Can I SLI two 970s from different companies?

[guymarshall]

I was wondering if I could SLI an Asus Strix 970 with another 970 (not decided which one yet). I have a 650RM PSU which can deal with SLI as I am not overclocking at all.

 

[N3rdR4ge]

As for different companies, you can absolutely do that.

SLI Requirements:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/469402/sli/faq-quot-will-these-two-cards-work-in-sli-quot-sli-what-works-with-what-/

"- Manufacturer
-- You can mix and match any manufacturer of nvidia GPUs. EVGA works fine with Asus etc.

- Clock speeds
-- You are able to use different clock speeds on each GPU working in SLI. An "overclocked" card will work with a "plain" card just fine.

- BIOS Version
-- You can use as many different BIOS versions between the cards you have in SLI as you like."



HOWEVER, a gtx 970 sli setup recommends a minimum of 700w not including overclocking headroom. If you would like the option to overclock 750w is a safer bet.
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2735372/minimum-recommend-psu-requirements.html


make sure you get a quality psu from these lists:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081/t/45344.aspx

 

[guymarshall]

As for different companies, you can absolutely do that.

SLI Requirements:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/469402/sli/faq-quot-will-these-two-cards-work-in-sli-quot-sli-what-works-with-what-/

"- Manufacturer
-- You can mix and match any manufacturer of nvidia GPUs. EVGA works fine with Asus etc.

- Clock speeds
-- You are able to use different clock speeds on each GPU working in SLI. An "overclocked" card will work with a "plain" card just fine.

- BIOS Version
-- You can use as many different BIOS versions between the cards you have in SLI as you like."



HOWEVER, a gtx 970 sli setup recommends a minimum of 700w not including overclocking headroom. If you would like the option to overclock 750w is a safer bet.
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2735372/minimum-recommend-psu-requirements.html


make sure you get a quality psu from these lists:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081/t/45344.aspx

I used online calculators and they all recommended 600w PSUs, and I have a 650w one so I thought it would be ok. The total wattage load was around 550w so why do I need an extra 200w?

 

[N3rdR4ge]

a gtx 970 requires a minimum of 28A of power from the +12v rail on a psu. two would require 56A. That does not include the draw from the rest of your system. Your power supply is 54A. I would strongly recommend a psu with more than 60A to be safe. Could be any wattage over 700. It does need to be replaced for that upgrade.

62A and $49.99 after $30 rebate on NCIX:
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-110b20750vr


PSU Rail Requirements:
https://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/power-requirements-for-graphics-cards

Your PSU Specs:

 

[guanyu210379]

You can take any GTX970s you can find on the market for SLI, the SLI speed will follow the solwest of the 2 GTX970s.
2xGTX970s SLI should require 650W minimum, if the PSU is a high quality one.
To be safe, 700-750W is more recommended but if you already have a 650W PSU, you can try using it and see if you see problems or not before you replace it with something else.

 

[N3rdR4ge]

Wow what a waste of time helping you...

 

[guymarshall]

Wow what a waste of time helping you...

I just didn't want to waste money on a 100w more powerful psu, if it will work on my current psu.

 

[wessamex]

970's will run on 650w no worries you just don't overclock them to make sure everything is ok, in worst scenarios pc will shutoff to prevent damage , you won't fry your pc or anything like the other guy said

 

[guymarshall]

970's will run on 650w no worries you just don't overclock them to make sure everything is ok, in worst scenarios pc will shutoff to prevent damage , you won't fry your pc or anything like the other guy said

Yeah I never overclock anyway, the performance of modern CPUs and graphics cards are more than enough in most games. If the games are more demanding then the anti-aliasing needs to be disabled or something.