Question about SLI

[nightscope]

I have never done SLI and I plan to do so soon, I just have a question... How do you do it exactly? You put both cards in the slots, connect them by the SLI bridge, and then what? Is that it? Is there something you have to set in windows? Bios?

Thanks

 

[pauldh]

It's almost that simple. In my 650i SLI there is a small chip about the size of laptop memory that gets turned around for SLI making both PCI-e 16x slots run at 8x/8x each instead of 16x for slot 1. Once you boot up with the drivers loaded you get a pop up asking if you want to enable SLI (recommended). If you say no, you can just go into NVidia's control panel and enable it yourself. It's honestly very simple to enable/disable.

 

[fender22]

You have to set them up in the BIOS. I don't know exactly, but probably windows as well. Make sure you have the right drivers too, especially if you are coming from a different generation GPU or over from ATi/AMD. Oh, and there are only a couple situations where SLI is really a good option.

1) Two of the very top tier cards on the market
3) Two cards that will beat the single top tier card (FOR A LESSER PRICE)
2) Expanding on an existing card for less than it would cost buying a single card that would equal or beat two of your current cards in SLI.

Remind me guys, if there are any more circumstances that are really actually good for SLI.

Buying two mediocre cards right from the start and SLIing them is pretty dumb. IE, SLIing two 8600s, you could very easly just have gone with a single card for the same price, probably with greater performance too... When you can, go single card...

 

[pauldh]

in NV control panel:

 

[pauldh]

I agree forget two 8600's, but two 8800GT's actually very often spank an Ultra for less money. Two $150 HD3850's can = 1 8800GTX. But, it doesn't scale well in every game by any means. SLI is letting me play Crysis at my native 1680x1050 at all high details and 2xaa/16xaf, something I can't do on a single 8800GT. I'd like better performance still and am hopeful for the crysis patch with promised sli/crossfire performance increase. But even so right now it's a 45% increase over a single 8800GT at those settings. Not great, but not too shabby either with under $500 in cards that I can split and run in two systems if I desire too.

 

[pauldh]

Here's the setup with SOnata II cpu ductwork removed for pic. The SLI chip that needs switching isn't visible as it's flat on mobo right beneath top PCI-e 16 slot. Not all mobos will have/need this such as the 680i dual 16x mobo. The SLI bridge shows up though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.aspx?CurImage=13-130-081-04.jpg&Image=13-130-081-02.jpg%2c13-130-081-03.jpg%2c13-130-081-04.jpg%2c13-130-081-05.jpg%2c13-130-081-06.jpg%2c13-130-081-07.jpg%2c13-130-081-08.jpg&S7ImageFlag=0&Depa=0&Description=MSI+P6N+SLI+Platinum+ATX+Intel+Motherboard
The newegg pics show the sli selector card on this 650i mobo. pop it out turn it 180 degress and back in again to run SLI at 8x/8x.

 

[Evilonigiri]

Those 8800GT looks very thin. The 8800GTS 512MB looks better in SLI.

But who cares?

 

[pauldh]

Those 8800GT looks very thin. The 8800GTS 512MB looks better in SLI.

But who cares?

Believe me, I care, and agree with you. I hate the single slot 8800GT cooler. I'd much rather have the dual slot, rear-venting, quieter GTS cooler. But then again, my cards were $238 each and the GTS 512MB wasn't out when I bought them. Also, Two $350+ cards would have been over budget for me. The dual slot cooler would be tighter to the big Sb X-Fi at the bottom, but I could live with that.

 

[baddad]

If you have a 680i or 780i board there's not even a card to flip, you just plug them in and turn em on.

 

[pauldh]

Yep, I mentioned that up top. Kinda got lost though.

BTW Triple 8800GTX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Evilonigiri]

Oh yeah someone agrees with me!

And hell yes! I rather look at triple 8800Ultra though, they look slick.