nvidia nforce4 sli boards

[drifter106]

for the most part the new boards will be a refined addition to the nforce3 boards. In addition they will allow u to use 2 6600 or 6800 video cards ( have to be same).

Will any of the current cards out from nvidia work (6000 series)? Can you use just one video card in the machine?

will 2 cards do much for u other than increase gaming perforamce? a.k.a video encoding/decoding? Thought that was more cpu oriented.

will these new motherboards be able to handle sata drives as well as pata hd...was thinking about buying some hd's right now, they have a special on them at frye's (200 gb seegates for $75 after rebate)

I am trying to find out all the options that are available so i can get something or wait.... have been waiting a long time...

if i wait should I hold off on buying other components to my system...

when i was referring to hd application i was referring to the corruption issue of sata=hard drive corruption when o/cing


thanks
jd

 

[cremator]

If you plan to wait, you can be safe by getting these items right now.

Power Supply
Case
CDRom Drives / DVD Drives

Items like these hardly ever go out

 

[Mem]

Will any of the current cards out from nvidia work (6000 series)? Can you use just one video card in the machine?

From what I`ve read you can use just one PCI Express video card in a SLI motherboard and can add the second SLI PCI Express video card (of same type)at a later date if you wish.

 

[gobucks]

These new boards are different than the nforce3 in one very important way - they have no AGP slot, using a PCI-express x16 slot instead, and also have PCIe x1 expansion slots for future peripherals. Some high end boards have 2 x16 slots, and those are the ones that have support for 2 video cards, but you can still use just one if you want. The current supply of 6800 series cards is mostly AGP, which you cannot have in a PCIe motherboard, but that situation is starting to swing slowly towards PCIe, and will do so much more when the PCIe replacement for the 6800NU (NV41) is released. As for midrange cards, the 6600GT (a great performer for the price) is mostly available on PCIe, with a few AGP models beginning to show their heads. Right now, the 6600GT, 6800GT, and 6800 Ultra support SLI, and you much use identical cards. NV41 might support it as well, but that remains to be seen.

There are some other good new features making NF4 better than NF3, like SATA-II support, raid morphing (allowing you to change 1 array type like Raid 0 into Raid 5 without destroying the array), really nice overclocking tools including a system diagnostic that auto-detects a good safe overclocking level, improved hardware firewall with TCP/IP offloading for reduced CPU load, etc. It also looks like the selection of NF4 boards will be much better (eventually) than is the case with NF3, since many manutacturers decided to pass on the NF3 round to focus on the new platform.

 

[w00t]

i wanted SLI not to long ago but think about it u got to buy 2 cards and u only get 50% increase that is a rip off its like buying 2 cards and rendering half no one needs SLI anyways doom 3 can be played fine with a x800xt or a 6800ultra high settings its a waste to get SLI unless u are a spoiled rich dont whipe your own ass kinda sh!t

 

[Mem]

i wanted SLI not to long ago but think about it u got to buy 2 cards and u only get 50% increase that is a rip off its like buying 2 cards and rendering half no one needs SLI anyways doom 3 can be played fine with a x800xt or a 6800ultra high settings its a waste to get SLI unless u are a spoiled rich dont whipe your own ass kinda sh!t

SLI is good if you want to add a 2nd PCI Express video card,remember you can use SLI board with only one PCI Express video card,so you then have the option to either add a 2nd SLI compatible PCI Express card (of same type) or just upgrade your single PCI Express video card,basically it gives you more options .

The only negative thing is not all PCI Express video cards are SLI compatible..

 

[amheck]

Originally posted by: w00t
i wanted SLI not to long ago but think about it u got to buy 2 cards and u only get 50% increase that is a rip off its like buying 2 cards and rendering half no one needs SLI anyways doom 3 can be played fine with a x800xt or a 6800ultra high settings its a waste to get SLI unless u are a spoiled rich dont whipe your own ass kinda sh!t

God, can you say run-on? Ugh.

Anyway, I believe you're missing the point of SLI entirely.

 

[tticknor]

Any informed opinions as to whether on an SLI NF4 board one could-

Run two gx cards independently (non-sli, multiple monitors) each at PEG8?

I imagine the hardware is capable and windows 2K/XP would understand it (just as you can put a second gx card in a pci slot and run dual displays), but will then MB bios/drivers support it ? Could you drop in a pair of dual-out 6600's and drive an 4-monitor wall?

 

[gobucks]

I have seen mobos that allow 2 independent video cards to be used. Via's K8T890 Pro is one of them, and its DualGFX system can be used for SLI or for dual card support. This would allow 4 monitors. I imagine that most nforce4 SLI boards will allow this, but I'm not absolutely sure. On another note, ATI's Xpress 200 chipset with integrated graphics allows you to use both a video card and the integrated graphics at the same time, allowing for 3 monitors to be used.

 

[tticknor]

Tom's Hardware answered most of my previous question, you can run two (optionally dissimilar) gx cards independently for multi-monitor. They don't seem to mention whether it si running PEG8 + PEG8 or PEG16 + PEG1, but the former seems (to me at least) more likely.

Near the end of this review

Tom's Hardware SLI review