Quick question about 7950 GX2

[Papi4baby]

So do you need an SLI board, of just a board with 1 PCI-E 16?????

From what i can understand it runs like SLI?? So is it just a driver thing once you have the cards in, not a physical need for the SLI board?
Thanks in adavance.

[Sir. MatDef]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

It'll work on any nforce 4 mobo, but not one with a chipset made by ati (as far I know). The computer will see it as two seperate cards, so you can enable and disable sli just like anybody with two seperate cards.

[sackynut]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

so the mobo doesnt have to be Sli?

and if the answer to the question is Yes, then if you have a regular Sli mobo you can do quad-sli?

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

so the mobo doesnt have to be Sli?

and if the answer to the question is Yes, then if you have a regular Sli mobo you can do quad-sli?

Yes you can quad them.

[Nathan0490]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

so the mobo doesnt have to be Sli?

and if the answer to the question is Yes, then if you have a regular Sli mobo you can do quad-sli?

You can but the drivers are still VERY buggy. It wouldnt be wise to just yet.

[LoD]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

So do you need an SLI board, of just a board with 1 PCI-E 16?????

From what i can understand it runs like SLI?? So is it just a driver thing once you have the cards in, not a physical need for the SLI board?
Thanks in adavance.

The 7950GX2 will work in most regular PCIe mobos. Double check the nvidia compatibility list before you drop $700 on a card that is incompatible with your mobo.

Essentially nvidia is marketing this as a "single card" to the lay people in the gaming community, or to Intel and ATI chipset owners who want the absolute best single card, and technically cant run regular SLI.

But yes, from a physical standpoint this is just SLI, two cards smashed together to form a bastardized hybrid.

[Papi4baby]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

Ok guys, i found the anwser, it will not work on all single PCI-E mobos, but it will in some check the page for the compatable list. As time passes more chipsets will be suported so. But by them i will probably have updated my mobo anyways.

http://www.nvidia.com/content/geforce_gx2_sbios/us.asp?vendor=&sortBy=chipset

Thanks to anyone who try to help out.

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

You're not seriously considering getting one are you?

[Papi4baby]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

I was, but since i use a regular 19" monitor, i would see no benefit from it. It was mostly curiosity, as i thought any mobo with a PCI-E 16 could run the card, and enable SLI.

[Sir. MatDef]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

and if the answer to the question is Yes, then if you have a regular Sli mobo you can do quad-sli?

Yes, but the drivers haven't been released by nvidia yet, as far as I know only the oems have them.

[LoD]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

I was, but since i use a regular 19" monitor, i would see no benefit from it. It was mostly curiosity, as i thought any mobo with a PCI-E 16 could run the card, and enable SLI.

Most mobo's should, its only mobo's that didnt follow the PCIe x16 spec that will have trouble.

Essentially the 7950GX2 has its own PCIe bridge chip. If you lack bandwidth you will lose performance, and if you have a motherboard that doesnt detect bridges, the card wont work.

For instance about the bandwidth....


Regular SLI:

x16 slot --> x8 bandwidth
+
x16 slot --> x8 bandwidth

High end SLI x16 Regular SLI:

x16 slot --> x16 bandwdith
+
x16 slot --> x16 bandwidth

**********

With a 7950GX2

Almost all Regular PCIe boards:

|--> x8 bandwidth per half of the card
x16 slot --| (bridge)
|--> x8 bandwidth per half of the card


Bastardized x8 bandwidth boards

|--> x4 bandwidth per half of the card
x8 slot --| (bridge)
|--> x4 bandwidth per half of the card

You basically hit a bottleneck here, and this is my main guess as to why nvidia doesnt officially support Quad SLI, for most people with a regular SLI board, each card will be running on a x4 PCIe slot, which is probably going to starve the cards.


Just for an example, Quad SLI on a regular SLI board:

|--> x4 bandwidth per half of the card
x16 slot --> x8 bandwidth| (bridge)
|--> x4 bandwidth per half of the card
+
|--> x4 bandwidth per half of the card
x16 slot --> x8 bandwidth| (bridge)
|--> x4 bandwidth per half of the card


Still this will work, only slower than ideal speed. The other reason quad SLI isnt supported is because some BIOS' and mobos cant see the bridge.

[AlphexHunter]

Re: Quick question about 7950 GX2

BFG PCIE GF7 7950GX2 1024M BOX 7950GX2
$789.00

Right here in Canada wow I really thought the price would be way more expensive...