I'm taking the plunge

[stulid]

The PLX chip adds extra lanes to the bottom PCI_E 16X slot meaning it can run at upto 4X bandwidth without affecting the performance of say the USB controllers/SATA controllers or in the case of the PRO board,

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z68V_PRO/#specifications

*1: The PCIe x16_3 slot shares bandwidth with PCIe x1_1 slot, PCIe x1_2 slot, USB3_34 and ESATA12. The PCIe x16_3 runs at x1 mode by default for system resource optimization.(PCIe x1_2 will be disabled.)

The two top 16X slots still run at 8X/8X just like the Deluxe does.



The bottom slots performance has no barring on what you are wanting to do. Just dont use it or you may find the triple slot cooler of the ASUS directCUII card will block it if you get an identical card or use this bigger card in the second 16X slot while using a more normal dual slot thickness GTX580 in the top 16X slot.

 

[Mario Balotelli]

The PLX chip adds extra lanes to the bottom PCI_E 16X slot meaning it can run at upto 4X bandwidth without affecting the performance of say the USB controllers/SATA controllers or in the case of the PRO board,

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8P67_PRO/#specifications



The two top 16X slots still run at 8X/8X just like the Deluxe does.



The bottom slots performance has no barring on what you are wanting to do. Just dont use it or you may find the triple slot cooler of the ASUS directCUII card will block it if you get an identical card or use this bigger card in the second 16X slot while using a more normal dual slot thickness GTX580 in the top 16X slot.

Which ports are a no-go?

Layman's, I'm a newbie remember!

Thanks for your help mate.

 

[stulid]

You will always have access to the top 1X Dark blue slot (very top)

Well if you put a triple slot thickness GTX580 in the dark Blue 16X slot (second down) then you will be blocking the 1X underneath and the light Blue PCi slot under that.

This leaves a small amount of room for airflow to the second GTX580 you will fit into the White 16X slot, which will then block the light Blue PCI slot under this if you get a second GTX580 thats a standard dual slot thickness. leaving the Black slot free(which will affect the board as i quoted above if used)

===========================

if you put a dual slot thickness card in the dark Blue slot then you get to keep the light Blue PCI slot and leaving more of a gap between the cards.

then fit a triple slot card such as a DirectCUII cooler in the White slot you will lose all the ones below.

 

[Mario Balotelli]

So in essence, should you wish to use an SLI configuration on a p8z68v pro, for optimum performance, you should connect each to a 16x slot.

Dark blue, followed by white.

Avoiding the black as performance will suffer?

Is that correct?

 

[stulid]

Thats right.

Heres some images I just knocked up to show better,

Use two Triple slot thick cards such as the ASUS DirectCUII,

Use a triple slot thickness in the top slot and a dual slot in the white slot,

A dual in the top blue 16X length slot and a triple thick card in the white slot,

Something like that.

Avoid the Black bottom slot.

 

[Mario Balotelli]

That's brilliant, really helpful.

I appreciate you going to that effort mate.

I was always under the impression that when in an SLI configuration the two GPUs had to be identical, I take it that's nonsense?

Would you recommend a good quality, cool 580 to pair the Direct CU II?

Thanks again mate.

 

[stulid]

That's brilliant, really helpful.

I appreciate you going to that effort mate.

I was always under the impression that when in an SLI configuration the two GPUs had to be identical, I take it that's nonsense?



Thanks again mate.

They just have to be the same GPU and the same Vram capacity.

There are 1.5GB and 3GB Vram GTX580's

There are 1.28GB GTX570 and 2.56GB versions

Would you recommend a good quality, cool 580 to pair the Direct CU II?

I dont thibnk there is a 3GB version of the DirectCUII, so the cheapest GTX580 at OCUK will do you - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=gx-116-ms&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1812

it looks to be dual thickness - http://www.msi.com/product/vga/n580gtx-twin-frozr-ii-oc.html

So put this at the top and the thicker DirectCUII below it.

 

[stulid]

Forgot to also mention, if one card has clock speeds faster than the other then this is automatically fixed by the drivers and the fastest card is slowed to the same as the slowest.

 

[Mario Balotelli]

They just have to be the same GPU and the same Vram capacity.

There are 1.5GB and 3GB Vram GTX580's

There are 1.28GB GTX570 and 2.56GB versions



I dont thibnk there is a 3GB version of the DirectCUII, so the cheapest GTX580 at OCUK will do you - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=gx-116-ms&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1812

it looks to be dual thickness - http://www.msi.com/product/vga/n580gtx-twin-frozr-ii-oc.html

So put this at the top and the thicker DirectCUII below it.

Cheers mate, you've been a great help.

Finally though, how much of a difference in performance do you get between the 1.5 and 3GB versions?

 

[stulid]

Cheers mate, you've been a great help.

Finally though, how much of a difference in performance do you get between the 1.5 and 3GB versions?

Not much unless you want a massive resolution across three screens.

Do you have the ASUS DirectCUII then? as I had a look at the ASUS website and no 3GB versions are listed so you must get a 1.5GB GTX580 to pair with it.

The last review I saw was here - http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_580_Lightning_Extreme_Edition/27.html - 5% at 2560X1600, and that maybe because that card is highly overclocked.

 

[Mario Balotelli]

Yeah I've already got one GTX 580, and it's an Asus Direct CU II.

The size of the thing struck me when I first opened the box, it really is huge. I'm not sure how much of its appearance is due to cooling or just simply there for aesthetics.

As I said previously, I'm a newbie, so I'm still learning the ropes, which makes me all the more grateful that you should go to such lengths to help me do so.

Cheers mate. I'll start keep you posted on how i get on.

 

[stulid]

Thats cool then, as long as you get another GTX580 of the same Vram capacity, 1.5GB in your case, you will be ok.

You cant mix and match a GTX570 with a GTX580 for example or a 3GB GTX580 with your card.