Ok, I was wondering if you can use a SLI motherboard with a none SLI VGA card. IE a normal PCI-X card in a SLI board then later buy 2 SLI cards for the board. I want to buy a ATI X850XT now and a board for it. I was thinking of getting a SLI board so when I come to affors 2 x SLI Geforce cards I can then stick them in and give the ATI X850XT to my brother. Would this work or can only SLI cards work in a SLI board in singe mode and dual mode. Thanks
It's PCI-E... but aside from that... Yes, you can. I think your brother is getting a bit too good of a deal out of it though.
Yes he is I always give him my stuff after using it. Keeps him up to date and someone to play multi player games with as he dont spend any cash on pc's. Thanks for the help though. Looks like its gonna be a SLI board for me and a X850XT for a couple of months then get a couple of 6800 Ultras
In a couple of months, there should be something considerably faster available, if both NVIDIA/ATI get their new products to market soon after launch.
True... probably the NV5x/R5xx (I'd assume... GF7800/XI800 maybe?) will be roughly twice the power of a 6800u/x850xt. I dunno whether you should wait for the accompanying price drop that would be sure to happen on the current best-of-the-best or SLI up 7800?Ultra's for even more than what 6800U's would cost now. TBH, the SLI 6800GT's I run are bottlenecked by the CPU at just about any setting, so unless coders start making games that can take advantage of HT and Dual-core.... you get the idea.
NVIDIA have had no need to refresh their video cards this time around, they haven't had yield issues (apart from early on when the demand was massive) and they also have SLI, which means they are the performance leader in the majority of titles.
Which strikes me as a risky strategy tbh, if the R520 turns out to be the equal of two 6800 Ultra cards but costs half as much and has better compatibility which would you go for? I'm not saying it will, but sitting on your backside and letting the competition get ahead of you is what killed 3dfx and gave us the NV30.
