eVGA has been getting great press as they put out their SLI enhancement patches. These handy little patched include updated SLI profiles for games and often provide for much faster and stable performance running SLI.

nVidia traditionally does not do interim updates to the SLI profiles and instead waits for driver revisions to add them in. However, nVidia has just pushed out its own SLI patch which does pretty much the same thing as the eVGA patch.

This could signal the end for the eVGA patches but as the new nVidia patch is still listed as a Beta it could be some time before we see this on a routine basis from the big green machine.

Grab the patch here

The EVGA X58 SLI Micro is an Intel X58 chipset based motherboard shrunk down to the mATX size, yet doesn’t lose much in the process. The board still packs enough features to satisfy many enthusiasts’ needs, providing triple channel DDR3 and two-way SLI support.

It also has six SATA ports so that you can pack a case full of hard drives and optical drives. EVGA has also left a single PCI slot for expansion should users require something beyond the options that are available on the board itself.

The X58 SLI Micro motherboard also supports EVGA’s E-LEET tuning utility software and EZ Voltage for easy overclocking and power testing. EVGA is backing the board by a two year warranty and it retails for $199.99.

I am not talking about chipsets either. It seems that Intel might have got eVGA all excited about the Larrabee GPU and they are looking to push them on the public.

As it stands eVGA is one of the last nVidia only AIBs out. They have increased their reputation by standing behind their cards with Life-Time warranties, Upgrade programs, and free overclocking tools and software (might explain why they do not work with AMD/ATi).

If this is the case and eVGA moves to Larrabee it will mean that the first Boards with this new GPU will at least come from a good company.

EXPECTATION DICTATES that Intel’s long-awaited Larrabee offerings will follow the same production model pioneered by rival Nvidia at the start of the decade. But what the Green Goblin might not have counted on is that its most loyal partner would be leading the charge to bring Chipzilla’s products to market.

By all accounts, EVGA is currently Nvidia’s number one partner, having shown 100 per cent loyalty to Jen Hsun Huang and his Green Goblin… until now.

Following a path blazed by Asus, Gigabyte and MSI, EVGA looks set to be the latest to jump the Nvidian ship and seek other product partners.

EVGA’s X58 SLI LE motherboard still features Intel’s X58 chipset paired with the ICH10R south bridge. It features four PCI-Express x16 slots what will support 3-way SLI or Crossfire depending on your needs.

While the board still features 12 USB ports, it has moved four of them from the back panel to headers on the motherboard. There are also only six SATA ports on the X58 SLI LE, however that should still be enough for most. EVGA also dropped one of the ethernet ports leaving only a single LAN connection so there won’t be any teaming going on with this board.

The board is currently available and Newegg has the board currently listed for $US240.

EVGA X58 SLI. The X58 Hydro Copper Waterblock (200-CU-HC58-B1) features a modern look and is fully compatible with all three part numbers of the X58 SLI motherboard. EVGA is calling the engineering work behind this block an E-Flow design, which it claims capable of dropping CPU operating temperature down by as much as half.

In testing, the block was able to keep the IOH around 26C. More specifically, the block features a high flow path design and will cover both the IOH and southbridge. Included in the package are both 1/2″ and 3/8″ fittings as well as some Artic Silver Ceramique thermal compound material.

The new Hydro Copper waterblock is not cheap though, and currently available directly from EVGA for $129.99.

EVGA Precision v1.7.0 (2009-04-17)

* Considering that many third party EVGA Precision skins are still not
updated to be compatible with 1.5.x and newer versions, now the Precision
provides a temporary workaround and allows unlocking outdated skins usage (in
reduced functionality mode). Experienced users may unlock outdated skins usage
by setting ShowNonNativeSkins configuration file entry to 1. Please don’t use
the workaround as a long term solution and ask skin creator to provide the
update if the skin you are using is invisible to Precision by default.

* Link button state is no longer restored improperly on multi-GPU systems
when GPU synchronization mode is disabled.

* Fixed fan control for Forceware 17x.xx and older driver families.

* Now pressing “Apply” or “Reset all” button causes the Precision to
forcibly re-apply current overclocking and fan control settings on multi-GPU
systems when GPU synchronization mode is enabled even when master GPU
setttings are not being altered. The enhancement ensures more correct GPU
synchronization functionality on the systems with several differently clocked
cards.

* Now Precision displays GPU synchronization indicators on GPU selection
icons to ensure easy identification of all GPUs synchronized with the master
GPU on multi-GPU systems.

* Improved stress-test results handling on multi-GPU systems working in GPU
synchronization mode.

* Added internal hardware emulation layer for simplifying distant debugging
and testing process.

* Now Precision allows assigning a global hotkey for capturing
desktop/in-game screenshots using built-in screen capture features of EVGA
On-Screen Display server. Please take a note that similar to the server’s
On-Screen Display limitations, screen capture functionality is also currently
not available in native 64-bit applications and in Direct3D10 applications
when multisampled antialiasing is enabled.

* Now Precision allows assigning a global hotkey for toggling On-Screen
Display visibility in addition to the previously available hotkeys explicitly
showing and hiding the On-Screen Display

* Now Precision displays warnings when you are trying to display too many
text information in the On-Screen Display causing the displayed information to
be truncated

* EVGA On-Screen Display Server has been updated to version 3.3.0

* Minor user interface cleanups

Download

But the EVGA’s GTX 295 Red Eition has surfaced on eVGA’s website. The card comes clocked at reference speeds; 576 MHz on the core, 1242 MHz on the shaders, and a 1998 MHz memory clock. The product is 45 USD more expensive than the regular black version.

The Classified edition will be the cream of the crop X58 motherboard for the uber-highend PC enthusiasts. A design feature of this motherboard the power-circuitry that fuels its various components. A 1.33 MHz 10-phase digital PWM circuitry with dual 8-pin 12V inputs, along with 4-phase circuit for the DDR3 memory, and 3-phase NB power. Four PCI-E x16 slots driven by the Intel X58 chipset in conjunction with NVIDIA’s

NF200allowing four x16 PCI-E slots. As many of you already know, the NF200 is a PCI-E 2.0 x16 bridge-chip solution, which does add extra latency to the data transfer process.

That offers 3-way SLI + an additional slot for a GeForce accelerator dedicated to process PhysX.

Elaborate heatpipe based coolers over the board’s northbridge and VRM areas keep temperatures under check. The launch price is expected to be around $400~$450, putting it off the radar for most. EVGA provides a plug-in remote PCB, supporting power, reset, CMOS clear, a hex POST code LED display, on-the-fly VCore adjustment, and PCI-E disable jumpers.

The remote buttons come in handy when benchmarking the board out of a PC case, especially when the lowest PCI-E slot is occupied.

Version 1.5

New multi-GPU systems control approach. Now Precision gives you independent
access to thermal monitoring, overclocking and fan control settings of all GPUs
installed in the system regardless of SLI mode status. Please take a note that
the previous version settings and profiles are not compatible with version 1.5.0
and will be lost.

* Added new green and dark skin editions.

* New skin format v1.1 adds bitmap effects support to the skin compiler. Now
skin creators can use new technology to simplify skin creation process and
easily create different color editions of the same skin by applying various
color tuning effects to the same bitmaps during compilation. Built-in blue,
violet, green and dark skin editions are based on new technology, so it is
recommended to use these skins as bitmap effects usage tutorials.

* Added multi-GPU core, shader and memory clocks and fan speeds monitoring.

* SLI mode status is detected dynamically and displayed properly in system
info when SLI mode is being toggled on the fly during Precision runtime.

* Now Precision displays graphics processor codename in system info.

* Fixed memory clock monitoring for G98 graphics processors family.

* Now Precision is able to detect memory clock frequency generator switching
to PCIE bus clock and display correct idle 100MHz memory clock frequency on
GeForce 9 and older series graphics cards.

* Added -profile0 … -profile9 command line switches for loading the
profiles.

* EVGA On-Screen Display Server has been updated to version 3.1.2. New
server provides improved compatibility with SecuRom protected games when high
application detection level is selected and fixes issues with starting the
server with no server icon displayed in the system tray area under certain
conditions.

* Various internal code cleanups and optimizations.

The software also supports output to the G15 display

Download

* GeForce GTS 250 512MB: 756MHz core, 2200MHz memory, 1836MHz shaders, $149.99
* GeForce GTS 250 512MB Superclocked: 771MHz core, 2246MHz memory, 1890MHz shaders, $159.99
* GeForce GTS 250 1GB: 756MHz core, 2200MHz memory, 1836MHz shaders, $169.99
* GeForce GTS 250 1GB Superclocked: 771MHz core, 2246MHz memory, 1890MHz shaders, $179.99

The EVGA GTS 250 graphics card delivers performance in the hottest titles of this season. Immerse yourself in full PhysX gaming and bring them to life with massively destructible environments and ultra-realistic physical interaction. Experience GPU-accelerated video processing for transcoding HD videos in minutes, and super fast image processing using Adobe CS4. SLI ready means you can combine up to three cards for a Tri-SLI configuration, and max out your game settings at ultra resolutions, now is your chance to own the most feature-full, best in class performance graphics card on the market today.