Asus A8N-SLI (standard)

[Tony Tav]

Check the latest revision of the manual.
"This motherboard does not support the Scalable Link Interface (SLI) mode
for two identical SLI ready PCI express x16 graphics cards."

A SLI motherboard that doesn`t support SLI???????

 

[Paul]

Check the latest revision of the manual.
"This motherboard does not support the Scalable Link Interface (SLI) mode
for two identical SLI ready PCI express x16 graphics cards."

A SLI motherboard that doesn`t support SLI???????

The section in E2024 says:

"This motherboard does not support the Scalable Link Interface
(SLI) mode for two identical SLI-ready PCI Express x16 graphics
cards.

Single card mode (default) supports:
- 1 x PCI Express x16 graphics card on either blue or black slot"

What they mean is, when you remove the motherboard from the box and
install it in your computer case, the selector board is flipped to
be in single card mode. If you want to run in SLI mode, you need to
pull out the selector board (it is between the two video card slots)
and flip it around. Then, on the next boot, the motherboard will be
running in SLI mode.

You might also want to see this item in the FAQ database.

http://www.asus.com/support/faq/qanda.aspx?KB_ID=100091886&SLanguage=en-usan

Q: A8N-SLI Deluxe support four monitors output?

A: Yes, A8N-SLI series can support four monitors on dual
VGA cards mode (normal mode) but can¹t on SLI mode.

Under SLI mode, you will only see one VGA card and 
only single monitor output.

I believe what that means, is even if you have two SLI certified
cards (that have dual head connectors on the faceplate), when
the cards are operating in SLI mode, only one output connector
will work. For some reason, it won't "dual head" while it is
doing SLI.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Tony Tav]

Hi Paul i`ve tried to get on to ASus UK website for some clarification
,but as usual the site is down.

I have the Asus A8N-SLI and i`m a wee bit worried after seeing that. I`m
running in single card mode with a 6600GT at the moment until i get some
more cash.
I flashed my bios from 1001 to the new 1004 and now there is no SLI option
in bios , where in the earlier bios there was. Would the new bios recognise
that the system was running in single card mode and not offer SLI options in
bios until the selector board was flipped to run in SLI mode?
TIA
Tony

 

[Paul]

Hi Paul i`ve tried to get on to ASus UK website for some clarification
,but as usual the site is down.

I have the Asus A8N-SLI and i`m a wee bit worried after seeing that. I`m
running in single card mode with a 6600GT at the moment until i get some
more cash.
I flashed my bios from 1001 to the new 1004 and now there is no SLI option
in bios , where in the earlier bios there was. Would the new bios recognise
that the system was running in single card mode and not offer SLI options in
bios until the selector board was flipped to run in SLI mode?
TIA
Tony

As for Asus web sites, there are many to choose from, and you just
have to find the least loaded one.

www.asus.com
www.asus.com.tw
au.asus.com
www.asus.it
www.asuscom.de
usa.asus.com
a japanese one, a french one, possibly an middle eastern one

ftp.asus.com, ftp.asus.com.tw, ftp.asuscom.de (good for beta beta BIOS)

Since I don't own your board, only other owners are going to know
what's up with the new BIOS. If the selector card is in single card
mode, and a video card is in the correct slot, there isn't much for
the BIOS to do. If the selector card is in x8/x8 mode, then the
BIOS might like to know whether to run the two cards in SLI, or
to run the cards as a dual or quad head VGA configuration. In any
case, SLI mode is not needed just to display the BIOS startup
screen, so maybe choosing SLI or not in the BIOS is redundant, if
the OS offers control over that option.

For example, with ATI video cards, the ATI driver has ignored BIOS
settings for some time, and maybe the Nvidia drivers are doing the
same thing.

In any case, I wouldn't panic, as there would be a huge outcry
if that BIOS really prevented SLI from working. Try searching
the private forums, for your beta BIOS test results

For example, if you use the terms "a8n-sli bios 1004 sli"
on the altavista.com search engine, you get:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=1526360
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-53270.html
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=364790
http://www.hardforum.com/printthread.php?t=858139
http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7114

Plenty of private forums now allow robot indexing and text
only versions of some of their pages, which is why search engines
now offer the pages.

Paul