SLI on an x38 based Mobo?

[Prodigal]

I'm currently running a 9800GT that likes to get up to about 80C under a load, and have read that a pair of GTS 250's in SLI provide excellent performance for the price. So I ordered a couple this evening and didn't think twice about it.

I was looking through my motherboard (An ASUS Maximus Formula using the Intel x38 chipset) manuals and such for the SLI bridge, and noticed that it's only listed as supporting CrossFire. I did some quick googling and found that until recently you couldn't do SLI on a non-nvidia chipset.

As it's been a couple years and I've been out of the loop, I was hoping the folks that frequent the forums here might be better informed. Am I going to have to use hacked drivers, or outright SOL for nvidia cards? I'm not a fan of ATI's driver support, and it's my understanding that there are issues with them in STO if you want to use AA or Dynamic Lighting (one of the main games I'm playing right now).

Thanks in advance

 

[Mousemonkey]

It's going to be hacked drivers only for Sli on that board and as for where you'd get them google should help but the only ones I've seen were on Russian sites and I've no reason to download them so I haven't.

 

[Prodigal]

Oy...there's a lot of fail right there. I appreciate the info.

Now I debate between going with a single nVidia card or dual ATI's...not a fan of ATI.

Oy...

 

[DokkRokken]

Heading with the single nVidia will mean you won't get DX11, unless you wait it out for their 'Fermi'. However, it seems like it'll be a monster, which is probably what you'd want if you're aiming to prolong your rig's life and get some nice performance.

 

[Prodigal]

I did some more googling and came across this:

http://xdevs.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.30

The jist is it fakes the official nvidia drivers into thinking the motherboard has an x58 chipset. They've tested it with a number of cards and chipsets and it appears to work. It appears to be a simple registry modification for the most part.

Any thoughts? If it works as advertised, this might just make my day.

 

[Mousemonkey]

It's up to you mate, I wouldn't trust it but it's your board and your call.

 

[jsc]

I looked at the link. Looks interesting. Also looks like it can't hurt to try. At the worst, you'd have to wipe the hard drive and try again. And think of the bragging rights.

 

[Prodigal]

Yeah I ended up canceling my order for the cards, and then reordering them after I found that site. I got them from newegg and they have a refund option, so I'll just image my primary array before I do it, and worse comes to worse I can return the cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143211

Anyone know what kind of temps I should be looking at on these things? Currently I'm running a BFG 9800GT (single slot). I'm thinking that going with a single slot card might have been a mistake, it runs at 57~63C at idle, and gets above 80C while gaming.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Sounds like the cooler needs a clean, my single slot 8800's used to idle around the high 40's to low 50's with the standard coolers on.

 

[orangegator]

I'm using the driver hack from that website to enable SLI on my GA-P45-UD3P. I'm running 2x 9600GSO 384mb in sli on Win 7 64bit and they work fine.