ATI FireGL V3100 + (2) SLI Ports

Maybe this is a silly question; I'm building a CAD System (it is a
buget system) so I'm limited the money I can spend. I ordered a

EPoX EP-9U1697GLI Socket 939 ULi M1697 ATX AMD Motherboard with GLI
Support
I ordered an ATI FireGL V3100.

I was wondering if I was to order a 2nd ATI FireGL V3100 could I use or
would the board utilize the second card for rendering? TIA

I normally build Gaming systems, but I'm a draftsman and while I know
enough about Gaming cards I know little about mutli Card Workstations.
I want squeeze the most out of my dolar and can wiat for the ATI FireGL
V3100 drop lower in price before I order a 2nd card if its determined
It can be used. TIA

 

SolidWorks does not benefit from SLI. It can even be a bit slower.
(Plus, SLI is for nVidia cards, not ATI)

The v3100 is an older card and a bit of a dog. A v3300 would be
noticeably faster and still cheap - ~$180 in OEM packaging. The v3400
is better yet for $250.

 

iQ here and i just went through a round of testing on new Dell
platforms (precision 690). one with a dual nVidia SLI video setup and
the other is with a single of same video card. of note: i did not know
about the SLI until my manager asked me to investigate for our next
workstation setup.

my results are that the dual video card with SLI technology enabled was
about 1-2% faster on average in SWx 2006. in SWx 2007 the dual video
card is actually 8% on average slower. i have only done my testing in
WinXP 64 and intend to complete testing in WinXP Pro (X32) in the next
few days. i will post numbers if my manager now allows me to complete
testing now that he knows about the omission of SLI support in SWx.


Even though it states that it will go faster, that means you will have
to do that much more testing to validate that it really can.

of note here is the word from SWx on SLI technology and SolidWorks.

from the solidworks knowledgebase (accessible through the customer
portal)

Solution Id: S-07828 Category: SR Originated

Question: Does SolidWorks support use of PCI Express graphics cards
in SLI mode? Keyword: Video card

Link:


Answer: SLI is a technology from NVIDIA which allows one to use
multiple graphics adapters ganged together to increase rendering
performance. ATI has a similar technology called Crossfire for their
gaming cards.
Currently, SolidWorks does not support use of multiple PCI Express
graphics cards in SLI mode and neither does NVIDIA for the Quadro cards
/ drivers they and we certify for SolidWorks. In other words, although
some of the NVIDIA Quadro FX cards support SLI this is not enabled in
the driver application settings for most applications, including
SolidWorks. Therefore, there would be no performance benefit to
deploying this configuration in a machine used primarily for
SolidWorks.

Solution Id: S-04230 Category: SR Originated

Question: Does Solidworks support nVidia "SLI" operation? Keyword:
Video card

Link:


Answer: This is not supported at this time.

iQ

 

Can anyone speak up (especially a SWx person, Mike B?) on the future on
SLI technology in the future of SolidWorks. according to the numbers
that i have on the video through put it could enhance our display
refresh times. iQ