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mixing brands of cards for SLI

ihatelag

ihatelag

ihatelag

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Is there any negative effect (like performance or compatibility) of mixing brands of cards for SLI?

I currently own a MSI GTX 680 2GB GDDR5 and at the moment OcUK are selling Gainward GeForce GTX 680 "GOOD Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 - will there be any issues in mixing these two cards?

As a separate question, if you had the choice, would you sell the 680 and buy a 780 OR get a 2nd 680?

Many thanks in advance for your help/advice! :)
 
ihatelag said:
I currently own a MSI GTX 680 2GB GDDR5 and at the moment OcUK are selling Gainward GeForce GTX 680 "GOOD Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 - will there be any issues in mixing these two cards?
Click to expand...

should be fine :)

wait for an nvidia expert to advise about other question
 
Personally, I'd sell the 680 and get a 780. One powerful card is always preferable to two lesser cards in my opinion.
 
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Thanks panyan, looks like I will buy it then.

I had in the back of my mind that I would have performance issues and possibly the inability to overclock them uniformly.

EDIT:
Sliver said:
You need to make sure that both the cards are running at the same clock speeds and memory speeds, otherwise you're fine.

Personally, I'd sell the 680 and get a 780. One powerful card is always preferable to two lesser cards in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Thanks! OK - so a single 780 should be better than 2 x 680 :O
 
The 2 cards will run on the clocks of the lowest card (if that makes sense)

So say your current card is at 925mhz and your new card is at 985mhz it will work both at 925mhz..

That's basically it..

Other than appearence you're fine to go for it, great deal. :)
 
The general consensus is to get a powerful single gpu as theirs less to go wrong, but in saying that I've just gone to a multi-gpu setup as it does come do to personal preference, just to add in another aspect - if you decide to go SLI just make sure you do have a powerful enough psu to run them (and that the psu also has the necessary power connectors available), thought i'd bring this up just in case as I'm not 100% sure what you've got ATM.
 
Doomedspeed said:
The 2 cards will run on the clocks of the lowest card (if that makes sense)

So say your current card is at 925mhz and your new card is at 985mhz it will work both at 925mhz..

That's basically it..

Other than appearance you're fine to go for it, great deal. :)
Click to expand...

So, in terms of overclocking, do both cards need to run at stock or can I OC them both to the same level - so then both will run at the same speed?

EDIT:
Purchased the 2nd card just now:

Shipping service: FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
Shipping Cost: £0.00
Delivery date: Friday 26th July 2013
Product Name Price Qty Line Total Gainward GeForce GTX 680 "GOOD Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card£216.66 1 £216.66
 
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Doomedspeed said:
The 2 cards will run on the clocks of the lowest card (if that makes sense)

So say your current card is at 925mhz and your new card is at 985mhz it will work both at 925mhz..
Click to expand...

Actually mate it hasn't worked like this for quite a long time, they will both use their own clocks these days (GPU boost clocks will usually get diff boosts too).
 
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Sliver said:
No, you'll get higher FPS with the 2 680's, but you also have twice the heat, twice the power draw on your PSU, twice the amount of cards that could fail etc.
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yes, but you also have higher re-sell value, if one fail you have the other one to use until your replacement gets back about the power draw would take years to compensate the money spent in energy.

I have 2x 7950.. much better value than a 780... (cheaper and faster but uses more power)
If I was going to buy today.. probably I would get 2 of this 680 for £260 each.
 
Thanks for your help everyone, you all have been very helpful!

If I get stuck or have any issues during my SLI installation, I will post back here!
 
Nocky24 said:
I've just gone and folded and bought one of those gainwoods as well. Will be my first sli experience!
Click to expand...

Hurray...I guess we are both are losing our SLI...virginity?...huh...congrats! :cool:

Anyway...my graphics card has arrived and install begins tomorrow!
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9DOeG7Zl.jpg
 
Doomedspeed said:
The 2 cards will run on the clocks of the lowest card (if that makes sense)

So say your current card is at 925mhz and your new card is at 985mhz it will work both at 925mhz..

That's basically it..

Other than appearence you're fine to go for it, great deal. :)
Click to expand...

Since 2009 nVidia drivers have allowed different clock speeds !. I've been running mixed SLI/3-way SLI setups where some cards had other clock speeds and they never down clocked ! I had 3x GTX 280 and 3x GTX 580 running with different clock speeds :)
 
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Hi

I was going to ask the same question as the original poster but about Sli 2 different brands of GTX 670

I currently have a zotac gtx 670 amp edition and would like to add another.. i have seen a MSI GTX 670 power edition for sale would this go ok together?
 
Will work together fine peahead, i run two gigabyte windforce 670's in sli, one card boosts to 1189mhz, the other only does 1150mhz. But they work grand in sli.
 
I ordered one of those Gainward GTX680 and installed it last night, its awesome and replaces my ATI 7950.

Should I buy another for SLI? It will cost me the same as a cheapo GTX780 but it will perform amazaballs in games like arma?
 
I have SLIed most of my systems with 580s and 670s. Even on my laptop with 6990s.

Apart from the laptop, I never keep the SLI configuration that long. Also stuttering is a real issue at times and driver/performance problems on new games.

From now on, I am only buying the one GPU (best I can afford). Far less hassle and at 1440p plenty of horse power.
 
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