Re: P5N32 SLI Deluxe & 7950 BX2 Card?

Thanks you!
I was hoping to save a little right now by not having to get two 7900s.
I guess, I'll just get the 7900s one at a time.
I find it amazing that Asus does not want to answer this since I really
wanted to get both of their products.
Laz

"Paul" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:nospam-0907060334320001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <44b08a2c$0$2919$9a6e19ea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Laz"
<lazgara@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Anyone know if these two play together in harmony? The MB is not listed
on
their compatibility list. But the Card is newer.
No body from Asus seems to have any interest in replying to me even
though
I told them that I was considering getting their video card.
I know the MB workd with 7900 GTX card since this is what Velocity uses
on
their custom systems.
Help,
Laz

There are some test results here. If your monitor is only
1280x1024, the boost isn't really that great. Maybe the 7950
helps if use a lot of antialiasing all the time.

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32502

The compatibility list seems to be missing the P5N32. (The
motherboards in the list stating "Nforce 4 SLI Intel Edition"
are x8/x8 boards and not x16/x16 like a P5N32.)
Notice that P5N32 is missing from both the Nvidia and the Asus
web page. Also notice, that since the table at the bottom
of the Asus page, included info on M2N32 (AM2 board), the web
page has been updated recently.

http://www.nvidia.com/content/geforce_gx2_sbios/us.asp?vendor=&sortBy=chipset
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=2&l2=6&l3=0&model=1187&modelmenu=1

There is another review here, and it describes what Nvidia did:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/nvidia-gf7950gx2_2.html

Basically, the x16 lanes from one slot on your motherboard,
enter a PCI Express bridging chip on the master card of the 7950.
The bridging chip routes half the lanes to one mobile GPU and half
to the other mobile GPU. This is technically an excellent solution,
because it does not require any goofy double endpoint capabilities in
the motherboard chipset. As far as the chipset on the motherboard
itself is concerned, it is talking to a single card.

What is different though, is the BIOS now has a new test case
to consider. Finding a PCI Express bridge on a card plugged
into a PCI Express slot, while it should be something which
is defined in the standards, may not be supported well by
the BIOS (i.e. nobody tested it). Since BIOS these days are
such ***, there is no way of knowing whether certain features
in the BIOS were "left for a later release", or were completed
with the initial release. It could be, that the Nvidia testing
page is reflecting the ability of the BIOS to deal with the
card, instead of the chipset itself. (It would really help
if another Nvidia Intel Edition x16/x16 motherboard was in the
list. Seems a bit ominous.)

This is similar in a way, to people's attempts to use Areca
RAID cards, in a motherboard video card slot. It should work,
but sometimes it takes a BIOS upgrade to make it so.

If you cannot get an answer from Asus, perhaps you can try
contacting Nvidia, and see if they have a definite "No"
for the motherboard you have in mind. Asus has the most
to gain from testing its own motherboards, and if it were
possible to make it work, I'm sure they would have put
the P5N32 into their web page. Maybe Nvidia knows something
about that x16/x16 chipset and can definitely tell you.

Try this "pre-purchase assistance" inquiry page. The chipset
on your board, AFAIK, is "NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 Intel Edition",
and you can ask whether that chipset is supported, or whether
P5N32 SLI Deluxe will ever be supported.

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

Paul


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