What's the lowdown on the Dual Vid-card MoBos?

[Rohas979]

A friend of mine pointed me to an article on Toms Hardware a few months back about a type of motherboard (SLI? PCI Express?) that supports dual Video Cards. If I remember right the article said they wouln't be available for a few months, and I wasn't in the market then for a new computer (so I wasn't really paying attention). But now my wife wants a new computer and I am.

Can someone share the lowdown on this with me? Or perhaps point to some good articles on exactly what I was looking at?

Would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Rugger]

THG has an article on socket 939 mobos that also looks at 2 SLI boards.
<A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20050103/index.html" target="_new">http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20050103/index.html</A>
You can expect to pay a <b>premium</b> price for the SLI boards. What will you be using this system for (Gaming, DVD, video editing, etc)?

"He who will not risk, cannot win"
- John Paul Jones

 

[Rohas979]

Gaming and Modding. One of my friends said that to do it you need one of these two Motherboards (AMD, the ones discussed in the article you posted)...

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket939/a8nsli-d/overview.htm

http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-K8NXP-SLI.htm

...and that you needed two matching video cards that support it. As far as he knew the only two that did were the Nvidia 6600 and 6800. I hope I'm in the right ballpark here.

Right now I have an eVGA Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT. So if I'm understanding correctly I can do this if I pick up one of those motherboards, and another 6800 GT?

 

[Rohas979]

Ah.. .ok, lemme see. I checked newegg and there are two types of 6800 GT's.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-208&depa=0

and

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-215&depa=0

The bottom one is the one you need correct? Two of those babies?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Rohas979 on 01/27/05 02:01 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Rugger]

The only modern boards out there that support dual video cards right now are the NF4 SLI boards, but they require PCIe video cards. Is your 6800GT AGP or PCIe? How much are you looking at spending on your gaming/modding comp?

"He who will not risk, cannot win"
- John Paul Jones

 

[Rohas979]

Yep - cool, I understand now. The one I have is AGP, and to do this I'll need the other (more expensive) one. I'll get the MoBo and the SLI ready 6800 now, then buy a matching 6800 at the end of the year, for like, Christmas or something.

Thank you for your help!

 

[pat]

"Yep - cool, I understand now. The one I have is AGP, and to do this I'll need the other (more expensive) one. I'll get the MoBo and the SLI ready 6800 now, then buy a matching 6800 at the end of the year, for like, Christmas or something."

no..you dont understand...if you buy the mobo right now..you'll need to get the PCIe graphic card at the same time as your AGP one will NOT fit in. Unless you dont mind to have an expensuive board that will collect dust until next christmas. Better wait next christmas to buy both as they probably be cheaper than today.

PCIe is NOT COMPATIBLE with AGP...and AGP is NOT COMPATIBLE with PCIe

So if you want to keep your AGP card, you need an AGP motherboard. If you get a SLI motherboard, you'll need a PCIe card.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[Rugger]

You're link doesn't work - I haven't been able to cut/paste Newegg search results to make a good link. I found a couple of 6800GT PCIe models at Newegg:
1. XFX model PVT45GUD
2. <b>eVGA model 256-P2-N376-BX</b>
Either of these models would work on the SLI boards.

What is the model number of your current 6800GT? If you don't have a PCIe model, then you will NOT be able to use it in an SLI mobo.

"He who will not risk, cannot win"
- John Paul Jones

 

[Rugger]

Pat: I think he understands that he does need to get both. If he wants to and has the money to burn, then more power to him. Personally, I <b>don't</b> have that money to burn and couldn't justify <b>me</b> going PCIe when I still had a good 6800GT...

Rohas: What are you going to be doing with your current 6800? What's your current setup? Is your CPU a socket 939? What resolution do you game at? What games are you upgrading for? Make sure you have a great PSU before going SLI with dual vid cards. For some video card performance comparisons check out THG's PCIe vid card comparisons here:
<A HREF="http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041222/index.html" target="_new">http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041222/index.html</A>
To be perfectly honest - you could get better performance now by going non-SLI and getting a better video card like the X850XT PE for the about the same price as you could get an SLI board and a 6800GT. If you want to do it for the mod of having two vid cards and great performance, then go SLI and Ultra, but beware this will cost you a lot of money in the long run. If you go into it knowing that and are ok with it...do it.

"He who will not risk, cannot win"
- John Paul Jones

 

[Rugger]

One more thing...not all games support SLI. This means that is a game doesn't support SLI, then you won't get the benefit of having two cards. As time goes by, the support should get better - as long as SLI popularity grows...

"He who will not risk, cannot win"
- John Paul Jones