Need some knowledge on SLi (9800GT) setup on Intel board (DX58BT)

[pmac]

I have 2 Nvidia 9800 GT SLi cards (price was right).

On an Intel DX38BT Mobo SLi ready.

My question is...

Do you always need the SLi Bridge cable or do they bridge internally on the Mobo side of things?

I have thrown out my mobo box where the Original SLi connector probably was?!

I ordered a cable, but was wondering since it is my first dual card setup, how do you know they are running as they should be? Indicators etc.

Thanks in advance

EDIT: Just in case any of this is needed, I am running (Self assembled and configured)
2x XFX NVidia GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3 Sli ready
1x Core2 Quad 2.4Ghz
Windows XP Professional x64 SP2 (Latest) (No hardware/software issues)
6Gig DDR3 13333 Memory

[Stillhouse]

Open the NVIDIA Control Panel, at the top click on "3D Settings" and check "Show SLi Visual Indicators" then fire up a game. You should get something like this on the left side of the screen:

[pmac]

Thank you. I don't show that option so I will have to assume it will only show up once the cable arrives in 2 weeks (bought from eBay a Flex Asus 8cm cable)

[Stillhouse]

You probably need to enable SLi in the NVIDIA Control Panel first then.

[pmac]

Originally Posted by Stillhouse

You probably need to enable SLi in the NVIDIA Control Panel first then.

Uhh how? I do not see that option anywhere

[Stillhouse]

Might have run across a problem. Looks like your mobo supports Crossfire, not SLi:

http://www.intel.com/products/deskto...T-overview.htm

ATI CrossFire* multi-GPU platform support

ATI CrossFire technology enables two ATI* graphics cards to work together for ultimate 3D gaming performance and visual quality

Full support of next generation ATI Crossfire

[SpoonMaN]

hi guys, i reg'ed here after lerking for a long time just becuase this thread needed some help.

first off the Intel DX38BT only supports crossfire which is AMD's version of "SLI" if i could find any info on an intel DX58BT that might be different because the X58 chipset really does support SLI. but from the rest of your spec's (core 2 quad etc..) you are running a core 2 system and even with the SLI bridge (which was a crossfire bridge) it will not work because SLI only officaly works on Nvidia mother boards.
if it had been an X58 board you would be running a Core i7 at 2.66Ghz at least.

so i am sorry but from the spec's you gave SLI will not work for you at all


*edit* LOL beat to the punch GG Stillhouse

[pmac]

My appologies for mt typo...I run a DX38BT board. So it looks like I will be buying a new board assuming that is the only thing I have to change. Because I can not return these cards. Nore would I want to they are really decent last gen models that had the price drop through the floor. So a MOobo will be the cheapest way to go rather than 2 new video cards. Especially since I broke my ATI card when I switched it out for these.

Thanks for the info. That is great. BOTH OF YOU Thank you for the help!!!

[pmac]

P.S. Welcome to Blu-Ray.com

Nicest bunch of guys on the internet here I would have to say.

[reiella]

Originally Posted by pmac

My appologies for mt typo...I run a DX38BT board. So it looks like I will be buying a new board assuming that is the only thing I have to change. Because I can not return these cards. Nore would I want to they are really decent last gen models that had the price drop through the floor. So a MOobo will be the cheapest way to go rather than 2 new video cards. Especially since I broke my ATI card when I switched it out for these.

Thanks for the info. That is great. BOTH OF YOU Thank you for the help!!!

When changing your motherboard, a few things to really consider and realize, you need to make sure you're either willing to reinstall your OS, or get your OS set to be 'driver neutral' in regards to your HDD controller.

[SHines-IT]

I would also suggest getting Windows Vista 64, if your gaming. Yes, I know allot of people hate it. But it's really not that bad, I don't think. Once you have it tweaked just right. But DX10 is pretty damn nice. Plus the last time I used Windows XP Pro 64, it was hard to come by drivers.

[pmac]

I just don't want to buy another windows product until windows 7 SP1 so i will sit on my x64 XP...All the drivers are all fine. I had the same problem with drivers when I first bought it. But now it is ok.

I dont know what driver neutral is, but usually when I do a major upgrade like that I just back up and reinstall. It is such a fun thing to do I have a blast ...not. but it usually works nicer after that

I ended up ordering 2x Diamond MM RADEON 4850HD cards. So we shall see how it works when I am through. What is a very good but high resource game (Other than Crysis) I have COD4 It is fun but even with my one card it is hiccup free. FPS Action adenture or whatever I am easy for games.

Thanks again.

[reiella]

Originally Posted by pmac

I just don't want to buy another windows product until windows 7 SP1 so i will sit on my x64 XP...All the drivers are all fine. I had the same problem with drivers when I first bought it. But now it is ok.

I dont know what driver neutral is, but usually when I do a major upgrade like that I just back up and reinstall. It is such a fun thing to do I have a blast ...not. but it usually works nicer after that

I ended up ordering 2x Diamond MM RADEON 4850HD cards. So we shall see how it works when I am through. What is a very good but high resource game (Other than Crysis) I have COD4 It is fun but even with my one card it is hiccup free. FPS Action adenture or whatever I am easy for games.

Thanks again.

Driver Neutral, pretty much, just having a generic driver for the hard drive controller. When you replace a hard drive controller [such as the onboard one most people use on their motherboards ], the OS is stuck trying to use the old HDC driver, which usually doesn't work at all and results in a rather annoying blue-screen.

It's fairly difficult to repair around at times, I know it's kept me out of safemode before.

The idea to avoid it, is set up your computer to be driver neutral with generic drivers (which don't perform that well, but well perform 'good enough' to boot and get the full drivers). With Vista at least, this doesn't usually work either unfortunately .

Another fun solution is to buy a Hard Drive controller card, plug it into the PC before you upgrade the motherboard, and connect at least the drive the computer boots from to 'seperate' hard drive controller. And use the card on initial boot with the new motherboard [so the OS can get and install the drivers], and then you can remove it.

Rather fun bit of work,but really if you backup and do a fresh-install anyway, pointless . The Fresh-Install is usually the better idea anyway for protecting performance.

[pmac]

CrossFire Cards came in and hooked up properly now. Thanks guys for the help.