This question has been bugging me for a while and I haven't been able to find a good answer.
If a computer has two PCI Express slots, and I want to have two video cards linked together (either two nVidia cards using SLI or two ATI cards using CrossFire), does the chipset matter?
I remember reading an article on Tom's Hardware a while ago (which of course I can't find now) that said for a single video card it doesn't matter what chipset you have (ATI, nVidia, Intel, etc.) It also said that for dual video cards, you need a chipset that can support the configuration you want, but didn't go into any details as to why.
So if you have two PCI Express slots and two video cards connected using a bridge or a cable, why does the chipset matter? Why can't the cards do all their needed communication through the bridge/cable?
If I want to have two ATI video cards connected together in CrossFire configuration, but have a nVidia chipset, will it still work?
Oh, and if your wondering why I don't just use two nVidia cards, it's because my stupid motherboard doesn't like the 8800 series or newer.




