Mixing graphics cards, good or bad

[ghouseswag]

Hey guys, I've asked a few questions on this forum before and they've always been very promptly answered with clear and easy to understand instructions, so I'm back with another one for you. I have a space below my current graphics card (nvidia geforce 1050TI) for a second one, and I'm wondering if I could buy any old graphics card and use it to increase the power and take some of the strain off this guy. I run all my games pretty well, but I can't quite get to the 60 FPS ultra high settings gameplay I want so bad. Now I've thought about just getting a second 1050TI because while it's not the best, it's been nothing but good to me and I do like it, however I've got a little more money than I did when I bought the 1050TI and I thought that if they can be mix and matched I could get something a little fancier. So how about it? Does it come down to anything can be mixed as long as my case has room for it, or can you only have the same brands, or only identicle cards? Thanks in advance!

 

[ss202sl]

1050ti doesn't support SLI

 

[grimfox]

Even if it did support SLI you'd want the same model (preferably the same manufacturer) to ensure maximum compatibility, IE another 1050TI (if it supported SLI)

 

[uppercut4u]

You wont be able to SLI the 1050 TI but there are some things you can do to increase FPS.

1- In NV control panel change image settings to performance or high performance
2- advanced 3d settings - disable vertical sync
3- Try lowering in game graphics settings
4- uninstall geforce experience
5- Sell the 1050 ti upgrade to a 1060 6gb or 1070 then you can jack up the graphics settings a little higher

 

[ghouseswag]

What is SLI? Thanks for the answers, good to know I can't mix others in there. And ideally since I have two slots I'd like to have two cards, are there certain cards that work better together, maybe some model that's made with that in mind?

 

[grimfox]

SLI is the name NV uses to it's multiple GPU architecture. Crossfire is the term AMD uses.

Multi GPU setups are, more often than not, just a gimmick. They bring a lot of secondary problems and rarely scale evenly 2x GPUs does not equal 2x performance. Maybe 1.5x. The programs you use need to be able to run on multiple GPUs, developers for games just aren't doing it that much anymore. That means you may not see any performance increase for having multiple GPUs and may even see a decrease in performance because of the additional overhead of running multiple GPUs. Most of the time you'd be further ahead buying a single more powerful GPU than you would be having two in the system. The lowest level GPU that supports SLI appears to be the GTX1070. A pair of those on Ebay can run for 400 each. So two will cost you 800. For that price you might be able to find a 1080ti.

 

[uppercut4u]

I have a Galax GTX 1070 TI HOF it runs everything like butta. I dont need to SLI but if I did I would get another 1070 TI down the road. But right now I am happy with the high performace I get.