SLI motherboards?

[Rogue 2]

OK, I have a dumb question. If a motherboard has 2 PCIe slots, does it mean that it supports run SLI? Or do you have to have a nVidia chipset to run SLI? Or do some only support Crossfire? Otherwise why have 2 PCIe slots?

Reason is this. I have a S939 system (X2 4200+), 2GB, 9600GT PCIe. Want to migrate to something (cheap) where I can slap in another 9600GT. But I don't know what chipset I need to do SLI. Can any of you assist?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Blazer7]

Only nVidia based boards + some of the newer X58s support SLI. If you?re only looking to upgrade your graphics the cheapest solution for you is to replace your 9600GT with a better card.

 

[Rogue 2]

Got it... I figured nVidia chipsets were the only way to go for SLI, that makes sense. Thanks for your help!

 

[DSF]

Have you looked at the benchmarks for SLi 9600GTs?

By the time you pay for a new video card and motherboard you're probably better off just getting a GTX 260 or 4870 on sale, but that's a guess.

 

[Rogue 2]

Perhaps I'm overestimating the negative impact of my Athlon X2 4200+? I figured a bump up to something "cheap", like a 5600+ or 6000+ would get me on the AM2+ platform and pop in a quad core down the road. Sounds like I don't necessarily need to?

FWIW Far Cry 2 runs pretty good at 1280x960, most things on "Very Good" quality. I still have an old CRT so running at a certain res doesn't really matter.