NVIDIA SLI & ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Performance Showcase
SLI Setup & Showcase (cont.)
Configuring an SLI-enabled rig is a fairly straightforward affair, especially for the experienced enthusiast. There is one obvious requirement that you need to consider in order to accommodate dual PCIe cards. Most PCIe targeted power supplies offer at least one PCIe graphics power connector but not two. So you'll need at least one 4-pin Molex-to-PCIe power converter cable, possibly two if you're coming form a legacy system and power supply
 |
|
Simply set the mini PCIe configuration PCB in Dual Graphics mode, plug in two GeForce 6 series graphics cards, plug in the ASUS SLI communications PCB that connects the two graphics cards together, and boot up.
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
We installed the OS with dual GeForce 6800GTs enabled in SLI mode without a hitch. Once NVIDIA's Forceware drivers were installed, we were prompted by a Windows system tray dialog box about the fact that our system was SLI-capable for dual graphics. Upon inspection of the driver control panel, we saw a "multi-GPU" options tab that allowed us a check box activation of the SLI dual graphics configuration.
Frankly, we expected to have a more challenging experience from a hardware perspective, but it all just worked, period. On the software side of things, in our gaming environment testing, things get significantly more complex. So let's look at what's going on with those SLI-enabled drivers next. This is where the real "mojo" takes place.
