Need some help on EVGA SLI LE X58 motherboard

[jchan]

I knew that my board was at x16 x8 x4 x8 mode when i bought it, but now i was just wondering. When i upgrade in 2012, do you think running two graphic cards at x16 x8 mode will decrease my performance by a lot? Hopefully in 3 years, i can upgrade to a core i9 and get quad SLI gtx 295's for a good price =D. I know the gtx 295 utilizes 16 lanes, but how much slower is quad sli @ x16 x16 than quad sli @ x16 x8 ?

Or maybe by 2012 nvidia will have 400 series already ... hmm

 

[OvrClkr]

Don't worry about it.... The performance hit is about 7% overall....

If you don't want to run dual cards on the LE then just get yourself a 5870 or better yet 5870x2 when it comes out....

 

[jchan]

Yeah i read some reviews that the x8 doesn't affect performance too much...

Another question about this motherboard:

It has x16 x8 x4 x8 as stated before ...

Do you think it's possible to tri-sli three gtx 285's in the x16 x8 x8 slots, and then get a separate 9800GTX+ on the x4 slot for physx only ?

And IF it is possible, :

How do you setup one video card for graphics only, and the second video card for physics only ?

 

[OvrClkr]

You would be wasting your money on Tri-285's when you can buy dual 5870's and use a GTX 9800 for Physics....

If you already have the cards then yes it is possible.... If you don't have the cards I would suggest you spend your coin on the new Radeon's, you end up spending less, consuming less power and overall a hell lot more performance compared to the 3 285's...

 

[jchan]

i'm not sure if the EVGA SLI LE supports crossfire... it says SLI but not crossfire =/

But suppose i did have the card, what do you do to make one card for graphics, and one card for physics?

 

[OvrClkr]

Yea, the LE supports both....

To enable Physics you need to go into the GPU software, Ntune, Riva, etc.... And look for the Physics tab, once located you will have the option to Enable/Disable...

To be honest I would rather use one brand of GPU's only... When you mix both Nvdia and ATI together you are prone to driver conflics among other issues....

 

[jchan]

yeah ...

hopefully by the time i upgrade, the 300 series will be out so i can be all nvidia/intel

thanks for the help