GTX 460 SLI with an i5 750 on a P55 board

[janfebmar]

Hi

After reading this article :
Amazing SLI Scaling: Do Two GeForce GTX 460s Beat One GTX 480?http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-sli-geforce-gtx-480,2694.html

I got curious and kind of want to buy that SLI configuration. But in the article it states that :

Less expensive X58-based solutions would have also been adequate for two-way SLI testing, since the chipset supports two x16 cards at full bandwidth.

My mainboard is : P7P55D PREMIUM, and as far as I know the board has 2*16x PCI-E lanes. but if I choose to use an x-fire or SLI solution it jumps to 8 - 8 x configuration.
So what would this mean speed wise?

The article above was meant for budget gamers I would guess so why use so extremely pricey components?
Any expert help on this?

 

[Helltech]

You will be fine with SLI even if it drops to x8. The speed difference is slower yes, but we are talking like a 5 percent difference on each card.

http://www.videojug.com/webvideo/how-to-understand-pci-e-x8-vs-x16-crossfiresli

 

[janfebmar]

That is good news man, thanks!
I mainly use my computer for programming and gaming. So there were no need for me to buy an i7.
I'm tired of my ATi card. Playing games with PhysX totally ruins the framerates but turning if off ruins the gameplay
The cape on Batman looks pathethic with PhysX turned off :S

 

[Mousemonkey]

You will be fine with SLI even if it drops to x8. The speed difference is slower yes, but we are talking like a 5 percent difference on each card.

http://www.videojug.com/webvideo/how-to-understand-pci-e-x8-vs-x16-crossfiresli

It may be even less than that mate, I saw a little article the other day that really made me question my own beliefs in that regard.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/16/sli_cfx_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x16x8/3

 

[janfebmar]

It may be even less than that mate, I saw a little article the other day that really made me question my own beliefs in that regard.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/16/sli_cfx_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x16x8/3

True, but thats x16x8, not x8x8.
So the difference might be a bit more?

 

[janfebmar]

So, turns out hardOCP did another test with x16x16 vs x8x8.
Here is the link : http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/23/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x8x8/

In short x8x8 is only a disadvantage when running on 5760x1200 resolutions. On 2560x1600 (and below of course) , with even 4x AA turned on, the differences were minuscule. This was a test using the 480 card from Nvidia. The card on the market that has the most bandwidth.

This is good news for all us P55 owners.
I just ordered two 460 cards