Hi everyone
I recently got given another GTX 660 card which i plan to use in SLI, but currently using it as a Physx card.
I'm a bit concerned as i recently discovered that not all motherboards are SLI capable (Please check my profile for my setup) I'm just waiting for an SLI cable i ordered to arrive, and I'm just wondering if anyone has had experience with SLI on this same motherboard (It's quite an old system now i know, but it's suited my needs all this time)
Also i was reading about HyperSLI as an option/workaround, as well as others saying it's very outdated and there's alternatives of HyperSLI. Open for ideas/thoughts/suggestions everyone
Thanks ever so much in advance :)
HyperSLI is solid and absolutely works for the 790GX chipset. I've used it for cards up to GTX 460s, but I haven't had two of any newer cards to test it with. The only downside to HyperSLI is that it creates a new launch path for your OS, so you have to be on the ball to select "Windows HyperSLI" from the boot options menu or it'll start without it enabled.
If I recall HyperSLI will default to virtual or software enabled SLI, as opposed to hardware SLI. This allows you to run SLI in an x8 + x4 pattern instead of requiring x8 + x8. In this configuration there is a bit of a performance drop off (even with software and x8 + x8) over hardware SLI. I'm only mentioning this because you should make sure to have hardware SLI enabled if you use HyperSLI or another workaround, since your board has x8 + x8 capabilities.
I have no experience with other alternatives that enable SLI on 800/700 series chipsets. Hopefully somebody else can chime in and provide an alternative that works.
I was also wondering if HyperSLI is necessary to enable SLI with my motherboard, or has it been possible to use SLI without HyperSLI?
if not, thanks for your feedback, very much appreciated
All 700 and 800 series chipsets from AMD have no support for SLI. Simply put, nVidia made the chipsets that allowed SLI and AMD did not sign to have any features from those chipsets in their own. Also with AMD having just purchased ATI, nVidia wasn't much in the mood to share their tech anymore.
There were boards that had BIOS mods that could allow SLI to work on these chipsets, since the proper bandwidth and PCI-E protocols were all there for SLI to work. I don't know if your board would have one of these or not, but it would probably still be easier to just use HyperSLI than to try getting a properly modded BIOS.
Ok, I understand that, i was kinda hoping that because there wasn't support officially, doesn't mean it won't be possible.
I'll certainly try HyperSLI as I'm not totally confident in performing a BIOS mod especially on a computer I've had for such a long time, i certainly don't want to jeopardise/risk my machine to try a mod which is purely experimental only to end in disaster, even though i've read about some really amazing things people have been able to do with hardware
(ie: not officially stated or intended to do) Thanks Fouquin!
Well good luck for whatever you choose to do. Hopefully you get to enjoy SLI soon.