16x and 4x question

[dC2006]

The motherboard I currently have has 2 pcie slots which run at 16x for the first one and 4x for the second one. I am thinking of getting a 2nd 8800gts to sli both of the cards. Anyone able to tell me if there is much of a performance loss when having a sli setup with 16x and 4x compared to say 16x 16x ?

Also since my gfx card only has 320mb ram, by having another 8800gts 320mb, will games now or in future likely be able to load more detailed textures due to combined gfx ram size ? Or should i sell my existing card and get a card with say 640mb ram and sli that ?

I would like to future proof the gfx side of my setup for about 1.5 years. Dont want to purchase and setup a sli which I may have to sell within a year, I game at 1680x1050

 

[jaykay]

Your motherboard only does crossfire so you will only be able to use 2 ati cards.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

I wouldn't bother going 320mb GTS SLi as you'll still only have 320mb, and when Dx10 games appear with their bigger textures your still going to be memory limited as they'll require more, i think a 4x slot gives a pretty big hit to the 8800's performance wise also.

EDIT:

Oh yeah thats a Crossfire board as said above, so you can't go SLi.

 

[lay-z-boy]

You can't sli on an Intel board, you need a nvidia chipset to do so.

320mb + 320mb = 320mb in sli, the usable memory amount in sli remains the same as they need to have the same textures loaded into the memory on each card.

If a 320mb gts is not fast enough either go for the ultra or the gtx now (maybe even hd 2900xt xfire) or wait for the 9 series to come out.

 

[mame]

I thought 8800 needed 2x 16x slots for sli anyway?

 

[lay-z-boy]

No it doesn't.

 

[ih8modem]

misleading

No it doesn't.

I know where the idea that they need x16 slots comes from , it's on the product description of the 8800 series cards, footnote right at the bottom

Note: These cards require PCI-E x16 slots, they will not function in a x8 slot so for SLi you need dual x16 mainboard. Finally 500W minimum for PSU and 600W+ is recommended.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

They will work on 2x 8x slots as well, just Nvidia want more money as they do the boards with the 2x 16x slots as well, so they'll want their 8800's to say they'll only work on their boards if going SLi, they aint daft.

 

[lay-z-boy]

I know where the idea that they need x16 slots comes from , it's on the product description of the 8800 series cards, footnote right at the bottom

Note: These cards require PCI-E x16 slots, they will not function in a x8 slot so for SLi you need dual x16 mainboard. Finally 500W minimum for PSU and 600W+ is recommended.

They work on 8x slots, a while back I tried out 8800gtx on dfi lanparty expert, worked perfectly apart from the pathetic 5-15% gain because of cpu limitations and being stuck at 12x10 res.

THG did a test to see how bandwidth effects the 8800, it has a very large impact on its speed under 8x, unlike the x1900 they tested as well (8x was slightly slower than x16) so 16x is advised for best performance.