I am building a new computer, and have a few questions about SLI.
The P35 chipset motherboards are nice and cheap compared to the new x38's while still supporting 1333mhz fsb, PCIE 2.0, etc. I noticed that some of the P35's have two PCI Express x16 slots. Does this mean that one can run two video cards like SLI? Or will i have to go with an X38 or the older 680i motherboards to get SLI?
note about Motherboards:
Some Motherboards support Multi-GPU Technology at Dual 16x mode, some support it at Dual 8x mode and some support it at 16x 4x mode, what are the differences?
Well for gettig the best performance out of Multi-GPU,you need a Motherboard that supports Multi-GPU at
dual 16x mode like Nvidia 780i, NVIDIA 680i,Nvidia 590i SLI, Nvidia nForce4 SLI 16x, ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 or Intel X38 chipsets.
Dual 8x is a very good configuration too,it doesnt have alot of difference with Dual 16x and its cheaper too.
Chipests like Nvidia 650i SLI,NVIDIA 570i SLI, NVIDIA nForce4 SLI, ATI Radeon Xpress 200, Intel 975x and ONLY 2 Intel P35 boards(ASUS BLITZ FORMULA and ASUS BLITZ EXTREME) support Multi-GPU at dual 8x mode.
The last one is 16x 4x, this one is the weakest and doesn't perform very good compared to dual 8x or dual 16x,so i won't recommend it for Multi-GPU configuration. Intel P35 and P965 chipsets support Multi-GPU at
16x 4x mode.
Here are some benchmarks that help you understand it better:
Dual 16x vs Dual 8x (ASUS A8N32-SLI DELUXE vs ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM) Its an old but good article:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/m [...] eluxe.html
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XPS M1730,IntelCore2Duo T9300@2.5GHZ,2x8800MGTX in SLI,4GB DDR2 667 RAM,DUAL 250GB 7200 RPM,VISTA HP with SP1,17" with 1920x1200 resolution
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XPS M1730,IntelCore2Duo T9300@2.5GHZ,2x8800MGTX in SLI,4GB DDR2 667 RAM,DUAL 250GB 7200 RPM,VISTA HP with SP1,17" with 1920x1200 resolution
glad i could help you
