Product Reviews

Until now, if you wanted an SLI system, which enables you to run two nVidia graphics cards simultaneously, you were stuck with AMD PCs, as only they had the correct chipset. Those days are gone with the release of nVidia nForce4 chipsets for Intel LGA775 systems. We've got one of the first boards available, Gigabyte's GA-8N SLI Royal. It supports all Pentium 4 processors, including the new 1,066MHz front-side bus models.

The motherboard comes with two x16 PCI-E slots, so it can take two graphics cards. To configure the motherboard to operate in this mode, you have to remove the SLI module, which sits between the two slots, and plug it in the SLI way. This lets the motherboard divide the x16 PCI-E lane into two x8 lanes. Gigabyte also provides a 3D1 module, so you can use its dual-core graphics card in the primary x16 slot, although this somewhat defeats the object of buying an SLI board.

We tested

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it using a 3.6GHz Pentium 4 processor, 1GB of RAM in a dual-channel configuration and two nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra cards, each with 256MB of GDDR3 memory. In standard mode our PC scored 77.7fps in Doom 3 at 1,024x768; in SLI mode it scored 99.9fps, which is 28 per cent faster. At 1,600x1,200 the difference is even more noticeable, with the SLI system performing 38 per cent faster.

Our normal benchmarks returned equally impressive results, with scores of 150 in the Shopper application benchmarks and 5,531 in PCMark04. It's clearly a fast motherboard.

It's also compact, and many of the heat-generating items are next to each other, including the processor, Northbridge and U-Plus DPS module, which enhances the board's power supply module. Install a GeForce 6800 Ultra (or two) and you have even more heat-generating components next to each other, which could be a real problem.

Despite its compact size, the motherboard has plenty of features, including dual LAN ports, eight-channel audio, two IDE connectors and six SATA ports. The board supports RAID 0, 1 and 5 arrays.

There are two x1 PCI-E slots, although only one works in SLI mode, while two PCI slots provide support for older cards. With support for eight USB2.0 ports and two FireWire ports it has plenty of scope for external peripherals too.

As an introduction to Intel SLI, it's a well-featured product capable of the highest levels of performance, but the close proximity of the components makes us worry about heat.