ECS KN1 SLI Review

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07-02-2006, 09:47 PM
JPH1589

ECS KN1 SLI Review

I thought I would bring this to someone's attention since 6 different places have reviewed this board and the ECS C19-a. Not one review of either of these boards managed to mention the huge problem with the PCIE x16 slots.

Both boards only run at x8 speed when they have one graphics card installed. I know they are spec'd to run at x8 x8 in sli mode, but in single card mode they are supposed to run at x16. After weeks of arguing with ECS I finally pushed them into changing the specs on their website, but nobody has changed their review to reflect this yet. ECS claims it is a limitation of the nvidia chipset and there will not be a fix to it.

I imagine if someone bought a high end gpu to run in single card mode and they noticed it only running at x8, they'd be pretty hot.
07-02-2006, 10:01 PM
[XC] Lead Head

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPH1589

I thought I would bring this to someone's attention since 6 different places have reviewed this board and the ECS C19-a. Not one review of either of these boards managed to mention the huge problem with the PCIE x16 slots.

Both boards only run at x8 speed when they have one graphics card installed. I know they are spec'd to run at x8 x8 in sli mode, but in single card mode they are supposed to run at x16. After weeks of arguing with ECS I finally pushed them into changing the specs on their website, but nobody has changed their review to reflect this yet. ECS claims it is a limitation of the nvidia chipset and there will not be a fix to it.

I imagine if someone bought a high end gpu to run in single card mode and they noticed it only running at x8, they'd be pretty hot.

I dunno...but my KA1 has a shunt card thing wich redirects the PCI-E signals of the secondard slot into the primary slot for x16 operation
07-03-2006, 03:11 AM
3NZ0

an x1900xtx uses at max, around the speed from 4x slot, nothing is going to get any speed diff with 8 over 16 unless its sli-aa.
07-03-2006, 04:37 AM
JPH1589

INfo

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3NZ0

an x1900xtx uses at max, around the speed from 4x slot, nothing is going to get any speed diff with 8 over 16 unless its sli-aa.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but if nobody needs x16 speed, why do people flock to buy MBs that have it?

If it is true the there are no cards that take advantage of anything more than x4. Why is it such a huge selling advantage to have x16.
07-03-2006, 05:51 AM
3NZ0

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPH1589

I'm not saying you are wrong, but if nobody needs x16 speed, why do people flock to buy MBs that have it?

If it is true the there are no cards that take advantage of anything more than x4. Why is it such a huge selling advantage to have x16.

1 word

marketing.
07-03-2006, 05:59 AM
JPH1589

So

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3NZ0

1 word

marketing.

What you are telling me is that an Nvidia 79xx card (single card configuration) will function exactly the same whether it is in a slot running at x8 or a slot running at x16?
07-03-2006, 06:32 AM
[XC] Lead Head

Quote:

Originally Posted by JPH1589

What you are telling me is that an Nvidia 79xx card (single card configuration) will function exactly the same whether it is in a slot running at x8 or a slot running at x16?

Yup..Tomshardware did a test and tapped off different pins on the PCI-E connector, to test 16x, 8x,4x,2x and 1x mode, the performence was nearly the same down to 4x, while 1x had a noticeable performence hit, it was not a very large hit.
07-03-2006, 08:25 AM
JPH1589

Very interesting

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lead Head

Yup..Tomshardware did a test and tapped off different pins on the PCI-E connector, to test 16x, 8x,4x,2x and 1x mode, the performence was nearly the same down to 4x, while 1x had a noticeable performence hit, it was not a very large hit.

So all these people are wasting money when they buy a board that will do SLI X16 - x16?

Is that what we are saying? Wow.....I'd be hot if I was one of them.
07-03-2006, 05:17 PM
NickS

The idea of it would still piss me off tho..