Connectivity, SLI, CrossFireX and audio
Renaissance, like Bloodrage, features four PCIe 2.0 x16 slots that are both SLI and CrossFireX certified. Should you go down the CrossFireX route, Renaissance will support two GPUs in x16, x16 mode or four GPUs in x8, x8, x8, x8.
For SLI users, Foxconn is yet to confirm configuration options, but there's little reason to think it'll be any different to Bloodrage so we'll assume it'll allow three GeForce GPUs as x16, x8, x8, as well as an additional PhysX card.
Connectivity options, too, are identical to Bloodrage - that's six SATA, two eSATA, two SAS, twelve USB, two FireWire, a single PATA interface and dual Gigabit Ethernet.
It has a larger number of memory slots, but loses out on a selection of overclocking and cooling functionality - there's no four-way interchangeable cooler or Quantum Force accessories to be found here. So why will Renaissance be priced so close to Bloodrage? Well, it could all boil down to audio.
As a digital lifestyle board, Renaissance offers dual digital audio - allowing for users to isolate sound sources and play them separately via two digital audio outputs.
There's a 7.1 channel Harp audio card with a 110dB signal-to-noise ratio, as well as support for DTS Connect and Dolby Digital Live. It'll provide audiophiles with various speaker connectivity options, and the ability to re-encode multichannel sources via DTS Neo and DTS Interactive.
Nonetheless, it's a hard sell to ask any digital lifestyle user to shell out over £250 for a motherboard.
