Asus Crossfire mobo - can I use SLI on it?

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InFeRnOg

New Member
I'm getting a new computer and they want to put an Asus P5Q mobo in it. The motherboard says it supports ATI Crossfire technology.

I want to know if this motherboard will be able to handle nVidia's SLI technology since I want to run two 9800 GTX+ cards on it.

Thanks in advance - I can't find this info anywhere!
 
NEGATORY! For SLI setups with NVidia model cards you need an NVidia chipset to start with. With ATI driven models that requires a Radeon/AMD type there.

You can run a pair of 4860s seeing that model supports Crossfire but would need to swapout boards in order to see an SLI setup work. GeForce, nForce type chipsets are required for that. Look for SLI on the product information for any particular model. Several SLI capable Asus models can be looked over at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...280 50001315 107172451&name=NVIDIA nForce 700

Just be sure the model you consider sees the PCI-E 16x 2.0 designation on it however.
 
InFeRnOg said:
I'm getting a new computer and they want to put an Asus P5Q mobo in it. The motherboard says it supports ATI Crossfire technology.

I want to know if this motherboard will be able to handle nVidia's SLI technology since I want to run two 9800 GTX+ cards on it.

Thanks in advance - I can't find this info anywhere!
Click to expand...

If you want to run SLI you need to look at the Nvidia 750i and 780/790i. The 750i runs SLI in 8X-8X. The 780/790i is 16X-16X. The 780i is a DDR2 board, the 790i is a DDR3 board.
 
It's a crossfire motherboard for a reason. You would have to get an SLI-certified motherboard for SLI connection.
 
Thanks for the quick responses.

Do you have any suggestions for what I should do?

I already bought (but haven't opened) an nVidia Geforce 9800 GTX+ and was planning on upgrading to SLI in the future (maybe in a few months). Should I try to get a motherboard for SLI or should I go to ATI?

One of the reasons I got this card was that it was on sale and I don't need anything TOO hardcore - but from what I understand this is a pretty solid video card anyways.

Also, someone mentioned that I need to go with a 780i, etc. motherboard. Is this the case or do I just need to make sure that the motherboard has the SLI certification on it?

Thanks!
 
You could go with SLI if you want considering that you already have an SLI videocard. If you want to stick with Crossfire than you would have to go with ATI. They are kind of expensive though so be careful.
 
I,ve heard that. But the nForce 750i only has 26 PCIe lanes. So the only way it could do 16X-16X is if it has a extra chip giving it more PCIe lanes. Thats the difference between it and the 780i. The 780i has 62 lanes PCIe lanes.

Here is a review on the 750i FTW and they say it is 8X-8X in SLI.

The key difference between the 750i SLI versus nForce 780i SLI is the lack of 3-Way SLI support, with just 26 PCIe lanes total the nForce 750i SLI chipset is limited to two x8 PCIe graphics when running a pair of GeForce cards in SLI mode

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evga_nforce_750i_sli_ftw_review/
 
StrangleHold said:
I,ve heard that. But the nForce 750i only has 26 PCIe lanes. So the only way it could do 16X-16X is if it has a extra chip giving it more PCIe lanes. Thats the difference between it and the 780i. The 780i has 62 lanes PCIe lanes.

Here is a review on the 750i FTW and they say it is 8X-8X in SLI.

The key difference between the 750i SLI versus nForce 780i SLI is the lack of 3-Way SLI support, with just 26 PCIe lanes total the nForce 750i SLI chipset is limited to two x8 PCIe graphics when running a pair of GeForce cards in SLI mode

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evga_nforce_750i_sli_ftw_review/
Click to expand...
I really don't know about that link/review. It only says 8x-8x on the nForce 750i chipset, but never stating that the ftw edition was 8x-8x. For all I know, the ftw edition had more unique stuff on it.
 
InFeRnOg said:
Thanks for the quick responses.

Do you have any suggestions for what I should do?

I already bought (but haven't opened) an nVidia Geforce 9800 GTX+ and was planning on upgrading to SLI in the future (maybe in a few months). Should I try to get a motherboard for SLI or should I go to ATI?

One of the reasons I got this card was that it was on sale and I don't need anything TOO hardcore - but from what I understand this is a pretty solid video card anyways.

Also, someone mentioned that I need to go with a 780i, etc. motherboard. Is this the case or do I just need to make sure that the motherboard has the SLI certification on it?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

In that case, return 9800GTX+ and get a HD4850 such that you could run CF with your Mobo.
 
Are you sure it's the P5Q motherboard? Because it does not support CF. Maybe your looking at the P5Q Pro,P5Q Deluxe or the P5Q Premium
 
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