Anyone use SLI yet?

[Rob P]

Hi all,

Brought my PC in Dec with a 7800GTX card which is SLI enabled. I was planning leaving it 6 months for the prices to come down a bit and untill I would actually see the benefit in the games.

Anyone use SLI cars together and what is the result?

[big_treacle]

Rob P said:

Hi all, Brought my PC in Dec with a 7800GTX card which is SLI enabled. I was planning leaving it 6 months for the prices to come down a bit and untill I would actually see the benefit in the games. Anyone use SLI cars together and what is the result?

I do. Hard to know really as I don't know how good my machine is with just one card. But I can say that every game I've got recently - GTL, FEAR, BF2 - all run at max everything & hi res with no FPS problems.
One things I would say is that apparently for SLI to work properly you have to have exactly the same cards - I have a mate who decided to wait 6 months for his 2nd one and then found it hard to find one.

[remal]

I was going to do the same. Bought my PC from MESh about 4 months ago. WIll be looking inside the PC to see if I can match up the GC.

but as for the same card, I have been told by many people if its the same make IE: 7800GTX then any other 7800GTX from the same maker should be fine

[mr_yogi]

I think the GF6 cards were a lot more picky about being partnered with identical cards.

However have you tried speaking to Dell and asking if they will sell you another GTX? I'm not sure about in the UK but I think state side Dell sell graphics cards at a reasonable price.

Haven't tried SLI myself... yet I am in the process of building a dual 7800GT extreme system, hopefully finish it this weekend

[mr_yogi]

One other thing did you get the SLI bridge connector with you PC? Many cards do NOT come with them as the width between the cards is mandated by the motherboard and can vary (so I have read). If not Dell should be able to supply one.

[lockstock2sb]

remal said:

but as for the same card, I have been told by many people if its the same make IE: 7800GTX then any other 7800GTX from the same maker should be fine

When you say maker you mean nvidia or the company that flavours the cards ?

If 2 MSI 7800GT's are put togtether fine - if 1 x MSI and 1 x XFX 7800GT are put together then you are asking for (expensive) trouble The base board and chipset are essentially identical between the different flavours but there is enough of a difference to cause problems should you try and 'pick n mix' the cards.

Steve

>> Edited by lockstock2sb on Thursday 26th January 15:34

[Rob P]

I was under the impression any 7800GTX would do?

Not a problem if thats not the case. My PC came with the specs listed so I should be able to match it. I've got the SLI conectors too

[_dobbo_]

Ok...

I use SLI, it's great. Performance of SLI vs Single card is easy to determine - just use the NVidia control panel tool to turn off SLI then start a game and view the frame rate. With the latest drivers disabling SLI does not require a reboot in XP.

I'd say performance of one vs two cards is roughly a 30-40% performance improvement. I've heard tales of double the frame rate which aren't borne out by my experience.

as for pick and mix - the latest drivers from nvidia allow you to mix two cards of the same designation, so yes, any two 7800GTX's should be ok together, providing the latest drivers are used.

[[k]ar|]

I'm on SLI here, with two 256Mb BFG 7800GTX cards. Coupled with 2Gb RAM and an AMD FX-57, there's not much that can tax my system, even running things like FEAR with all the options on at 1950x1024. I'm running on stock cooling at the moment, but when I get round to it (thanks to work) I'll be converting the chip and graphics cards to watercooling.

As Dobo said, with the later revisions of the Forceware you can mix & match manufacturers, but the cards must be of the same type. Also, you can switch SLI on or off without a reboot so you can run Windows with dual (or more) screens, then switch to one for SLI-powered gaming. If you're feeling adventurous, you can use the nVidia Coolbits software to overclock your cards, and circumvent the "cold bug" if you change the cooling setup.

[k]

[UncleDave]

The member whose name cannot be used in a quote due to the characters included in the member name said:

I'm on SLI here, with two 256Mb BFG 7800GTX cards. Coupled with 2Gb RAM and an AMD FX-57

[jimmyjimjim]

Pretty much the same here as above - except an XP64 4000. Pretty quick.
I'm using 2 OEM Dell 7800GTx, and apart from the noise(!), it's a nice setup. As far as I can see, the latest Nvidia drivers allow you to pair pretty much any card you want...but seeing as the Dell OEM cards (rebadged foxconn, I think) are the cheapest about at the moment, why not get another -

www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=308050

Aprt from the fact that mine were about £20 cheaper each; wait until they go on today only to - usually for the weekend!

P.S. Full length, double width cards...very impressive...