Nvidia 8800 requires dual 16x mobo but do they exist?

[apuk]

Anyone else noticed this in the 8800 series product descriptions..

Note: These cards require PCI-E x16 slots, they will not function in a x8 slot so for SLi you need dual x16 mainboard.

I have a recent mobo (AW9D) and it says in the manual that in SLI the PCIe speed drops to 8x so I presume there is no point buying an 8800 series card with the intention to buy another one for an SLI configuration later?

Or have i read this wrong?




UPDATE:

After a bit more digging it seems the latest chipset is required (and surprise surprise its by NVIDIA!)

The new ABIT board has an NVIDIA® 680i chipset and supports SLI @ 16x

Heres a link..

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=333

 

[LoadsaMoney]

I know thats total bull for a single 8800 as they work fine in 8x slots, loads of ppl are running a single 8800 in an 8x slot without prob, thats just a load of bull to get you to buy one of their motherboards as well i rekon, not sure on 2x cards in SLi though, so can't say if 2x require 16x from both slots, but i can't see how if 1x will run in an 8x fine, but you never know they may do, im sure someone will know for definate though about the SLi.

 

[easyrider]

Hmm,

Odd one this.....


The 650i and the 680i both support 8800 in SLI

The 650i although has 2x 8 pci-e lanes works fine with 8800 GTX in SLI.

So either the 680i or 650 i will work.

Hope thats clears things up for you.

Easy

 

[esoteric]

Aslong as there is a PCI-E slot on your motherboard, a PCI-E card will work, for SLI some mobo's will only run 2 cards at x8, so its a detail you want to look for if you are going to SLI, make sure your mobo will support 2 cards at x16, Asus Crosshair for example.

 

[easyrider]

Aslong as there is a PCI-E slot on your motherboard, a PCI-E card will work, for SLI some mobo's will only run 2 cards at x8, so its a detail you want to look for if you are going to SLI, make sure your mobo will support 2 cards at x16, Asus Crosshair for example.

You dont need two 16x pci-e lanes.

The 650i works fine with 8800 series cards at 8x in SLI

 

[apuk]

You dont need two 16x pci-e lanes.

The 650i works fine with 8800 series cards at 8x in SLI

So the warning that OCUK are putting out is false?

So my AW9D should be able to handle two 8800s in SLI?

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Should be fine as they do not need 2x 16x lanes as said, they'll happily run in 2x 8x lanes, to be fair thats not OcUK's warning, thats to do with Nvidia that.

 

[danieln1]

dont you just lose the bandwith.

It may work fine but not at full bandwith.Or will there be notice diffrence when directX 10 comes out ??


Allso there few Mobo with dual sli 16* out there


Or what i had it down to it's warning but may only effect the 8950 X2 model

 

[Firegod]

I have a recent mobo (AW9D) and it says in the manual that in SLI the PCIe speed drops to 8x so I presume there is no point buying an 8800 series card with the intention to buy another one for an SLI configuration later?

Or have i read this wrong?

That's what I have thought. That for SLi you need a mobo that handles two x16 lanes. So for me, I'm ok with one card as that works at x16 in my DFI (nf4) board. However, two cards would half the lane speed to x8 which I always thought meant I would have to upgrade the board according to what is posted around the internet.

 

[Corasik]

Just Nvidia after more money as usual... If they admitted that a dual 8x board could handle SLI officially they would have no excuse not to enable the Intel 975X chipset for SLI.

It can be done with hacked drivers and there is no performance issue (at least with the 7900 series), and honestly 8x is more than enough bandwidth, especially as SLI done properly has its own connection for intercard communication without using the PCI-E interface anyway.

 

[faz123]

your aw9d has 1 16x slot top one that can run a 8800 fine it also has a 8x slot bottom one your board supports crossfire out of the box . but with hacked drivers your board can do sli at 8x for all the gforce 7 series cards but cant do the 8 series cards because there is no hacked drivers for them yet.

 

[turbotoes]

to answer the question. Yes, there are dual 16x mainboards, the a8n-sli deluxe for a start