SLI on a Crossfire mobo?

S

splitfinity

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Oct 1, 2006
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Can you use SLI cards in a xfire board like the Asus P5B Deluxe? Just wanna know hwat i have to look out for when buying a new board.
 
YES!! Just download the special hacked drivers for this case.....
 
Seriosly, i know it may sound like a stupid question. But I just need to know if it works or not.
 
No... you can't.

Now the post about hacked drivers... that's something I've never heard of... if they actually exist then I take back the above.

Let's just say no, you can't. If you want SLI, get an SLI board, if you want Crossfire, get a crossfire board.
 
There are no "Crossfire" or "SLI" motherboards.

There are chipsets that ATI or nVidia allow thier dual-card solution on. The P965 chipset happens to be one that ATI (but not nVidia) allows, so all P965 can advertise the Crossfire monkier.

Now, you can get hacked drivers that allow Crossfire or SLI on any motherboard, regardless of chipset.

So, short answer: yes. Long answer: it can be done, but it's a hastle, and don't count on dual 7950GX2s.
 
Ok, thank you for the answer. If there are hacked drivers then i'll bet nvidia will put out real ones at some point.
 
splitfinity said:
Ok, thank you for the answer. If there are hacked drivers then i'll bet nvidia will put out real ones at some point.
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not for the public they wont
 
newls1 said:
YES!! Just download the special hacked drivers for this case.....
Click to expand...

First I've heard of this. Can you post a link to the drivers? Thanks
 
BellaCroix said:
No... you can't.

Now the post about hacked drivers... that's something I've never heard of... if they actually exist then I take back the above.

Let's just say no, you can't. If you want SLI, get an SLI board, if you want Crossfire, get a crossfire board.
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just because you never heard of something before, doesnt mean it doesnt exist :rolleyes:
 
I understand this hack will work on the Asus P5W DH Deluxe mb. Any thoughts about whether it will work on the new P5W64-WS? I don't see why it wouldn't, but wanted to get some opinions from people with experience with the hack. Thanks again for the link! :D
 
ok - for the record - the hack will allow SLI on any mobo with a chipset which allows peer-to-peer writes on the pci-e bus and 2x pci-e slots, preferably with at least 8 dedicated lanes for each slot.. so it will work on i975x chipset mobos and 965.. and even on ATi Xpress 3200 mobo.. I reckon.. although I don't know if the ATi chipset drivers will block peer-to-peer writes for Nvidia devices.. but anyways..

Here's some "light reading" on SLI/CF and peer-to-peer writes
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99109
 
Revenant, many thanks. Much appreciated. You clearly have a depth of understanding on this topic that exceeds most.

The only reason I'm having to bother with this is because I've got $4500 in system components on my dining room table waiting for the damn P5N32-SLI Premium. After 6 weeks of waiting and two 'official' delays by Asus in releasing the board, I'm giving serious thought to using either the P5W-DH or P5W64-WS. I have two BFG 7900 GTX's and want to make sure I can use them if I switch to a 975 mobo. Given a choice, I would prefer to use the workstation MB.
 
Yeah - NP! Oh, I just read a lot.. :)

I feel your pain on the whole waiting for the right mobo to come out so you can go Conroe with SLI, etc... if I had known about these drivers sooner I might not have gone crossfire, but I am glad I did because these ATi cards are pretty nice.. anyways, check out user thenemesis 's system.. he's got two 7900GTs on a P5W DH with an E6600 OC'd to 3.7ghz getting 11k on 3dmark06.. pretty good!

From all I have read these drivers really work well.. the only problem is you're stuck with them.. which, might not be all bad.. constantly updating drivers drives me nuts sometimes.. anyways.. the only thing is no quad SLI support... but you can run a single 7950GX2 becuse you can use a normal non-hacked driver for that.. it's sorta kinda not SLI.. I still don't know what to call it.. I think 'fast' would be a good word to sum it up. ;)
 
I wonder what Nvidia will do now that ATI is merging with AMD and Nvidia is suddenly getting all cozy with Intel :cool:

Perhaps they make drivers that suddenly switch on some 'hidden' feature of the Intel chipset that 'allows' SLI :rolleyes:

Actually more like - make sure the drivers skip the check for non-Nvidia chipsets when enabling SLI :D
 
The Abit AW9D-Max ships with an SLI bridge in anticipation of Nvidia allowing SLI on the i975x chipset.. pretty cool. :)
 
The icing on the cake was Friday when I discovered TechDepot listed the P5N32 on their site as "in stock." I called to confirm; asked the sales clerk twice to check on number in stock (97) before ordering. Because I ordered early in the day, it was guaranteed shipped that same day (FedEx 2-day). Of course, come Saturday, no tracking number and now the board is listed as "out of stock." If I can't get the MB this week from TechDepot, Excaliber or elsewhere, I see no reason not to buy the P5W64. It should be easier to overclock and if I can get it to run my two 7800 GTX's, there is little incentive to wait for the P5N32.

I jumped the gun buying all the sys components before the mb was released, but I had pretty good sources. Even Asus' own people are disgusted with this one, I gather.

Now, if there was a 'hack' to fix the absence of spacing between the PCI slots! Agghhhh. :rolleyes:
 
I've used Abit in the past but have found Asus a little easier to work with and better quality. Do you think I'm wrong here? Maybe Abit has improved QAS since I bought from them (about four years back).

What would you do in my situation -- wait for the P5N32 or go for the P5W64-WS?
 
I have uploaded the SLI patch by NGO HQ that should unlock any driver that's not protected by a different protection compared to the driver that was available at the time this patch was written... If you want to try any other driver than the one supplied you can also try this hack...

http://rapidshare.de/files/35165958/SLI_Patch.exe
 
Ooooo.... is that the ULI patch??? very nice if so.. TY!
 
Revenant, what would you do: use the P5W64-WS with ULI patch or wait a bit longer for the P5N32 Premium?
 
What are teh performance ramifications?

I don't know if I should wait for

1. the 590 Intel SLI
2. My nearest comp store to stock up on the nforce4 SLI for Core 2 Duo
3. Just go with this and try the patch.

Performance is the biggest determinant.
 
mezzro said:
Revenant, what would you do: use the P5W64-WS with ULI patch or wait a bit longer for the P5N32 Premium?
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Well, I'm not a fan of the C19 nforce chipset (current gen 570/590) so I personally would avoid those boards... because of their very lack-luster OCing ability mostly.. so if I wanted my FSB over 350 and to have SLI also, I would go with the P5W64.. but that's me..

performance wise, after seeing the success thenemesis has had with his rig, I would say things look pretty solid.. again, I wish I had a pair of 7900GTs or GTXs so I could run them side by side with my 1900s..

here's another good thread about a chick (sheez pretty also, wewt!) who made an SLI rig on a P5WDG2 and her performance seems very on-par for her hardware.. so I am pretty confident that there is no big performance issue (if any) running the hacked drivers... it's hard to say if real official drivers would improve performance... that's something I would be very curious to test side by side. anyways..
 
You've been a big help, Rev. I owe you one (And the hottie in the mix didn't hurt things :p).
 
mezzro said:
Thanks, Uni!
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You're most welcome :)

revenant said:
Ooooo.... is that the ULI patch??? very nice if so.. TY!
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I believe this is the modification of the ULI Patch by NGO team so that it can be used with every motherboard. This is their statement :


Regeneration said:
A while back Asrock published a SLI enabling patch for their ULi chipset based motherboards that have two PCI-Express slots. Various rumors suggested that the patch would also function under other chipsets as well, and allow users with other chipsets to use SLI on their non-SLI motherboards. Unfortunately the original version of the patch installs only on ULi 1695/7 chipsets - you couldn’t use it if you didn’t have a motherboard with that particular chipset.

We’ve managed to rip the installer and to create a modified version of the SLI patch that allows you to use it with EVERY motherboard. We couldn’t do in-depth testing on other chipsets, but if the rumors are true then it should definitely work. Feel free to use it at your own risk, and please post the results in our forums. Remember, this is a modified version and is not supported by Asrock, ULi or Nvidia.
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This is interesting. I'm in the same boat as the OP, waiting for a motherboard for my Conroe and my 7800 GTXs. If the ULI patch works, I might go this route, and upgrade to CF'ed R600s instead of SLI'ed G80s. I really want to know how this turns out!
 
Xtremesystems has tons of these SLI on Intel chipsets threads. The P5W64-WS is probably the best Conroe mobo.
 
BaronBamboo said:
Xtremesystems has tons of these SLI on Intel chipsets. The P5W64-WS is probably the best Conroe mobo.
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Yes that board kicks ass. The problem is that unless the above patch works, the 7950GX2's are a no go on the Intel chipsets.
 
These hacked drivers just go to show what I've been saying since the inception of SLI and CrossFire. That each solution on the motherboard is "electrically" equivalent to each other and that all the rest of the magic is really on the video cards themselves in combination with the software drivers. For proof that it was a driver hack, you can see that Epoc sells a board that's called GLI instead of SLI for it's features and you have to download their specially hacked drivers which are always several revs behind. See Epox EP-9U1697 GLI which runs on an ULi chipset (most likely will deminish due to nVIDIA purchasing them?) http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/17/can_you_run_nvidia_dual_graphics_without_sli/

So in summary, the inability with stock drivers from each vendor (ATI and nVIDIA) to perform in multi-GPU situations with each others chipsets or other chipsets is simply a scam to inflate the sales of their own chipsets. This locks Intel, VIA, SiS, ULi and others out of the mix without hacked driver sets.
 
Dan_D said:
Yes that board kicks ass. The problem is that unless the above patch works, the 7950GX2's are a no go on the Intel chipsets.
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Yea Quad-SLI won't work with the hacked drivers :(
 
HighTest said:
These hacked drivers just go to show what I've been saying since the inception of SLI and CrossFire. That each solution on the motherboard is "electrically" equivalent to each other and that all the rest of the magic is really on the video cards themselves in combination with the software drivers. For proof that it was a driver hack, you can see that Epoc sells a board that's called GLI instead of SLI for it's features and you have to download their specially hacked drivers which are always several revs behind. See Epox EP-9U1697 GLI which runs on an ULi chipset (most likely will deminish due to nVIDIA purchasing them?) http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/17/can_you_run_nvidia_dual_graphics_without_sli/

So in summary, the inability with stock drivers from each vendor (ATI and nVIDIA) to perform in multi-GPU situations with each others chipsets or other chipsets is simply a scam to inflate the sales of their own chipsets. This locks Intel, VIA, SiS, ULi and others out of the mix without hacked driver sets.
Click to expand...

I've been saying the same thing, and I typically have been ignored for it. I knew that SLi would work on Intel chipsets since before the nVidia SLi chipsets were available. All the test systems and demo machines were Xeon single or dual processor machines using Intel or Tyan and Supermicro motherboards.

The lockout didn't really occur as far as I know until nVidia announced nForce 4 Intel Edition chipsets. I think this whole time they have locked the drivers out soley because they want a piece of the chipset market for Intel processors.
 
^^

yes, they both use the same peer-to-peer protocol.. so the diff will be the actual video cards and drivers.. for sure.

in other news. . . . I know Jacuzzi has two 7950GX2's and a p5w dh dlx.. I tried to PM him but is quota is maxed.. doh! I want to see if he can try patching a known to be good for quad SLI driver and see if quad will work..
 
newls1 said:
just because you never heard of something before, doesnt mean it doesnt exist :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That's why I qualified the statement and said if there was something about hacked drivers I take back the statement...

Still, I refer to a post following my original:

InorganicMatter said:
So, short answer: yes. Long answer: it can be done, but it's a hastle, and don't count on dual 7950GX2s
Click to expand...

And based on that statement, the other subsequent posts, and my own personal opinion, I'd rather get a SLI board for SLI and/or a Crossfire board for Crossfire.

Someone mentioned that the hacked drivers are often a few generations old (which only makes sense since they would have to be reverse-engineered from already released drivers). Again, if you're going high end (7950s) the awsome hacked drivers may not support the GPU, may not take full advantage of it, may not be stable, etc.

Personally, and I can only speak for myself since I'm no software engineer or R&D tech... I don't use beta drivers or BIOS, I don't use "hacked" drivers, I overclock marginally. When I buy an SLI board I start shopping for nVidia.

So long and skinny... Okay, it's possible. I take it back.
 
uniwarp said:
I have uploaded the SLI patch by NGO HQ that should unlock any driver that's not protected by a different protection compared to the driver that was available at the time this patch was written... If you want to try any other driver than the one supplied you can also try this hack...

http://rapidshare.de/files/35165958/SLI_Patch.exe
Click to expand...

Uni,
Is this patch more recent than this one: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=113613

To properly apply the ULI patch (first time I've 'hacked' SLI), do I just install the latest nVida GeForce drivers as I normally would, then apply the patch before enabling SLI?
 
mezzro - I think that's right... the "patch" patches drivers already installed on the system telling them to disable the "approved chipset validation" step (or equiv), so in theory it should allow any driver set to allow SLI on a pci-e peer-to-peer writes capable mobo.. the drivers your ref'ing at XS are pre-patched drivers... forceware ver 85.96... the beauty of the patch is the possibility to allow "hack" SLI with newer drivers, hopefully something which is quad capable. :cool:
 
Was viewing that thread half anf hour ago. Hopefully the hack will work and will allow quad.
 
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