SLI Bridges and Other Ramblings

TheMadGamer

SasqWatch
Original Sin Donor
Joined
October 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
I'm dramatically upgrading my PC. It's new enough to warrant the upgrade versus buying a new PC. Despite that it is almost 4 years old, all modern games (that I have bought) run well on it, probably because new games are generally made to run on 6 year old consoles… so there is no real need for a brand new machine.

Last week I upgraded my Mouse and Keyboard. I was in desperate need of an upgrade in that department for a long time. But it's so easy to put off that kind of purchase as mice and keyboards are somewhat unexciting, at least to me. But thanks to the help of some of you, I have a brand new Logitch G19 keyboard and Logitech G700 mouse - and so far they are both working great!

Next on my agenda is adding a second video card to run in SLI mode. Buying a second card was easy enough since you have to buy an exact duplicate of what you already have for SLI to work. But it's been an interesting experience finding and buying an SLI bridge. I couldn't find this at any of my local computer stores. Searching the net it seems you can only buy them from E-Bay and Amazon. I don't mind buying it from either of these sources but find it very strange that I couldn't find this anywhere else. I'm not sure why all the mystery with these cables. Even searching NVIDIA's own website I couldn't find any information about buying an SLI Bridge. I finally posted a message on their forums and, you guessed it, I was directed to look for one on Ebay or Amazon. Just about anywhere I can find a parallel to USB adapter to make a 1980s dot matrix printer connect to a modern PC but an SLI bridge - that's relegated to Amazon and Ebay? Very weird. More curious, where do the people who sell these on Ebay and Amazon get them from? Are they leftovers from mobo purchases?

Once my SLI bridge and second video card arrive (thank you Amazon), next will be a 3D monitor. I spent a few hours researching these monitors. I want a 27" 3d monitor. It seems none of the current 3d monitors at 27" offer an IPS variant. That said, two offerings, one from Asus and one from Acer look promising. There is the Asus VG278H and the Acer HN274H bmiiid. I'm leaning toward the Asus model at the moment.


Do any of you have opinions on 3d monitors? I would love to hear them if you do.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
My only comment on 3D monitors is to make sure you don't sacrifice good 2D picture quality for mediocre 3D performance. Read up on plenty of reviews evaluating both modes prior to purchase.
 
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
5,978
Location
Florida, USA
If you have an sli motherboard it should have come with an sli bridge. Anyway I recently received my asus vg278h and love it so far. Haven't had a lot of time to play on it but the little I have has been positive. I tried a little batman AA in 3d and it was amazing. It also has excellent 2d especially with true 120hz. Some people have said they had burn in with their Asus monitor (Seems to be mainly people that got monitors from the initial shipments.) but I haven't had any. So if you go with the Asus you may want to purchase it from somewhere you feel comfortable with returning stuff. Just in case.

The Acer you listed does not have lightboost. The asus does. Acer is releasing a lightboost monitor. the HN274H Bbmiiid with a part number ET.HH4HE.B04. It's a little confusing becuase of the close model #'s just make sure you get the one that matches the right product # if you want the one with lightboost.

3d vision blog has reviews of both monitors and seems to be pretty knowledgeable.

Also, I started a thread a little while back titled, do you 3d?. You may want to search it up their were some good posts in it.
 
My only comment on 3D monitors is to make sure you don't sacrifice good 2D picture quality for mediocre 3D performance. Read up on plenty of reviews evaluating both modes prior to purchase.

Thank you for your input. Interestingly, a good number of user reviews I've come across priase the Asus VG278H as having great 2D. So that's good!
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
If you have an sli motherboard it should have come with an sli bridge.

You are right. And once upon a time I did have a bridge. But SLI was giving my computer problems back when I first bought it. In fact, both videocards (I think they were GTX 470s) had strange incompatibility problems with my computer. I ended up pulling both out and selling them on Ebay… along with, you guessed it, the SLI bridge.

After that I bought another NVIDIA card. It too had weird incompatibility problems with my PC. I don't think these incompatibilities stemmed from the videocard, but rather the computer itself (something with the mobo and/or BIOS perhaps) that was causing the issues.

Last year I bought a 3rd card, a NVIDIA GTX 580. This card has worked great and have no issues. A friend who has the exact same card came over and we installed it and got my PC working in SLI so I know for sure it will be ok when my own videocard arrives in the mail over the next few days.

Anyway I recently received my asus vg278h and love it so far.

I'm glad to hear this. I'm leaning toward the Asus because a) I have more hands-on experience with Asus - I actually have yet to buy an Acer product of any kind and b) it comes with NVIDIA's 3D Vision 2. I also like the 'lightboost' feature and the fact that many people are praising its 2D.

Some people have said they had burn in with their Asus monitor (Seems to be mainly people that got monitors from the initial shipments.) but I haven't had any.

I came across a good number of these complaints when going over user reviews from various websites. I did notice that the large majority of these comments were made by people in December 2011 and early January 2012. You see these complaints taper off greatly between early last month and now. I tend to agree with you that perhaps early batches of the monitors had problems. I will defintaly buy mine from a place who will take returns.

By the way, do you have any hands-on experience dealing with Asus customer service? I've never had to use it before but wondering how they fair. I have a rather negative view of most tech company's customer service as most are (not all, but most) horrible.

Another question I have about the Asus. Some users reported that when they end a 3D gaming session, they can't get the 3D to stop. They have to reboot their computer. Do you have this problem? Can you turn the 3D feature on and off easily?

Also, I started a thread a little while back titled, do you 3d?. You may want to search it up their were some good posts in it.

Thanks! I'll take a look!
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
Why do you want SLI?

Just my opinion, but... If you have a GTX 580, there's no need for any kind of upgrade. SLI doesn't equal x2 performance, and many games are glitchy with it. I could understand if you had a lower end card, but with the card you have you're just wasting money.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,133
Location
Florida, US
Why do you want SLI?

If it's to satisfy a hardware fetish or whatever then go for it, I did, but for a whole lotta money I ended up with a whole lotta heartache with my dual GPU setup. It was ATI crossfire but I assume the same applies to NVIDIA - driver issues, patchy performance, hot footsies from all the heat my system was pumping out.

Just more trouble than it's worth in this day and age when strong single cards are so powerful.
 
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
371
Location
Australia
Just my opinion, but… If you have a GTX 580, there's no need for any kind of upgrade. SLI doesn't equal x2 performance, and many games are glitchy with it. I could understand if you had a lower end card, but with the card you have you're just wasting money.

There is no good reason I want SLI other than I'm a techy and I want to experience it. I'm in year 5 of my computer ownership. It's in year 5 that I usually allow myself to buy a new computer to replace the current one. But this time around I'm just going for a big upgrade instead. That's my justification and I'm sticking to it.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
I took the plunge and I placed my order for an Asus VG278H. It should get to me on Wednesday. I'll update here after I get it for those curious about what I think of it.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,897
Location
Oregon
Back
Top Bottom