Nvidia Motherboard Help

Iceman · 12-26-06, 02:08 PM

Yea the mb needs to support SLI...goto nvidia and read up and google about SLI....it has to be setup properly or it won't work....I bought a computer with it from pcclub.com....and read up some on the whole thing...I think I just googled about SLI before I bought so not sure exactly where I read,I just read all over and went with it....it played DOOM 3 on it's ultra High setting that they did not recemond setting it to...the whole game thru flawlessly....and the expansion pack.

...just got Oblivion for Christmas and set it to highest setting and so far so good.

JU_88 · 12-26-06, 02:47 PM

if its an nforce 4 chips set and you have two 16x PCI E slots then YES!
To be honest you should punch your mobos model number in to google to get more info.

But as Perilscope rightly pointed out, your cards must be SLI compatible, to check this look to see if they have contacts on the outermost side for the SLI bridge (which you will also need - and should have been supplied with your Mobo)

tycho102 · 12-27-06, 02:19 PM

Crossfires take a very limited number of boards. There's like 3 to choose from, both mainboard and video card.

SLI is supported by NF4 and above, but the mainboard has to have the slots. And you've got to have cards with the little SLI connection on top. If you look at your mainboard, you might see a small "card" insert between two of the long slots. Newer boards have the ability to forgo the physical switch for a BIOS switch.

The two long slots with a locking-tab at the end are PCIe 16x slots (although they are probably really 8x slots in SLI mode).

The Munster · 12-29-06, 12:06 PM

Thanks for the help guys, especially the photographs; I will peel open my box of tricks during the holidays and take a note of everything. Cheers.

nightdagger · 12-31-06, 09:48 AM

But the chipset has to be a SLI chipset for SLI to work: plenty of motherboards have dual slots but no SLI. Another thing to keep in mind is not all cards require the SLI bridge. Lower end cards can use the PCIe bus to communicate between each other.

12-27-06, 02:19 PM	#3
tycho102 Ace of the Deep Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 1,100 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Crossfires take a very limited number of boards. There's like 3 to choose from, both mainboard and video card. SLI is supported by NF4 and above, but the mainboard has to have the slots. And you've got to have cards with the little SLI connection on top. If you look at your mainboard, you might see a small "card" insert between two of the long slots. Newer boards have the ability to forgo the physical switch for a BIOS switch. The two long slots with a locking-tab at the end are PCIe 16x slots (although they are probably really 8x slots in SLI mode). __________________ My little Silent Hunter 4 repository

12-29-06, 12:06 PM	#4
The Munster Ace of the Deep Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Deepest Dumbria Posts: 1,243 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	Thanks for the help guys, especially the photographs; I will peel open my box of tricks during the holidays and take a note of everything. Cheers. __________________ *GWX Team Member; Retired* GWX Home Page

12-26-06, 02:08 PM	#1
Iceman Ace of the Deep Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Mesa AZ, Arizona, USA Posts: 1,253 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Yea the mb needs to support SLI...goto nvidia and read up and google about SLI....it has to be setup properly or it won't work....I bought a computer with it from pcclub.com....and read up some on the whole thing...I think I just googled about SLI before I bought so not sure exactly where I read,I just read all over and went with it....it played DOOM 3 on it's ultra High setting that they did not recemond setting it to...the whole game thru flawlessly....and the expansion pack. ...just got Oblivion for Christmas and set it to highest setting and so far so good.

12-26-06, 02:47 PM	#2
JU_88 Silent Hunter Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: UK Posts: 3,803 Downloads: 11 Uploads: 0	if its an nforce 4 chips set and you have two 16x PCI E slots then YES! To be honest you should punch your mobos model number in to google to get more info. But as Perilscope rightly pointed out, your cards must be SLI compatible, to check this look to see if they have contacts on the outermost side for the SLI bridge (which you will also need - and should have been supplied with your Mobo)

12-31-06, 09:48 AM	#5
nightdagger Officer Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 243 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	But the chipset has to be a SLI chipset for SLI to work: plenty of motherboards have dual slots but no SLI. Another thing to keep in mind is not all cards require the SLI bridge. Lower end cards can use the PCIe bus to communicate between each other.