Nforce4 pro for gaming?

[theblaznee]

That 2*PCI-E 16 slots on the Nforce4 pro boards look mighty nice for a gamer that wants to have an SLI system, but would it really have a dramatic impact on performance? Is it worth the extra cash, and do you guys think that the rest of the Nforce4 pro chipset is something for a gamer in general?

If we're talking performance gains compared to a basic Nforce4 sli rig like you would see when going from value RAM to performance RAM (approx 5%), then to hell with it .. I want bang for the buck - even though I'm looking at a mighty expensive machine already..

Basically:

Buying an SLI rig sometime in the next few months, should I go all out with a nforce4 pro chipset, or is a normal nforce4 sufficient? What about it when compared to the rest of the nforce4 pro features?


[EDIT] Reading other posts on SLI, it seems like everyone is saying that you should go all out with 6800ultras if you want real performance gains with SLI.. I was thinking I would just go for the 6800GT's, is that stupid? Should I spend the extra dough and get "ultra'ed"?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: theblaznee
That 2*PCI-E 16 slots on the Nforce4 pro boards look mighty nice for a gamer that wants to have an SLI system, but would it really have a dramatic impact on performance? Is it worth the extra cash, and do you guys think that the rest of the Nforce4 pro chipset is something for a gamer in general?

I doubt it would have any sizable impact on performance (dual x16 PCIe as opposed to dual x8 PCIe). That still gives each card more bandwidth than AGP 8X -- and today's cards are not limited by AGP unless it's running at 1X or 2X. It could make more of a difference with ATI's SLI, which is supposed to run over the PCIe bus (instead of having a custom bridge connector between the cards like NVIDIA). But that's just speculation.

Buying an SLI rig sometime in the next few months, should I go all out with a nforce4 pro chipset, or is a normal nforce4 sufficient? What about it when compared to the rest of the nforce4 pro features?

The NForce4Pro motherboards are likely to be "server" boards, which are usually VERY expensive relative to "desktop" boards. Unless you want/need PCI-X and onboard SCSI, a regular NForce4Ultra/SLI board is likely to be a much, much better value.

[EDIT] Reading other posts on SLI, it seems like everyone is saying that you should go all out with 6800ultras if you want real performance gains with SLI.. I was thinking I would just go for the 6800GT's, is that stupid? Should I spend the extra dough and get "ultra'ed"?

The 6800GT is nearly as fast as the Ultra (and GTs can often be overclocked to Ultra speeds, although this voids your warranty). I wouldn't worry about it, unless you have lots of money to burn and want maybe 10% faster performance.

 

[theblaznee]

Hmm, aren't the current nforce4 sli boards 1*16 and 1*4 PCI-E slots? Or do they just share 1*20 in whatever way seems the best?

Someone know of a comprehensice PCI-E / SLI faq?