SLI scaling on AM3 SLI boards?

[xrome]

Hello all.

I recently purchased an ASUS EVO AM3 980a SLI board and a Gigabyte GTX 460. (***I am having a problem with this board's sound card however. If you are good with sound hardware/software issues please see this thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/289678-28-asus-onboard-sound-card-crackle-sound-card-options ***)

I have read some posts on various sites saying they don't think scaling on these AM3 boards will be as good as scaling on the intel boards. To me that doesn't make much sense, and they don't give any facts, sources or benchmarks.

So i am writing to try and obtain a definitive answer. Does anyone know or have a source that tested SLI scaling on AM3 boards that natively run SLI (not driver hacked crossfire boards).

After reading about 80-100% scaling with 2 gtx 460's, I want to know I'll be getting the same performance on my AM3 board.

Thanks in advance.
~xRome

 

[jaquith]

Not to aggravate you, but "stuff" like this is why I mostly use X58...I won't CF/SLI on anything less than the X58/1366. The cost is negligible.

Good Luck on your RMA!

 

[saint19]

The problem with SLI on AMD is the CPU since isn't as as powerful as the i7.

 

[jaquith]

^ Ehh, there's the SLI bandwidth issues that concern me over the CPU. Tons of posts over that issue.

I like AMD just fine, but not with SLI.

 

[xrome]

soooo... what does any of that mean? I don't need a an i7. I just do gaming.

Jaquith, can you explain more about the SLI bandwith issues that concern you please? I'm looking for specifics.

You said "stuff like this" is why you use X58... stuff like what? Stuff like the unsubstatiated claims I refered to in my original post? lol.

What I'm looking for is specifics/benchmarks/personal tests by owners to either substantiate those claims or denounce them. If anyone has them

 

[jaquith]

Most importantly, I am NOT an AMD snob, and some of the smoothest rigs I've built were indeed AMD, but over the last couple+ years they've been dropping the ball. Sorry I'm not just popping opinions; the AMD + SLI often comes up. CF is okay on the AMD, and I realize the EVO supports SLI dual X16. However, that's only 1 piece of the pie.

X58 advantages (+,+,+,etc): Greater bandwidth across multiple PCI Express lanes {multi-GPU} [=], no degraded bandwidth from USB 3/SATA3 [+], Tri/Hexa Channel DDR3 [+], greater bandwidth for CPU[+].

Futuremark
I7 980X+ GTX 460 = P40460
I7 930 + GTX 460 = P28925
Phenom II X4 940BE + GTX 460 = P14588
BTW - no AMD Phenom II X6 scores + GTX460??

Knock yourself out - http://service.futuremark.com/search/form.action

 

[taso11]

You should be ok with two cards in sli. 3-way sli doesn't scale as expected on non X58 motherboards.

 

[jaquith]

^ Agreed, but the OP has a 2-WAY MOBO. I doubt the OP would argue their point with 3/4-WAY SLI. And, I know the OP knows there's little data on the EVO so I had to resort to Futuremark.

Interesting - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-cpu-build-a-pc,2700-16.html