SLI & Crossfire question

[geRm]

On a SLI motherboard, can you use ATi cards? and vice versa with Crossfire?

 

[Boozer]

Nope.

 

[kcthebrewer]

You should be able to use the card, just not 2 in SLI/Crossfire mode.

 

[Boozer]

You should be able to use the card, just not 2 in SLI/Crossfire mode.

yeah sorry lol. didnt think of explaining that. single cards will work. but dual cards in SLI or Crossfire will not. IE: im using an X850 on an msi/nvidia chipset/SLI board, but trying to do crossfire on it will not work.

 

[geRm]

Okay, i think i got it.
I can use an ATi card on an sli board, but i cant use 2 ATi cards on that same board. Correct?

 

[Boozer]

correct, well you can still use them i believe. but not as SLI or Crossfire. kinda like putting in a PCI-E card and a PCI card for an extra monitor. although im not sure about that. someone around here should know

 

[revenant]

On a SLI motherboard, can you use ATi cards? and vice versa with Crossfire?

Yes you can, but not in multi-gpu mode.... only for mulitple monitor support. Well, because we have yet to see any crossfire mobos, that's is some speculation on my part, but it should work.. but strictly for muli-monitor support.

 

[Dan_D]

I think when Crossfire boards are actually out in the market, you'll be able to use SLi or Crossfire on either platform. Unless they do something to the drivers it should work.

Heres why:
No communication goes across the PCI-E bus between the cards.
2x16 physical slots with x8 PCI-E lanes are required. Both chipsets have that.
Both ATi's chipset and nVidia's are fully PCI-Express compatible. Which means that the slots will not be different from others that are compatible with the standard.
SLi has been done many times on non-NF4 motherboards before. All the inital demo units were Intel E7525 Turnwater based motherboards running Xeon CPU's.

ATi or nVidia doing anything in their drivers to prevent you from using competitors cards on their motherboard platforms would be stupid. Because that could possibly lose each company business and drive some would be customers to the other side. Especially in ATi's case where there are so many NF4 users. Alot of people won't want to upgrade their motherboards just to go ATi.

 

[xX_Jack_Carver_Xx]

Lets make this perfectly clear. There is ABSOLUTELY NO technical reason why 2x Crossfire boards would not work in a NForce4 SLI board, and ABSOLUTELY NO technical reason why 2x NVidiaSLI cards would not work in a ATI Crossfire motherboard.

The motherboard end of this is simply 2 x16 sized PCI-E slots, set to x8/x8 mode (as opposed to the stock x16/x2 setting).

Only the driver software for the video cards stand in the way of the cards working in SLI or Crossfire motherboards.

IE: If ATI and NVidia choose to be dicks about it....as they seem to be so far... then this TOTALLY artifical barrier to compatibility will stand.

As consumers it's up to us to demand....and boycott if need be... that the two companies refrain from implementing artificial barriers just because thier marketing VP's think its the best move. _WE_ need to make it clear to the pinheads at ATI and NVidia that it is NOT in thier best interests to arbitrarily place barriers in OUR way for what we wish to configure in the way of systems.

About the only thing I will tolerate is NVidia doesn't have to make thier video card drivers compatible with Crossfire.... you see there is also NO REASON why an NVidia card couldnt be a "slave" in an ATI Crossfire setup

 

[Agent_Smith[dki]]

I've been browsing around on ATi's site, and have found some rather interesting wording when it comes to what kind of motherboard you need for Crossfire to work. These are my findings. Note that these are based entirely off of the wording, and I have no other information to base this off other than what's listed:

http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/faq1.html

Customers using an enthusiast-class motherboard LIKE those based on Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire edition chipsets will reap greater benefits from CrossFire because they are able to get the more performance from their entire system.

http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/faq.html

A Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire edition motherboard is the OPTIMAL platform for CrossFire. More components will be announced as CrossFire Ready when they are available .

http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/buildyourown.html

Only three components: a CrossFire Ready motherboard IDEALLY based on the ATI Radeon® Xpress 200 chipset, a compatible Radeon graphics card, and a related Radeon CrossFire Edition co-processor board.

http://www.ati.com/buy/promotions/crossfireready/

To complete your CrossFire gaming platform, ensure you purchase any one of the following CrossFire Ready motherboards, with an ATI Radeon® Xpress 200 CrossFire chipset for OPTIMUM CrossFire performance.

Also, it keeps saying CrossFire Ready, rather than mobo based on ATI Radeon Xpress 200 chipset. Makes me think that multiple chipsets will be deamed CrossFire Ready.

 

[killerD]

I've been browsing around on ATi's site, and have found some rather interesting wording when it comes to what kind of motherboard you need for Crossfire to work. These are my findings. Note that these are based entirely off of the wording, and I have no other information to base this off other than what's listed:

http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/faq1.html

Customers using an enthusiast-class motherboard LIKE those based on Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire edition chipsets will reap greater benefits from CrossFire because they are able to get the more performance from their entire system.

http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/faq.html

A Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire edition motherboard is the OPTIMAL platform for CrossFire. More components will be announced as CrossFire Ready when they are available .

http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/buildyourown.html

Only three components: a CrossFire Ready motherboard IDEALLY based on the ATI Radeon® Xpress 200 chipset, a compatible Radeon graphics card, and a related Radeon CrossFire Edition co-processor board.

http://www.ati.com/buy/promotions/crossfireready/

To complete your CrossFire gaming platform, ensure you purchase any one of the following CrossFire Ready motherboards, with an ATI Radeon® Xpress 200 CrossFire chipset for OPTIMUM CrossFire performance.

Also, it keeps saying CrossFire Ready, rather than mobo based on ATI Radeon Xpress 200 chipset. Makes me think that multiple chipsets will be deamed CrossFire Ready.

I don't think ATI is arrogant enough to think their motherboards are superior to the others and everyone will be waiting in line to get one. There primary interest is still selling video cards, not motherboards, so we'll see.

 

[revenant]

I think when Crossfire boards are actually out in the market, you'll be able to use SLi or Crossfire on either platform. Unless they do something to the drivers it should work.

Heres why:
No communication goes across the PCI-E bus between the cards.
2x16 physical slots with x8 PCI-E lanes are required. Both chipsets have that.
Both ATi's chipset and nVidia's are fully PCI-Express compatible. Which means that the slots will not be different from others that are compatible with the standard.
SLi has been done many times on non-NF4 motherboards before. All the inital demo units were Intel E7525 Turnwater based motherboards running Xeon CPU's.

ATi or nVidia doing anything in their drivers to prevent you from using competitors cards on their motherboard platforms would be stupid. Because that could possibly lose each company business and drive some would be customers to the other side. Especially in ATi's case where there are so many NF4 users. Alot of people won't want to upgrade their motherboards just to go ATi.

If getting multi GPU mode to work has only to do with the interaction of the video cards and nothing else (hardware-wise), then I guess it should work. I guess that's also how those non-SLi DFI boards can be modded to allow SLi to work. cool beans.