sli/ crossfire questions

derbyjake

derbyjake

derbyjake

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Ok,

first of this is for info only i cant buy from OCUK as we dont have a trade account with them,

I have been asked to spec up a sli crossfire rig,

questions are

how do i know if a card can be sli'd or crossfired ?

If i have a Nvidia board can i only sli a nvidia card ?
and other way round for ATI ?

Many Thanks
 
You can do SLi or Crossfire on any board that say it supports SLi. nVidia boards refers to the chipset and not the graphics.

With nVidia cards you have to have two identicle cards, but can be from two different manufacturers. For example a Sapphire 7800GT and an XFX 7800GT

With Crossfire you can have two different cards as long as they support Crossfire. Also, one of the cards has to be a Master card. It should tell you in the product details if it is a master or not.

SiriusB
 
sli can only be run on nforce 4 sli motherboards and potentially uli boards too. However crossfire can be run on ati or intel crossfire compatible motherboards but not nvidia ones. I think all intel dual pci-express slot mobos are crossfire compatible.

Sli ready nvidia cards have a connector at the top of the card near the ports end of the card. crossfire can be run off any card as long as you have a master. Though this is soon to change aswell as cableless crossfire introduced.

Ed
 
Decided on the board

a gigabyte k8n sli i think its that,

So do i need a master card or will 2 identical sli ready NVIDIA cards work what i had in mind was

2 X XFX 512MB GEFORCE 6600 PCI EXPRESS

Its for a customer and its best we can get for the price
 
a word of advice, it would be better leaving crossfire or sli at that price range and getting a single better card - it would give better performance.
 
Last edited:
Ender said:
a word of advice, it would be better leaving crossfire or sli at that price range and getting a single better card - it would give better performance.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with that.
Your customer could always get a second card later to match it. But using both slots up straight away with 6600s may not be the best thing when you can better it with 1 card
 
derbyjake said:
Decided on the board

a gigabyte k8n sli i think its that,

So do i need a master card or will 2 identical sli ready NVIDIA cards work what i had in mind was

2 X XFX 512MB GEFORCE 6600 PCI EXPRESS

Its for a customer and its best we can get for the price
Click to expand...

a) that mobo's naff

b) sli with anything but the top end stuff is useless, its also designed for huge resolutions, does this computer have a 20"+ screen?

c)512mb makes getting on for no difference to 128mb version due to the design of the card and the speed of the parts used

so for the price a 7600gt is better.
 
so a 7600GT or 7800GT yeah ?

Any ideas on specific cards ?

BFG GeForce 7600 GT OC ?
Gigabyte GV-NX79T256DB-RH ?
MSI 256MB NX6800-TD256E PCI-Express VGA Card ?

The rest of spec would be:

K8N SLI Mobo
1024MB Corsair dual channel kit
250GB seagate barracude sata 2 300
3700 Sandiego (sepcific requirement of customer !)
Either akasa paxpower or a hiper PSU,




The mobo's naff can i ask why you say that comment ?

I have used the board various times in builds and never had any problems with it.
 
As already stated unless you use high end cards Sli is a waste of time. 7800gt's would be ok. Same as my rig. 7900Gt's would be better, especially as you can get them for £199 a piece. Waste of time with 2x 7600gt's. Better to go with a single 7900GT/GTX. Yes the 7600gt's are decent enough performers but that leaves no future upgrade path so it may be better to have one 7900GTX instead and then another could be added in future if needed.

What monitor will be used. Sli is also really only worthwhile at high resolutions with high details. If it's only for a 17" of 19" tft then it's really not worth it.
 
I can find out what monitor he will be using tommorow i will give him a call,

He did not say just that he did not need one, So unless hes got a 20+ then he will see no benefit of sli is that correct ?
 
That depends on what he plays. I should imagine that the likes of Oblivion would tie a 7900gt in knots when maxxed out at 1680 x 1050 which is a 20" TFT's res.

Yes i would say that unless you have a 20" or above TFT, or a CRT that is capable of high resolutions then Sli would be a waste. Anything less than that a single card could more than handle, especially if that card was a 7900GTX or a X1900XT/XTX. The 7900GT and X1800XT's are also very capable cards.

Maybe for gaming a better buy might be to swap the 1gb of ram for 2gb.
 
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