Questions about: GTX 960 SLI

[Hazinator]

Hey there I just need some answers about SLI for a gtx 960. So basically I'm getting a gtx 960 soon and I'm going to get another one in about 6 months.
1. Do I need double the amount of power from the power supply to run them at the same time?
2. How do I use then both at the same time?
3. How will performance change (I watched on a video that it will be slightly better than a GTX 980)?
4. Does every motherboard support SLI.
Setup:
Intel core i5 3570
500w ocz power supply x stream
Asus motherboard h61m
8gb Kingston hyper fury RAM
Fan cooling
So any help will be great and extra information about sli and performances will be great. Thanks (Ps I can comment full motherboard info out if needed as I need to find it out... Thanks in advance!

 

[quilciri]

1. You need twice as much power as a single 960 draws, but not twice as much power from the PSU. The rest of your system draws power as well (CPU, motherboard, RAM, Hard drive, optical drive, case fans). With a second 960, your system will draw about 420W under maximum load.

2. You install the second card in another pci-e slot, add a SLI bridge, and enable SLI in the Nvidia control panel.

3. In games that support SLI (most games that need a lot of graphics horsepower support SLI), you'll see a large increase. FPS a little higher than a single 980 sounds reasonable).

4. No. Your motherboard does not support SLI.

 

[CobbZ]

1. Look at the GPU, see what wattage is uses. off the top of my head it will be about 200w per card. Try "building" your rig on PC Part Picker, it will tell you if its fine.
2. With an SLI connector.
3. Performance will not be exactly double. Google "GPU performance scaling". 2 960s will NOT be better than 1 980. Even 2 x 970s won't be better than a 980 in SOME cases.
4. No, but most do...


I reckon you'll need more than 500w to run SLI. It might JUST ABOUT work, but PSUs work optimally at about 50% load, so a 750/800/850 would be better.

 

[SchizTech]

1) Two cards at once will draw twice the power of a single card. A high capacity PSU is needed

2) After installing the second card (on a SLI compatible board) go into the Nvidia driver panel and enable SLI

4) NO. As to your specific board, if I'm looking at the right thing that's a micro-ATX board with only one full length PCIe slot to begin with. If that's correct you'd need a new board just to physically fit two cards.

 

[sizzling]

I suggest more reading of the downsides of sli. Plus your motherboard does not support it. 2x960's is not a good idea even if it were an option

 

[nucolos]

1. You dont need to doble the capacity of you psu, but it will need about 150w more.
2. You need an SLI bridge, usually comes in the box.
3. You will gain about 35% of performance, in a game that supports SLI.
4. Not every mobo support SLI, the manufacturer needs to pay to nvidia to give their aprroval.

Advice: dont do it, when you have the money to get the second one, sell your current one and get a gtx 970. And the performance will be better than the sli. And with the sli you will have just 2gb of ram, with a 970, youll have 3.5 gbs.

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_960_SLI/images/perfrel_1920.gif

 

[Hazinator]

This is my motherboard - Asus H61M-A/USB3 Motherboard Its not micro but I'm not sure if it allows SLI. Gtx 960 cosumes 120w power.

 

[CobbZ]

No, your motherboard does not support SLI. It only has one PCI x16 slot. You'll need two.

As the guy above me says, sell your card and get a 970.

 

[Hazinator]

Why does it say it has 2 pci-e slots then? And probably get a gtx 970 as it does perform a lot better for the money.

 

[Hazinator]

But will a GTX 970 work with my motherboard and system?

 

[CobbZ]

Jesus Christ man, google your own motherboard.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H61MAUSB3/specifications/

1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1

Thats ONE x16 PCI slot. And two x1 slots.

 

[Pc6777]

I knowits not related BUT if you sli gtx 960's be shore to get the 4 gig versions because 2 gigs vram would limit sli 960's... also I would just get a gtx 980 in a few months instead but your choice...

 

[quilciri]

Why does it say it has 2 pci-e slots then? And probably get a gtx 970 as it does perform a lot better for the money.

There are different Pci-e slots.

a PCI-e x16 slot is for video cards (x16 implies 16 lanes)
A PCI-e x1 slot is for things like wireless cards and high end SSD's. These slots are much smaller and will not fit a video card. Even if they could, the single lane would make the card's performance terrible.

Your motherboard has 1 x16 slot and 2 x1 slots.

Not all motherboard that have multiple x16 slots support SLI either. SLI requires proprietary firmware (crossfire does not). In short, all multiple x16 slot motherboards support crossfire, but only some support SLI.