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NF4 Expert, Dual GTX 512's, PCI slot room.


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Hullo all.

 

Just recently, I've purchased a DFI NF4 SLI-DR Expert motherboard, an Athlon 64 4000+, 2GB OCZ Platinum RAM, and now I'm looking to upgrade my video card from a 6600GT to dual 7800GTX 512MB's. Is it necessary? Likely not, but regardless, I intend to. So, that brings me to my question.

 

On the SLI-DR Expert, there has definitely been a lot of space added for larger PCI-E graphics cards, but I'm curious, if I have two GTX 512's stuffed in there, how many regular PCI slots will be blocked? One? Two? All three?

 

Thanks for the help,

Imarif

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Hullo all.

 

Just recently, I've purchased a DFI NF4 SLI-DR Expert motherboard, an Athlon 64 4000+, 2GB OCZ Platinum RAM, and now I'm looking to upgrade my video card from a 6600GT to dual 7800GTX 512MB's. Is it necessary? Likely not, but regardless, I intend to. So, that brings me to my question.

 

On the SLI-DR Expert, there has definitely been a lot of space added for larger PCI-E graphics cards, but I'm curious, if I have two GTX 512's stuffed in there, how many regular PCI slots will be blocked? One? Two? All three?

 

Thanks for the help,

Imarif

 

The 2nd card in the lower slot will take up a lot of room. You will only be able to use the bottom slot for a good sound card.

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I see. What about the PCI-Ex4 slot between the two? Is that even still useable for say, a PCI-Ex1 TV tuner while in SLI if it isn't blocked off as well?

 

I seriously doubt that. Those 512 cards are pretty damn huge.

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Any smaller coolers I could use in place of the stock ones?

 

Why would you wanna do that? They usually OC the regular 7800GTX GPU and add some memory to call it 512. It generates quite a bit of heat so I discourage you from doing that.

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Why would you wanna do that? They usually OC the regular 7800GTX GPU and add some memory to call it 512. It generates quite a bit of heat so I discourage you from doing that.

ummm no... the 512s cores are made in a different process and the memory is faster....

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ummm no... the 512s cores are made in a different process and the memory is faster....

 

It's a common practice. Manufacturers tweak them a little bit and then release them to have an edge over the competitors. I seriously doubt that 7800GTX 256 and 512 have different cores, otherwise other folks will sell them as well. Do you think other guys like XFX don't like the cash?

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Short of watercooling I don't think you're gonna gain much by switching to a different heatsink, the one that's on there works quite well.

 

You might want to reconsider getting two though, it's not necessary unless you're benchmarking and if that's the case you would be getting an FX processor instead. Thats a LOT of cash to be spending on graphics that could be better spent getting a dual core proceesor, or even putting towards the FX60 when it comes out. Just a thought.

 

And in the case of the 512 vs. the 256 GTX, the cores are supposedly identical, though there is speculation that nvidia saved the better ones for the 512s. It is highly likely that more voltage is applied to the core as I'm capable of over 600 mhz on mine, which no stock 256 will do. The memory is also much faster in addition to having twice as much.

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Yes they have different cores that allows them to run cooler and more stable... It´s of course in essential the same deal but with some changes...

 

Read reviews it says the cores are slightly different. Not in term of actual performance but to make it run cooler...

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