We have discussed the possibilities of the Gigabyte 8N-SLI Quad Royal in the past but today we see how it performs.
This is where things start to get very interesting. To date, this is the only motherboard to support more than two graphics cards simultaneously. The layout of the expansion slots incorporates four PCI Express x16 slots, two PCI Express x1 slots and a single PCI slot. In the photo you can see that there are two black PCI Express x16 slots and two blue PCI Express x16 slots.
The two black PCI Express x16 slots are electrically 1x unless the SLI paddle card is set to SLI mode. The two blue slots are electrically x16 speed until the SLI paddle card is set to SLI mode, at this point they are then routed to PCI Express x8 speed. If you plan to use only two graphics cards, you will need to place them into the blue slots and then use the bridge connector. If you want to use four cards, you group them in black and blue configurations with the SLI bridges on each group. While allowing Quad SLI there is also have another practical use - multiple monitor support. If you choose not to enable SLI, or if you use cards not based on nVidia technology (yes, ATI graphics cards can be used in this board to run more than four monitors) you can have up to eight monitors in a single setup, which is not a bad desktop setup we must say!
TweakTown
This is where things start to get very interesting. To date, this is the only motherboard to support more than two graphics cards simultaneously. The layout of the expansion slots incorporates four PCI Express x16 slots, two PCI Express x1 slots and a single PCI slot. In the photo you can see that there are two black PCI Express x16 slots and two blue PCI Express x16 slots.
The two black PCI Express x16 slots are electrically 1x unless the SLI paddle card is set to SLI mode. The two blue slots are electrically x16 speed until the SLI paddle card is set to SLI mode, at this point they are then routed to PCI Express x8 speed. If you plan to use only two graphics cards, you will need to place them into the blue slots and then use the bridge connector. If you want to use four cards, you group them in black and blue configurations with the SLI bridges on each group. While allowing Quad SLI there is also have another practical use - multiple monitor support. If you choose not to enable SLI, or if you use cards not based on nVidia technology (yes, ATI graphics cards can be used in this board to run more than four monitors) you can have up to eight monitors in a single setup, which is not a bad desktop setup we must say!
TweakTown
