Does Mac Pro support SLI in Bootcamp?

[DubbleDuecer]

Let me apologize ahead of time if this has been discussed, I did a search with no luck. I have a early 08 Mac Pro, Dual Quad Core, I didnt get the 8800 instead i ordered it with the 256 Vcard. I installed a 9600GT that I use under Windows Bootcamp, My question is, can I buy another 9600GT and use SLI under Windows?

[peskaa]

No.


Easy answer really. SLi requires the chipset to support it, and the Mac Pro doesn't.

[tobyg]

It's been proven that SLI can work in a non nvidia chipset motherboard, but they've locked their drivers to require an SLI chipset on the motherboard. There were some older hacked nvidia drivers that would work with the 7300 GT that enabled SLI even on non SLI chipset motherboards, but nobody has released anything that would work with any recent cards.

Maybe the newer Mac Pro's will use nvidia chipsets and allow SLI, but if they stick with the Xeon line of cpu's I don't see that happening. I'm not aware of any nvidia chipsets used in professional workstations with Xeon processors or servers.

[DubbleDuecer]

I have googled' it a few times and some people are claming they can run SLI or dual PC video cards under windows....??? I have my ATI card that came with my macpro that i only use in os x, i have a 9600gt that i use only for windows, Im wondering if adding another 9600 is possible.... some people are claming it is.. others say NO...

[Tallest Skil]

I have googled' it a few times and some people are claming they can run SLI or dual PC video cards under windows....???

Some people are liars.

The hardware doesn't support it, period. It can't be done.

[noushy]

As far as I know, crossfire should work. There have been some people gettin g the newer 48xx series card working with crossfire under bootcamp. The newest AMD/ATI cards have really good performance on par with some of the best nvdia cards. In fact with core architecture, they are even faster. Just waiting for AMD/ATI to release the 4XXX series for the mac.

Peace,
Noushy

[Shurran]

As people have already said, you won't be able to get SLI working in bootcamp on the current MP without special 'hacked' drivers, which I dont think exist for anything other than the 7300.

As for the next gen. I guess its possible Apple will use something like the intel Skulltrail chipset which does support both SLI and CrossFire.

[JaredStrauss]

Hi

I just got a mac pro. I know that currently SLI is not possible but the newest nvidia drivers found here http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_178.24_whql.html add sli support for intel® D5400XS motherboards.

Isn't the mac pro based off the 5400 motherboard/chipset?

[Umbongo]

5400XS is Skulltrail. Basically that note says that Skulltrail boards now support GTX 200 cards in SLI. They have an Nvidia chip on board to enable it.

[acquinn]

I'll believe it when I see it.

[noushy]

Intel bit the bullit when designing that motherboard, and used an nvidia bridge chip (100 series) which is pci-ex 1.0, to allow sli. It is the only intel manufactured board to feature sli capability because of that chip. The macpro mainboard does not have the nvidia bridge chip for sli.

Peace,
Noushy