How does this work with SLI??

Matt2

Diamond Member
Jul 28, 2001
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I'm about to click the button on a second 7800GT.

I currently have the eVGA 515 (445/1070).

Because i am using the ACS Silencer on my current GT and I wont be able to use an ACS silencer on the second GT (clearance issue). I'm gonna order the eVGA 7800GT CO SE (516). Then use the CO SE in the top slot and the 515 with the silencer in the bottom slot.

My question is, since both cards have different default clock speeds, how will my system handle that? Will it default both cards to the 515 speeds or am I going to ahve to flash the BIOS on my 515 to the BIOS for the 516?

Thanks for any enlightenment.
 

Leper Messiah

Banned
Dec 13, 2004
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Originally posted by: Matt2
I'm about to click the button on a second 7800GT.

I currently have the eVGA 515 (445/1070).

Because i am using the ACS Silencer on my current GT and I wont be able to use an ACS silencer on the second GT (clearance issue). I'm gonna order the eVGA 7800GT CO SE (516). Then use the CO SE in the top slot and the 515 with the silencer in the bottom slot.

My question is, since both cards have different default clock speeds, how will my system handle that? Will it default both cards to the 515 speeds or am I going to ahve to flash the BIOS on my 515 to the BIOS for the 516?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

I believe its like SMP where both GPUs have to be clocked at the same rate. so you'll have to run at the lowest common speed of the two cards.
 

Matt2

Diamond Member
Jul 28, 2001
4,762
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Originally posted by: Leper Messiah
Originally posted by: Matt2
I'm about to click the button on a second 7800GT.

I currently have the eVGA 515 (445/1070).

Because i am using the ACS Silencer on my current GT and I wont be able to use an ACS silencer on the second GT (clearance issue). I'm gonna order the eVGA 7800GT CO SE (516). Then use the CO SE in the top slot and the 515 with the silencer in the bottom slot.

My question is, since both cards have different default clock speeds, how will my system handle that? Will it default both cards to the 515 speeds or am I going to ahve to flash the BIOS on my 515 to the BIOS for the 516?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

I believe its like SMP where both GPUs have to be clocked at the same rate. so you'll have to run at the lowest common speed of the two cards.

So when I plop that CO SE into my system, the system is going to set the clocks the same?

Say I restore the current 515 GT to it's default clocks of 445/1070 before I install the 516. When I boot the system with the 516 in the system is the 516 going to default to 445/1070 as well?
 

Leper Messiah

Banned
Dec 13, 2004
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I'm not 100% certain, but I know back in the day (last year LOL) SLi needed two of the same cards with the same bioses. Rollo or Ronin would probably know better since they have SLi.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
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AFAIK the BIOS doesn't need to be the same anymore, if fact I believe cards from different companies can run together in SLI without a problem, but the clock-speed does need to be the same. You should be able to overclock both the cards together to the highest level they will both run stable at, but since I've never tried it myself I'm not sure which utility to suggest you use.
 

Yreka

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2005
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Originally posted by: Matt2
I'm about to click the button on a second 7800GT.

I currently have the eVGA 515 (445/1070).

Because i am using the ACS Silencer on my current GT and I wont be able to use an ACS silencer on the second GT (clearance issue). I'm gonna order the eVGA 7800GT CO SE (516). Then use the CO SE in the top slot and the 515 with the silencer in the bottom slot.

My question is, since both cards have different default clock speeds, how will my system handle that? Will it default both cards to the 515 speeds or am I going to ahve to flash the BIOS on my 515 to the BIOS for the 516?

Thanks for any enlightenment.


I am actually running the exact same setup, except using the EVGA mobo. What I ended up doing was flashing the 515 W/ silencer with the 517 CO bios. They both o/c a little higher than that, but it didnt make much of a performance difference. This way is cleaner IMO, as I don't have to dicker around w/ software OC. Both cards are recoginzed 470/1100.

You don't HAVE to do it this way, they will both work with different bios. I believe it will run at the lower cards speed.