Nvidia Announces Launch of New nForce 790i Chipset

The second quarter of this year will see the launch of the new nForce790i chipset from Nvidia. The new motherboard will support Intel processors with FSB of up to 1600MHz, and will adopt Nvidia’s current C73 northbridge and MCP55 southbridge.

The nForce 790i is set to replace the current high-end product and will feature 3-way SLI and Hybrid SLI technology and support DDR3 memory.Whilst DDR3 memory still remains quite pricey, motherboard makers have reported that they expect prices to go down sometime in the third quater of this year. TnForce 790i is still set to attract high-end gamers, however, who would be willing to pay for DDR3 memory as soon as the chipset is available.

The release will see two versions of the chipset go out; both the nForce 790i Ultra SLI and the nForce 790i SLI. The Ultra features better overlocking capabilites and will support SLI memory modules up to DDR3 2000.

Nvidia’s most recent launch, the Intel based nForce 780i, has underperformed since release, due largely to the specifications not being significantly higher than the nForce 680i. As the high-end market is set to see the 790i so soon, some motherboard makers have delayed or even stopped production, to avoid loss in the changeover.