To the AnandTech people

[gixxer]

I doubt I am the only person here who has been waiting for a review of all the SLI board together, so when I read this paragraph in your DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers ( http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2337&p=8 ) article back on 2-5-05 I think I started to drool with anticipation.

?Those looking for SLI benchmarks should take a look at test results in Morphing nForce4 Ultra into nForce4 SLI. For SLI to have a major impact on gaming performance, the driver needs to be optimized for SLI. In the Ultra to SLI article, we have compared 3 games that are supported by the current SLI driver, and all 3 show tremendous performance gains with SLI. We are currently working on an SLI roundup that will compare performance of all the current nForce4 SLI boards. That roundup should be posted next week.?

I have been patiently waiting for all the big motherboard players to come out with their SLI board and then read a review comparing all the pros and cons of each in one article. Sure you can see different individual reviews on different web sites, but each site always tends to put their own flare on it in terms of what they think is important. So one site may beat up a motherboard for something, while another site barely mentions it.

You have ASUS with the FSB limit, NCQ problem, loud fan; Gigabyte no one has really said anything about; DFI can overclock like crazy, but those colors and no parallel port; and MSI just got a glowing review at HardOCP but has a -5volt issue and no 1x PCI-e slots. I am hoping that you will be able to put it all into perspective. (not too much pressure.. lol)

So I am not sure if you can respond to this post with an approximate time you think it will be done, but rather, take this as a ?please hurry? we want to read it!

Thanks.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Don't think we'll be seeing one anytime soon for several reasons.

1. Most of the new NF4 boards have just hit the market (except for Asus and Chaintech) and are still so new that bios updates are almost daily. Until these mobos mature a little longer this would not be a fair comparison.

2. The NF4 platform is a marketing battlefield right now, I doubt any of the Major review sites want to take sides at this point. Plus imagine if they put out a review that said one board was superior to another as far as overclocking, then 2 days later a new bios is issued for the underperforming board and now it thrashes the other board. How stupid would they look then?

3. Look at NF3 as an example, It was several months before a meaningful comparison review (shootout) was done. Don't forget that these review sites are in business because of the manufacturers and will be very hesitant to name a winner for a given platform until its almost a foregone conclusion.

 

[seattledesi]

good points GD.. but AT has done reviews on brand spanking new video cards (comparing nvidia / ati ) when the drivers between both were fairly recent and buggy.

 

[Waylay00]

Instead of an NF4 SLI roundup, they should do an NF4 complete roundup (NF4, NF4 Ultra, NF4 SLI). I want to see how the new AN8 Fatal1ty stacks up.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

I disagree with GD. If the boards are ready to be released to the public they're ready to be reviewed too.

I'm disapointed that the DFI boards were reviewed a day or two before they showed up, while the Chaintech has been avaialable for a while and got no AT attention. The Gigabyte nF4 Ultra and SLI boards too; AT spent time reviewing pre-production samples and now we have over 10 PCI-E AMD boards that are so far completely ignored.

 

[gixxer]

Good point GD, but I guess I had my hopes up that the review would be out soon after they said "That roundup should be posted next week." back on Feb. 5th.

So I just wanted to let them no some of us are waiting for it, hoping it will be done soon.

 

[imported_burningrave101]

Originally posted by: ChineseDemocracyGNR
I disagree with GD. If the boards are ready to be released to the public they're ready to be reviewed too.

I'm disapointed that the DFI boards were reviewed a day or two before they showed up, while the Chaintech has been avaialable for a while and got no AT attention. The Gigabyte nF4 Ultra and SLI boards too; AT spent time reviewing pre-production samples and now we have over 10 PCI-E AMD boards that are so far completely ignored.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2285

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2273

And even though its a descent priced board, i doubt the Chaintech will hold a candle to the higher-end DFI, MSI, and Abit SLI solutions.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

I don't know if I made it clear but I was aware AT reviewed early samples of the Gigabyte boards.

As for the Chaintech vs others, I wouldn't count it out yet. This board seems to be doing very well compared to the DFI (number of dead boards) and MSI nF4 Ultra (not so great OCer).