SLi ready but no bridge

[jamesjohns]

Hi, I have a Gainwood GF 9800 Gt card and I would like to get another one for SLI use. It claims to be SLI ready but has no socket to plug in the bridge.

Do I just plug the 2 cards into the mother board or is there some other conection I must make.

Also does SLI work very well or am i better off buying more expensive card.

I would be grateful for any advice

Many thanks

PS my mother board, power unit, etc are all SLI ready

 

[Prof. Cheese]

You'd be better off selling your 9800GT and getting a better single card.

 

[jamesjohns]

Any recomendations, Im trying to get a better frame rate on a flying sim.

 

[Marine-RX179]

A single fast card is always better than SLI or Crossfire two slower card. The thing is that SLI and Crossfire is too depending on drivers update. When new games come out, SLI and Crossfire tends to not work properly for those games...until Nvidia and ATI update the games profiles with a driver update.

However if you must insist on going SLI, I guess you could try to find a cheap 2nd hand 8800GT, as it might not really cost that much comparing to buying mid-price range new card.

To answer your question, SLI bridge is plugged onto the two graphic cards directly and connect literally like a bridge and does not connect to the motherboard in anyway.
It should look something like this:
http://blogs.nvidia.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/01/geforce_8800_gt_sli_5.png

 

[Prof. Cheese]

Any recomendations, Im trying to get a better frame rate on a flying sim.

Is it FSX? If so, you might be best off buying 2 GTX260/275/280s second hand and going SLi as it's a very nVidia biased game. Otherwise, the sensible option is a single 5850.

 

[FatRakoon]

SLI is fun

I went SLI with a pair of 6600GT's then a pair of 6800GTs then 7800GTX and then 8800GT and its all fun.

I still got the 7800GTX Cards in my good old Opteron and I love it.

At the same time however its a total waste of time. Its already been said, but it is.

Fun does not always mean its any cop.

Dont get me wrong, if a second card comes along that will get you SLI and its too cheap to say no to, then sure, go for it, but dont FFS spend to get it.

Look at what you are willing to spend o na second card, and instead, put that to one side, sell off oyur current card and pool that money with the stuff you set aside and I promise you that you will get a far superior single card.