Re: A8N-SLI (deluxe or premium) Dual Video Mode

Jan Arkesteijn wrote: 
It might be interesting to know that I use a A8N-SLI de luxe
with one XFX 6800GT and one Matrox Parhelia APVe
with  5 monitors without any problem

See you, Jan
http://home.wxs.nl/~jarkest/home.html


"Paul" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:nospam-0411050021370001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
In article <MZAaf.6658$J14.476973@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Derek
<bderek1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Has anyone used these boards with 2 ati video cards to get 4 monitor
output?  It would seem it could be done, especially, in the A8N SLI
Premium cause you can select dual video output in the bios, but I was
not sure if ati pci-express x16 cards will work in a x8 slots.

Thanks.

Derek 
In SLI mode, only one monitor can be driven, while in non-SLI,
the two cards are independent of one another (making your
four monitor case a possibility).

http://support.asus.com/faq/faq_right_second_detail.aspx?kb_guid=66A7CA7C-65A8-FE6E-AAE7-0D82182BCF9F&SLanguage=en-us

It seems video cards can take quite a few combinations of lanes.
This tomshardware article compares performance of video cards,
when the contacts on the edge card are insulated with tape.
Apparently video cards will work at x1, x2, x4, x8, and x16
lane combinations.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041122/pcie-analyse-09.html

There are two ingredients within a chipset. There have to be
enough (for lack of a better word) "agents" to terminate a set
of PCI Express lanes, and then the lanes themselves. For example,
if a chipset has 5 agents, and 21 lanes, you could do
x8, x8, x1, x1, x1 with 2 lanes left over, or x8, x8, x4, x1 with
an agent left over. I would expect for SLI, there would be
an agent assigned per slot, making anything possible - I don't
think a single agent is somehow being shared over the two slots.

I'd prefer to give you an authoritative reference on this stuff,
but the PCI Express standard costs money, and I don't own a
copy.

I noticed in the release notes for one of the BIOS files, that
they fixed the ability to use a PCI x8 Areca RAID card on the
motherboard, implying that not only can you use two
video cards in x8/x8 to do four monitors, but you could also
use one video card in x8 mode and a x8 raid card at the same
time. So, while compatibility hasn't been perfect to date,
the BIOS issues are gradually being worked out to make the
two video slots pretty general purpose. Maybe some day, you'll
be able to stick two PCI Express x8 RAID cards in there, and
use an ATI Rage PCI video card as a server configuration.

Paul 



Thanks Paul, that's useful information

Also, thanks Jan that is quite a setup you have. In your FSpanelsPC with the nvidia and matrox card you've installed the drivers from nvidia and drivers from matrox and then use nvidia's nView to manage the multi monitor modes?

All in all, seems like 2 ATI cards in this nForce4 board is not going to be a problem (SLI not a feature I'm looking for).

Derek
.

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