Conroe and nVidia SLI

r3loaded · 12 Oct 2006 at 21:44

This may sound slightly noobish, but here goes:

I'm getting a Conroe E6600 and I want to use SLI with it. I've been waiting for the Asus P5N32-SLi mobo with nForce 590 on OC's website to come out, but I've been waiting almost 2 months now.

Do I need an nForce based mobo to use nvidia SLI or can I use the more numerous Intel 975X based mobos? If so, plz recommend me one with similar features to the Asus (overclocking is not a priority).

If you also know of any other nforce 590 based mobos, plz mention them here as well (obviously, dnt link to them)

Cheers 4 any help

BillytheImpaler · 12 Oct 2006 at 21:46

You can use a non-SLi board in some cases but it requires hacked drivers to work. I certainly don't recommend you do it.

MeatLoaf · 12 Oct 2006 at 21:50

Ive got the P5NSLI board and its a solid board but i cant overclock past 333Mhz FSB which runs my E6400 at 2.6Ghz.

I bilieve the arock conroe Xfire clocks better but to run SLI you need to use hacked drivers.

BillytheImpaler · 12 Oct 2006 at 21:51

Nah, I hear those Asrock boards are trash for overclocking.

Phunky Phish · 12 Oct 2006 at 23:00

I have P5WDH with SLI and 'tweeked' drivers.
Runs a treat!!
See sig for spec.

9592 3DMarks
4138 SM2.0 Score
3968 SM3.0 Score
2947 CPU Score

WJA96 · 13 Oct 2006 at 05:53

MeatLoaf said:
Ive got the P5NSLI board and its a solid board but i cant overclock past 333Mhz FSB which runs my E6400 at 2.6Ghz.

I can clock higher than that (about 370) but basically it's not a good clocker.

MeatLoaf said:
I believe the ASRock ConroeXfire clocks better but to run SLI you need to use hacked drivers.

It only runs at 300FSB maximum and it does require the hacked drivers.

The only thing that encouraged me to buy an SLI board that was effectively old technology was that all the new technology boards seemed to take forever to come out, and when they did come out they have shedloads of issues. There is no guarantee that the 590 board will be any better at clocking than the current one. It will definitely be twice the price.

MeatLoaf · 13 Oct 2006 at 11:31

WJA96, how did you get past 333FSB? Do you reduce the LDT at all, currently ive got mine on 4x. i had heard that some boards dont like running over 1333Mhz bus speed?

WJA96 · 13 Oct 2006 at 21:17

MeatLoaf said:
WJA96, how did you get past 333FSB? Do you reduce the LDT at all, currently ive got mine on 4x. i had heard that some boards dont like running over 1333Mhz bus speed?

No, I haven't touched the LDT - but one of the features is that I think you can save the BIOS settings to a floppy now so I could possibly send you my settings by e-mail and you could play with the FSB using your processor?

r3loaded · 15 Oct 2006 at 15:54

Ok, so I see that nVidia SLI is not supported on Intel 975X chips without hacking the drivers, which I'm unwilling to do for stability reasons.

But I would be correct in assuming a single nVidia card is fine in a 975X system?

MeatLoaf · 15 Oct 2006 at 16:35

WJA96 said:
No, I haven't touched the LDT - but one of the features is that I think you can save the BIOS settings to a floppy now so I could possibly send you my settings by e-mail and you could play with the FSB using your processor?

That would be fab. What cpu/mem are you using?

[email protected]

WJA96 · 15 Oct 2006 at 17:00

E6600 and Patriot PC8000, but I could swap it out for an E6300 and some Patriot PC5300 if that would help.

MeatLoaf · 15 Oct 2006 at 17:11

WJA96 said:
E6600 and Patriot PC8000, but I could swap it out for an E6300 and some Patriot PC5300 if that would help.

Yeah it would if you could mate, dont weant to fry anything lol

The Asgard · 15 Oct 2006 at 20:36

r3loaded said:
Ok, so I see that nVidia SLI is not supported on Intel 975X chips without hacking the drivers, which I'm unwilling to do for stability reasons.

There are NO stability issues

The Asgard · 15 Oct 2006 at 20:37

BillytheImpaler said:
You can use a non-SLi board in some cases but it requires hacked drivers to work. I certainly don't recommend you do it.

Why don't you recommend this ??

WJA96 · 15 Oct 2006 at 21:22

The only issue is that the hacked drivers date from June of this year, so they are several months out of date. I'm not aware of any graphics cards they do not support yet, but I'm pretty sure that eventually it must happen. When that does happen, then you will be left looking for a new 'expert' to hack *** latest drivers for you. I'm pretty sure I was told the reason the hacked drivers are so old is that they are the last ones that Nvidia did not specifically check for an SLi motherboard and so Crossfire boards also work. Of course, that could be wrong.

Phunky Phish · 15 Oct 2006 at 23:04

The hacked drivers are so old as when they added 7950GX2 support to the drivers they re-write them so they can no longer be hacked!
And when its time to move on to new cards, to be honest most people will prob drop SLI an go for a dual GPU card, thats what I plan!
Either that or fingers crossed Nvidia stop being 'ar**s and allow 975x support, which lets face it with AMD buying ATI should be an inevitable prospect!

Roll on the day us consumers can have some 'choice' given back to us, like when a motherboard would support any gfx card you bought!

Not like now when you will need an ATI board for crossfire and an Nvidia board for SLI!

r3loaded · 16 Oct 2006 at 17:31

Lol, maybe I'll go for ATI then - more efficient and it's not like I'm gonna be using a 30" 2560x1600 monitor. Plus, Crossfire looks much simpler to set up and has no probs with dual monitors

Arcane · 16 Oct 2006 at 19:00

I wouldn't say crossfire's easier to set up than SLI particularly, considering you have to have the correct master/slave cards and a dongle, both of which are absent with SLI, (however, I'm sure both are equally as good once setup properly). Personally I'd wait until the 8th November when the Nforce 680 SLI boards are released, you'll get a better idea and choice then.

r3loaded · 16 Oct 2006 at 19:11

Lol, nForce 680? Already? The 590 boards haven't come out at all and they're bringing out a new chip so soon?

:O

Come to think of it, screw the whole dual-gfx thing. One 7950GT w/ 512MB ought to do it

Conroe and nVidia SLI

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