SLI motherboard question

[Private_Snoball]

Hello there,

I will be upgrading my mobo and CPU shortly and was curious about the SLI technology. as of an upgrade I will have 1 x800xt video card. I have only seen Nvidia cards, and was curious if ATI is supports dual Video Card Technology.

My other question is do you have to use 2 Cards with an SLI card or can you use 1 and then upgrade later and put the other one on?

Sorry for the seemingly basic questions, I just want to make sure I have all the facts straight.

Peace,
Alex

[Thrax]

ATI currently does not support SLI, nor do their cards. You, at this time, must use an nVidia card. You can use one now and add another one later.

No big deal.. The 6800GT is better than the x800xt anyhow.

[TheLostSwede]

ATI doesn't have a "SLI" sollution yet. There are rumours though that the just released x850 XT is capable of this through software and bios editing on a certain board that is going retail in a few weeks but don't hold me on that.
Any SLI board can be used with only one card though so you won't have to buy 2 at the same time.

I'd say, get a SLI board and one 6800 Ultra if you got the funds for it and add another in 6 months when the prices drops a little. However, two 6800 cards needs the beafiest psu you can find. Not even 600W monsters or Power PC & Cooling PSU's handles it. You actually might have to use 2 psu's to be absolutely sure of stability. The technology is still young though and may/must improve if SLI are going to work properly.

[Omega65]

Also it should be stated that SLI is PCIe only (In case you didn't already know)