PCIe X16 question

[skyguy]

I'm looking at the new P5N-E 650i mobo. I'm interested in using it for a 3 monitor setup in the near future, not for SLI. However, I noticed this in the literature:

2 - PCIe X16 (2 - x8 electrical for SLI or Multi-GPU)

1) is this "normal" for a board to be 2 - X8 when going multi-GPU, or is it just this board?

2) if it's not normal, does the 680i offer 2 true X16 slots? If it is normal, drop to question #3.......

3) will an X8 specification bottleneck an 8800GTS (or 2 of them in this instance)???



Can't seem to find much definitive info on this subject.
Much appreciated.

 

[crazypyro]

yes all SLi till the last nforce chipset (like nforce 4x16 or x32 i can't remember) were x8 in SLi, only the high end chipset use x16 for both lanes. Coincidentally it was until the 7800 and x1800 series that a video card used the full bandwidth a x16 slot offered.

 

[skyguy]

Ah............thanks for clearing that up.

So............considering the 650i apparently overclocks great, 8800's won't load up the 2 - X8 lanes let alone 2 - X16's like the 680i for example, and this costs ALOT less than the 680i.........then it looks like the 650i is a helluva board and skip the 680......

 

[Heyyou27]

Well, you don't necessarily need dual 16x lanes, however when already spending around $1000 on videocards, what's an extra $100 on the motherboard?

 

[crazypyro]

No card uses the full X16 lane. Even 8800s don't use it all.

i though the 8800's use the full x16 lane.. hmph oh well kinda makes ya wonder what the big deal about the PCI-e standard is, if we can't use this generations bandwidth.