Get Quad SLI Before It Is Hatched

Previous Issues With Quad-SLI

If you remember the Quad-SLI launch, we had some problems with the configurations with the Asus A8N32-SLI and the GeForce 7900GX2 graphics cards. In some tests we would get the dreaded BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) while in other tests we would see the system freeze. At first we had synchronization issues with the Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard, as BIOS settings would not allow us to run HyperTransport at the same bus widths and multipliers. The next hurdle was the drivers-we had several versions that did not fix the issues we saw. In the end we had a comparable testing platform that ran most of the game tests without problems, and the lockups between tests in 3DMark05 were resolved.

Like ATI, current WHQL drivers are listed only on the company website. Beta drivers are normally not listed there, as support for these could cause some issues to consumers who are not tech savvy. Quad-SLI has not been supported via web released WHQL or beta drivers-until now. The Forceware beta driver version 91.33 hit the nZone website, but from the release notes associated with the driver, there is no indication of support for Quad SLI on GeForce 7950GX2.

We were informed that this driver was available and thought we should do some preliminary tests to see how well this driver improved upon what we saw with the GeForce 7900GX2 in Quad-SLI. We still had lockups in Oblivion from time to time-which exhibited no particular pattern-but we were able to finish all of the tests.