Are all SLI bridges equal, and power requirements?

[imported_tgenius]

I have 2 8600GTS cards that I am planning on SLI'ing however I do not have an SLI bridge, are all SLI bridges the same?

Also, both cards have the power connector on them, do I need to power them externally or will the standard power be enough?

Does anyone know how many watts both cards will use so I can plan accordingly for a power supply.

Going to run a Q6600 Quad CPU OCed.

Thank You!

 

[sutahz]

What motherboard do you have? Motherboards come with the SLi bridge as not every motherboard spaces the 2 x16 slots the same distance apart. You could see about getting a ribbon SLi bridge.
You could try running SLi w/o the bridge, im sure it wont affect performance very much, if at all (8600GT's don't req a SLi bridge, data is sent over the PCI-e bus).
Of course you need to hook up the power to both 8600GTS, if you dont then which ever one(s) dont have a power hook up will scream at you. "externally or standard power"?????
Go to nvidia.com and go to their sli section and see what ampres rating they suggest for running 8600GTS's in SLi.
Consider buying a single 8800GT, 9600GT or 8800GS.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Uhh are you sure on the 8600GT doesn't need the SLI bridge? I don't see why they would waste time and effort in putting an SLI connector on the top of their cards if the bridge is useless as you say. And what sutahz says is right since pci-e slot distances are slightly different on some boards, although most boards with 3+ slots have the same distance due to size limitations.

 

[Narse]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
Uhh are you sure on the 8600GT doesn't need the SLI bridge? I don't see why they would waste time and effort in putting an SLI connector on the top of their cards if the bridge is useless as you say. And what sutahz says is right since pci-e slot distances are slightly different on some boards, although most boards with 3+ slots have the same distance due to size limitations.

No they do not, I purchased an ASUS 680i ribbon cable to replace the standard eVGA SLI bridge I had and it was about 1/2" too short.

 

[imported_tgenius]

So the SLI motherboard *should* bring the SLI ribbon cable/bridge then. I'm deciding which motherboard to go with.. if to go with a 650 or a 750 series... Any opinions? Will it make a difference with the 8600GTS cards?

 

[Narse]

Originally posted by: tgenius
So the SLI motherboard *should* bring the SLI ribbon cable/bridge then. I'm deciding which motherboard to go with.. if to go with a 650 or a 750 series... Any opinions? Will it make a difference with the 8600GTS cards?

I would go 700 series over 600 series just due to the issues with 45nm Quad Cores on the 600 series. Also the MB will include the bridge.

 

[krnmastersgt]

The nF 7 series should give you 2 bridges, 1 for normal SLI and another bridge for Tri-Sli.

 

[Narse]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
The nF 7 series should give you 2 bridges, 1 for normal SLI and another bridge for Tri-Sli.

I don't think the 750 supports tri sli but I could be wrong.

And this MSI 750i does not have a tri SLI bridge.

MSI 750i

 

[krnmastersgt]

Well the 750i MSI board has 3 PCI-E x16 slots, would seem a waste if couldn't support Tri-Sli. But I do see the possibility of that since the Asus 750i only has 2 PCI-E x16 slots.

 

[Narse]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
Well the 750i MSI board has 3 PCI-E x16 slots, would seem a waste if couldn't support Tri-Sli. But I do see the possibility of that since the Asus 750i only has 2 PCI-E x16 slots.

Look at my link in my edited post, only one sli bridge.

or click it here

MSI 750i

 

[krnmastersgt]

Guess the 750 won't support Tri-Sli, oh well, I don't see any advantages over the 650 then aside from the PCI-E 2.0, do you?

 

[Narse]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
Guess the 750 won't support Tri-Sli, oh well, I don't see any advantages over the 650 then aside from the PCI-E 2.0, do you?

If the 650 has the same issues as the 680 does with 45nm quads thats a big advantage IMO.

 

[imported_tgenius]

So when will the rest of the 750 boards come out?