Does the future ATI "SLI"-thing work on 955x?

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steviep

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I read in the Intel forum that the future ATI "SLI" thing will work on the 955x motherboards. Can anyone confirm that for me? Or re-throw the possibilty of running 2 NVidia cards, despite the fact that the NVidia drivers have the feature locked out on any board but their own.

Which current gen ATI card can I get the same or similar features and bang-for-the-buck as the GT? I've researched the NVidia side of things, and like the 6800GT (at the $500 CAD price point, it seems like it would last a good couple years for me). I was totally set on this card, because I liked the features, I liked the speed, and to be honest, this generation, NVidia's cards have been the winners. Not by a large margin, but they do have a very slight edge. The X800XL is the "competition" to the GT, I know... but from what I remember seeing, the card doesn't come too close to the GT in raw power. Can anyone reccomend a good ATI card, IF the NVidias won't dual on my 955x?

Oh, and yes I would like the X850, however, it seems that prices are way too high... I'm not paying $700-800 CAD for a video card!! I want to stay below or around $500CAD if possible. (That's around $350-400US for you Yanks who don't know about exchange rates)

Considering the 955x (specifically the Asus premium model) states that it is dual-GPU capable, why won't NVidia allow their cards to do SLI on it? Who cares if they sell a few less of their own chipsets... I will have to go ATI in that case, if someone can confirm it will work. Not that I will be buying 2-cards off the bat, I just want that capability in future. That's what SLI is about, right?!



Again, just to re-iterate and summarize... I would prefer the 6800GT because I know I can get a good price on it ($470CAD) and it has all the features and power I want... however, I refuse to buy it if I absolutely can't run it dual in my Asus 955 mobo. So if ATI cards will run dual, I will most likely change my mind and would like a good ATI recommendation.
If the next gen R520 cards are coming out this month (and I DON'T mean a paper launch... like everything has been recently) i want it in my hand by the end of the month.
Thanks in advance for everyone's help - I know, this thread is a long read :)
 
ati can not currently do sli.

and next generation cards will not be available untill around late summer... maybe August if i had to guess.

you will probably get a paper launch at mid summer.

expect availability to be limited and prices very high as well at first launch.

i dont know if your mobo will support it or not... why dont you give your mobo manufacture a ring?
 
AFAIK for either ATI or Nvidia's SLI you need to buy their chipset motherboards. They both require special hardware on the motherboard in order to work right.

Both have licenses with Intel to make Intel mobos, but neither has released one yet.

From the initial details, it seems ATI's SLI (called MVP) will clog the PCI-E bus more since it has no bridge chip and therefore may be slower than Nvidia's SLI.

In conclusion, you won't be able to run ATI or Nvidia SLI in your current mobo, so you might as well buy the 6800GT. Later down the road you can upgrade to an Nvidia SLI Intel mobo if you want to go SLI.
 
Really? Hmm... so where did that rumour come from about ATI's working on 955x compatibility... and Asus specifically states, that their 2 x16 slots can function with dual graphics (they call it PEG-link or something) and that if 2 gpu's are plugged in, it will re-route the PCI-ex lanes so that they do 2 x 8x.

It seems pretty confusing to me. I would much rather have an Intel chipset on a rock-solid Asus motherboard, than something made by the graphics company I'm purchasing from.

Thanks for the help though. If anyone else has further input, feel free to reply.
 
A while ago, some sight said that it does work with current Intel Dual PCI-Ex16 mobos (for like, dual Xenon systems) so ya, its possible,
 
From what I've heard ATI's SLI will be slower than nVidia's because of the lack of a bridgechip, but it will work on "any" mobo. They had an X800 running with a X300 as well so I think you can mix and match em.
 
Hate_Bot said:
A while ago, some sight said that it does work with current Intel Dual PCI-Ex16 mobos (for like, dual Xenon systems) so ya, its possible,
Click to expand...

The rumor is that it's possible.

I'm guessing it will be the same case as with nvidia cards...you can do it without the bridge connector but you lose performance.

So ATi cards will probably work in intel boards...but just not as well as on an ati board...
 
Max Power said:
From what I've heard ATI's SLI will be slower than nVidia's because of the lack of a bridgechip, but it will work on "any" mobo. They had an X800 running with a X300 as well so I think you can mix and match em.
Click to expand...

There is a bridg chip in the form of a dongle or something to that effect. IMO, its like this because since ATI uses AMR for military/commercial uses (up to 32 cards at one point) this way, you can have more then 2 cards, since all cards have 2 monitor sockets (vGA and DVI, or dual DVI) you can just alternate sockets, and add more cards.
 
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