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Which SLI slot if only one graphics card?

Lord_Kokain

Lord_Kokain

Lord_Kokain

Associate
Joined
9 Aug 2006
Posts
753
Location
UK
Hi,

I had a 2xGeforce7600GT cards on my Abit fatal1ty fp-in9 that are no longer working. Yesterday,I bought a geforce9500GT to replace them but,being rusty in dealing with PC hardware matters for years,I ended up not acknowledging that I was placing the card at the bottom slot of the motherboard. What confuses me is that I used to hear that the top slot is the one to use if there is only one card,yet the opinion among people on the net is split with some saying that it doesn't matter for the performance. By the time I realized, however,I already had the drivers installed and the card is running just fine so should I assume that the latter opinion is correct or should I move it as soon as possible?
 
It doesn't make any difference, with the exception of where the motherboard has different PCI-E lane assignments to different sockets, ie the top slot will always be x16 with a single card, the bottom slot might be restricted to only x8 regardless of whether it's running in SLI or single card.
 
The reason most people will recommend the top most PCIE 16x slot (not SLI slot) is because it will typically be the only one with 16x PCIe lanes.

A lot of the time, the 2nd (and 3rd if applicable) slots will be 8x electronically (or less, 4x isn't uncommon).
 
That explains the varied opinions on the issue. I referred to the specs of my motherboard and it's got this regarding the slots: Two PCI Express x16 slots (SLI: 8+8) so it seems that it makes no difference to me.

Thanks for the prompt responses!
 
this is because some off the 1st sli boards had a little card you had to swap round to enable 1 or 2 pci-e express slots and normally in single card operation only the top slot would work

i know as it was on my 1st bord my trust A8N-SLI which still lives :)

 
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