ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme Video Card Issue

[CHUDmac]

According to the manufacturer's website, this mobo runs ATI-based graphics cards. This mobo also has a Lucid Hydra CrossLinx 3 chip which "makes it possible to combine multi-GPU graphics cards from any generation and vendor on the same motherboard" (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/Crosshair_IV_Extreme/).

Prior to buying my EVGA GTX 570HD video card, I asked ASUS to verify that this mobo will run BOTH ATI and Nvidia graphics cards, which they said it would.

So I bought it... and $300 later I can't get the video card to work...

I had it in PCIe 2.0x16 slot #1 until I read that the Lucid chip was in slot #2, so I moved the video card to slot #2 and I can't get any image.

Three questions:
1. Does any one know if I have to have an ATI card in slot #1 to make the Lucid chip work?
2. Am I screwed out of the money and I need to go buy an ATI card now?
3. And if I am screwed, does anyone know where I can get an ASUS ROG ARES at a decent price? (or if someone wants to give me one )

 

[oldbrave]

OK,ATI card goes in pci #1, Nv card goes in pci#2-4-5.
I believe you need to have the ati card in slot 1 before the Nv card in slots 2-4-5 will work.
I could be wrong but I think thats what the manual says.

 

[CHUDmac]

Thanks for the help. Boy, does that suck for me. I guess I could buy a cheap ATI card so it will work, though I might as well sell my EVGA GTX 570HD and get a decent ATI card.

 

[Knufire]

I think you misunderstood something. All motherboards (Intel or AMD) can run all graphics cards (AMD or NVIDIA).

However, not all motherboards support SLI (NVIDIA) and CrossfireX (AMD). These are the technologies that allow you to link multiple video cards together for increased performance. Many older AMD motherboards ONLY support Crossfire, but not SLI. This means that, if you have one video card, it can be AMD or NVIDIA. If you want to use multiple GPUs, you have to stick to AMD.

Also, to enable Crossfire/SLI, the two (or three or four) cards need to be nearly identical. But for example, you'd want to SLI two GTX570s, you cannot SLI a GTX570 and a GTX580.

The Lucid chip not only enables SLI on that motherboard, but allows you to link together different cards from different companies as if they were in SLI or Crossfire.

To sum it up, all the Lucid stuff deals with multiple cards. If you're using a SINGLE NVIDIA CARD, and you have no picture, then you have a dead video card.

 

[CHUDmac]

@Knufire - So I should put my VGA in PCIe 2.0x16 slot #1?

 

[Knufire]

Yes. .

 

[oldbrave]

Hey, my bust. I got the impression that you were wanting to run two Video cards, a ATI and a Nvidia.

 

[Digipro]

The board has switches up on the top right hand side that enable u to turn of the power to each individual pcie slot for mantenance and debugging u can turn the pci slot off and its as if the card is not in the system at all and uses no power but u can just reboot flick a switch and enable the card again . check that the top switch is pushed to the left thats the on position and enable the rest as u use the pcie slots.