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Post by thef0qer on Aug 29, 2006 19:22:24 GMT -5
Seriously. You can't get 2 GFX cards to work. That's a new thing called Crossfire (ATi)/ SLi (nVidia)... It's only for PCI-Express, and I don't know if it would work for dual agp boards?? Anyways please share with us how you did this. If you just stuck 2 cards in 2 PCI slots chances are it don't work.
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Post by FuZzNuT-[TU]- on Aug 29, 2006 20:02:35 GMT -5
Seriously. You can't get 2 GFX cards to work. That's a new thing called Crossfire (ATi)/ SLi (nVidia)... It's only for PCI-Express, and I don't know if it would work for dual agp boards?? Anyways please share with us how you did this. If you just stuck 2 cards in 2 PCI slots chances are it don't work. These cards are old 3dfx Voodoo 1 cards. I am not sure what the benefits are on the old Voodoo's besides doubling my video ram for 3d applications. Rumor is the SLI works in this config, I dunno. In Voodoo2 dual cards started the whole sli craze(scan line interleave.) so no it's not a new thing.
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Post by thef0qer on Aug 29, 2006 20:41:29 GMT -5
Don't you need an SLi bridge?
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Post by FuZzNuT-[TU]- on Aug 29, 2006 20:51:50 GMT -5
Don't you need an SLi bridge? Well my two cards are linked together with a 'pass through' cable basically Daisy chaining them together. This technology was in its infancy back in the day. Now it's evolved where the hardware on the motherboard is really built to support this kind of setup much more efficiently. In general though, using two graphics cards is not ideal. The best way to do it will always be one integrated card with the power of the two. SLI and all these technologies are just ways of getting more performance without upgrading the technology.
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Post by monster on Aug 30, 2006 16:42:57 GMT -5
You need PCI EXPRESS x16 slots, 2 of em.
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Post by thef0qer on Aug 30, 2006 22:30:58 GMT -5
No you dont. Fuzznut explained how he got 2 pci-based video cards to work. If you read you would have seen that the 2 gfx cards are linked with a "pass through" cable.
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Post by FuZzNuT-[TU]- on Aug 31, 2006 21:49:25 GMT -5
The biggest problem with dual Gfx cards or dual anything on a computer is getting them to communicate with each other efficiently and work together efficiently. SLI bridge is just the newest and currently most advanced way to do it.
Back in the day it was 3dfx Voodoo's and their 'pass thru' cables.
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Post by FuZzNuT-[TU]- on Sept 17, 2006 5:10:22 GMT -5
I was gonna move all the 'tech' threads in here but I see it's already been done.
To expound a little more on what little I know of this subject. However, I am definitely no expert.
The problem with dual cards working together seems to be communication. Them linking up together and cooperating as one chip. With the gfx cards one card supposedly draws one scan line while the other one does the next, alternating or 'interleaving'. In theory cutting the work in half and giving it double the power. However, due to the inefficiencies in communicating, whether by bridges(Pass through cable or SLI bridge) the two cards working together will never be 2x the power of one card. With my duel 3dfx cards it's probably around 50% more power than one 3dfx card alone due to inefficiencies in communication. This is just a guess.
With the newer SLI's it's probably a bit better than that. Maybe closer to 90% more power than one gfx card alone. As I said though the best way will always be one intergrated component instead of two linked together through an electronic 'bridge' of some kind.
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Post by monster on Sept 17, 2006 8:11:17 GMT -5
QUAD SLI is a very new technology right now. The quad sli bridge doesn't provide nearly as much power as it should with 4 GPU's.
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Post by thef0qer on Sept 17, 2006 10:26:16 GMT -5
I agree definately not worth the $1000+ you have to spend just for the cards. But in the future it will become more advanced.
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