Question relating to SLI gfx

TheDoc

Just a quick one on sli setups.

I was under the impression cards had to be the exact same from the exact same manufacturer, but someone dropped a spanner in the works today saying their sli setup runs with two different manufactured cards.

I currently have the Evga 8800gts 320mb and want to run sli since the performance is better then one and well the cards go cheap enough on ebay.

However it is impossible to find my type, however there is an abundance of other models there.

So in summary

Can sli operate with the same cards from different manufacturers.

Spear

TheDoc wrote: »

Just a quick one on sli setups.

I was under the impression cards had to be the exact same from the exact same manufacturer, but someone dropped a spanner in the works today saying their sli setup runs with two different manufactured cards.

I currently have the Evga 8800gts 320mb and want to run sli since the performance is better then one and well the cards go cheap enough on ebay.

However it is impossible to find my type, however there is an abundance of other models there.

So in summary

Can sli operate with the same cards from different manufacturers.

You mean Hybrid SLI or the like?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_SLI#Hybrid_SLI

marco_polo

TheDoc wrote: »

Just a quick one on sli setups.

I was under the impression cards had to be the exact same from the exact same manufacturer, but someone dropped a spanner in the works today saying their sli setup runs with two different manufactured cards.

I currently have the Evga 8800gts 320mb and want to run sli since the performance is better then one and well the cards go cheap enough on ebay.

However it is impossible to find my type, however there is an abundance of other models there.

So in summary

Can sli operate with the same cards from different manufacturers.

Yes if they have the exact same GPU.

http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_faq.html#c16

noodletop

TheDoc wrote: »

Just a quick one on sli setups.

I was under the impression cards had to be the exact same from the exact same manufacturer, but someone dropped a spanner in the works today saying their sli setup runs with two different manufactured cards.

I currently have the Evga 8800gts 320mb and want to run sli since the performance is better then one and well the cards go cheap enough on ebay.

However it is impossible to find my type, however there is an abundance of other models there.

So in summary

Can sli operate with the same cards from different manufacturers.

you can run any cards by any manufacturer in sli as long as they are same series
ie your Evga 8800gts 320mb can run with any other brand name as long as it is also a 8800gts 320mb,
what you should do is look for a high end ati card and use the 8800gts for physx with it:D

ED E

So an 8800 GTS and an 8800 GTX couldn't be run together? Was something I had in the back of my mind.

Solitaire

IIRC nVidia use each GPU to render part of the same frame. AMD gets each GPU to render as many frames as they can manage. The result is that you can (to an extent) mix and match different AMD cards in CrossFire but all SLI cards have to be identical in terms of spec and speeds (not neccessarily brand).

noodletop

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

So an 8800 GTS and an 8800 GTX couldn't be run together? Was something I had in the back of my mind.

possible? - maybe!!
would i do it ? - no way!!

my last machine had 3x8800ultras in it one superclocked and 2x standard all diff malkers but all the same card. ie all 8800 ultras
the only thing was that the superclocked one reverted to standard clock speeds to match the others.

as far as i can remember you are restricted from using diff cards like the 8800gts with the 8800gtx through the drivers, not too sure been a while since i looked it up
and i think that the memory on the cards has to be the same too but dont quote me on that one

TheDoc

thanks lads, it really opens my options up now

PogMoThoin

Sli and Crossfire aren't worth it IMO, I've tried and I'm not impressed. My next gpu will be a single gpu. The gain You get is in the regionn of 20-30% (only in some games too) where a new single faster gpu is probably the best option. There's also an issue in some games with micro stutter, some say it doesn't exist, but it does, where Your cpu bottlenecks and can't feed the 2 gpu's fast enough (even with my 3.8Ghz quad) I sometimes feel this, when fraps says Your fps is constant 60fps. Just get a new 1GB 4870/4890/5870, whatever Your budget allows

TheDoc

As i in another thread

4890's, 4770's are just not available anywhere so it leaves my options short.

An 8800gts goes for about 40 euro shipped from ebay so its not a bad alternative.

I'm open to suggestions.

All my gaming is just world of warcraft ( i want beefy fps) and now bad company 2.

TheDoc

Well thought I'd drop an update

My employment prospects look gr8 at the moment and might be in work this week.

First paycheck, upgrading my old soldier.

Was thinking of picking up a Radeon HD 5770 and a Corsair 400w PSU

Still rockin that 8800gts 320mb and my PSU is a generic ebay purchase from years ago, I think its about 350 W.

MY cpu,ram and mobo still seem fine and its really just a GFX push for wow now that I'm 25man raiding regularly.

I figure both of those should cost about €200 smackers which would be a nice upgrade

Thoughts?

cherryghost

TheDoc wrote: »

Well thought I'd drop an update

My employment prospects look gr8 at the moment and might be in work this week.

First paycheck, upgrading my old soldier.

Was thinking of picking up a Radeon HD 5770 and a Corsair 400w PSU

Still rockin that 8800gts 320mb and my PSU is a generic ebay purchase from years ago, I think its about 350 W.

MY cpu,ram and mobo still seem fine and its really just a GFX push for wow now that I'm 25man raiding regularly.

I figure both of those should cost about €200 smackers which would be a nice upgrade

Thoughts?

5770 is an excellent card and upgrade from what you got

power supply is top notch, good choice.


also, +1 on the whole 'down with multi GPU'. i'm never doing it again.

TheDoc

Looks like a cheap and cheerful upgrade, never really bought a proper PSU so I'm looking forward to some stability, efficeny and a bit more silence

TheDoc

Question now is where to buy from, every retailer around seems to be over priced or unreliable.

Think I might just ebay it

I assume the Corsair 400w or the 450w would suffice.

Kinda just wondering know what manafacturer to do with for the graphics card.

Saphire seem decent, old fella has a 4890 saphire vapor x core and he loves it and it is pretty nice, I see you can get a 5770 saphire vapor x aswell.

Choices choices choices

TheDoc

Antec 300 tower case

Saphire Radeon 5770 vapor x 1gb

Corsair 400w psu

Thats what I'm looking at purchasing ( and throwing loads of orange fans into the antec for looks)

So being pulled from my old rig is the ram, gigabyte neov2 motherbaord and intel E5200 cpu, along with my two hdd's.

I assume the psu stated above would suffice?

Also I notice my current rig runs, very, very ,very hot. And very loud.

I'm not sure if the noise is due to components or the fans, but its so loud.

And it also seems to run scoldy hot, I think a test today in standby mode showed the cpu cores running at 68 degrees, when i was reading boards.

Any input would be awesome

lmimmfn

^^ looks good, dunno if id go for the Vapour though:
1. Its not a reference card so it doesnt support overvolting( actually a lot of the Saphire 5 series cards dont ), it does overclock really well though on stock volts
2. Its pricey for a 5770

you can Hybrid Crossfire ATI cards, 5850 and 5870 is a good combo that i might go for myself

TheDoc

Dabbled in overclocking few weeks ago and just wasnt impressed.

If i wanted more power, I'd go buy the new components, cant really say I'm in more need of cpu power at the moment.

And a 5770 is competely overkill for my needs as it is, but it will be nice to have for the odd game of bad company 2 and similar games.

TheDoc

Also be interested to get some input on additional cooling.

My machine tends to run very hot, and I assume the new setup will be the same.


So I'm looking for cooling on the cpu and gpu probably.

Any advice would be sound

witnessmenow

Re CPU at 68c at idle, under torture testing my Overclocked e5200 (@ 4GHz ) doesnt reach that! I'd imagine the termal paste isn't put on right or something, or else you have fans working against each other. Are using the stock Intel cooler? is it overclocked?

For your new 300, it will come with two fans at the top and back, both are exhausts, so put the front two blowing air in. I'd try pick up a cpu cooler if your on the stock one(only if overclocking).

TheDoc

I'm on the stock one yeah, I didn't do anything with the fan really on installation, the apckage came already pre built just had to drop the mobo in.

I might pick up a new fan for the cpu and grab some front fans for the 300 case and try get things a bit cooler.

Might also overlock the cpu while im at it, give it one last go.

TheDoc

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...57&subcat=1395

linked from another thread here, cheers massy.

Turns out my Dad was going to buy one, so he is going to pick me one up, works with an E5200 I suppose.

Will this be the sort of item I'll need to say, overlock to 4ghz as I'm being told I can achieve.

I can maybe stretch the psu from the CRSHAIR 400w to the 450w.

But the motherboard and ram I'd not intention of changing. So is there hope to maybe get some good overclockage from the cpu using this sort of heatsink?

It would nearly be a whole new machine, I'd planned to pump it up to 3ghz or more anyway, but wanted some experienced opinion.

Unfortunately got the bomb that i dont get paid till end of may, but I guess i have time to research effectively and find the best prices.

Overlockers is looking the winner at the moment, as it has everything i want.

TheDoc

Priced everything on overlockers.

About €330 incl delivery, which isnt bad. A bit more then I want to spend, but with the new case and beffy cpu cooler, I should be able to overlock my E5200 to new dizzy heights, that willl be nearly as good as a new cpu.

witnessmenow

You link isnt working for me.

You have a 400W corsair psu at the moment and your thinking of upgrading to a 450w? I'm not sure of the value of that Or are you going to buy one or the other? Whats the spec of your intended finished build.

My E5200 is cooled with a scythe ninja, which isn't renowned for being a great cooler (its thought to be a good cooler all the same), but keeps the temps at about 63c under torture, so i dont think you need to go too overboard on the cooler front. I think the scythe ninja cost me about €25 or something.

I did a small bit of work on my Antec 300 at the weekend, I cut a new hole for cable routing, and organised the fans pretty well ( i think!) I must through up a picture of it

TheDoc

No I'm using a generic psu at the moment, I'm hoping to buy a corsair psu.

Whats speeds you getting from your e5200?

Ill get a new link if that doesnt work, its a coolermaster thingy that has great reviews, and its about €25 bucks.

Solitaire

TheDoc wrote: »

Ill get a new link if that doesnt work, its a coolermaster thingy that has great reviews, and its about €25 bucks.

This?

witnessmenow

Ah ok I understand now. The 450w is great PSU, i'm currently running a 4870 and a Q9550 off mine.

Heard good things about that ok, I was just making sure you weren't needlessly buying a €50 cooler!

I have been running it at 4ghz for the last 6 months or so, Its currently not in use as i bought a Quad core and while I was waiting to aquire parts for a second build I said I'd try the Quad out. Have all the parts now so basically I'm building from scratch again, twice!

Hopefully I can get it back to 4ghz handy enough! I got some decent advice here, might be a useful read for you. I'm ragin i never did post up my settings now! :rolleyes:

EDIT: Its worth mentioning that getting the e5200 to 4Ghz apparently is not a given, I must have got lucky and got a good chip

TheDoc

even to between 3-3.5GHZ would be a huge achievement

Thanks solataire thats the ones

TheDoc

That looks me settled

Looks ok does it not?

I'm reading bought this "bottleneck" lark and has me ever so slightly concerned. Would I run into any issues with this system coupled with the items from my current build im keeping?

Also in unrelated news, got my home server up and running today.

Its a HP proliant m330, and its a beast.
Need to pick up 4x1TB HDD's to setup the raid, but its working and its lovely.

It also convinced my father to run wires through the house into a switch etc, so bye bye wireless hopefully

€350 all in

Dad is getting one of those fans so thats 20 blips.

Figure I should pick up around 100 for the parts im shifting so all in all a good €200 upgrade pack.

witnessmenow

Cheaper off Harwareversand.de if you dont mind using them:



Add €30 for delivery

TheDoc

xfx graphics card, was set on saphire, for no particular reason only i heard they are immense and my dad has a vapor x 4890 and swear by it.

Defo seems cheaper though :O

Might go with that route