SLI question, sticky didnt answer.
- Thread starter joelmagar
- Start date
Kewl Munky
New Member
No you have to use two cards of the same model.
PohTayToez
Active Member
I believe you can mix some cards of the same series (i.e. two 8XXX cards), but not cards of different series.
lawson_jl
New Member
Just looked this up for a friend on the offical nvidia website actually. You can use two differnt cards but they have to have the same GPU. So you could use a 9400GTC and a 9400GTS OC but you could not use a 8600 and a 9800 (or even an 8600 and 8800). I've heard people claim in forums they have used differnt cards but they offer no proof and I have yet to see it. You can mix memory sizes but the system will default to the lowest memory of the two. So if you have one card with 256MB and one with 512MB it would set the memory at 256MB.
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bomberboysk
Active Member
You can though set one gpu as a dedicated physx card.
joelmagar
New Member
and how would you do that though, this is my first time trying to use two graphics cards so i kinda want a lot of details.
Kewl Munky
New Member
Yeah I was also looking through nvidia's site too and you can also mix same GPU cards from different distributors like an EVGA 8800GTS and a PNY 8800GTS.
Bodaggit23
Active Member
Yeah, but that's not SLI is it?
Kewl Munky
New Member
Idea. Buy a motherboard with 4 PCI-E slots. Buy 4 GTX 285's. Then SLI 3 and set one as a physx card. Win?
Kornowski
VIP Member
No, you can't mix two different cards when using SLI. You can run an 8800GT and another 8800GT, but you couldn't run an 8800GT and an 8600GTS. They have to be the same card.
You can run different brands, that isn't a problem. (e.g. An EVGA 8800 with an ASUS 8800).
If one card is overclocked, it will lower its speeds to match that of the lower clocked card.
You can use two different cards if you wanted to use one as a dedicated PhysX. So, if you had a 9800 and an 8600, you'd have your main graphics card as the 9800 and set the 8600 up as the dedicated PhysX card. It's all done through nVidia's control panel, it's easy enough!
You can run different brands, that isn't a problem. (e.g. An EVGA 8800 with an ASUS 8800).
If one card is overclocked, it will lower its speeds to match that of the lower clocked card.
You can use two different cards if you wanted to use one as a dedicated PhysX. So, if you had a 9800 and an 8600, you'd have your main graphics card as the 9800 and set the 8600 up as the dedicated PhysX card. It's all done through nVidia's control panel, it's easy enough!
bomberboysk
Active Member
When you play games that use physx, yes because it wouldnt be using your gpu for both physx and video. Doesnt do any harm to performance in non physx games though.