Dual Video Cards!?!?

[kprice52001]

I am trying to set my system up with a dual video card system using two ATI Radion X800 XL video cards. My MOBO, an asus P5LD2 Deluxe (http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l...12&modelmenu=1)has two PCIE slots and it came with a cable that is supposed to bridge the cards together. However, there is no place on my video card to connect the bridge cable. Reading up on the MOBO at the link above tells me of a feature ASUS developed called Universal PCI Express, "It enables users to plug in an additional PCI Express graphics card to set up a dual graphics card platform on a single motherboard. ASUS' own smart quick switch further detects how users installed their PCI Express devices, and intelligently reroutes the PCI Express lanes for optimized bandwidth allocation" so why did they provide the bridge cable? I don’t feel comfortable spending another $300 on an additional Radion X800 XL unless I am that they will work together like RAM to provide the highest possible level of performance.

My question is how to set them up correctly so that I know the cards will work together instead of independently. I am trying to get more video performance out of my computer for a smoother HD gaming. I have my PC hooked up to a 60 Sony DLP and I want to be able to play games like HALO 2, DOOM 3, and Far Cry in High DEF using my TV as a monitor. I should have no problems as my DLP's resolution is 1920x1080p and my receiver has HDMI inputs/output that I am using via a DVI/HDMI converter to run the video signal from my PC trough my receiver and then into my TV. I don’t get sound through the HDMI however this was solved by connecting the digital audio out from my MOBO to the input on my receiver.

Any and all help you could provide would be very much appreciated

[bugspop1]

I'm not totally positive but I think the 800 series didn't support SLi.
I've never used SLi so I could be wrong about this.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by kprice52001

I am trying to set my system up with a dual video card system using two ATI Radion X800 XL video cards. My MOBO, an asus P5LD2 Deluxe (http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l...12&modelmenu=1)has two PCIE slots and it came with a cable that is supposed to bridge the cards together. However, there is no place on my video card to connect the bridge cable. Reading up on the MOBO at the link above tells me of a feature ASUS developed called Universal PCI Express, "It enables users to plug in an additional PCI Express graphics card to set up a dual graphics card platform on a single motherboard. ASUS' own smart quick switch further detects how users installed their PCI Express devices, and intelligently reroutes the PCI Express lanes for optimized bandwidth allocation" so why did they provide the bridge cable? I don’t feel comfortable spending another $300 on an additional Radion X800 XL unless I am that they will work together like RAM to provide the highest possible level of performance.

My question is how to set them up correctly so that I know the cards will work together instead of independently. I am trying to get more video performance out of my computer for a smoother HD gaming. I have my PC hooked up to a 60 Sony DLP and I want to be able to play games like HALO 2, DOOM 3, and Far Cry in High DEF using my TV as a monitor. I should have no problems as my DLP's resolution is 1920x1080p and my receiver has HDMI inputs/output that I am using via a DVI/HDMI converter to run the video signal from my PC trough my receiver and then into my TV. I don’t get sound through the HDMI however this was solved by connecting the digital audio out from my MOBO to the input on my receiver.

Any and all help you could provide would be very much appreciated

From the best of my knowledge they did have some X800 XL crossfire cards announced at one point however I don't know if any actually made it mainstream.

Does either of the boxes for your video cards say crossfire on them? and do either say it is a master card? If not I would say you are out of luck with your X800 XL cards and crossfire, unfortunately.

[bugspop1]

Looks like your motherboard doesn't offically support SLi either. Although they do include the SLi connection.

While SLi isn’t officially supported on this board, ASUS bundles their SLi connector which is totally flexible and completely awesome allowing you to connect to any SLI setup.

And last but not least, with ATI video cards it's called Crossfire and not SLi.

[The_eXimas]

With SLI.. it easyer..i just connected te wire between the cards and enabled SLI support. in windows..and SLI works better than crossfire thts a fackt