Does SLI have a power saving mode?

[tracerit]

Thinking about getting a 770 now then maybe another in summer. Is there a way to only have SLI when gaming and when I'm on the desktop Web browsing it'll just only have one card active?

 

[BrightCandle]

Nvidia doesn't have zero core like AMD but the secondary card still spends the grand majority of the time asleep just like the primary card. Nvidia has a power saving functionality that reduces the second core to minimum and basically keeps it there unless desktop load hits the point where more is needed.

Idle power consumption will be fine. But the SLI is still active, its just not consuming masses of power on the desktop. Is there another reason why you want SLI completely disabled?

 

[24601]

Not having ULPS is better anyways.....

That crap is buggy as hell.

 

[tracerit]

Idle power consumption will be fine. But the SLI is still active, its just not consuming masses of power on the desktop. Is there another reason why you want SLI completely disabled?

I'm thinking the heat would be an issue if both cards were running.

 

[BrightCandle]

No heat will not be an issue at idle at all. But then you can't design a system for SLI around idle, you need to do it via load and then at idle will just work.

 

[tracerit]

ah i see. because sometimes i'll leave the computer on for days to seed some torrents. is it possible to choose which card (top or bottom) will be primary btw, or is it whichever card the display cable is connected to?

 

[BrightCandle]

Its which ever one is in the closest PCI-E slot to the CPU. Its marginally worth while when getting two to check their boost clock speeds and choose the fastest to act as the primary card. Its a minimal effect but in theory at least you get a little bit more speed that way especially if your limited to a single card for whatever reason (rare but happens).

 

[bystander36]

ah i see. because sometimes i'll leave the computer on for days to seed some torrents. is it possible to choose which card (top or bottom) will be primary btw, or is it whichever card the display cable is connected to?

I'm not sure it matters with Nvidia, just plug in the monitor to the card you want, but with AMD, it has to be the top card, unless your motherboard BIOS gives you an option to pick an Init PCIe slot (mine does).