SLI/Multi monitor Question?

[azngamer101]

Never done SLI before but I have two 670 GTX's. Im waiting for the SLI bridge from amazon to ship in to do it but is there any specific thing I need to do after I connect the two with the bridge cable? How will I know its working etc etc? As for multiple monitors, Since I can only hook up 4 to the first card when I hook a cable into my sli card do I have to put it in a certain port or config it in the nvidia panel?

[Deleted]

Both SLI and Crossfire use an internal connector that connects 2 special slots on the top of the cards you're connecting.

as for the setup, http://www.notebookforums.com/t/9401...onfiguring-sli is something I've googled and should be appropriate for anyone.

[Wries]

Somewhat concerning that you didn't already have a bridge. A motherboard that supports SLI usually has the bridge included. What motherboard model do you have?

SLI is activated through the Nvidia Control Panel. At the PhysX page, that expands to a PhysX and SLI page if the criterias are met.

[azngamer101]

x58 sabertooth It didnt come with one

[Deleted]

You don't need to do anything special no, once you connect the bridge up it will automatically offload I think up to around about 5 GT/s from your PCI-Express bus to the dedicated SLI bridge interconnect.

I'm quite sure an SLI bridge connector isn't essential, SLI will still work without one (if I could be bothered to turn off the PC and unplug mine I'd check!) although as I mentioned above it offloads demand from the main PCI-E bus.

[Demoness]

It does not matter how you hook up the monitors. I have a one-over-three monitor setup on a single 680, and I used to use two 570s. Once you hook up the SLI bridge, do like the others said and reinstall your graphics drivers from scratch to make sure that you get the SLI option to show up in NVCP. Then you just go to the multiple monitor setup tab and move the numbers on your monitors into the right places on your desk. The cool part about that is that you do not have to worry about where they are plugged in, you can just plug them up and set them how you like them on your desk, and just move them in the NVControl panel once you boot into windows and get your drivers squared away.

---------- Post added 2013-04-26 at 02:58 PM ----------

I'm quite sure an SLI bridge connector isn't essential, SLI will still work without one (if I could be bothered to turn off the PC and unplug mine I'd check!) although as I mentioned above it offloads demand from the main PCI-E bus.

SLI will not work without the bridge. You can still utilize multiple cards without a bridge, but not for parallel processing. You can have an ATI card in one slot and an Nvidia card in another slot without a problem, and run a game on each, but you cannot have them work together to make the game run faster. I know this because I have done it in my machine before.

[Deleted]

SLI will not work without the bridge. You can still utilize multiple cards without a bridge, but not for parallel processing.

You are indeed correct. I think my belief that the bridge connector isn't essential comes from a time in the past when it was in fact, not essential (during the 8600/8800GT era). It seems GPUs since then require it.

[lordsphinx]

SLI will not work without the bridge. You can still utilize multiple cards without a bridge, but not for parallel processing.

I’m sorry if this is OT, but I’ve been trying to figure this out myself…

I recently built a new machine, and made a rookie mistake of buying a Nvidia GPU (660TI) and a mobo that was not SLI ready. I really want to install a second GPU for running Netflix @1080 on a different monitor while playing WoW, but I was told by a friend that I couldn’t install a second GPU if I didn’t run in SLI. So just to be clear, I CAN install a second GPU to run a different program on a second monitor? How is that set up? Will the second card only generate the video for the second monitor, and the first card will generate the video for the first monitor?

I’m not trying to derail the thread, this just seemed like a good place to ask this question.

[Electromatt]

I’m sorry if this is OT, but I’ve been trying to figure this out myself…

I recently built a new machine, and made a rookie mistake of buying a Nvidia GPU (660TI) and a mobo that was not SLI ready. I really want to install a second GPU for running Netflix @1080 on a different monitor while playing WoW, but I was told by a friend that I couldn’t install a second GPU if I didn’t run in SLI. So just to be clear, I CAN install a second GPU to run a different program on a second monitor? How is that set up? Will the second card only generate the video for the second monitor, and the first card will generate the video for the first monitor?

I’m not trying to derail the thread, this just seemed like a good place to ask this question.

Do you only have 1 monitor now? If you do, just plug in another monitor. All video cards have 2 or more outputs.

[lordsphinx]

Do you only have 1 monitor now? If you do, just plug in another monitor. All video cards have 2 or more outputs.

I only have 1 right now, but I don't want anything I'm watching on the other screen to make WoW lag. I really enjoy ultra settings, and I'm afraid plugging a second monitor in and watching a movie or something will degrade my gameplay experience.

[Electromatt]

I only have 1 right now, but I don't want anything I'm watching on the other screen to make WoW lag. I really enjoy ultra settings, and I'm afraid plugging a second monitor in and watching a movie or something will degrade my gameplay experience.

Well....you could try and see if it does.

[jpleveille]

You can hook you monitors on any available ports on your SLI cards. For example in Windows, in the Desktop Preferences, simply adjust the display settings by selecting each numbered monitors in the Display box and setting their respective resolution and the disposition of your setup.

As for the bridge, it has always been required to get the most out of the cards for the 3D rendering performances, but not if you wish to use another card for let's say a dedicated PhysX processor, the kind of thing you might want to do in a two or three-way SLI setup with an additional card dedicated only to PhysX. BTW, a dedicated PhysX card must be a GeForce 8 (such as the 8800GT) or newer version, and it is possible to have a single NVidia GPU for rendering along with another NVidia GPU (not necesserily the same, usually of an older generation) as a dedicated PhysX processor on a non-SLI motherboard.

[Wries]

I only have 1 right now, but I don't want anything I'm watching on the other screen to make WoW lag. I really enjoy ultra settings, and I'm afraid plugging a second monitor in and watching a movie or something will degrade my gameplay experience.

You wouldn't want SLI for this. As mentioned, best bet is just to try and see how it works out. It will most likely work just fine. Video decoding should be done on the VPU for that matter, and not impact the GPU performance much.