Question about going SLI or crossfire

[Azndude51]

Is there a motherboard that supports both? I would like to upgrade to PCI-e from AGP, but I don't know if I would like to go SLI or Crossfire in the future. I am going to get a X1950XT now, but it's only for a few months until DX10 comes out. I don't know if I am going to go ATI or Nvidia when I replace the X1950, so but I would like to have the option of going dual video cards.

 

[Brainonska511]

No motherboards that I know of support both.

 

[jaykishankrk]

you mean to say motherboard with nvidia chipset cannot support ATI crossfire??

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: jaykishankrk
you mean to say motherboard with nvidia chipset cannot support ATI crossfire??

Exactly

 

[Fallen Kell]

And motherboards with ATI chipsets don't support NV SLI as well.

Which is funny because the old Voodoo 2's are so much more advanced in that sense. Heck, you could even use an AGP Voodoo 2 with a PCI Voodoo 2 and still chain them together and this was 8-9 years ago!

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: Fallen Kell
And motherboards with ATI chipsets don't support NV SLI as well.

Which is funny because the old Voodoo 2's are so much more advanced in that sense. Heck, you could even use an AGP Voodoo 2 with a PCI Voodoo 2 and still chain them together and this was 8-9 years ago!

They could probably support each other if they gave driver support, but they want to lock people into their own hardware. It's unfortunate as a consumer that we aren't able to mix and match chipsets and video cards (ie: ATI video cards with a nVidia chipset or v.v.).

 

[Heidfirst]

Indeed, the support is actually provided by the gfx driver & not the chipset (assuming that you have 2 X16 physical slots & some PCI-E lanes to them).
That's why you can run both Crossfire (officially supported) & SLI (with hacked drivers) on 975X & why ULi had a mobo chipset that ran both.

 

[Azndude51]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst
Indeed, the support is actually provided by the gfx driver & not the chipset (assuming that you have 2 X16 physical slots & some PCI-E lanes to them).
That's why you can run both Crossfire (officially supported) & SLI (with hacked drivers) on 975X & why ULi had a mobo chipset that ran both.

Thanks for the informative post.

 

[Heidfirst]

tbh with the latest gfx cards like 8800s unless you're running huge screens at crazy res/fsaa etc. you don't need SLI/Crossfire.