Hello to all.
I'm happy to find an official site for the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo.
In my effort to find as much info as you people, I want to share some very important findings.
Topic - Correct SLI setup!
ok, we start off with the correct placement of the Dongle on this mobo.
I'm sure you're going to use 2 PCIe GPU's. It doesn't make sence not to.
I used the 6693 driver listed under Nvidia 6600 GT. I'm using 2 XFX 6600 GT's,
128MB each.
Look carefully at the Bios settings for What type of GPU to use. There are 2 settings. One for PCI, & the other for PCIex. I set it for PCIex, not auto.
When you're done in the Bios, reboot & go into the Gforce Properties & click on SLI multi-GPU.
You will see 2 settings. Put a checkmark in "Enable SLI multi-GPU" in the window on the left.
Do not check "Show GPU load balancing". If you do, you will get a green line across your screen when any game uses Open GL.
Then click on performance & quality settings, & put a checkmark in "Show advanced settings" This will allow you to see a very important setting.
Use the scroll bar in the little window to get to the bottom of the list.
You will see a setting for "SLI rendering mode" By default, it is set to "Single GPU rendering. Click on the drop down arrow at the bottom of the box and click on "Multi-GPU rendering". click on apply & then OK.
Will will only use 1 GPU if this setting is not enabled. Then you will see a big difference in 3D Mark 3 Benchmark results.
I ran 3D Mark 3 before I knew about the above setting and only scored just over 5000 marks. Terrible! Once I enabled the Multi-GPU rendering mode as I explained, I ran the test again & scored 13182 3D marks. My score was higher then the top score for my config. Nothing overclocked!
My config.
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. Bios version 1003 final. I had to Re-flash the bios. you will too. Don't think you don't have to, even if it's working. the new version fixes SLI & 64 Bit OS issues!
Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm Winchester core.
2 XFX 6600 GT's 128MB each.
2 Seagate Barracuda 120GB SATA HD's, non raid setup.
1 GB Ultra PC3200/DDR/400Mhz ram in duel channel mode. 2-512MB.
Antec 2.03 compliant PSU with 24pin main connector.
This PSU also has 2 SATA power plugs. You dont need the HD power plug
adators.
More important news. The Nforce chipset supports native SATA drivers.
That means you don't have to worry about loading in any drivers for your SATA HD's during Windows installation.
I hope this info is worth gold to you. I know it won't make me any richer, but I'm happy to find this website. Good luck on your new build.