Can a 680i SLI support a 4850 X2?

[kedrickfurniture]

Hi, my current motherboard is a 680i SLI, and I was wondering whether or not it can support 4850 X2. People say that non-crossfire motherboards should be able to run X2 cards, but mine is also pci-e 1 or 1.1 or whatever. Perhaps a 4890 would run better on this motherboard?

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
Cards like HD 4870X2 require a single PCI-E 16x slot and also PCI-E 2.0 is backward compatible with PCI-E 1.0 so u can use it on your board

 

[rambo117]

1+^

as long as you have one PCIe slot (doesnt matter if its 2.0 or not, backward compatible) youll be fine.

 

[evongugg]

You may need a bios update to go from PCIe 1.0 to 1.1.
1.1 is certainly compatible. 1.0 may not be compatible.

 

[Maziar]

Well i searched in google and it seems 1.0 is compatible too,evongugg,is there any motherboard with PCI-E 1.0 which isn't compatible with 2.0 ? if so then will a BIOS update fix it ?

 

[evongugg]

Typical issue that almost all VIA chipsets have with PCI Express cause they didn't follow the specifications to the letter. That means that they have issues with backwards compatibility when a PCI Express 2.0 card is put on it. The fix is rather easy but you need a friend with a non VIA chipset mainboard to flash your graphics card.

 

[Maziar]

thanks for the info

 

[panzerboy]

Had a 680i w/4850 x2, works fine even w/out updating the BIOS. Later, I had to update the BIOS due to my Q9650 (which was ran on my 680i as well with the BIOS update).

 

[Maziar]

That's why i said u "MAY" because sometimes like in your case its not needed