

what's the difference between the D3H and UD3. Is this related to the quality of the components?

5. quick smart response. I know that by using a ssd as a cache along with your main mechanical harddrive, we get faster speeds. How does compare to a system that uses a 80GB ssd for its boot drive.

thanks a lot

 

[sticks435]

1. That is correct. The boards must have video out on them to use Quicksync or the IGP.

2. The IGP is on the CPU itself.It connects to the mobo video connecters via the PCIe lanes.

3. The 2500K and 2600K are the only 2 CPU's as of now to have the HD3000. All other's are HD2000.

4. Quality of components and number of features. The UD3 2 more 6Gbp ports, 4 more external USB ports, and replaces 2 internal usb headers with usb 3. Also it probably had more power phases and yes, better components. Probably more bios options too.

5. I think from reviews, it's about half as fast as a pure SSD setup depending on what's being read.

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

1) Actually you CAN use the IGP on a board with no video out, by running Virtu in D-mode you can run code on the IGP, then copy the frame buffer to the GPU to output via the GPUs DVI/HDMI/DP.

2) Yes on the CPU die itself.

3) Same as above.

4) DH3 has 3 PCI-e 16x slots, but the same lane connections. The UD3 has 1 more PCI-e 1.0 as well as more SATAIII and USB2 than the DH3. As far as power phases/bios I can't say for sure but it is safe to assume the UD3 has better components yes.

5) SSD Cache will only improve performance on frequently accessed files. The more files you access the larger your cache will need to be to maintain itself. As per anand's article, you can achieve up to 90% of the performance of a pure SSD but only after 3 or more runs (so the app/files are at the top of your cache). Again, you will see no improvement at first and changing your habits for a few days/runs can cause files to be evicted from the cache and you are back at square one HDD performance. A pure SSD will never have this problem. SSD cache size is currently limited to 40GB max. Don't forget caches will only benefit reads and do very little for writes.

In my opinion, if you have the cash to be looking at 80-160GB SSDs then you are better off running it as your main drive and using HDDs only as file storage. You can get a 120GB Vertex 2 for $160 after rebate from newegg this week. 40-60GB Vertex/Agility 2s are currently selling for $95-120. The 20GB intel designed "Z68 cache SSD" is also around $100. If you really have the cash to go top of the line, a 128GB Crucial M4 / 120GB Vertex/Agility 3 / 120GB Intel 320 can be had for around $250.

 

[combination]

1. That is correct. The boards must have video out on them to use Quicksync or the IGP.

2. The IGP is on the CPU itself.It connects to the mobo video connecters via the PCIe lanes.

3. The 2500K and 2600K are the only 2 CPU's as of now to have the HD3000. All other's are HD2000.

4. Quality of components and number of features. The UD3 2 more 6Gbp ports, 4 more external USB ports, and replaces 2 internal usb headers with usb 3. Also it probably had more power phases and yes, better components. Probably more bios options too.

5. I think from reviews, it's about half as fast as a pure SSD setup depending on what's being read.

1) Actually you CAN use the IGP on a board with no video out, by running Virtu in D-mode you can run code on the IGP, then copy the frame buffer to the GPU to output via the GPUs DVI/HDMI/DP.

2) Yes on the CPU die itself.

3) Same as above.

4) DH3 has 3 PCI-e 16x slots, but the same lane connections. The UD3 has 1 more PCI-e 1.0 as well as more SATAIII and USB2 than the DH3. As far as power phases/bios I can't say for sure but it is safe to assume the UD3 has better components yes.

5) SSD Cache will only improve performance on frequently accessed files. The more files you access the larger your cache will need to be to maintain itself. As per anand's article, you can achieve up to 90% of the performance of a pure SSD but only after 3 or more runs (so the app/files are at the top of your cache). Again, you will see no improvement at first and changing your habits for a few days/runs can cause files to be evicted from the cache and you are back at square one HDD performance. A pure SSD will never have this problem. SSD cache size is currently limited to 40GB max. Don't forget caches will only benefit reads and do very little for writes.

In my opinion, if you have the cash to be looking at 80-160GB SSDs then you are better off running it as your main drive and using HDDs only as file storage. You can get a 120GB Vertex 2 for $160 after rebate from newegg this week. 40-60GB Vertex/Agility 2s are currently selling for $95-120. The 20GB intel designed "Z68 cache SSD" is also around $100. If you really have the cash to go top of the line, a 128GB Crucial M4 / 120GB Vertex/Agility 3 / 120GB Intel 320 can be had for around $250.

Thanks guys, really informative posts and appreciate it.

Is running in D-mode easily accessible via the mentioned software?

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

Well you might want to do some quick research, or perhaps someone else can post in with the info.

As I stated you *CAN* run code on the IGP even if the motherboard doesn't have a display output, but someone else mentioned to me that the Gigabyte boards without the display output don't come with a virtu lisence. I wasn't aware virtu was a lisenced software that had to be bundled in the box.

If you do have the software it is as simple as setting it to "D-Mode" in the driver and it will do the rest. However, if the board does in fact not come with the software, then you would not be able to use the IGP at all.