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SLI with different cards post-RMA

Gorky

Gorky

Gorky

Associate
Joined
2 Apr 2003
Posts
55
I've had a Dual BFG 7900 GT OC SLI setup in my pc for a while and everything ran fine. I got 2 of the same cards so there would be no problems with SLI, and SLI was perfectly simple to set up. I recently noticed a fault with one of the cards, and had to RMA it back to BFG tech. Sent it off on Tuesday afternoon and got the replacement this afternoon. Very speedy turnaround (less than 48 hours!) although it was left on the window ledge at the front of the house by the courier for the best part of 8 hours free for anybody to pick up! That's beside the point though. I opened up the box and found I had been sent a 7950GT OC to replace the 7900 GT OC. I was under the impression that the cards essentially needed to be almost identical for SLI to work, but the replacement card appears to have more memory and runs at a higher clock speed, and sure enough, I don't see an option to use SLI in the NVIDIA control panel.

Is there anyway I can get SLI to work in a healthy way with these 2 cards? Are there any tools I could use to underclock the new card or overclock the old one so that they have similar specs, or will I need to ship it back to get a 7900? I'm not even sure if BFG would even replace it with an older card now as I guess the 7900 is probably no longer produced. If so I guess the lifetime warranty is a bit crap when it comes to SLI, as you won't get a usable replacement just 12 months later!

These are the important specs to save anyone having to look:

BFG Technologies GeForce 7900 GT OC 256MB DDR3
Core Clock Speed: 475Mhz
Memory Clock: 1320MHz

BFG Technologies GeForce 7950 GT OC 512MB DDR3
Core Clock: 565MHz
Memory Clock: 1430MHz

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know! (that does not count suggesting buying a nice new 8800Ultra. I would do that if I had the cash :P)
 
Afraid you don't have SLi anymore, 7950 GT cant be paired, you need another 7900 GT, but seen as they've been out of production for ages your buggered, actually they canned the 7900 GT's and replaced them with the 7950's as they were all buggered anyway and they couldn't fix em, but its one of the drawbacks of SLi when one card goes faulty after those cards are not made anymore as they only have to send equal or better performance. :(
 
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Damn that's a right pain in the arse :( I got the broken one a little over the year ago as a cheaper option with the aim of upgrading to SLI later. I've only had the 2nd (still working) graphics card less than 5 months and esentially it's useless now except for running my second monitor...

So much for my plan to save money whilst still getting reasonable performance. I'd been noticing issues with the original card for months but they were only very occasional minor glitches which just got worse and worse. I should have just RMA'd the thing back then I guess. I've I'd got the 8800 like I'd planned originally, I'd have been so much better off in the long run (although much poorer 1 year ago) ;)



Still, thanks for the comfirmation that I'm screwed ;) It's probably going to save me a lot wasted time fiddling with the things.
 
Contact BFG and explain the problem. I'm sure they will sort you out. I had a friend with EVGA cards who had exactly this problem and they offered him a couple of options, one of which was an FOC upgrade to a GTS in exchange for both cards. EVGA and BFG live by their warranties, as it's their only real point of difference over all the other reboxers, so they do work hard at support.
 
tell them that its unacceptable, and now your sli setup is useless. (beg and plead if you must) try to get them to take your other 7900 and replace that with another 7950. worth a try.
 
Well, the warranty has been fully complied with, as you have infact been sent a replacement card which is better than the card you sent away. The fact that it no longer runs in SLI is an issue you need to deal with. How you choose to do that is up to you. You can try to recontact the manufacturer & see if thay are prepared to do anything else for you, such as replace both cards (but that is purely up to the goodwill of the manufacturer).

The other option is to sell both cards & buy 1 new card.
 
MeatLoaf said:
Cant you 'break' your other 7900GT and get another 7950GT ;)
Click to expand...
Interesting idea. THough i would ask the OP how long it took for hist first RMA. If it took a while it may well be he keeps the 7950GT & the other card he gets is a 8600GTS, as by then there are also no 7950GT's.

You never know!
 
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