ASUS Rampage III Extreme XXXpanderr :)

[fgw]

If I understand that pictures right, this thing will only add a couple of nf200 to provide enough x16 lanes for 4xGPU, and it needs to sit on 2 PCIe-slots to work. Then it can't be used in the way presented in this news. Is this news just a joke or what?

either its a joke, or the author of the original story has no idea what he is talking about ...

anyway, this expander brings at least 4 true 16x slots to the r3e. same as evga did with their 4-way classi from the beginning (2 x nf200). but keep in mind the limitation of 32 lanes in total to communicate with the cpu. this is x58 limitation and can not be changed by the motherboard manufacturer.

[saaya]

anyway, this expander brings at least 4 true 16x slots to the r3e.

1. at least 4? so how many is it? 5? 6?
2. true 16x slots? by what definition?

For this



Silly way of showing though they have three (though 2 are Dudes :p), while we moved earth and sky to just get one sample only for a few weeks :

how was insulation?
what happened when you plugged it into other boards?

[BiFfMaN]

what happened when you plugged it into other boards?

this

[Mungri]

this

Looks really pretty

nukeitfromorbit.com/stop_stealing_my_bandwidth/Fairy_Hannah.jpg

[saaya]

this

a fairy showed up?

Insulation was time consuming :p , a team member is trying to get the code knackered to use it on other boards (but the pci spacing could be an issue) but maybe guys like TIN or co might be better at that

insulation: but it worked out in the end? k...
slot spacing: just use flexible pciE risers...
code? what code? why do you have to lay hands on any code?

each slot uses 16 pcix lanes, so all cards are capable of using full 16x bandwidth for communication to an other card.

mhhhh no, each pair of cards can talk to each other through 16 lanes, when the pair wants to talk to the other pair they talk through 8 lanes, and to the nf200, which talks to the IOH, which talks to the other nf200, which then knocks on the door of the other pair
thats why nvidia actually recommended all board partners to piggyback dual nf200 chips, so the hops stay low...

nf200_1 connected to vga_1 and nf200_2 which is connected to vga_2 and vga_3

of course back then it was all about tri sli...
but even for tri sli this config made no sense because hops between cards dont actually matter as it turns out... cause despite what nvidia claimed, the inter card communication doesnt really need a lot of bw and low latency...

so what really matters is bandwidth to the cpu and low latency to the cpu... and for the first the nf200s dont do anything, 8 per card stays 8 per card (bandwidth wise), and for the latter they make things worse...

the only reason there are nf200s at all is cause nvidia wont allow 4way sli without it...

[Leeghoofd]

1.
how was insulation?
what happened when you plugged it into other boards?

Insulation was time consuming :p , a team member is trying to get the code knackered to use it on other boards (but the pci spacing could be an issue) but maybe guys like TIN or co might be better at that

[fgw]

1. at least 4? so how many is it? 5? 6?
2. true 16x slots? by what definition?


how was insulation?
what happened when you plugged it into other boards?

anyway, "at least" was not meant regarding the number of slotsm, which are 4, but regarding the number of features. there is at least the feature of bringing 4 slots. "at least" in this situation is a term i use in my native language but might be confusing in english ...

each slot uses 16 pcix lanes, so all cards are capable of using full 16x bandwidth for communication to an other card.

have no idea how much communication takes place between cards and how much takes place between the cards and the processor when using sli? but as said before, communication between the cards might use 16x bandwidth.

as already mentioned by somebody: the only interface between this expander and the motherboard are the two pcix slots at the back. so i assume, as long as slot spacing permits, this expander could be used on other boards too. but thats just an assumption.