Will I run into trouble while SLIing two GPUs on a AMD CPU+MB?

[Shaun E]

I had no concern about it until a friend who has recently been in networking/computer classes and worked under an IT swore that I would run into problems if I crossed an Nvidia GPU with AMD MB & CPU. To the affect of "your games would noticeably lag."
I am not a guru. This is my first build. But I have done a moderate amount of research across what parts I need, what they do, and what permutation of parts are good. With some guidance from a family member who has experience with building PCs. From the forums I have read, the statement of my friend was never echoed.
Initially, my rig will be born with a Nvidia GPU. Later in its lifetime, another of the like GPU will be added to SLI. Additional watts are accounted for the added power. My MB is a 970. With a AMD FX8320.
Would anyone clear this up for me? Is it flawed that I'm choosing an Nvidia? Or am I being conned by the bias of a techie?
Is there something I missed about chipsets? And north and south bridges?
I would love to know from a fourth opinion, so far forums have agreed there is no problem with it.
And if this topic is old for you, well, I'm sorry.

 

[tiny voices]

Nope, no such issue exists.

BUT, your motherboard only runs the second GPU slot at x4 making dual GPUs pointless. You need a 990fx chipset AMD board for proper dual GPU setups.

 

[Shaun E]

Thanks.
Okay, so the numbers tell me whe lanes can be run and its either x16/0, x8/x8 or x16/x4? And by that time i get the extra card it will yield nothing because there are insufficient lanes to utilize all of its power?

 

[logainofhades]

970 boards generally do not support SLI. There are only 3, 970, boards, that I know of, that support SLI.

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/motherboard/#c=16&l=2

 

[Shaun E]

I will be running the Asrock board.

 

[logainofhades]

I will be running the Asrock board.

Then you can run SLI. There are no problems to be had then. Your friend is sorely misinformed. There are no issues to be had with Nvidia in an AMD CPU/MB combo. Only lag you could get is if you are in a heavily cpu dependent, low threaded title, that no amount of GPU will help. FX 8320 lags behind Intel in such titles heavily.

 

[Shaun E]

I will be running the Asrock board.

Then you can run SLI. There are no problems to be had then. Your friend is sorely misinformed. There are no issues to be had with Nvidia in an AMD CPU/MB combo. Only lag you could get is if you are in a heavily cpu dependent, low threaded title, that no amount of GPU will help. FX 8320 lags behind Intel in such titles heavily.

Alright. Thanks for clearing that up.
And so you're saying the FX8320 was a poor choice? Or just comparatively a poorer choice?

 

[tiny voices]

In games where the CPU is stressed heavily, such as Farcry3 an i5 would perform significantly better, but in most cases you will not really notice any difference or have any issues.

 

[Shaun E]

OK. Thanks.
So back to the PCIe lane thing.
When I read "PCIe 2.0 slots: 3 (x16/0 or x8/x8, x4)" on a mb's specs; its telling me that I have 3 slots that transmit at these speeds when cards are inserted into specific slots?

 

[tiny voices]

Yes, correct. When you use a single card it will run a tx16. When you use 2 cards, then will run at x8 (standard) This is normal. Completely forget the third slot as it is useless.

 

[Shaun E]

Grand. Thank you.

 

[Shaun E]

So SLIing would be a gain, even though both GPUs run at reduced speed.
And I believe there's nothing special about Nvidia vs Radeon I should know about?
They both will render graphics for my games. I'm searching forums for specifics.
Thanks again.

 

[Shaun E]

What about Nvidia driver errors with AMD?
Fact or fiction?

 

[tiny voices]

Both cards run at max speed. At x8/x8 both cards still run at full speed. It is only at x4 where cards become bottlenecked.

Drivers errors due to cross platforms: 100000% fiction.

 

[logainofhades]

People totally forget that Nvidia use to make most of the chipsets for AMD, before the ATI acquisition. :lol:

 

[TehCaucasianAsian]

You honestly will have no issues at all. AMD CPUs don't have any mandatory driver software, so you really only need NVIDIA software. That means there's absolutely nothing software wise that will interfere. Physically, so long as your motherboard supports SLI, and it does, the only real issue you would ever have is heat and power. As long as the GPUs get enough power and cooling, you're all good to SLI