Nvidia released a brief announcement admitting that its latest nForce 790i chipset for Intel CPUs cause data corruption under overclocking conditions.

The problem was reported by many enthusiasts that tried to overclock a
790i-based system by changing the processor system bus (PSB) as well as
the memory clock speeds. Reports indicated that this procedure could
lead to data corruption on hard disk drives.

"Nvidia has received reports of data corruption when using certain high speed memory and overclocking the front side bus,"
"Our engineers are currently investigating this issue and as soon as we
have more information, we will provide an update," the company said.

Apparently, Nvidia is preparing a new BIOS update to fix the problems related to the most expensive chipset around.

Consumers had also experienced similar issues in the past caused by the Nvidia nForce 4 based motherboards.

Nvidia's 790i platform is designed for current and next-generation Intel
CPUs, including those that support a 1600MHz frontside bus (FSB). It
supports DDR3 memory, PCI Express Gen 2.0, and the new Enthusiast
System Architecture (ESA) communications protocol for the real-time
monitoring and control of PC components. The nForce 790i Ultra SLI MCP
is also certified to run 2-Way, 3-Way, and Quad SLI GPU configurations.

Actual article link --> HERE

Lol, they should just give up on chipset market and allow Intel premission to enable sli in their x38/48 boards. This is hurting their graphics card sales.

I have an nForce4 SLI. It was great. I only had data corruption issues because my Plextor didn't think it had to work with PIO4!
As soon as DMA was enabled every CD/DVD I burned came out corrupted.
After I used an older 40wire IDE cable all that went away.
In true tradition data corruption manifests itself in every generation of nForce! It's almost like the rumors that NVIDIA uses less precise FPUs to increase framecounts from a few years ago. They must use some shady tricks to boost performance.

It's a NVIDIA conspiracy I tell you.

SLI on Intel chipsets would make all other chipsets for Intel processors obsolete (which they are anyway).

Yep, because having Crossfire support is such a bad thing. Not to mention a better HD controller. Not too mention my HD doesnt mysteriously go boom because I wanted to push my CPU a little bit. Nothing wrong with Intel chipsets. Id run a Intel chipset before a Nvidia as long as SLI doesnt enter the equation.

The dual cpu Intel Skulltrial chipset do support SLI, as well as Crossfire. It will also set you back $600.

CrossFire support is great. I meant that all non Intel produced chipsets for Intel CPUs would become obsolete.

I wouldn't buy NVIDIA chipsets again unless they had a 3-4 generation flawless record. nForce4 was good. 5x0a were okey but nothing special. 5x0i were useless. 680i data corruption. 7x0i data corruption. I see a pattern emerging.

Skulltrail is just that. I'd have to start killing people Predator style and selling their organs on the black market to earn enough to buy that. And since I only play SC SLI is a useless feature for me. I'd need a 16core 10GHz shipping container super computer to get 99.99 FPS during NUKE sessions . And then I'd wake up from my wet dreams...

So if I want to build a new machine and want 45nm Intel CPU and SLI Nvidia video cards I'm simply screwed?

I guess I'm kind of confused over which chipset to go with. 780i, 790i, P5E, X38 or X48. From what I have read only 780i/790i support SLI for Nvidia vid cards. While P5E, X38 and X48 only support Crossfire for ATI vid cards.

It's without question that the P5E is tried and true and that the new X38 isn't all that bad either. However it's without question, at this time, that Nvida makes the better vid cards (Ignoring the wasted 9xxx series release).

So what should I do? Get an Nvidia Chipset and SLI Vid Cards? Or get an Intel Chipset that only supports Crossfire?

I'm confused and worried.

@kilroy0097
If you must have 60+ fps in your favourite game today ("no matter the cost" ) you should go SLI but you should buy memory from the QVL and not overclock. Also make sure you have a daily backup plan. If you want a stable top notch system with a 3.6+ GHz quad core X38/X48 is the way to go. Graphics performance will suffer until HD 4870 comes out and likely it will suffer again when GF 9900(GTX/GX2/GTS/GT) comes out.
P35/X38/X48 benefits outweigh the drawbacks for me (and probably anyone who does work on his computer as well).

The problem with Nvidia chipsets is they cost so much. 780i's overclocking performance is the same as p35, but cost more than $100 more. With that kind of money, you can just get a 3870x2 or something...

X38 cost around the same as 780i, but overclocks far better.

The overclocking potential is not really part of the retail price. NVIDIA can value it's chipsets higher because they are the only ones that offer SLI. They think of the random features as a bonus. For people who work with computers and value their data or even create content there is just no way they can go with NVIDIA chipsets until NVIDIA fixes those data corruption issues. Graphics performance suffers for it. Eye candy << data integrity any day of the week.

If you add overclocking to the equation NVIDIA chipsets sink into a dark abyss of value and with a 9800 GX2 on X38 you still get both features.

And the 4870 is sinking Nvidia chipset even further, with or without oc. People usually think Nvidia is better because it has sli, which is one more point than the Intel chips. This is not true. 780i has sli, but x38 has crossfire. It's 1 on 1. And as early benchmarks show 4870 with its single gpu outperforms 9800gx2 with dual gpu by as much as 50%, crossfire is looking better than sli.

The HD 4870 is not here yet. Nothing we've read so far is offical. I hope it performs the way these benchmarks show as I'd love to own an ATI card again. I haven't had one since my Radeon 9200 in 2002. But the bum retailers here won't offer anything with passive cooling anyway so I'll be stuck with this great 9600GT until the end of the decade.

CrossFire always looked better than SLI (even if it performed way worse). The reason for that is that it runs on Intel chipsets. NVIDIA may be(was) making good chipsets for AMD CPUs (and that's why it became successful) but their Intel CPU chipsets are one giant leap behind Intels own. During AMDs CPU lead everyone was happy with NVIDIA chipsets because they were the best (for AMD chips) and their graphics cards were good enough if not the best. Now everyone wants Intel chips because they are in the lead and NVIDIAs Intel chipsets aren't the best (they are hardly good enough). NVIDIA should stick to what it's good at. Making AMD chipsets and graphic cards. Leave Intel chipsets to Intel (they know what they are doing) and sell them SLI bridge chips if they must.

Hey guys,

I have a 790i Ultra board and have had no problems overclocking my system and remaining completely stable. Not only that but if you read the article, it is referencing people who are performing extreme overclocking on the FSB. The board is rated to 1600 mhz FSB, and will do 2000 mhz with SLI ready memory. NOT 2100, or whatever else people are pushing it too. There is a reason they call it overclocking, because it's over the specified limit, which = Risk. In this case it's data corruption.

I have been running my board rock solid for 2 months now with these settings:

Q6600 @ 3.5ghz @ 1.32v Air Cooled (Prime Stable 4 instances/8hours)
4Gb Corsair DDR3 XMS3 @ 7-7-7-20-1T @ 1.5v
EVGA 790i Ultra w/FSB @ 1556 @ 1.40v Bios ver.P03
(2)BFG 8800 GT's /SLI @ 710/1000/1600
X-Fi Fatality Gamer Sound Card
(4) Seagate 250Gb HDD's with 16mb Cache in RAID "0"
(2) Samsung DVD-rw 20X
1200 Watt Thermaltake Toughpower PSU

3DMark Score: 18,900

The Board runs great and is a better overclocker than my old 680i. I don't know about you guys but to get an 1100 mhz overclock on air cooling, I think it's a pretty good board, and again I use my system everyday for at least 6 hours. When I primed it ,it never got hotter than 62 deg celcius on all four cores.

Also you'll notice my ram choice..Corsair.. and I leave it at stock voltages and timings. Not trying fix what aint broken. I keep hearing people complaining about this chipset, but everyone who is complaining is pushing the board way to hard. How fast do you people really need to be?? 4.0 Ghz is great but if your chip fries and mobo melts, and you have to "STOP DROP and ROLL " to get outta your computer room, then your pushing it too hard.

Just my opinion though..you guys can keep bashing if you want to.