We originally stated that only three 790FX boards are currently available on the market, but additional models from DFI and Jetway are available at Newegg. Sapphire appears to have a board, as well, although it doesn't seem to be available for sale in North America.

I've corrected the text to reflect these developments. My apologies.

OMGWTFBBQ I just saw the review at Anand and AMD's 780g cleaned the clock of Nvidia's 780a, being 16-30% faster on the IGP.

Anand also had trouble in the OC department.

My earlier quip of Nvidia "showing AMD how it is done" now looks rather silly.

I'd not be comfortable going with the 780a mobo at this point, not for the IGP performance but for the power and OC.

This is a good article, but have you guys not been reading the complaints about the bar graphs?

1) Both bars are the same color.
2) The relative position of the two boards changes constantly.
3) The chipset name is on the far left, while the part of the graph where the bars differ is on the far right.

It is impossible to tell at a glance which chipset is better. It would be trivial to greatly improve your articles by implementing the basics of graphical presentation of data, and I don't understand why you don't do it.

Why are the standards so different for AMD boards as compared to Intel boards?

These boards lack dual gigabit ethernet, are keeping analog output around (why can't it just as easily use a DVI output and package in a DVI -> VGA adapter?) and they are coming up short on PCI Express slots. A single x1 slot seems pretty minimal to me; sure, there are people who still want to use legacy PCI slots, but I think it's really time to get them phased out. At least throw in two of each--and what ever happened to floppy drive controllers?

I feel like my not-quite-so-new 680i can stand up pretty well against these boards, even taking into account their respective CPU options. I just wish AMD and Intel boards were subjected to the same levels of criticism; I guess HybridPower was too exciting and therefore the whole board was raised to infallibility?

Nice of Nvidia to step up to the plate and show AMD how it is done. If only Nvidia could buy AMD we might have a serious counterbalance to Intel. Wish in one hand...

Eh, but overclocking and power consumption ain't so hot. I'm not surprised by the power consumption, but the overclocking is a sad development.

Thanks for the review. I'm glad that yesteryear's Nforce 590 is no longer the best Nvidia option of today. It took dang long enough, but better late and great than early and squirrelly.

I'm pretty surprised with the wholehearted recommndation the board gets given its OCing abilities and its power consumption. The OCing especially.

780G is on Killing spree :P

Where are the mGPU benchmarks?

I'll forgive omitting gaming figures, but a 8400/X1300 is perfectly fine for CAD work, so it would be interesting to look at AutoCAD/Catia/other OpenGL workstation benchmarks.

Would the 780a be a decent workstation/productivity platform without a discrete/gaming GPU?

What about movie playback offloading?

Not a bad mobo, if AMD CPU's were still king of the hill.
At least there's not 12 SATA ports on it... well laid-out which is nice to see.
Good quick review to get the ball rolling.
I also want to hear more about the capabilities of this chipset.
<wild.speculation> (I wonder if it's ASUS he's visiting)

On a different note:
Two weeks ago we're reading about how Intel's integrated graphics are horrible, can't game at all thus needing a discrete GPU, and mess with the numbers something horrible since they only do Everything but Direct3D well enough. Hypocrisy. This chipset is explicitly marketed so a discrete GPU is desirable besides being outright needed to play games. Hybrid SlyPower ftw.
pfft.

Oh, and this 780a needs to be $150 cheaper than the current list price (if not more) before it's even close to being a viable product.

Clarification: considering you can get AMD 780G motherboards for around $70-90 that have the SB700 southbridge chip and IGP that blows the the mGPU on the 780a out of the water (up to ~50% faster according to anandtech), lower power consumption and better overclocking. Oh, and no 1900x1200 limitation on HDMI/DVI output.

Can anyone say stillborn? Or better yet, abortion? :p

Here's one question that I didn't see answered in this review (I might just be blind...): How does Hybrid SLI work in conjunction with a regular SLI config? Can we use HSLI to turn off two 9800's in SLI? What about Hybrid, Tri-SLI? Does nv have plans, and the drivers just aren't there?

Doesn't anyone find it fishy that nvidia remove what little power management they had on the GPU (essentially 2d/3d clocks) to replace it with this hybridpower thing that only works on their motherboard while their retail cards run at 100% all the time?

Bad nvidia.

I would rather they do a proper cpu sleep states implementation on performance GPUs.

Vista only? booo!

I tried 4 AMD7-series mobos and this board is the best thus far for me.
It was a breeze to setup, no hassles. Loving it. I am an AMD fanboy, but nvidia chipsets tickle me the right way. Damn that SB600

I am very excited for this technology, But as with any new tech, don't buy the first generation. I know from experience because i got burned by the first gen of sli.

Just a word from the wise.

Nice article but some mGPU gaming and HD decoding benchmarks would have definitely been icing on the cake. Also, can you confirm whether the HDMI port passes high-definition audio?

DiggDugged

http://digg.com/hardware/Nvidia_s_nForce_780a_SLI_chipset

the motherboard is good but by much , AMD didn't launch the replacement of the soutbrige? the SB700 , anyway a would like a comparison between the hybrid power of Nvidia in more real games , 3-way sli ,or at least SLI :)) and the geforce boost
PS i would not buy a AMD socket motherboard more expensive then the CPU
The spider platform is better then intel+Nvidia at a price point?(<1000$)
this would be interesting to see.