How does SLI work with the 7950GX2???

[Logicsequence]

i have an inquery about the Nvidia GeForce 7950GX2... Obviously it's SLI on a stick.. how does that work exactly? Plug and play? Does the 7950GX2 act like a "normal" single graphics card? Or is it recognized as 2 in SLI mode? I've never had anything to do with SLI before, so please inform me.

Does it require an SLI capable motherboard, or is that only if you use traditional SLI with 2 seperate cards (i'm thinking of using the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe)? Basically, can i use the 7950gx2 as a regular graphics card in any motherboard and have full use of it's capabilities... like is the SLI built into the card so that they both act as one and can be used on any motherboard?

I'm using a dual monitor setup, and i've read that SLI has issues with dual monitors, specifically that u can't use SLI mode with more than one monitor hooked up.. true? True for the 7950GX2? what gives?

 

[Logicsequence]

anyone?

 

[prozac26]

No SLI mobo is needed, just any mobo with a PCI-E slot. This acts as one card, not two.

 

[Logicsequence]

No SLI mobo is needed, just any mobo with a PCI-E slot. This acts as one card, not two.

absolutely sure?? not that i don't trust, but i just need to make sure... do u have a link anywhere that might say that?

 

[Gary_Busey]

If you look at a picture of a 7950GX2, there's only one PCI-e plug to use.

 

[Heyyou27]

It works on any PCIe board, but shows up as if it's actually two so SLI will have to be enabled in the Nvidia drivers.

 

[surelock]

To answer a few of questions.
1. No motherboard sli or not will support the 7950GX2 untill their BIOS is updated to the newest ver.
2. How does the card really work?? - It uses a Pci-express bridge just like the very first 5900 AGP cards that were converted to a pci-express connector. this allows the card to register as two seperate cards running in sli or dual monitor mode.

I have this card and the A8n-sli32 deluxe with the updated firmware and it works great, but you DO NOT need an sli mother board, just make sure their BIOS is updated to support it.

 

[quickevoix]

As a side note, Nvidia has also released the quad sli beta drivers for the 7950.

 

[Logicsequence]

It works on any PCIe board, but shows up as if it's actually two so SLI will have to be enabled in the Nvidia drivers.

Ok, so the SLI is internal to the card? No Nforce chipset or SLI motherboard needed?

And by enabled in drivers you mean in the Nvidia ForceWare driver options? (it's been a long time since i've owned an Nvidia card).

 

[Logicsequence]

I've not yet found an SLI board that will work with the 7950. Asus told me it isnt supported. Why I dont know. :roll:

Do u mean it doesn't work with ANY ASUS board? or any SLI ASUS board?

 

[Logicsequence]

To answer a few of questions.
1. No motherboard sli or not will support the 7950GX2 untill their BIOS is updated to the newest ver.
2. How does the card really work?? - It uses a Pci-express bridge just like the very first 5900 AGP cards that were converted to a pci-express connector. this allows the card to register as two seperate cards running in sli or dual monitor mode.

I have this card and the A8n-sli32 deluxe with the updated firmware and it works great, but you DO NOT need an sli mother board, just make sure their BIOS is updated to support it.

1. Why does the bios need to be updated to support the card if it acts just like one card?

2. That brings me back to another point, i'm running dual monitors all the time, and i've heard SLI has issues with dual monitors, as in u can't use SLI mode with dual monitors. Is that true? Is it true for the 7950? Am i going to have to disconnect a monitor if i want to play a game and take advantage of the card's SLI modes?? A little explaination of this would really help me out alot..

Thanks to everyone for responding.

 

[Logicsequence]

As a side note, Nvidia has also released the quad sli beta drivers for the 7950.

now to run 2 7950's i'd assume i'd need an SLI motherboard right? (i'm not planning to do this at this time however).

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

To answer a few of questions.
1. No motherboard sli or not will support the 7950GX2 untill their BIOS is updated to the newest ver.

Which people should figure out when they see this;

2. How does the card really work?? - It uses a Pci-express bridge just like the very first 5900 AGP cards that were converted to a pci-express connector.[/quote]

It's not 'just like', and really it's not really 'SIMILAR TO' either because it doesn't required a large chip package, in this case the HSI bridge is PCIe to PCIe, and act more as a conduit than converter. nV's HSI chip on the FXwere only AGP-PCIe, the later ones on AGP GF6600/6800s were different again, because unlike Rialto it wasn't a 2 way chip. The bridge chip in this case doesn't need to translate the signal, which is a good thing because the AGP component always had trouble working at high speeds.

A good review complete with pics of the bridge;

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/video/g71-2.html

 

[surelock]

To answer a few of questions.
1. No motherboard sli or not will support the 7950GX2 untill their BIOS is updated to the newest ver.
2. How does the card really work?? - It uses a Pci-express bridge just like the very first 5900 AGP cards that were converted to a pci-express connector. this allows the card to register as two seperate cards running in sli or dual monitor mode.

I have this card and the A8n-sli32 deluxe with the updated firmware and it works great, but you DO NOT need an sli mother board, just make sure their BIOS is updated to support it.

1. Why does the bios need to be updated to support the card if it acts just like one card?

2. That brings me back to another point, i'm running dual monitors all the time, and i've heard SLI has issues with dual monitors, as in u can't use SLI mode with dual monitors. Is that true? Is it true for the 7950? Am i going to have to disconnect a monitor if i want to play a game and take advantage of the card's SLI modes?? A little explaination of this would really help me out alot..

Thanks to everyone for responding.

The card acts as two seperate cards, and because of this most motherboard BIOSes have no idea how to handle such a card that is why they need to be upgraded.

Your right sli does not support two monitors to the best of my knowledge but you can seperate the cards in dual monitor mode to enable multible monitors. this may change in newer forceware drivers.

to answer QuickEvoIX's question you will need an SLI motherboard to run quad SLI (2-7950GX2) the faster the data stream the better so having a motherboard that keeps the 16x pci-express bandwidth in SLI mode will help you rather than having an older model that "spilts" the 16x stream into two 8x streams

 

[Logicsequence]

anyone have specifics on whether or not it works with the ASUS P5W DH?

 

[JollyTime]

anyone have specifics on whether or not it works with the ASUS P5W DH?

Well, nVidia hasn't put it up on the list of compatible motherboards, so I guess it's a big gamble if you buy it at the moment. I've heard some sources say that it works fine, but then again...are you willing to dish out loads of $$$ for something that just may or may not work at 100 % ???

 

[Logicsequence]

does anyone have a support email address for Nvidia? i can't find one and i want to email them about the P5W DH.

Anyways, i do have another question... If the motherboard requires a bios update to work with the card, how are you supposed to update the bios without using another video card first? And then wouldn't u have to install the OS and everything AND THEN update the bios AND THEN put in the 7950???

 

[Logicsequence]

The card acts as two seperate cards, and because of this most motherboard BIOSes have no idea how to handle such a card that is why they need to be upgraded.

Your right sli does not support two monitors to the best of my knowledge but you can seperate the cards in dual monitor mode to enable multible monitors. this may change in newer forceware drivers.

to answer QuickEvoIX's question you will need an SLI motherboard to run quad SLI (2-7950GX2) the faster the data stream the better so having a motherboard that keeps the 16x pci-express bandwidth in SLI mode will help you rather than having an older model that "spilts" the 16x stream into two 8x streams

How do i seperate the cards in dual monitor mode? So does that mean if i wanted to play a game and use the card to it's full capability (SLI Modes) i'd have to disconnect (disable) my secondary monitor?? i couldn't just leave it running?

 

[Logicsequence]

anyone ???

 

[chaynz]

Alright, I'm someone who actually has a pair of these cards in his computer right now as I'm typing this. I'm going to be talking about a SINGLE card unit (pair of cards) here.

The 7950GX2 is physically 2 cards. It is identified as two separate cards in the BIOS and in Windows/Linux. It does NOT use SLI in the traditional sense; in fact, it's the exact same thing as having two single-GPU cards in a SLI capable motherboard without having the SLI bridge connected. It does the synchronization through the PCIe bus (since it routes 32 lines through a 16 line slot somehow.... Read the white papers!). It can support dual monitors easily, even when playing games.

All this card requires is a good power supply (400w reccomended), an available 16x PCIe slot with room for a second card below it, and some drivers. Yes, with a NON-SLI MOTHERBOARD, you will get the full performance bennefit of SLI.

As for the dual-monitor problems, I don't know much about them since I don't use duals. If I could venture a guess, I'd say it doesn't have this problem since it only has a single DAC and is synched on the bus instead of the cards.

 

[Logicsequence]

Alright, I'm someone who actually has a pair of these cards in his computer right now as I'm typing this. I'm going to be talking about a SINGLE card unit (pair of cards) here.

The 7950GX2 is physically 2 cards. It is identified as two separate cards in the BIOS and in Windows/Linux. It does NOT use SLI in the traditional sense; in fact, it's the exact same thing as having two single-GPU cards in a SLI capable motherboard without having the SLI bridge connected. It does the synchronization through the PCIe bus (since it routes 32 lines through a 16 line slot somehow.... Read the white papers!). It can support dual monitors easily, even when playing games.

All this card requires is a good power supply (400w reccomended), an available 16x PCIe slot with room for a second card below it, and some drivers. Yes, with a NON-SLI MOTHERBOARD, you will get the full performance bennefit of SLI.

As for the dual-monitor problems, I don't know much about them since I don't use duals. If I could venture a guess, I'd say it doesn't have this problem since it only has a single DAC and is synched on the bus instead of the cards.

Ok, thanx for your input! I do have a question tho, what OS are you running and how much RAM do you have?

The reason i ask is b/c you have 2 GB of video ram total, and if you have over 2GB of system memory and are running a 32bit OS, i'm curious as to how much RAM windows can use. I'm under the impression there is a 4GB RAM limit (physical address limit) in 32bit windows, therefore if you are using 2GB worth of addresses up in your video cards you should only be able to use a max of 2GB of system memory.. is this correct in your experience?


ALSO: Does anyone have anymore information on my Dual-Monitor question??? I really need to know that for sure be4 i spend money on a 7950gx2.... Or else i'm gonna have to go with a 7900gtx.

 

[billward]

To answer a few of questions.
1. No motherboard sli or not will support the 7950GX2 untill their BIOS is updated to the newest ver.

Which people should figure out when they see this;

So which motherboard would you guys recommend for 7950 gx2? It has to be compatible with conroe E6600. Or would it be better to buy an X1900XTX and then later buy antoher X1900XTX?

 

[Logicsequence]

bump....