Two SLI Cards of a Different Brand???

[hollow2010]

Do two different brands of SLI cards work together? For example, I am thinking of purchasing a MSI Nvidia 6600GT SLI card, will the Gigabyte brand version work with it on my mobo? Also, what manufacturer is best for Nvidia cards?

 

[Slava]

Both cards used in SLI must be identical. Even if two different manufacturers follow nVIDIA reference design their cards are likely to be slightly different. It is best to use both cards from the same manufacturer.

Also, what manufacturer is best for Nvidia cards?

It depends on what you are looking for. eVGA, for example, follows nVIDIA reference design to the letter, you cannot get more authentic than that. Other companies often add extra features and/or their own cooling solutions.

Check out their specs/features lists + prices/availability and decide for yourself.

Good companies are

eVGA
ASUS
Gigabyte
MSI
XFX

<font color=green>"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)</font color=green> <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Slava on 03/06/05 12:07 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[scottchen]

Gainward is the best period, and I can't say if Asus can make Slava's top list.

 

[Slava]

Sorry ) Missed Gainward. I have not had any experience with the latest ASUS-made cards, but in the past, like when they made GF4s they were awesome. BTW, my old ASUS GF4 Ti-500 Deluxe with stereo glasses, TV in and out, S-Video and what not was declared the best Hi-End card by THG at that time :tongue: . I bought it then for over $500 and it served me extremely well for many years. It would be regrettable if ASUS quality/feature sets have deteriorated as of late.

<font color=green>"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)</font color=green>

 

[pauldh]

yeah, they used to be good. I have an <A HREF="http://server5.uploadit.org/files/PaulDH-asus4200.jpg" target="_new">Asus GF4Ti4200</A> that has a Ti4400 PCB. It OC's with the stock cooler to 320/640. The Gainward above it was fine at 300/600 and was my second best Ti4200 ever. The Abit Siluro Ti4200's were lousy OC'ers in comparison to Gainward and Asus.



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[GAME]

The best brand is BFG. Their cards are overclocked at the factory (faster than all the others) and all have lifetime warranty (which they actually honor).
On top of that their tech support is really good as well. Its not in india or karzikistan, but the USA. As the company is also US based in Minnesota (cant beat that).

You want BFG or Leadtek.
BFG is head and shoulders above everything, but they basically the same so if you can save some money go with the cheapest.

My SLI BFG 6800GTs benefit from the factory overclocking (yes the warranty even covers the OC).

 

[shawnlizzle =]]

i would have to agree with game, life time warranty on an OCed card... c'mon what more can you guys expect out of these poor manufactures

<font color=red>One Lowe</font color=red>

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

BFG'd warranty is great, but if you look around here recently 2 people have had major quality issue with BFG.

Gainward still makes the Best cards IMO, but BFG has the best warranty/support.

And as for ASUS, their nV cards seem to be good, but alot of people have had trouble with their ATI cards being not up to the rest of the Mfrs out there, and the SmartDoctor software causes more problems than it solves IMO.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[GAME]

Those two people, did the warranty cover their problem?

I've seen multitudes on AT forums come in with problems (most not hardware issues) and BFG always took care of them unless they were overclocking.

They have a thing in their cards that records the clocks and you broke the card that way they wont cover you.. and shouldnt have too.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by GAME on 03/06/05 11:57 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Well both issues related to OC'ing, but not failures.

One OC'ed below expectations/others. The other card shipped with memory below the spec quoted on the sticker on the box.

These aren't issues for most, but just an indication IMO of an area where Gainward makes better cards (which most people might not notice) but BFG has better warranty coverage.

As for the OC'ing breaking warranty I'd like to see that because I've seen alot of overclockers RMA boards, so either it's not always accurate or they are leniant in some cases.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[GAME]

they are leniant.. im just saying im pretty sure they do have some protection in there so they know whats going on

i cant recommend based off of poor OC results not reaching expectations...

but if one was goign off of OCing "expectations" (I would nto recommend the OP purchase based off of a speculative possible OC), then I'd recommend leadtek.

for the overall, average recommendation BFG takes the cake.

 

[scottchen]

BFG's been cheating a little with marketing recently, I just caught one when i was building a comp for a customer who wanted one, BFG has a new batch of 6800ultra are cheating using 2.0ns when it's suppose to be 1.6ns, and their cards sucks for overclockers, can't be volt modded The stock OC is so little doesn't make any difference, Gainward on the other hand enhanced mode increases the frequency significantly.

So Gainward still gets my pick, if their GS version is too expensive, then i'd recommend EVGA/XFX/Leadtek/MSI.

 

[RX8]

where can i get the volt mod from?

SLI is [-peep-] wicked seen it in use amazing performance on most of the games i play.

my views on sli have changed.

 

[pauldh]

How can BFG use 2.0 ns ram on an ultra? Isn't that rated at 500MHz(1.0GHz)? So they are overclocking the ram 100MHz over it's rating? Seems highly risky of them.

Since my BFG makes it up to 1.22GHz, I must have got the 1.6ns ram at least. [phew] I would be ticked to get 2.0ns on an Ultra.



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[GAME]

cool.
thats what i tried telling some of the harder headed members here.. cuz i know they hadnt seen SLI.. it IS DAMN fast and makes a helluva difference compared to any single card

takes a while for it to sink in that ATI isnt king anymore

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

They could be overclocking the memory, it wouldn't be the first time. With the R9600Pro the VERY respected boardmaker TYAN put on 3.6ns memory and OC'd it to 300mhz, thus 25mhz over it's rated level.

This happens more than we know cause alot of people don't bother to check the memory modules when they buy cards. The fact that well known companies with reputations to lose/sully is what's most surprising.

They probably work ok at the stock OC'd frequency but that's it (alot of GF6600GTs and X800s are OC'd welll beyond 1200mhz on 2.0ns memory) so it's probably not too far off expectations.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[RX8]

I was amazed, and taken back, it was friggin awsome, all the eye candy wacked up, it killed everything i have seen. well its was 2x6800gts.
i would not even bother looking at the 2x6600gts they to be honest are sh1t and not worth the money compared to the 6800 line.

But yes anyone who keeps dissing the sli have to have a look at them working in real life, i was saying ATI WHO! when i seen halo working sli even farcry. it was mad the systems in the shop only had amd 64bit 3200 in them and they were pulling out mad 3dmark scores.

the 6800gt sli are selling for £240 each (£480 for 2) thats usa $800 expensive but ur sorted for the next 2years with highest fps garante.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

the 6800gt sli are selling for £240 each (£480 for 2) thats usa $800 expensive but ur sorted for the next 2years with highest fps garante.

And that to me and some others here is the biggest problem with SLI, it's not cheap (granted it's for 1337 users really, but some people don't realize that), and no it will not keep you sorted with the highest FPS for the next 2 years. The R520 looks like a massive beats on paper (truely these are just specs) and whatever nV brings to compete with it will also likely be one hell of a beast. And both of these cards will likely outperform 2 GF6800Us SLI'ed and with far less power draw. I can't speak to price, cause there's no indication at all (not surprising) and they could retail for $800-1000 for all we know, of course with an MSRP of $499 :lol: .

nV has recently stated that their next chip will not be so much of a features refresh as performance refresh making the SM3.0 features faster (hopefully OGL 2.0++ also). When the UE3 based games hit (less than 2 years) you will get decent framerates, but not the highest.

The best use of SLI for the AVERAGE gamer is to allow the GF6800 series to get a little more life from a future upgrade, not to last from now to eternity. For people like Game/Kinney, SLI offers the best he can get for his money, and when it's no longer good enough he'll get a new board(s), probably NV50s SLI'ed. But I think even he knows that 2 GF6800GTs doesn't guarantee longevity, it guarantees flexability and options.

I suspect that the R520 and 'NV5x/G70/nVxx-G/whatchamacallit' will out distance the SLI'ed GF6800Us by a solid double digit percentage in most apps, and they will do it with more features and less power consumption and have the added benifit of themselves being AMR/SLI'ed, thus meaning that the current SLI is going to be far from the highest FPS even by the end of the year (nV5x-whatchamacallit expected in late summer early fall).

Don't get me wrong the GF6800GT/U-Sli'ed will likley have far more longevity than any single card out there right now, and probably by a wide margin, but it definitely won't be number 1 for anywhere near that long, and may be beaten very shortly by single card solutions from both nV and ATi.

Of course that's just my two frames worth, but it has nothing to do dising them in general, just dispelling the far too commonly held misconceptions about it.

It's still damn nice, just not for me (or some others here).


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[GAME]

But I think even he knows that 2 GF6800GTs doesn't guarantee longevity, it guarantees flexability and options.

EVEN muah?? LOL
Only thing that should be added here.. is that there is no guarantee that SLI will top a single NV50.. BUT there is no guarantee that it WON'T either.
We've been through the "specs" game with cards before, from gen to gen.. its almost always overhyped.

I suspect that the R520 and 'NV5x/G70/nVxx-G/whatchamacallit' will out distance the SLI'ed GF6800Us by a solid double digit percentage in most apps, and they will do it with more features and less power consumption and have the added benifit of themselves being AMR/SLI'ed, thus meaning that the current SLI is going to be far from the highest FPS even by the end of the year (nV5x-whatchamacallit expected in late summer early fall).

Wow. Thats a lot there man.
I'm not going to go out on that limb (looks like it might break)..
but I'll be suprised personally if a single NV50 outpaces SLI'd Ultras by solid double digit %
I'll be incredibly pleased if it does. I'll be popping two of those guys in.

If I was to do my own speculation (which means absolutely nothing), I'd say the NV50 is going to be really something.
Considering they scrapped the NV40 for it. That with the Sony R&D money, Cell fabs and crossdevelopment might produce something wicked.
My money is on NV.

Much better than their last partnership with stingly MS.
MS doesnt like to break bread.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I don't guarantee anything other than the idea that GF6800GTxSLI will not be #1 for a year let alone 2, cause hey whatever the next card is will have SLI too, so it's almost impossible to beat it with this generation.

If even half of what is published about the R520 is true, and if the recent 3Dmk profile published is true, then it's going to be one hell of a card with awesome raw power (memory alone looks outrageous).

If it's a choice between the limb I picked and the one that says SLI'ed GF6800GTs will give "the next 2years with highest fps garante" I'll stick with my limb, regardless of the variables.

Considering the performance boost of a 512mb X850 card at SLI's sweet spot high res zone, I think it's a safe bet that one with <A HREF="http://www.hardwareluxx.de/andreas/News/ATI_X950XT_3DMark05.jpg" target="_new">the insane features and clocks seen here</A> would easily outdistance 2 GF6800GTs SLI'ed by more than 10%. What remains to be seen is if those numbers are fabrication or fact. At this point both concepts are simply speculation.

And it's not about nV vs ATi it's about next gen versus this generation, and I think this will be an interesting summer of renewal. So it's 18months to refresh instead of 24, so be it, all the better for us.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[GAME]

I don't guarantee anything other than the idea that GF6800GTxSLI will not be #1 for a year let alone 2, cause hey whatever the next card is will have SLI too, so it's almost impossible to beat it with this generation.

Impossible?
Unless the R520 turns out to be ATIs NV30.
And the NV50 turns out to be NV's new core with ATI driver support.
:lol:

If even half of what is published about the R520 is true, and if the recent 3Dmk profile published is true, then it's going to be one hell of a card with awesome raw power (memory alone looks outrageous).

Unfortunately, probably none of it is true.

And it's not about nV vs ATi it's about next gen versus this generation,

Yes yes. We all know what happened this time. :lol:

 

[RX8]

Even if its not brilliant in 1 years time, its something when you have the power NOW, and not waiting wondering when the r520 or nvidias 50core is going to come out and speculate its power vs sli 6800`s.

SLI is right here right now. cutting edge sh1t guys i was taken back.

obviously i cannot afford this just like you guys, but if i can just borrow a couple (not pay for) from pcworld and borrow a fx55 with a nforce sli bored. yes i would be happy to throw my current rig in the bin. lol

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Well to me speculating on the potency and efficiency of the R52x/NV5x is no different than speculating on the longevity of SLI'ed GF6800s. They both involve edjucated guesses, mine about the power of these soon to be launched cards, you on the demands (not minimum requirements) of 'soon' to be launched games.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[pauldh]

I'm not going to go out on that limb (looks like it might break)..

WHAT? Since when? LOL, you must be getting old. You usually not only run out onto a little NV-Tree limb, you jump off the end and start flappin' your arms frantically while yelling for all to watch. Is Game really Kinney? :lol:



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[RX8]

its kinda boring now with no new grafix cards coming out for the next 6months, or any new decent games, what do you think?