DFI X58 = no QuadSLi, change to Asus R2E?

[Shadowjump]

I just snapped 2 GTX295 in my rig today. After a few restarts, I started checking around to see why it would not find the 2nd 295. Finally, I found out that this motherboard does not support Quad SLi, only Tri-SLi.

I can take it back from where I purchased it, and with extra 40E get the Rampage II Extreme.

Is it worth it? I mean, I know the DFI has the full digital Voltera PWMs and thats a good advantage over the competition. Also, the SB/NB/PWM temps are very very low, which I like cause there is no fan (due to watercooling) and I dont know how the Asus will behave without one.

And last drawback of the Asus would be that when I ll Install the 2 Graphics Cards, the one and only PCI slot, will be inaccesible, thus my X-Fi Xtreme Gamer will be sitting on my shelf. (Unless there is absolutely no difference between the Creative X-Fi and the Asus provided X-Fi)

Whats your opinion on this?

Thanks!

[BenchZowner]

Don't even think about that.
I'd stay away from the R2E.

Also the difference between your X-Fi and the "Asus X-Fi" is very very noticeable.

By the way, there's some BloodRage stock in the UK, and if I were you, I'd hit it
And you can give me a call and have you by my place and test it yourself

[Shadowjump]

Hehe, I am not from the UK But thanks for the invite!

Why stay away fromt he R2E? Whats so bad about it? Oo My Striker II Formula, Maximus I and II Formula, Crosshair Formula were pretty good.

[BenchZowner]

Hehe, I am not from the UK But thanks for the invite!

Why stay away fromt he R2E? Whats so bad about it? Oo My Striker II Formula, Maximus I and II Formula, Crosshair Formula were pretty good.

It's Bill you noob ( *******178 ).
Talk to you on teh phone tomorrow.

oh and are you 100% sure that your DFI does not support Quad SLI ?

[zanzabar]

the dfi should support should quad gpu since its 2 card sli, it dosnt do quad card

and for xfi u can get the driver from foxconn and use it on any board with the same realtec chip and get xfi

[Shadowjump]

Wow, didnt know about that X-Fi thing. Which driver section? For the Bloodrage?

As for the DFI, nope, it does not support Quad SLi for some reason.

The UT X58-T3eH8 doesn’t support Quad-SLI, but it does fully support three-way SLI with an x16, x8, x8 expansion slot configuration

Though, AndreYung HERE did run a Quad SLi Setup. Argh!!! Whats going on?

[zanzabar]

its a bios problem, NV licenses by the card number not the # of gpu's, so slii is 2 cards tri is 3, quad on a MB is 4 cards (currently workstation only)

if it didnt support quad sli it would still go to windows and just show 2 2gpu sli settups

and here is the driver, u may have to do ini modding but it works on the x38/48 dfi and the p45/35 and x58 all use the same card
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/suppor...D=en-us0002319

[mikeyakame]

Wow, didnt know about that X-Fi thing. Which driver section? For the Bloodrage?

As for the DFI, nope, it does not support Quad SLi for some reason.



Though, AndreYung HERE did run a Quad SLi Setup. Argh!!! Whats going on?

From what I recall that needs to be setup correctly is "memory gap" option in bios. Try playing around with that and see if you can get both 295s working.

[Shadowjump]

Thanks for your assistance zanzabar!

And yes, it was the memory lowgap, searched a bit and found it! Thanks for the input mikeyakame. The lowgap has to be over 2048 in order to work with CrossFire X - Quad SLi

[tobe22]

For those who are wondering what low gap is (from the T3 manual):

Memory low gap is for mapping local memory (add-on-cards) to system memory address size. It most like the Aperture size of AGP or 250M fixed mapping size of PCIE 1st generation. Extend it can solve when if "add-on cards" request a bigger size, when if we would like to enable Qual SLI on Nvidia new 280, 295GTX or CF on 2 pieces of ATI 4870X2, it must be extend over 2048M.

AndreYang suggests "Try Memory LowGap 2176 or 3078":
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=212286

[mikeyakame]

That about sums it up. It's the gap below 4096mb for PCI addressing. Usually the "low gap" is from 3072mb to 4096mb which is assigned to address space for PCI/PCIE devices. Then memory from this gap is mapped above 4097mb. Each GTX280/285 card requests 1024mb of PCI address space, so SLI will require 2048mb low gap generally. Quad SLI/Crossfire X will no doubt require more. Not sure how much though.

[zanzabar]

u would need 3584 (1792x2), and more if u have anything else with ram like an xfi ext, so i would bump it to 3700 or so or 4096 to keep it 2^x

[mikeyakame]

u would need 3584 (1792x2), and more if u have anything else with ram like an xfi ext, so i would bump it to 3700 or so or 4096 to keep it 2^x

You need some base low memory for bios, and shadowing and what not. I wonder what they'll do when it gets to that point!

[eva2000]

cough cough http://i4memory.com/102537-post3.html

Memory LowGap: is for mapping local memory (add-on-cards) to system memory address size. It most like AGP port Aperture size or PCIE1gen 250M fixed mapping size. Extend it can solve when if "add-on cards" request a bigger size as like we would like to enable Qual SLI on NV new 295, it must be extend over 2048M. Can confirm that with 2x HD4870x2 in Crossfire I had set my LowGap to around 2176 at least. With Highpoint 3520LF PCI-E x8 256MB cache controller added into HD4870x2 Crossfire, I needed at least LowGap of 2560 otherwise windows boots to a blank window and doesn't go any further. As to how this effects windows available memory, with single HD4870x2 installed and 3x1GB memory, if I set LowGap to 2560, WinXP Pro SP3 32bit sees 1.5GB available memory. If I set LowGap to 1024, WinXP Pro SP3 32bit sees 3.0GB available memory IIRC.

i think with number of free pci-e/pci slots after double slot crossfire/sli + additional device (i.e. highpoint 3520lf) is installed, you'd be okay with maybe 2560-3072 lowgap

[mikeyakame]

cough cough http://i4memory.com/102537-post3.html



i think with number of free pci-e/pci slots after double slot crossfire/sli + additional device (i.e. highpoint 3520lf) is installed, you'd be okay with maybe 2560-3072 lowgap

I think i'm sold on a DFI x58, bought myself a DFI X48-LT T2R for something to play with while my Asus X48 board is being unbroken and I'm in totally in love with the ridiculous amount of bios adjustibility and sensory data. I imagine the X58 bios is the same and is probably nearly as complex.