Possible to mount two diferent graphic card models in SLI?

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Giorgiocav1

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Dec 19, 2016
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I recently switched my GTX 750Ti for a GTX 1060 to use with my new HTC Vive.

Then I heard from a friend that you could mount two graphic cards in SLI to improve performance. But he added he didn't know if it was possible with two different graphic card models. I checked, my power supply is powerful enough to sustain both graphic cards, and there is an extra PCI slot on my motherboard for it.

My question is: is it possible to get an advantage out of mounting two different graphic card models in SLI?
 
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Nvidia SLI only works with 2 of the same type of graphic card (meaning that they have the same GPU). E.g. 750ti & 750ti or 1060Gtx & 1060Gtx.

You can not SLI cards having different GPU's e.g. you can NOT sli a 750ti with a 1060gtx

If you have different NVIDIA GPU's (i believe 500 series and above), you CAN use them together but they will not be in SLI. One card will do the graphics rendering, and the other (weaker) card can do Physx processing. Thats the most you can do with different GPU's - offload physx processing.

No you can not use these cards and hook one monitor to the 750 and other to the 1060 gtx. You will have to connect both to the 1060 (if it supports).
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engineer5261

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Apr 26, 2016
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Nvidia SLI only works with 2 of the same type of graphic card (meaning that they have the same GPU). E.g. 750ti & 750ti or 1060Gtx & 1060Gtx.

You can not SLI cards having different GPU's e.g. you can NOT sli a 750ti with a 1060gtx

If you have different NVIDIA GPU's (i believe 500 series and above), you CAN use them together but they will not be in SLI. One card will do the graphics rendering, and the other (weaker) card can do Physx processing. Thats the most you can do with different GPU's - offload physx processing.

No you can not use these cards and hook one monitor to the 750 and other to the 1060 gtx. You will have to connect both to the 1060 (if it supports).
 
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ZippyPeanut

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Dec 26, 2012
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With Windows 10 and DirectX 12, it is possible, but presently there is virtually no developer support. So even though it is possible, doing it results in almost no utility. See http://www.pcworld.com/article/3036760/hardware/the-impossible-has-happened-radeon-and-geforce-come-together-in-directx-12.html.


 
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engineer5261

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Great article ZippyPeanut. I noticed another article similar to this at least 5 years ago when someone had managed to get two different nvidia GPU's to somewhat work in SLI. However, these kind of experiments are usually run in very heavily modded environments and will be quite unstable to manage/maintain for a regular end user.

All in all, even if all the promises of Dx12 are fulfilled, the SLI support will fall on the shoulders of the game developers (DX12 architecture change). We already know if the developers have to manage the SLI/CF support they do not waste resources to cater to the 2% users on the market who have SLI/CF let alone users who may for some reason be running an AMD/NVIDIA mixed gpu configuration.

My advice to OP, even though you can use your 750ti to run physx processing while your 1060 handles the rest of the workload, you may find that you are taking a performance hit because your 750ti can not do physx as fast as your 1060.

I tried this experiment with a 680GTX handling the main workload, and had a 550ti doing the physx for me, I recorded lower FPS than with the 680GTX alone

 
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ZippyPeanut

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Yeah, overall, I think SLI and Crossfire are becoming increasingly unpopular, both with developers and gamers. I wish that DX12 would encourage more interest in SLI, but, alas, Nvidia's dropping 3-way and 4-way SLI probably portends a future of eventually moving away from SLI entirely. I love SLI because I love to tinker around and brag about how much hardware I can stuff into a rig for maximum performance.

Your advice to the OP is solid. I'd certainly give it a try--running the 750ti for PhysX and comparing the performance of both cards to the performance of the 1060 alone. But I believe the short answer to the OP is basically (1) don't try to run both in SLI; (2) using the 750ti as a dedicated PhysX renderer might help and might not help; and (3) it's probably best to run the 1060 by itself, unless you want to shell out for an identical 1060 to run in dependable SLI.
 
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