SLI question! I need a definite answer!

iverieli

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Jul 23, 2007
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I'm planning to purcahse a GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 nForce 570 SLI mobo, but I needed to know something for certain.

My situation is this: I just purchased a Cooler Master GeminII and as we know it's quite large but one of the best for cooling! I need a mobo that will have a PCI-E low enough for the GeminII heatsink/pipes not to get in the way of the 8800 GTS video card.

I decided to go with the GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 nForce 570 SLI, and want to mount the 8800 GTS on the lower PCI-E slot so it wont get in the way.

My question is this: Will the PCI-E run at 16x at either slot as long as I'm only using one? Because I've heard of boards that run one slot at 16x and the other at only 8x.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
 
G

Guest

Guest
I checked out the manual and from the reference diagram in there, it looks as if the 1st is at 16x and the 2nd is at 8x.

They also mention:
"If you want to set up a single graphics card system, we recommend installing the graphics card on the PCIE_16_1 slot to ensure better display performance"

Dunno if that helps or not.
 

netburst

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Dec 9, 2004
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as far as i know, installing da card on the 2nd pci slot would cause random hang ups.. tat was my experience tho, after switching to da 1st slot thise prob just vanish.
 

Yoosty

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Jun 3, 2007
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If you are wanting 16x on both Sli slots then you have to go with the 590 series motherboards. All other 500 series one of the slot is 16x and other is either 8x or 4x.