SLI / CrossFire FAQs

[randomizer]

There are some 65nm 9800GTX+ cards. You'd have to be certain that you have a 55nm one or the flash will simply screw up the card. In fact, it may screw up the card even if it is 55nm, it just depends if the GTS 250 uses the same BIOS.

 

[Maziar]

Nope, the cards for SLI must be the same.

But you can use the 9800+ for physx
EDIT

@ Maziar, grats on mod status!!

Thanks nuke

 

[Maziar]

They are both die shrunk G92's but i think the only way one could remotely do it would be to flash them both to 9800GTX+'s, but i would not recommend it, incase there are other side effects.

Agreed,although both are based on G92 architecture but you can't SLI them because they have to be the same model,however there are some ways which aren't recommended like flashing them both as "nuke" said or the method that "randomizer' said,these ways aren't recommended since they are risky

 

[scooter69]

THANK YOU very much!!!!!!!!! This was just the info I was looking for!!!

 

[Maziar]

No problem glad you found it useful

 

[Guest]

Hey would you recommend me (im a real noob at hardware and software i just own games 😛)
to use a ATI HD4870 T2D1G card with a geforce 8800 GTS 512 on a X58 motherboard
the ati's memory is like double of the geforce one and the clocks differ alot too...
plz plz plz help me

 

[Maziar]

If you read the first page you will find your answer there
"Do the cards have to be same model?
I answer it with an example:
You have a NVIDIA Geforce 7800GTX 256, and you want to add another card , the second card has to be 7800GTX exactly."
So you need two exact cards to run the in mutiGPU configuration.

 

[army_ant7]

Thanks for the info, you have improved my knowledge by a huge leap! 🙂

 

[Maziar]

No problem I'm glad you found it useful

 

[redkachina]

Hi guys, I know that it is impossible for SLi to work on CF boards..but what if I have 2 Nvidia cards and I want to run one of em' as Physx? can i do such thing? GTX 275 main card + 8800gs physx on a 790x amd chipset mobo? I should've bought a SLI mobo in the first place but ahh..maybe later..

 

[Maziar]

Hello
Yes you can use one card and the other one as a PhysX card

 

[Maziar]

Thanks dogman yes i post in other sections like CPU,RAM,Laptops,Smartphones too

 

[blackeric]

thanks~

 

[Maziar]

No problem Glad you liked it

 

[SmallTown]

Well, I'm glad I read through all this! I'm building a new system and due to $ I had to buy the Diamond Multimedia 4670PE31GDTSB Radeon HD 4670 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Video Card. I have a xf system so from what I understand here..if I want to install a 2nd card it has to be another Radeon HD 4670 with the same clock/ram speeds. Also a quick question...is the higher the number of the card series the better cards (re Radeon) for example is the 5700 series better than the 4600 series etc. Next month I'll be either replacing the 4670 card with a higher end card or just buy another 4670 so I was wondering which was the smarter choice.

P.S. The link to the chart on 1st post doesnt work 🙁

 

[Maziar]

Well about the numbers,its not always like that i mean for example HD 5700 series performs lower than HD 4800 series so you have to look for benchmarks,however in this case HD 5770 is faster than HD 4670,about the link,it's strange because it works for me,here is the original link:
http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/charts.html.
Tomshardware wrote a review about 5770 and 5750 and it compares them with 4770 and 2 4770s in CrossFire mode:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446.html

 

[pinoynobello]

this was a damn good thread! thanks for the info!

 

[Maziar]

I'm glad you found it useful

 

[Guest]

yeah I did the same thing xfx 260 ADF9 standard with a EVGA 260 overclocked. The weird thing is the standard would link up with the OC only when the OC was in the bottom slot. Big difference in graphics.

 

[toyotascionxd]

I bought a saphire card that's capable of crossfiring. Is crossfiring suitable only for gaming. What if I'm watching streaming HD videos. Would it make the videos much clearer?

 

[Maziar]

No,its effect is on gaming.

 

[nammerduong]

I love this thread you made.

But how can you tell if a game is better with 2 mid-range video card's in crossfire or 1 high-end card?

 

[nukemaster]

I would start with the Toms graphics charts

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/graphics-cards,1.html

Its a bit outdated sometimes(it takes time to test all new cards), but should be updated often enough to give you an idea. It also helps you to see what games do and do not take advantage of SLI/Xfire.

You can also google reviews all over the web with detailed info for certain games.

 

[brandonvi]

ya Nukemaster is right thats a good way to look things up keep in mind that there is a new generation of vid cards that is much faster ever 6 months to 1 year at most so buying crossfire or SLI systems is not really that great of an idea since the whole system will be out done in 1-2 years by a single card

 

[Maziar]

I love this thread you made.

But how can you tell if a game is better with 2 mid-range video card's in crossfire or 1 high-end card?

Thanks
As nuke said check charts/reviews also it depends on the game and the VGA's that you are considering.