950 sli'd with 970?

[LegacyEdits]

I know this might be the up most dumb question ever but i never seen anybody say no or every try it. Is it possible to put one 950 and a 970 and sli them together? or other generations?

 

[CTurbo]

Nope

 

[Martell1977]

NO, nVidia is very restrictive for SLI, they must be the GPU, regardless of board partner (i.e. ASUS, EVGA, etc.) Plus you have to have a motherboard that will run the cards at, at least, PCIe 16X/8X.

 

[LegacyEdits]

NO, nVidia is very restrictive for SLI, they must be the GPU, regardless of board partner (i.e. ASUS, EVGA, etc.) Plus you have to have a motherboard that will run the cards at, at least, PCIe 16X/8X.

will just having them both in there do any improvement from just them by themselves?

 

[CTurbo]

No that won't work either. If you have a 970, the 950 is useless to you.

 

[photonboy]

More info:

SLI has different methods. What we mainly use is "AFR" which stands for Alternate Frame Rendering. In this case GPU #1 renders a frame, then GPU#2 renders the next frame.

Each GPU needs to be equal so that the frame are rendered in the SAME amount of time (or as close as possible) or you get micro-stuttering. Think of a 24FPS movie with a long, then short, then long then short frame. The video would be stuttering.

In the FUTURE we'll be able to use SFR or Split Frame Rendering which divides the SAME FRAME between multiple GPU's. We're not there yet. Perhaps a few years.

Other uses?

PhysX

A few games will see a benefit. In Batman Arkham Knight which is probably the best case scenario you may see close to 20% improvement with the GTX950 processing the physics, and the GTX970 processing everything else.

In other games with PhysX it's probably closer to 10% (it depends what percentage of the calculations use PhysX).

Not that many games use PhysX so it's up to you if it's worthwhile to leave in the case. It won't really hurt other than a bit of added heat and noise.

To TEST you would have to:
a) run the game with PhysX assigned to the GTX970, then
b) run the game with PhysX assigned to the GTX960

The averages may not do justice to the amount it helps. It may for example, minimize the number of drops below 60FPS when a smoke effect is applied (if using VSYNC you don't want drops as they produce stutter). Looking for jerks/stutters in the video BENCHMARK or actual game play is the best indication. You want SMOOTH gameplay.

 

[rcald2000]

+LegacyEdits You cannot SLI them. GPU rendering is your most likely avenue to utilize both cards, if you owned such software.

Two good options:

(1) Keep the GTX 970 and sell the 950 on Ebay; invest the money into another computer component.

(2) Sell the GTX 970 and GTX 950 on Ebay; invest the proceeds into a GTX 1060. This is what I would do. To see comparison of GTX 970 and 1060, see video below

Joker Productions: GTX 1060 vs RX 480 vs GTX 970 | DX11 Showdown
! Jump to time index 5:27 (minutes : seconds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46kuyFyQfLk

! Fair warning: The GTX 1050 replacement is rumored to be announced soon, so if you're going to sell the GTX 950, do not wait.

 

[LegacyEdits]

+LegacyEdits You cannot SLI them. GPU rendering is your most likely avenue to utilize both cards, if you owned such software.

Two good options:

(1) Keep the GTX 970 and sell the 950 on Ebay; invest the money into another computer component.

(2) Sell the GTX 970 and GTX 950 on Ebay; invest the proceeds into a GTX 1060. This is what I would do. To see comparison of GTX 970 and 1060, see video below

Joker Productions: GTX 1060 vs RX 480 vs GTX 970 | DX11 Showdown
! Jump to time index 5:27 (minutes : seconds)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46kuyFyQfLk

! Fair warning: The GTX 1050 replacement is rumored to be announced soon, so if you're going to sell the GTX 950, do not wait.

i do not have a 970, i just have a 950, i just was pondering if my 950 can still be in good use as a second card or i would have to sell it off. Maybe such as Bitcoin mining or other crypto-currencies be a solution to a use rather then a loss of a card?

 

[LegacyEdits]

No that won't work either. If you have a 970, the 950 is useless to you.

also i did mention any other cards in the series, ex. a 1080 + 1070 you know, something similar. Would that render any improvements?

 

[Martell1977]

i do not have a 970, i just have a 950, i just was pondering if my 950 can still be in good use as a second card or i would have to sell it off. Maybe such as Bitcoin mining or other crypto-currencies be a solution to a use rather then a loss of a card?

Bitcoin and other such currencies HEAVILY favor AMD GPU's. But I've read that GPU mining isn't worth it anymore as people are running dedicated hardware designed specifically for it.
https://www.bitcoinmining.com/

As others mentioned, the only sue the 950 would be is either selling on Craigs List or eBay for what you can or to dedicate it for PhysX.

nVidia wont allow you to SLI different cards, not even the 1070 and 1080. It's matching cards or a Primary + PhysX