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SLI / CrossFire FAQs - Page 18

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a b U Graphics card
April 21, 2011 9:38:35 PM

Hey Maz, add the 6670 and 6570.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
April 22, 2011 8:36:15 AM

Done, thanks for mentioning :) 
a b U Graphics card
April 22, 2011 7:39:19 PM

:) 
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April 29, 2011 7:13:06 AM

Got a question, has anyone had any good results from using NVidia Hybrid SLI?

Here is my setup,
Asus Fforce 750a chipset with onboard GPU for hybrid use only.
NVidia GTX 285 x 2 SLI with water cooling.

Now I know those two GPU's eat lots of juice and I'd like to find a way to turn them off during web browsing / common PC stuff and only use them when I'm gaming. I was originally interested in using Hybrid SLI so that I could use the system this way. Has anyone been successful in setting this up on Windows 7 Ultimate x64?
May 19, 2011 5:14:46 AM

Anyone know if all g33 motherboards would support Xfire? i have a g33 with a x16 and a x4 pcie slot, but the motherboard specs don't list crossfire support :( 

i would rather spend an extra couple hundred bucks to get a second video card than spend $400 to upgrade to an i5.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
May 19, 2011 6:25:34 AM

Some G33 boards do,what model do you have ?
a b U Graphics card
May 19, 2011 9:06:22 PM

Maz, the 560.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
May 20, 2011 7:30:14 AM

I was actually going to add that yesterday but we had power outage problems so I missed :D 
Thanks for mentioning,added it :) 
a b U Graphics card
May 20, 2011 2:33:22 PM

Oh, sorry for sounding ignorant. :( 
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
May 20, 2011 5:44:11 PM

Oh no,you didn't sound ignorant at all,I was just saying I was going to add it yesterday.
I actually appreciate that you read this topic and keep me updated in case I forget to add something,so no offense taken and I didn't mean anything bad either
May 21, 2011 4:17:51 AM

so Maziar...when can we expect the ATI 7XXX series?
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
May 21, 2011 1:22:21 PM

Don't know really but I hope they'll be out soon
a b U Graphics card
May 21, 2011 4:25:11 PM

I think probably Q4 2011 and Q1 2012.
May 22, 2011 12:47:46 AM

TheGreatGrapeApe said:
There a few things that need to be cleaned up in the description if it's to remain a sticky.

You need to change the wording of the description of Xfire, you make it sound like ATi copied nV when if anything it's nV who copied ATi and Metabyte's methods of doing multi-card graphics. nV's SLi bears no resemblance to 3Dfx's SLI in anything other than name. And SLi didn't come first in the rebirth, that was Alienware's failed ALX and XGI's volari V8 Duo. And ATi was doing their SIMFusion thing the whole time with Evans & Sutherland.

Also you need to split the solutions up, since your first example of the same cards applies to SLi but not Xfire. So it should be clearly defined which one you're talking about, you examples lets someone guess, but it needs to be explicit.
And in the memory example following it, you talk about memory and then talk about speeds. The 7800GTX is a bad example for memroy since there is athat large difference. But when mentioning memory and talking about size you should mention the size being affected and that they will disable the added memory. You're sort of mixing your ideas here. Then right after that you say you can mix/mathc brands but make sure they have the same memroy and clocks, yet right before that you imply/state they can have different memory/clocks.
For an Xfire section you should add that while the cards need to be the same underlying architecture, they can have different numbers of shaders or pipelines and still work together, like an X1900GT + X1900CF combination.

Also when talking about multi GPU benefits, rememebr to mention that one of the areas of greatest impact is also in the minimum fps, where it will usually increase min fps and smooth out dips into the lower numbers. It's an important factor that's usually missed in the discussion and is the area that would be most noticeable to people not looking simply to push large resolutions or high settings.

And when talking about does it always improve performance, you should also mention that sometimes it actually hurts performance when using the additional card.

When talking about the memory doubling myth you may wish to expand on how the memory is used and why it doesn't 'double the memory' when in Crossfire/SLi mode.

When talking about 2 midrange beating 1 high end, the thing to rememebr is that there are exception to that, like 2 GF7800GTs beating 1 GF7800GTX-512 for less money, or 2 GF8800GTS beating a single GTX or Ultra for the same money, but it depends on the situation, because there's no clear cut rule for that.

I'd get rid of the 'which is better' comment, you could discuss that with intelligent people night and day and never get and answer, and posting to any one benchmark doesn't solve that question either. So I'd pretty much avoid it unless you take the time to explore it further than a link to a single group of tests.

Also I'd avoid posting a list of cards, unless you can keep it up to date and include all the sub cards, better to just link to AMD & nV's list thus the onus is on them and not you.

BTW, what the Crossfire/SLi RAMs sections? Sounds like you're talking about the 'certified' parts. But the way its written sounds like VRAM.

If you're mentioning 'Crossfire/SLi editions' etc. you might want to mention that for AMD the boxes stamped 'Crossfire Edition' come with the ribbon connectors required to run cards in Xfire.

There's also a few spelling mistakes, but I can clean those up directly if you want.





LOL i though it is crossfire the fps game problems on a SLI Graphic card
June 7, 2011 3:11:08 AM

A crossfire question.
What about the cards that DON'T have the additional power connector, like the 5670, 6670 etc. whose TDP is just under PCI-E's 75 Watt power limit. Won't they have power problems ?
Or does it work in this way, that each PCI-E slot has it's own 75 Watt limit ?
June 7, 2011 5:05:04 AM

General_Terror said:
A crossfire question.
What about the cards that DON'T have the additional power connector, like the 5670, 6670 etc. whose TDP is just under PCI-E's 75 Watt power limit. Won't they have power problems ?
Or does it work in this way, that each PCI-E slot has it's own 75 Watt limit ?



You can X-fire two sub 75 W GPU cards together, as long as they are the SAME card. No, they won't because the PCI port will supply enough power to each individual card. Each slot its own 75W limit for the GPU card it has, regardless of X-fire.
June 12, 2011 7:19:03 AM

thanks Maziar for this thread.

I am in a midst of building a news system based on 2500K and AsRock Fatality Pr P67.

But I am stuck with choosing my GPU setup

1) 2 x HD 6950. this options seems to be the best in terms of cost vs performance. My only concern is I have never had SLI/CF setups and I am a bit concerned. From what I have read, the performance of 6950 CF is superb but all the talk about some games not taking advantage of the CF setup is worrying for me. Will i also need to invest in better cooling if I go with a CF setup? how about overclocking? is OCing a CF card more complicated than a single card?
also when choosing my 6950 cards, do I just go with a basic stock model or is it worth going for the more expensive cards like Asus or HIS with their factory OC and superior cooling?

2) A single GTX 580 or a single HD 6970. This option seems OK too since it allows me to add another GTX 580 later if need be.

3) A single HD 6990. I was about to go with this option but seeing how the card is being said to be noisy and hot and since there are no real improved mods in the market, I will probably not go with this option.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
June 12, 2011 8:33:06 AM

I'd go with the second route.A GTX 580 is slower than 2 6950s/1 6990 but it still performs great and can max out all games on resolutions like 1080p;furthermore,as you mentioned as well,you can add another GTX 580 later on.
I'd only recommend 6990/2 6950's if you play on higher resolutions.
Anonymous
a b U Graphics card
June 18, 2011 7:29:20 PM

Hi Guys! I am new to pc building so please don't be too hard on me. I got dual GTX 570 video cards and am wondering if I i need a bridge to use them in sli? Sorry it it's a dumb question. Overall I am loving the pc building community. Thanks!

Matt
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
June 18, 2011 8:17:45 PM

Welcome to the forums !
Yes,you need to use a bridge when you SLI 2 cards
June 19, 2011 2:32:41 AM

Another crossfire question. Will the Radeon 5000 series enjoy hybrid crossfire with AMD Llano and/or Trinity ? Or only the 6000 or upcoming 7000 series ?
June 19, 2011 2:45:47 AM

^ Ummm...Hybrid exists only with SLI and Corissfire systems....like Putting a 560 with a 5870. If you put another GPU in, the IGP onboard or on-system will be deactivated.

7xxx will be a long time to take.
June 30, 2011 2:13:50 PM

Hello - been reading through the FAQ, quite informative. I noticed people post a lot of questions on their setups in this thread so I thought I'd throw out a line -

my setup - i5-750, asus p7p55d-e pro, 8gb RAM,

current card is gigabyte SOC 470
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

My particular card (which I'd argue is the best 470) has become quite rare and would probably be quite expensive even still.

So my question is, at this point would it be worth adding an additional 470? It seems I could get one on ebay for $100-$150. I understand that it doesn't have to be the same model - so what would be the closest match? my 470s stock speeds exceed all the others - so I'd have to lower them to match the weaker one, is this correct?

Please help me make an informed decision
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
July 4, 2011 12:28:01 PM

muckle said:
Hello - been reading through the FAQ, quite informative. I noticed people post a lot of questions on their setups in this thread so I thought I'd throw out a line -

my setup - i5-750, asus p7p55d-e pro, 8gb RAM,

current card is gigabyte SOC 470
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

My particular card (which I'd argue is the best 470) has become quite rare and would probably be quite expensive even still.

So my question is, at this point would it be worth adding an additional 470? It seems I could get one on ebay for $100-$150. I understand that it doesn't have to be the same model - so what would be the closest match? my 470s stock speeds exceed all the others - so I'd have to lower them to match the weaker one, is this correct?

Please help me make an informed decision

No,each card will operate at their default speed(sorry for the late reply)
July 7, 2011 10:45:03 PM

Hello Everyone !
Can i install double nvidia quadro ?
Is that possible with SLI ?
Thanks
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
July 8, 2011 6:07:32 AM

No,it's not possible
July 8, 2011 6:44:04 PM

Maziar said:
No,it's not possible

Thanks for ur reply mate !
So i already have a nvidia quadro 2000 ! I actualme in my lidly building a new Pc ! First time in my life :)  Not very wise !
Im stuck about motherboard :(  I have a I7 2600K CPU !
I dont know what motherboard i could get ! I have been looking at some !
Like Asus p867 Ws revolution Or Like Msi big bang Marshall !
Im building it for multi purpose ! But the main purpose is 3d softwares and video editing !
And i want to install 2 more gpu. Like 1 Quadro 2000, and for gaming double nvidia sli ! Or double ati ! I dont know if its possible like switching between of cards ! Like when i work on 3d applications use quadro and for another things use another double card !
I hope this is not a ridicuolus question :sarcastic: 
So what mother board should i get ? And can i put videocards like i drivelled above :) 
And i really would appreciate for ur other recommendations..
Like Cpu Cooler, SSD, PSU etc...
Thanks
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
July 8, 2011 8:46:26 PM

I'd recommend non-Quadro cards for gaming and you can't keep the Quadro card and add another card,that's not possible.
As for other components,since they aren't related to this topic,either ask in their appropriate forum section or send me a PM
a b U Graphics card
July 27, 2011 4:36:10 AM

That was awesome. You cleared up some of my questions about it :bounce: 
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
July 27, 2011 6:31:13 AM

I'm glad it helped :)  If you have more questions about SLI/CF,fill free the ask
July 27, 2011 6:33:49 AM

Does anyone have Info on the 7xxx ATI series yet?
July 28, 2011 8:24:22 PM

Thanx so much for the Informative article Maziar :) 

Cleared up the few things I wasn't sure of and I know I'll be linking this for others who have questions about SLI and CrossFire. Excellent Effort. Well Done.

Just a quick question if I may:
Currently , what would be the best (minimum) Budget Radeon Card to buy right now ... for the potential to use CrossFire down the track.
That is, I want to just buy a cheap GPU for now to get me by and then later upgrade the Mobo to Crossfire compatible and then buy a second matching GPU to run alongside the first.

I'd prefer it to be 128bit , DX 11 , OpenGL 4.0 etc (a recent card) ... but want to keep the cost down. preferably under $80. SO I know that a while ago 4550 or 5550 were popular ones to use (from memory) ... I'd prefer a 6*** series tho.

(FOund a 6770 @ $77 but it sold out instantly before I could buy one :(  ... now I can't find that card anywhere under $100 .. even $120 , bummer)

Would you go anything lower than that? and Is there certain models that yield better performance results than others?

Cheers.

a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
July 29, 2011 7:34:19 AM

Not really,anything lower than 6770 won't give you a good gaming performance
August 7, 2011 4:18:54 PM

Ok hears my question i have spent 2 days reading through this forum and still am not quite sure which is better so i will ask you guys. Which would be better
2X NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB 16X PCIe Video Card (EVGA Superclocked)
or
1-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 3GB 16X PCIe Video Card

Any help would be great
August 7, 2011 4:21:51 PM

Or possibly
2X AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card (HIS IceQ X Turbo 840MHz Powered by AMD)

As all 3 of these options are roughly the same price give or take 50bucks
August 8, 2011 2:12:45 PM

I plan on upgrading to two gtx 580s in SLI and don't want to get rid of my three monitor setup.So I have another related question to anyone who uses nvidia surround or sli with multiple monitors. Right now with a custom driver (Its not really a full sli setup) each monitor I have is independent (Which means I can drag a window to one monitor and maximize it only on that monitor and do likewise to all other monitors.) What will this experience be like with sli and three monitors? Also when I game I only like to play across three monitors with certain games. A lot of FPS games I don't like to play with that high of a resolution and fov. With surround and sli enabled can I play a game on one screen without disabling sli or the other two monitors? (Maybe just change the resolution in the game and it goes to only one display?). Thanks in advanced. Still waiting on my card in the mail.

P.S. I asked my boss these things and he told me he doesn't do sli, and therefore didn't know too much about it, but that I was too picky when it came to getting things to work on computers :ouch:  .
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
August 9, 2011 7:43:37 AM

@ryswinton
2 570's are almost double as fast as 1 580.
@dead_silencewh
I think you can play on monitor just fine
August 11, 2011 12:13:06 AM

I currently have a 6870 Black Edition in my desktop. Plan to buy another as soon as the price drops, again. Right now after MIR it's 210 (after tax) on newegg. I've looked at tons of reviews and one thing I noticed, that wasn't mentioned in the article is a significant benefit of having two gpu's.

I don't have a long history in graphics cards, so I can't tell if this is a recently accomplished deal with scaling, but from the reviews I've read the 6870's in crossfire have a higher minimum of FPS against the higher-end gfx cards (GTX 580 OC's and 5970 OC).

I'd take a higher minimum FPS over an extra 30FPS at something that is already 130 FPS (which is hardly noticeable). I haven't done any research into other CF/SLI set ups, but if it is a reoccurring aspect of Multi-gpu set ups, I'd definitely add in that with a SLI/CF set up, higher minimum FPS is an advantage. Higher minimum is pretty big in my opinion and I didn't notice it being mentioned at all.

The review I based this view off of is from here:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1062/pg13/nvidia-...

Just a thought, not trying to create a significant debate.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
August 11, 2011 6:31:22 AM

2 6870's perform better than 1 580 in almost all games.
And considering the price of 580 and 6870,adding another 6870 to your setup is a more cost-effective option too
August 12, 2011 4:03:45 PM

Can I add a second 580 to the 4x pcie to achieve sli? I didn't think 16x/4x was possible. When my mobo arrives, Gigabyte ga-z68-d3-b3, I will be putting a gtx580 in the 16x pcie, and am curious if I can sli if I buy another card next year.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
August 12, 2011 5:36:57 PM

Yes you can but it doesn't perform as good as dual x16(Though the difference isn't huge)
August 12, 2011 6:37:20 PM

traumadisaster said:
Can I add a second 580 to the 4x pcie to achieve sli? I didn't think 16x/4x was possible. When my mobo arrives, Gigabyte ga-z68-d3-b3, I will be putting a gtx580 in the 16x pcie, and am curious if I can sli if I buy another card next year.


Is SLI an option for a motherboard that only has Crossfire support (which I am pretty certain is the case for this board)?

- Tony
August 12, 2011 10:15:19 PM

Thanks, what do you think about using the 4x as physx with an old gtx275 I have?
August 12, 2011 10:18:06 PM

For learning purposes, what is it mechanically that prevents it from working in sli? I'm new to this and heard nvidia doesn't support 16/4 but could still work?
a b Î Nvidia
a c 119 U Graphics card
August 13, 2011 5:59:14 AM

Its a license issue. Nothing but software stands in the way.
4x will have a certain performance hit as well.

1 580 should be plenty of power.
August 14, 2011 7:06:04 PM

So the software prohibits 16/4 sli. Has anyone tried it anyway?
August 15, 2011 6:38:32 AM

Great i like this....
a b Î Nvidia
a c 119 U Graphics card
August 15, 2011 11:01:39 AM

traumadisaster said:
So the software prohibits 16/4 sli. Has anyone tried it anyway?
The option will simply not be there. Its not 16/4 that is the issue. it is that the board maker only has a license for crossfire on that board.

There are many hacked NV drivers out there to do SLI on AMD chipsets as such(other non sli systems), but not promise they will work in this case.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
August 16, 2011 11:00:57 AM

A big edit !
I tried to make the guide easier to read,added more info and removed some unnecessary things along with the new CrossFire compatibility chart.
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