i680 motherboard running SLI AND a Third PCIe Videocard

R

Rhyme

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 18, 2003
Messages
184
I'm in the process of sourcing components for a new PC. I noticed that the i680 motherboards have 3 PCIe ports.

I want to use two of the PCIe ports to run two video cards in SLI mode.

Can I use the middle PCIe port to drive another monitor or two? Or does running the other two in SLI preclude me to only using that third port as a Physics processor card only?
 
You can definitely use that third slot for another video card to drive additional monitors. All three PCIe x16 slots are fully capable of using whatever type of PCIe hardware you want to put in there. You could use that third slot for a storage controller, or for a physics card, or even another card to drive additional monitors.

These slots are all PCI Express standard slots. There is nothing special about them. The reason why the two slots furthest apart are designated for SLI is because they have 16 lanes of bandwidth and the middle (third) slot only has 8. So the two x16 slots are more ideal for an SLI configuration. That and they are further apart and therefore airflow to each card would be better.
 
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