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Asus adds 4-way SLI to Rampage III Extreme

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dostov

Overclockers.com Reporter
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Apr 1, 2010
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Asus just announced a bizarre contraption designed to add 4-way SLI support to Asus ROG Rampage III Extreme motherboard. The device is an add-in card that plugs into the existing PCI-E slots of the motherboard and provides four PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots for quadruple video cards setups.

The daughter board features a pair of nForce 200 chips to provide full bandwidth to all four cards. The contraption draws no power from the main board, but is instead powered by three molex connectors and a single 6-pin PCI-E power connector. At the same time, as the design makes for a slightly elevated graphics cards positioning, consumers won't be able to use it in a standard case and therefore requires out-of-case setups.

Details and pictures at Nordic Hardware: http://www.nordichardware.com/en/co...enables-4-way-sli-on-rampage-iii-extreme.html

Cheers! :)
 
wow :O riser cards on desktop boards, i love it :D

surely this means other companies could start producing these riser boards with those chips for any type of motherboard, or are the chips in the board limited to asus only?
 
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I guess

I'm wondering whether the four cards will run in 4x8 since the expander board uses 2x16
 
The goal of the riser daughter board is to provide 4x 16 lines slots for 4-way SLI. A single nForce 200 chip connects to a x16 PCI-E slot and provides 2x 16 lines, and there is a pair of them on the board. The chip therefore "creates" more lines but increases latency to the PCI-E link.

It's far from being the most elegant solution ever. I think Nvidia requires 4-way SLI capable motherboards to feature the nForce 200 chips because they have developed the product but it turns out to be useless in all practical applications. Let's face it, a 4x8 configuration is all that is really needed. No use for a "splitting" chip that adds latency.

Cheers! :)
 
The goal of the riser daughter board is to provide 4x 16 lines slots for 4-way SLI. A single nForce 200 chip connects to a x16 PCI-E slot and provides 2x 16 lines, and there is a pair of them on the board. The chip therefore "creates" more lines but increases latency to the PCI-E link.

It's far from being the most elegant solution ever. I think Nvidia requires 4-way SLI capable motherboards to feature the nForce 200 chips because they have developed the product but it turns out to be useless in all practical applications. Let's face it, a 4x8 configuration is all that is really needed. No use for a "splitting" chip that adds latency.

Cheers! :)

I agree. That daughter board is really just a novelty for those who are out-of-the-case Ln2 benchers with pockets deeper than the Celtics bench.
 
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