Setting nVidia SLI - questions fron Newbie

[KHADER87]

Hi,

I'm noob regarding SLI, but not noob in PC in generals,

I bought GTX 950 MSI Gaming and I\m thinking of buying another one next month and connect them SLI, so my questions is what are the condition for SLI?

1) I know that PSU wattage and quality matter, but does it have to have specific connecters? or wires? or any PSU will be ok.
2) what type of MOBO is recommended, I need cheap one for LGA 1150,
3) any other tips you like to share? or components ? and what the recommended PSU wattage for 950 SLI along with the below spec

i5 4590
12GB Ram @1600Mhz
GTX 950 2GB MSI gaming (SLI)

thanks,

 

[Gingerbread]

So any PSU will be ok (which has the needed wattage) since they have the standard 6pin/8pin. Also don't SLI gtx 950. Low-end cards should not be SLIed, you won't gain much performance. Always better to upgrade to a higher end, single card. This way you won't have to change your motherboard and you will gain more performance. For example if you could afford a gtx 970, it will perform at least twice better than the gtx 950 in sli.

 

[MasterDell]

Yes you can SLI a GTX 950 up to 2-way. Recommended PSU is 500W. SLIing these two cards is not recommended though because as the above stated you won't have a good experience/dollar compared to a stronger, single card for the same price as the SLI 950's. Not to mention that not all games will have support for SLI/Crossfire anyways.

PSU wattage isn't the only thing to factor in when it comes to picking the right unit. You need to make sure it's a quality unit and that it has enough PCI-e connectors. Typically any PSU from Seasonic/XFX/Antec will guarantee good quality. But there are definitely other great units out there too.

As for motherboard, any ATX H97 will be good. Is there any reason why you are using 12GB and not 8GB or 16GB?

The H97 PRO4 is a great motherboard and it has a little brother in a micro ATX form factor, the H97M PRO4. Both are very competent, good looking boards. Neither of them are capable of SLI though. For that you would need to move up to a Z97 chipset motherboard.

 

[KHADER87]

Yes you can SLI a GTX 950 up to 2-way. Recommended PSU is 500W. SLIing these two cards is not recommended though because as the above stated you won't have a good experience/dollar compared to a stronger, single card for the same price as the SLI 950's. Not to mention that not all games will have support for SLI/Crossfire anyways.

PSU wattage isn't the only thing to factor in when it comes to picking the right unit. You need to make sure it's a quality unit and that it has enough PCI-e connectors. Typically any PSU from Seasonic/XFX/Antec will guarantee good quality. But there are definitely other great units out there too.

As for motherboard, any ATX H97 will be good. Is there any reason why you are using 12GB and not 8GB or 16GB?

The H97 PRO4 is a great motherboard and it has a little brother in a micro ATX form factor, the H97M PRO4. Both are very competent, good looking boards. Neither of them are capable of SLI though. For that you would need to move up to a Z97 chipset motherboard.

thanks for the reply, the other gtx 950 is going to be a gift so I will not buy it and the 970 is very expensive here in my country, around 480 USD, the gtx 950 is only 160 USD, so it will be better to SLI, and I checked couple of benchmark, the SLI on gtx 950 gave around 10-30 FPS increase which is good.

regardingng the ram, I have old 1333Mhz 4GB and bought 8GB 1600Mhz HyperX and combined them together, I will remove the 4GB due to low Speed.

 

[MasterDell]

Only run the 8GB. You won't need 12GB and that extra 4GB is going to be slowing you down. If you would like to have SLI 950's then that's your call. Just make sure that you have two identical GTX 950's. If you want to SLI, you will need a Z97 motherboard. What country do you live in?

 

[KHADER87]

Only run the 8GB. You won't need 12GB and that extra 4GB is going to be slowing you down. If you would like to have SLI 950's then that's your call. Just make sure that you have two identical GTX 950's. If you want to SLI, you will need a Z97 motherboard. What country do you live in?

I will remove the 4GB, I live in Jordan

 

[MasterDell]

Do you know of any computer part websites you can use there?