Originally posted by: MrAK
1)just refreshing my memory, the new GTX280 will be a single gpu videocard right? so tri SLI with 3 GTX280s is possible?
2)quick question base on what i saw, with the new bios we could upgrade to a 1333mhz cpu?
3)so my safest bet is getting not 4 but just 2GB of memory for this board?
4)sad to know that my current 850W most likely would not handle Dual GTX280s
Hello
MrAK,
1) The GTX280 will be a single GPU card. I believe that one could use 3 of them for 3SLI on this board but I can't see the reason why. The price/performance ratio for anything past std SLI is simply ridiculous. Not to mention that in order to see some difference you'll need to run at 1920x1200 and above with everything turned on (AA, AF etc) and still this won't justify the overall cost of the cards and the monitor if you need one. More to it you'll need driver support for 3SLI and this can prove to be quite a pain in the @$$. I believe that you should go for one, two if you can afford them but even two should be considered overkill. The initial price for the GTX280 will be quite high as supply would be scarce at the beginning. If nVidia?s yields are as low as is rumored then expect a single GTX280 to cost as much as 600$ at launch time. Do the math. It ain?t worth it. If you are willing to spend the money you should consider a brand-new 790 board instead of 3SLI for sure.
2) Since the F4 official, our board supports all 1333
Core2Duo 65nm cpus. These are the E6540, E6550, E6750 & the E6850.
These are the only 1333 procs that are board?s gonna support. AFAIK support for any of the new or upcoming cpus with FSB 1333 or 1600 is out of the question.
3) I didn?t say that.
What I said was that there is the possibility that the board will work with 2x1GB+2x2GB sticks but I do not know how well and at what mem speed/settings. It is always better to run 4 identical sticks. Mixing different size/speed/brand sticks, or even different revs, will often cause incompatibility issues. In case that the board won?t work with 2x1+2x2 then you?ll be stuck with 4GBs, BUT, with current DDR2 prices you can always get a 2nd 4GB kit for a total of 8GBs (4x2GB sticks). Our board?s specs are for a max of 8GBs so this is possible. You should also have in mind that you may run into incompatibility issues even with 4 identical sticks. The element of risk is always involved when populating all 4 DIMM slots except from the case that GB have already tested the specific mems and they?ve added them in their QVL list. Still, with so many different DIMMs out there QVL lists are always limited.
4) A quality 850W PSU
may be capable of running dual GTX280 cards. nVidia list some 750W PSUs as capable of running dual 9800GTX cards so it may be possible. Still I would say that it would be a good move to get at least a 1000W PSU if you?re planning on running 2 GTX280 cards. These babies will cost a lot and it would be best to play it safe.
nVidia :
Certified SLI-Ready Power Supplies
If I were in your shoes I would wait for the actual launch of the GTX280 and then keep an eye on the early reviews to get a better understanding of the power requirements of the GTX280 for both single card and SLI setups.