XFX nForce 780i 3-Way SLI User Manual Download Page 1

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User Guide

XFX nForce 780i 3-Way SLI
Motherboard

Summary of Contents for nForce 780i 3-Way SLI

Page 1: ...User Guide XFX nForce 780i 3 Way SLI Motherboard...

Page 2: ...XFX nForce 780i 3 Way SLI Motherboard ii...

Page 3: ...herboard 1 Motherboard Specifications 1 Unpacking and Parts Descriptions 3 Unpacking 3 Equipment 3 XFX nForce 780i SLI Motherboard 4 Hardware Installation 7 Safety Instructions 7 Preparing the Motherb...

Page 4: ...ader 16 IEEE 1394a 17 USB Headers 18 Audio 19 Fan Connections 19 Fan Connections 20 COM1 21 FDD Connector 22 Expansion Slots 22 PCI Slots 22 PCI Express x1 Slot 23 PCI Express x16 Slots 23 Jumper Sett...

Page 5: ...e 36 Boot Up NumLock Status 36 Security Option 37 APIC Mode 37 MPS Version Control For OS 37 Full Screen LOGO Show 37 Advanced Chipset Features 38 System Clocks 39 Frequency Settings 40 HT Multiplier...

Page 6: ...enu 56 ACPI Function 57 ACPI Suspend Type 57 Soft Off by PBNT 57 WOL PME From Soft Off 57 Power On by Alarm 57 POWER ON Function 58 PnP PCI Configuration Menu 59 Init Display First 59 Reset Configurat...

Page 7: ...Settings 70 Dynamic BIOS Access 76 View System Information 77 Profile Policies 78 Manage Your System BIOS 79 NVIDIA System Monitor 80 Appendix A POST Codes for Tritium Platform 85 Appendix B Configuri...

Page 8: ...res Menu 34 Figure 8 Advanced Chipset Features 38 Figure 9 System Clocks Menu 39 Figure 10 FSB Memory Config Menu 42 Figure 11 CPU Configuration Menu 46 Figure 12 System Voltages Menu 48 Figure 13 Int...

Page 9: ...the 780i 3 Way SLI Installation CD Motherboard Drivers for Windows XP Windows XP 64 bit Windows Vista Windows Vista 64 bit Onboard Audio Drivers Windows XP Windows XP 64 bit Windows Vista Windows Vist...

Page 10: ...way SLI with three x16 PCI Express slots Power Supply The power supply requirement is dependent upon the power and the number of the GPUs you install If you are going to SLI two graphics cards you ar...

Page 11: ...nstall the motherboard into a PC cabinet If you are building a PC you will use most of the cables provided in the kit If however you are replacing a motherboard you will not need many of the cables Wh...

Page 12: ...XFX nForce 780i 3 Way SLI Motherboard xii...

Page 13: ...inch Microprocessor support Intel Core 2 Extreme Intel Core 2 Quad Intel Core 2 Duo Pentium EE Pentium D Pentium Operating systems Supports Windows XP 32bit 64bit and Windows Vista 32bit 64bit Contain...

Page 14: ...header with rate of transmission at 400 Mbps Onboard Audio Azalia High Definition audio Supports 8 channel audio Supports S PDIF output Supports Jack Sensing function Triple PCI Express x16 Support 2...

Page 15: ...tact your reseller All parts shipped in this kit are RoHS compliant lead free parts Equipment The following equipment is included in the XFX nForce 780i SLI motherboard box XFX nForce 780i SLI Motherb...

Page 16: ...ty Six Used to support the Serial ATA protocol and each one connects a single drive to the motherboard IDE ATA 133 HDD Cable SLI Bridge use for two graphics cards in SLI 3 Way SLI Bridge use for three...

Page 17: ...Front panel connector 25 PCI Express x1 slot 6 IDE Connector 16 Jumper 26 Backpanel connectors Figure 2 7 Serial ATA SATA connectors 17 Power button 27 Heat dissipater 8 FDD connector 18 Reset Button...

Page 18: ...In Line In Green Line Out Front Speaker Out Front Speaker Out Pink Mic In Mic In Mic In Orange Center Subwoofer Black Rear Speaker Out Rear Speaker Out Grey 7 LAN Port with LEDs to indicate status Ye...

Page 19: ...U Installing the CPU fan Installing the memory Installing the motherboard Connecting cables and setting switches Safety Instructions To reduce the risk of fire electric shock and injury always follow...

Page 20: ...ing down and away from the socket 2 Lift the load plate There is a protective socket cover on the load plate to protect the socket when there is no CPU installed 3 Remove the protective socket cover f...

Page 21: ...slots support 256 Mb 512 Mb and 1 Gb DDR2 technologies for x8 and x16 devices They also support dual channel DDR2 memory technology up to 10 7GB s There must be at least one memory bank populated to e...

Page 22: ...he connections prior to this step or to secure the motherboard and then make all the connections It is normally easier to secure the motherboard first Use the following procedure to install the I O sh...

Page 23: ...m of nine 9 spacers 1 Carefully place the motherboard onto the studs spacers located inside the chassis 2 Align the mounting holes with the studs spacers 3 Align the connectors to the I O shield 4 Ens...

Page 24: ...To support 3 way SLI this motherboard has the following specific power supply requirements Minimum 1000 W peak power Six 6 pin 3x2 PCI E power connectors see Figure 3 6 pin 3x2 PCI E connector Figure...

Page 25: ...otherboard Firmly plug the power supply cable into the connector and make sure it is secure Figure 4 PWR1 Motherboard Connector Table 1 PWR1 Pin Assignments Connector Pin Signal Pin Signal 1 3 3V 13 3...

Page 26: ...nect the black connector the cable with the two closely spaced black and gray connectors to the Ultra ATA master device 3 Connect the gray connector to a slave device If you install two hard disk driv...

Page 27: ...primary storage devices The current Serial ATA II interface allows up to 300MB s data transfer rate There are six serial ATA connectors on the motherboard that support RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 0 1 an...

Page 28: ...is off Note Some chassis do not have all four cables Be sure to match the name on the connectors to the corresponding pins PWRSW Attach the power button cable from the case to these two pins Pressing...

Page 29: ...ct 9 No Connect Empty 10 Empty IEEE 1394a The IEEE 1394 expansion cable bracket is provided in the box but if you do not require the additional external connections you do not need to install it 1 Sec...

Page 30: ...onnect an optional external bracket containing four 4 more USB 2 0 ports 1 Secure the bracket to either the front or rear panel of your chassis not all chassis are equipped with the front panel option...

Page 31: ...Front Audio and Internal SPDIF Connector Connector Pin Signal 1 Mic Input 2 Ground Mic 3 Mic P Pulse 4 Not Used 5 PORT2_R Right Channel Out 6 SENSE1_RETURN Right Channel Ground 7 Not Used 8 Empty 9 P...

Page 32: ...turned off after the system enters S3 S4 and S5 mode Note that the CPU fan cable can be either a 3 pin or a 4 pin connector Connect a 3 pin connector to pins 1 2 and 3 on the motherboard connector CP...

Page 33: ...1 The motherboard kit provides an additional serial COM header for your machine Connect one side of a switching cable to the header and then attach the serial COM device to the other side of the cable...

Page 34: ...list of PCI Express x16 graphics card supported by this motherboard go to www xfxforce com PCI Slots The two PCI slots support many expansion cards such as a LAN card USB card SCSI card and other card...

Page 35: ...ics or video cards The bandwidth of the x16 slot is up to 4GB sec 8GB sec concurrent The design of this motherboard supports three PCI Express graphics cards using NVIDIA s SLI technology with multipl...

Page 36: ...erboard shows a next to pin 1 Clear CMOS Jumper CLR_CMOS The motherboard uses the CMOS RAM to store all the set parameters The CMOS can be cleared by removing the CMOS jumper Use the following procedu...

Page 37: ...p menus Detailed descriptions of the BIOS parameters are also provided This section includes the following information Enter BIOS Setup Main Menu Standard CMOS Features Advanced BIOS Features Advanced...

Page 38: ...to the Phoenix Award BIOS CMOS Setup Utility Note It is strongly recommended that you do not change the default BIOS settings Changing some settings could damage your computer Main Menu The main menu...

Page 39: ...t up onboard peripherals such as IDE RAID USB LAN and MAC control Power Management Setup Use this menu to configure power management power on and sleep features PnP PCI Configurations Use this menu to...

Page 40: ...word Use this command to set change and disable the password used to access the BIOS menu Save Exit Setup Use this command to save settings to CMOS and exit setup Exit Without Saving Use this command...

Page 41: ...n white is for information only data in yellow is changeable data in blue is non changeable and data in a red box is highlighted for selection Move Enter Select PU PD Value F10 Save ESC Exit F1 Genera...

Page 42: ...TA channels Select a channel and press Enter to display the IDE SATA sub menu IDE Channel Master None IDE Channel Slave None SATA Channel 1 Master None SATA Channel 2 Master None SATA Channel 3 Master...

Page 43: ...landing zone and sector You can manually enter the values or you can press Enter to display a window that tells you the min and max values The BIOS supports the following HDD Access Modes CHS For HDD...

Page 44: ...the option you choose Press Enter to accept the changes and return to the Standard CMOS Features menu Halt On Halt On determines whether or not the computer stops if an error is detected during power...

Page 45: ...other errors All But Disk Key The system boot does not stop for a keyboard or disk error but will stop for all other errors Memory These settings are display only values that are determined by the BI...

Page 46: ...is for information only data in yellow is changeable data in blue is non changeable and data in a red box is highlighted for selection Move Enter Select PU PD Value F10 Save ESC Exit F1 General Help...

Page 47: ...To go back to the previous menu press Esc Network Boot Priority Use this option to select the priority for network startup Select Network Boot Priority and press Enter to view available networks Use t...

Page 48: ...Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll through the options or press Enter to display the sub menu Use the arrow keys to position the selector in the option you choose Boot Other Device With the option s...

Page 49: ...able or disable the Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller APIC If you disable this option you also disable the MPS Version Control for OS option MPS Version Control For OS Use this function to se...

Page 50: ...t PU PD Value F10 Save ESC Exit F1 General Help F5 Previous Values F7 Defaults System Clocks Press Enter FSB Memory Config Press Enter CPU Configuration Press Enter System Voltages Press Enter NVMEM m...

Page 51: ...is highlighted for selection Move Enter Select PU PD Value F10 Save ESC Exit F1 General Help F5 Previous Values F7 Defaults Parameters Settings Current Val e Frequency Settings CPU Freq MHz 2933 3 29...

Page 52: ...x16_1 MHz Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll through the frequency options for the PCI Express Bus Slot 1 the black slot closest to the CPU Note that as you go higher in value PCIe Spread S...

Page 53: ...Values are 1 x through 5 x Spread Spectrum CPU Spread Spectrum Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll through the Spread Spectrum options for the CPU Option values are Disabled UP Spread and Ce...

Page 54: ...PD Value F10 Save ESC Exit F1 General Help F5 Previous Values F7 Defaults Parameters Settings Current Value SLI Ready Memory Disabled Disabled CPU Freq MHz 2933 3 2933 3 CPU Multiplier 11X 11X FSB Me...

Page 55: ...e FSB speed can be entered manually As the FSB speed is changed CPU Freq MHz changes proportionally Unlinked When Unlink is selected FSB QDR MHz and MEM DDR MHz are changed to editable and the FSB and...

Page 56: ...manually enter timings Optimal Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to select Optimal Optimal prohibits you from manually setting any timing All timing is set for optimal performance Move Enter Select P...

Page 57: ...re 1 through 31 Command Per Clock This is the command timing setting on a per clock unit basis options are 1T and 2T tRRD RAS to RAS delay of different banks options are 1 through 15 tRC RAS to RAS or...

Page 58: ...re Disable Disable support for TM1 and TM2 TM1 Only The CPU is thermally throttled by cutting active processor clock cycles Move Enter Select PU PD Value F10 Save ESC Exit F1 General Help F5 Previous...

Page 59: ...sumption when the CPU is idle Idle occurs when the operating system issues a halt instruction Execute Disable Bit When this function is disabled it forces the XD feature flag to always return to zero...

Page 60: ...for the CPU FSB Memory This function defines the voltage level for the DRAM Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to select a voltage or select Auto to automatically set the voltage Move Enter Select PU...

Page 61: ...core voltage level for the NVIDIA nForce MCP Auxiliary voltage Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to select a voltage or select Auto to automatically set the voltage GTLVREF Lane 0 This function defin...

Page 62: ...loads the system voltages and timing settings that were defined in the System Voltages menu You can set up to four profile settings using the Save timing voltage set function There are four profile o...

Page 63: ...m BIOS HPET Function This function allows you to enable or disable the High Precision Even Timer HPET When Enabled HPET is used as the timing hardware for multimedia and other time sensitive applicati...

Page 64: ...herals Menu Move Enter Select PU PD Value F10 Save ESC Exit F1 General Help F5 Previous Values F7 Defaults IDE Function Setup Press Enter RAID Config Press Enter USB Config Press Enter MAC Config Pres...

Page 65: ...primary Master and Slave PIO Select from Auto or Mode 1 through Mode 4 Primary Master Slave UDMA When OnChip IDE Channel0 is set to Enabled you can disable the primary Master and Slave UDMA or set it...

Page 66: ...set to Enabled you can enable or disable the various SATA functions USB Config Press Enter to display the USB Config menu OnChip USB Use this function to enable specific versions of the USB or disable...

Page 67: ...eripherals menu allows you to enable or disable the hard disk audio function IDE HDD Block Mode Using this function on the Integrated Peripherals menu allows your IDE hard drive needs to support block...

Page 68: ...er to display the Power Management Setup menu Figure 14 Power Management Setup Menu Move Enter Select PU PD Value F10 Save ESC Exit F1 General Help F5 Previous Values F7 Defaults ACPI function Enabled...

Page 69: ...ay 4 Sec WOL PME From Soft Off This function on the Power Management Setup menu allows you to enable or disable WOL PMW from soft off Power On by Alarm This function on the Power Management Setup menu...

Page 70: ...ower ON Password function is enabled so that you must enter a password Hot Key Power On When Hot Key is selected the Hot key Power On function is enabled so that you must select a keyboard key as the...

Page 71: ...allows you to define if the initial display is in the PCI slot or in the PCI Express slot Options are PCI Slot and PCIEx Move Enter Select PU PD Value F10 Save ESC Exit F1 General Help F5 Previous Va...

Page 72: ...ng The default setting is Disabled Resources Controlled By This function on the PnP PCI Configuration menu allows you to define if the BIOS can automatically configure all the boot and plug and play c...

Page 73: ...ion on the PnP PCI Configuration menu allows you to enable or disable the Palette Snoop function Maximum Payload Size This function on the PnP PCI Configuration menu allows you to set the maximum TLP...

Page 74: ...the various components change with system usage Move Enter Select PU PD Value F10 Save ESC Exit F1 General Help F5 Previous Values F7 Defaults Dynamic Fan Control Press Enter CPU 47 C 117 F CPU Core 1...

Page 75: ...automatically controlled based on temperature To set the fan speed to a constant rate select Manual and then enter the speed from 0 to 100 Set the desired speed for the Aux nForce and Chassis fans fro...

Page 76: ...XFX nForce 780i 3 Way SLI Motherboard 64...

Page 77: ...dows XP 32bit and 64bit and is Vista capable The kit comes with a CD that contains utility drivers and additional NVIDIA software The CD that has been shipped with your XFX motherboard contains the fo...

Page 78: ...accordingly 3 Insert the XFX nForce 780i SLI installation CD for the graphics drivers included in the kit Note If you have multiple graphics cards installed you will be asked multiple times for all ev...

Page 79: ...customize the operation and performance of the system to their needs As settings are attempted the user must start and restart Windows several times Fortunately NVIDIA s new System Monitor and Perfor...

Page 80: ...ly remain active for the current Windows session You can save these settings as a profile by using the Profile menu item CAUTION Increasing the voltage or the clock speed of a component may void its w...

Page 81: ...IDIA Software 69 Device Settings Device Settings has two tabs Current Hardware Settings and Hardware Profiles Under the Current Hardware Settings tab there are settings for the CPU Motherboard Memory...

Page 82: ...speeds CPU Voltages and CPU fan speeds At all times real time values for CPU frequency and appropriate CPU multiplier are reported CAUTION Increasing the voltage or the clock speed of a component may...

Page 83: ...All changes will take effect immediately after selecting Apply however these setting will only remain active for the current Windows session This will allow a user to safely return to Windows in the...

Page 84: ...with real time values for memory frequency FSB frequency and more being viewable to help dictate which settings are most appropriate Row Address Strobe Adjusts the minimum RAS active time This is the...

Page 85: ...Refresh Rate This value is filled in by the system and can not be changed by the user Memory bank switch The row Precharge time tRP is the minimum time between active commands and the read writes of...

Page 86: ...rom 2 to 15 cycles CAS Latency The CAS Latency tCL is the time in number of clock cycles that elapses after the memory controller sends a request to read a memory location and before the data is sent...

Page 87: ...be adjusted using Device Setting interface You can override the shipped clock frequencies of your GPU and GPU memory and you can set the GPU fan speed Increasing the clock speeds will increase your G...

Page 88: ...he CMOS to the default settings Click the Available BIOS Pages list arrow and select the BIOS page that you want to edit The BIOS page chosen determines which items on the page are available for chang...

Page 89: ...d and presented within a single view At a glance the user can clearly see the current status of their components and receives a clear depiction of overall system performance Within the View System Inf...

Page 90: ...ings and alerts which can be tailored from a global setting all the way to something as granular as a particular game In short you can effortlessly customize your system to run as silent as possible w...

Page 91: ...ithin Windows In addition to displaying a complete collection of information regarding the current BIOS version being used the user also has the option of saving a backup version of the BIOS being use...

Page 92: ...m temperature frequency and voltage are reported Given the fact that the NVIDIA System Monitor is based around an OpenGL foundation there is nearly zero performance overhead associated with running th...

Page 93: ...core components By moving the slider on the bottom of the screen the user also can control the translucency of the screen allowing them to view the desktop if desired Specific information fields that...

Page 94: ...removed from this view by clicking the small button in the top right of the icon s box By clicking on the Global Settings image in the bottom left of the screen the user can customize the way nV Monit...

Page 95: ...with Event Logging Here one can easily select which system components to track and can specify the name of the resulting output file All fields within the application will be logged and written to th...

Page 96: ...r can change handles the specific hotkeys used to control various application actions In this screen the user simply enters their desired hotkey configuration and they are able to control every aspect...

Page 97: ...ment Execution of POST routines in E000 03 Early SuperIO Init Early Initialized the super IO 04 Reserved 05 Blank video Reset Video controller 06 Reserved 07 Init KBC Keyboard controller init 08 KB te...

Page 98: ...T_HDLR and initialize INT 00h 1Fh according to INT_TBL 1C CMOS Battery Check Test CMOS and check Battery Fail 1D Early PM Early PM initialization 1E Reserved 1F Re initial KB Load keyboard matrix 20 R...

Page 99: ...MA Controller 1 Test DMA channel 1 38 Reserved 39 Test DMA Page Registers Test DMA Page Registers 3A Reserved 3B Reserved 3C Test Timer Test 8254 Timer 0 Counter 2 3D Reserved 3E Test 8259 1 Mask Veri...

Page 100: ...emory Size base memory from 256K to 640K and extended memory above 1MB 4A Reserved 4B Reserved 4C Reserved 4D Reserved 4E Init APIC Initialize APIC and set MTRR 4F Reserved 50 USB init Initialize USB...

Page 101: ...se install interrupt vectors 64 Reserved 65 PS2 Mouse special Special treatment to PS2 Mouse port 66 Reserved 67 ACPI init ACPI sub system initializing 68 Reserved 69 Init Cache Initialize cache contr...

Page 102: ...eserved 7F POST error check Check POST error and display them and ask for user intervention 80 Reserved 81 Reserved 82 Security Check Ask password security 83 Write CMOS Write all CMOS values back to...

Page 103: ...e CPU test Read Write CPU registers C1 Memory Presence Base memory detect C2 Early Memory Board Initialization C3 Extend Memory Turn on extended memory cache initialization C4 Special Display First di...

Page 104: ...ter 010h Initialize the Memory Controller 011h Program the PLLs 012h Query after memory PLL has been set 013h Set Dynamic SPD values 014h Load MemInfoStruct 015h Load the DIMM geometry using SPD 016h...

Page 105: ...ry Test 0FEh ERROR handler 0FFh End of Table 0FFh Invalid APIC ID 0FEh CPU Identify Init failed 0FDh North Bridge not supported 0FCh South Bridge not supported 0FBh No DIMMs present 0FAh Invalid DIMM...

Page 106: ...XFX nForce 780i 3 Way SLI Motherboard 94...

Page 107: ...ible 3D graphics performance Your new motherboard can support up to three PCI Express graphics cards linked using SLI Currently 3 way NVIDIA SLI is approved and operating on the following graphics car...

Page 108: ...uses the NVIDIA ForceWare Windows Vista driver To install the driver run the setup exe file to launch thee InstallShield The InstallShield runs three installs one for each GPU Reboot your PC when the...

Page 109: ...Configuring 3 Way SLI 97 Figure 18 Windows Vista Device Manager Three GPUs are represented under Display adapters...

Page 110: ...lect NVIDIA Control Panel Go to 3D Settings Set SLI configuration Figure 19 and select Enable SLI technology recommended After selecting this option you will be prompted to verify the settings have be...

Page 111: ...l go to the top menu option labeled 3D Settings and select Show SLI Visual Indicators This option overlays a text label of SLI x3 and green SLI scaling bars in fullscreen 3D applications as seen in Fi...

Page 112: ...ion and checking for the SLI Visual indicators If these visual indicators are visible and there is no flickering or flashing 3 way NVIDIA SLI is operational on your platform If these visual indicators...

Page 113: ...Main Menu 27 BIOS menus Advanced BIOS Features menu 34 Advanced Chipset Features 38 CMOS Setup Utility menu 27 CPU Configuration 46 FSB Memory Config 42 Integrated Peripherals 52 Main Menu 26 Memory T...

Page 114: ...CPU setting parameters 70 create custom profiles and rules 78 Current Hardware Settings 69 date and time setting in BIOS 30 DDR2 memory 9 Device Settings 69 drivers shipped in kit 65 dual channel DDR...

Page 115: ...ameters 70 set date and time 30 set disk priority 35 set fan speeds in BIOS 62 set fan speeds with BIOS 64 set GPU parameters 75 set IDE functions in BIOS 53 set memory parameters 72 set motherboard p...

Page 116: ...rd setting parameters 71 MPS 37 Multi Processor Specification 37 Network Boot Priority 35 NumLock status 36 NVIDIA EX support 51 NVIDIA memory testing module 50 NVIDIA nForce 780i SE Motherboard 3 NVI...

Page 117: ...0 Refresh Rate 73 removable device startup priority 35 RESET 16 Reset switch cable 16 Row Address Strobe 72 Row Cycle Time 73 safety instructions 7 SATA Signal Cable 4 SATA Spread Spectrum 41 Scalable...

Page 118: ...45 unpacking the kit 3 USB 2 0 4 Port Cable 4 USB 2 0 ports 18 USB Config menu 54 USB Keyboard Mouse Support 54 View System Information menu 77 Virtualization Technology 47 W to R Termination Turnaro...

Page 119: ...of patents or other rights of third parties that may result from its use No license is granted by implication or otherwise under any patent or patent rights of NVIDIA Corporation Specifications menti...

Page 120: ...108...

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