Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 - SLI or Not?

NeoMorph · 11 Jan 2011 at 23:41

I'm confused...

On the Overclockers shop site it says...

- Expasion slots: 2x PCIe 2.0 x16 Slots, 2x PCIe x1 Slots & 3x PCI Slots

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-248-GI

... yet in the docs for my mobo (which is the exact same model number... GA-P55-USB3) it says...

1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4_X1)
2. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)

(The PCIEX16 slot conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
3. 3 x PCI
4. 2 x PCI Express x1

http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/mb/specs/ga-p55-usb3_10.html

... which is completely different! Can I put in two graphics cards and have them both running at x16 or not?

WHOOSH! · 11 Jan 2011 at 23:50

This board does NOT support SLI. I returned an overclocked bundle because of this once i realized. Both statements are correct however so they have not mislead you. Its just one of those things you really have to research.

1Day · 12 Jan 2011 at 01:47

You can run crossfire with AMD cards.

If you want SLi with nvidea cards you need a motherboard with a NF200 chip.

The UD3 does not have a NF200 chip.

NeoMorph · 12 Jan 2011 at 12:16

Can you run two Nvidia cards NOT SLI mode though... ie to run 4 monitors?

NathWraith · 12 Jan 2011 at 15:46

NeoMorph said:
Can you run two Nvidia cards NOT SLI mode though... ie to run 4 monitors?

Yep this is correct however the board will not support SLI scaling at all.

cmndr_andi · 12 Jan 2011 at 19:49

1Day said:
If you want SLi with nvidea cards you need a motherboard with a NF200 chip.

Are you sure? I thought it was just licensing a drivers.

Also, since that board's 2nd main PCIE slot only runs at x4 speed - I would not suggest running a multi-GPU setup on it - since the slow connection of the 2nd card will pull down the first card's performance.

However, if you are just running a 2nd card not in SLI/CF and not for gaming (just for more monitors) then it should be fine, even in the x4 slot.

1Day · 12 Jan 2011 at 20:16

SLi will only work on a board with the NF200 chip. Legally that is. I have heard that some people have been able to make it work - some kind of hack that they do I guess.