I think a few words need to be said about the new NVIDIA nForce4 chipsets as it goes hand in hand with the 6800GT SLI review.There are three models of nForce4 available from NVIDIA: nForce4, nForce4 Ultra and nForce4 SLI. The basic boards are the same, with differences in features, in SLI support, and in price. As this is the first motherboard review I’ve done for the New Year I thought I’d cover the various differences in a preview.

nForce4 is the basic chipset. This brings nForce to the PCI Express revolution that was started by Intel in the middle of last year. Key features of the nForce4 include PCI Express, SATA, 800 MHz HyperTransport link, 10 USB port support, NVIDIA Firewall, support for NVIDIA RAID up to 4 SATA 1.5 GB/second drives supported natively, and Gigabit Ethernet support.

nForce4 Ultra is for the gamer wanting high performance single graphics card support. This platform brings SATA 2.0 support (up to 3 GB/second transfer rates), PCI Express support to nVidia based motherboards, 10 USB 2.0 port support, Gigabit Ethernet, and nVidia’s ActiveArmor which provides Firewall and provides protection from hackers and spyware.

nForce4 SLI is the ultimate gamer’s motherboard. Currently it is he only AMD PCI Express chipset that supports dual graphics cards at the same time when running games. It offers all of the features of the nForce4 Ultra and adds SLI. The Gigabyte GA-K8N SLI is based upon the nForce4 SLI chipset. This chipset supports SLI on cards of the 6600GT, 6800, 6800GT and 6800 Ultra varieties now.