GFX cards - No SLI?

gobby

Hey all,

Like a lot of peeps I'm upgrading to the latest intel tech. I've waited a while to upgrade so I'm pretty much replacing everything save the case/optical drives/psu and the other small bits.

Now, call me picky but I prefer to get Nvidia GFX cards if I can. A habit I guess. Another thing that I like to bear in mind when upgrading is trying to stay future proof. This is why I want to get a mobo that can support two GFX cards (so I can upgrade at a future date by buying another GFX card and running two at once)

The only thing is that any decent mobo thats on the market at the moment only seem to support crossfire (ati's solution to two GFX cards). Never any mention of SLI (nvidia's solution).

My question is this:

Would it be likely that a bios update could be released at a future date to enable the use of SLI setups on some of these mobo's? In particular the ASUS P5W DH Delux or a similar board.

Thanks in advance...

StRiKeR

get the nVidia Chipset board then you be fine.

as for GFX card, why not just get one 8800 GTX, future proof, I just ordered one for myself and waiting for it to pop in the from the post. DirectX 10 Hardware, and its still good bit faster than all the cards on the market at the moment even running DirectX 9.

you might want to check on your PSU if you thinking of getting a high end GFX card or even SLi setup, Power is very important.Personnally using OCZ 700w which can handle actually over 700w output from many reviews.

hope you find these info helpful to you.

gobby

Can't afford an 8800 at the mo tbh. Have to upgrade a lot of other things too! I'll be upgrading the chip (have it already), mobo, gfx and ram. Would like to keep spend under 600-700 quid. So that kinda rules out an 8800.

Also, of all the most recent socket 775 mobo's the only mobo's with 2xPCI 16 seem to be Intel chipsets and are all crossfire rather than sli compliant.

I read an interesting article on the mobo that i previously mentioned. Seems that the mobo is slow and the only reason you might want to get it is for the 2xPCI 16 (except it actually runs in 2x mode as 2xPCI 8) or maybe the remote control.

http://www.custompc.co.uk/custompc/reviews/93205/asus-p5w-dh-deluxe.html

8T8

You might want to consider the X1950 Pro {& go Crossfire later} if your budget is limited for a few reasons;
Internal crossfire no master card needed.
Intel 975 & 965 chipsets support crossfire.
X1950 Pro is a decent performing card
Better image quality than GeForce 7 series

It is unlikely NVIDIA will allow SLI on Intel boards because it would remove the need for NVIDIA chipsets.

uberpixie

Nvidia are releasing a new chipset, Nforce 680 that supports the Intel stuff and will do SLI.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=5&subid=205

Clockers have a few of them listed.

gobby

Great replies peeps. Defo some food for thought! Cheers...

StRiKeR

have you seen this one?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=310570

I'm using Epox myself, except I'm using AMD. I find the epox good enough. seems fast enough.

gobby

StRiKeR wrote:

have you seen this one?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=310570

I'm using Epox myself, except I'm using AMD. I find the epox good enough. seems fast enough.

Unfortunatly

"This mainboard does not support the new Intel Core2 DUO Processor"

Its a Conroe that I have...