Graphics cards compatibility

[DaeM]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering the following:

Im currently running a XFX GTX260

and i have the possibility to get another GTX260 for a idiotically cheap price.

only thing is the one i can get is the original one from Nvidia.

so i was wondering should i buy this or leave it be and will it be a problem if i put this is SLI considering the 2 cards are from different manufacturers?

any suggestions or advice will help

thanks,

DaeM

 

[jyjjy]

The manufacturer doesn't matter. As long as they are the same card you can SLI them together. Just make sure your motherboard is SLI capable and your power supply can handle two of them.

 

[DaeM]

nice that answers my question quite good

thank you for that

 

[DaeM]

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/product/Motherboards/detail_spec.aspx?ID=en-us0000396

i have this mobo. can anyone tell me if this is SLI compatible?

it did say crossfireX support but im not sure

 

[DaeM]

Best answer selected by DaeM.

 

[jyjjy]

Unfortunately no, it is only crossfire. Nvidia now licenses out SLI functionality but until fairly recently SLI was only available on motherboards built with an Nvidia chipset and your board is a P43 Intel chipset.
I guess if it is really that cheap you can buy it and throw it on Ebay and make some cash. Or better yet, throw both of them on Ebay and they should go for almost enough to buy yourself a better card like the HD5850 or GTX 470.

 

[DaeM]

yeah it was rather cheap but not cheap enough to make a lot of cash off it

but thanks for the suggestion

i still am wondering is the 5850 so much better than the GTX260?

been using it about 6 months now and i must say i kinda like the card a lot!

 

[jyjjy]

The HD5850 at stock is about 50% faster than the GTX 260. However what makes the HD5850 so nice is that it can overclock a huge degree often up to 40% which puts its performance in the same area as a stock GTX 480 or about twice as fast as the GTX 260. On top of that it is DX11 compatible and actually uses less power than GTX 260.
That said if your resolution is 1680x1050 or below the GTX 260 should be more than fine for the moment and an upgrade isn't really necessary. It is ok for 1920x1080 as well but the HD5850 would definitely help you max out the more intensive current games.

 

[DaeM]

Okay thanks for the clear explaination! makes a lot of sense this wa

Im playing the games at 1920x1080p all of the time sometimes om my monitor and sometimes on my tv (depends on the mood). still im having no problems boosting Crysis or Crysis Warhead to this res and with high eye candy but its never too early to do some research IMO

situation is as follows about 6 months ago bought a pc with the 260 in it and now i was doing some research if SLi was the way to go in the near future or maybe to make the jump to ATI. (Been looking at the 5870 _sweet card with eyefinity _)

sucks though because my mobo wont support SLi (it does support CrossfireX i believe)

Does it matter that the ATI cards use a 256-bit interface and the GTX uses a 448-bit interface?

 

[jyjjy]

Not really. The 256-bit interface tends to be more than sufficient when combined with fast DDR5 ram.

 

[DaeM]

Okay thanks for the replies,

I will keep your suggestions in mind