Can you SLI two different brands?

Axk29 · Oct 21, 2014

All I'm asking is doing SLI with let's say an MSI card and a Gigabyte card. I have a 970 Gigabyte card and would like to SLI eventually but the Gigabyte card is huge and I don't think I can fit it in my case without having to buy a full tower case. So the big question is can I use a Gigabyte card and a MSI card and SLI them or will that not work?

cowboydude99 · Oct 21, 2014

Yes. Just set the clock speeds to be the same.

plaintuts · Oct 21, 2014

As long as its both a 970. Its ok

cowboydude99 · Oct 21, 2014

Also when you SLI, besides them both being GTX970 cards, make sure you have enough power in the PC. You would want at least 700w. I would personally go with 800w.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/geforce-gtx-970-sli-review,4.html

Axk29 · Oct 21, 2014

cowboydude99 :

Alright thanks! I just wanted to know and I do only have a 750W. I guess I'll get a bigger PSU eventually when I do upgrade but it wouldn't be soon. Since as of right now there's no game I can't run in 60fps ultra with this card. As for clock speeds.... You mean the regular clock speed or boost speed? Do I have to worry about boost speed too?

cowboydude99 · Oct 21, 2014

The clock speed, not the boost.

gopher1369 · Oct 21, 2014

cowboydude99 :

Considering that link shows SLI 970s + a heavily overclocked 6 core i7 only pulling 439 Watts, a 750 Watt power supply is more than enough, assuming yours is a good quality, branded supply there is no reason for you to upgrade it.

cowboydude99 · Oct 21, 2014

gopher1369 :

Also from the link:

Here is Guru3D's power supply recommendation:

GeForce GTX 970 or 980 - On your average system the card requires you to have a 400~500 Watt power supply unit.
GeForce GTX 970 or 980 in 2-way SLI - On your average system the cards require you to have an 700~800 Watt power supply unit as minimum.

Axk29 · Oct 21, 2014

cowboydude99 :

gopher1369 :

Also from the link:

Here is Guru3D's power supply recommendation:

GeForce GTX 970 or 980 - On your average system the card requires you to have a 400~500 Watt power supply unit.
GeForce GTX 970 or 980 in 2-way SLI - On your average system the cards require you to have an 700~800 Watt power supply unit as minimum.

What else other than Processor and GPU adds up to Power Usage. Since I have an EVGA 750g 750W 80+ Gold PSU. An i5-4690k processor(not overclocked) and then the Gigabyte 970 + my future plan of getting an MSI card or something.

bystander · Oct 21, 2014

Yes, you can, but..

there is no requirement to adjust clock speeds, though it may result in more consistent play, but then Nvidia's SLI frame metering should take care of that already (and does at least to some extent).

However, they also need to have the same amount of VRAM as well. In the past, Coolbits could be used to neuter one card, but I've heard that doesn't work anymore.

cowboydude99 · Oct 21, 2014

Everything in your system requires power. The CPU , GPU and ram use the most.

HDD don't use that much power but it depends on the drives. Usually you don't need to worry about power usage from hard drives.

gopher1369 · Oct 22, 2014

cowboydude99 :

Err, yes, exactly, you already have a power supply in the range of 700 - 800 Watts, so there is no need for you to upgrade.

Let's ignore overclocking for a moment, the 970 has a TDP of 145 Watts and your processor 88 Watts. Let's allow 100 Watts for the rest of your system (I'm overestimating here, it's very unlikely to be that high) gives you a maximum power draw of 477 Watts. That's assuming both cards and CPU and every other component are all fully stressed to 100%, eg Unigine Heaven + Prime95+ ATTO benchmarks all being run simultaneously. Under gaming your CPU is unlikely to ever be 100% stressed and your harddrives will be mostly idle, so your average power draw will be much lower than this.

I'd be comfortable saying that a 500 Watt Seasonic power supply would run your system with dual 970s without any issues (again, I'm assuming no overclocking). I wouldn't recommend it, but I put money on it working just fine.

Axk29 · Oct 22, 2014

gopher1369 :

cowboydude99 :

Err, yes, exactly, you already have a power supply in the range of 700 - 800 Watts, so there is no need for you to upgrade.

Let's ignore overclocking for a moment, the 970 has a TDP of 145 Watts and your processor 88 Watts. Let's allow 100 Watts for the rest of your system (I'm overestimating here, it's very unlikely to be that high) gives you a maximum power draw of 477 Watts. That's assuming both cards and CPU and every other component are all fully stressed to 100%, eg Unigine Heaven + Prime95+ ATTO benchmarks all being run simultaneously. Under gaming your CPU is unlikely to ever be 100% stressed and your harddrives will be mostly idle, so your average power draw will be much lower than this.

I'd be comfortable saying that a 500 Watt Seasonic power supply would run your system with dual 970s without any issues (again, I'm assuming no overclocking). I wouldn't recommend it, but I put money on it working just fine.

Okay thanks so much. Most detailed answer I've read. Thank you everyone for answering. I won't overclock anything but the GPU but only when it starts slowing down, whenever that would be.

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