Running two different brands in SLI?

[wildcat86]

Right now I have a MSI 6600GT and was looking at getting another to run in SLI. I can get an eVGA for pretty cheap but I didn't know if there might be any problems running cards of different brands in SLI.

Will it be okay? Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Hacp]

Don't think so. They need to have the same bios version.

 

[MTDEW]

Yeah, i believe you'd have to flash both to nvidia reference bios's 1st.

So , yes it "can" be done.

 

[wildcat86]

Originally posted by: MTDEW
Yeah, i believe you'd have to flash both to nvidia reference bios's 1st.

So , yes it "can" be done.

where can I get this? thanks!

 

[Gamingphreek]

No you dont. IIRC the 78.01 or at least the upcoming Rel. 80 fixes that. As long as you have the same model (6800GT/6800GT) nothing else really matters (Of course dont get the 6800GT that a company is twisting the numbers and giving it GDDR instead of GDDR3 or something).

-Kevin

 

[Powermoloch]

you can't

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
No you dont. IIRC the 78.01 or at least the upcoming Rel. 80 fixes that. As long as you have the same model (6800GT/6800GT) nothing else really matters (Of course dont get the 6800GT that a company is twisting the numbers and giving it GDDR instead of GDDR3 or something).

-Kevin

I read about this a few weeks ago.

 

[fstime]

Yes, it has been tried with 2x 6600GT's flashed to the same bios.

Might as well get the same cards though.

 

[MTDEW]

Gamingphreek,
Really?
Thats cool if its true.

Got a link?

 

[sep]

Yeah, I'm very interested in validating you can run two of the same models but not from the same manufacture.

Any more information on this guys would be appriciated.

 

[coomar]

i thought that in the 80ish drivers they were adding support for mismatched cards, like a 6600gt and a 6800gt, only one mode of sli would be available though

 

[sep]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20050627185233.html

Still, buying one GeForce 6600 and adding another one after some time may be a feasible upgrade path as NVIDIA promised that from now on its multi-GPU technology will allow graphics cards with different BIOS versions and from different manufacturers to work in collaboration, thanks to new drivers. Up to now graphics cards from one maker and with similar BIOS versions were needed for multi-GPU operation.

When?

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: sep
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20050627185233.html

Still, buying one GeForce 6600 and adding another one after some time may be a feasible upgrade path as NVIDIA promised that from now on its multi-GPU technology will allow graphics cards with different BIOS versions and from different manufacturers to work in collaboration, thanks to new drivers. Up to now graphics cards from one maker and with similar BIOS versions were needed for multi-GPU operation.

When?

well according to Nvidias driver site......the 78.01 dont change anything from the 77.77s appart from support for the 6500, and of course fixes the shimmering

so it maybe like gamingphreek said

No you dont. IIRC the 78.01 or at least the upcoming Rel. 80 fixes that. As long as you have the same model (6800GT/6800GT) nothing else really matters (Of course dont get the 6800GT that a company is twisting the numbers and giving it GDDR instead of GDDR3 or something).

-Kevin

but who knows when these will be released

 

[deadseasquirrel]

As of right this second, you do NOT need the same BIOS. But you DO need the same manufacturer. I imagine the 80.xx drivers will do away with this limitation soon.
http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_faq.html#c3

 

[sep]

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-1901771.php

3D Chipset have leaked some new 80.40 NVidia drivers, which have support for items such as mismatched SLI cards and a few other new features. GeForce 2 and upwards cards are supported in this release, but only for those adventurous users.

 

[Budman]

Anybody tried the 80.xx drivers yet on mismatched cards?

 

[sep]

No I haven't, but great question. Anyone?

 

[Cooler]

I think the card bios would need to flash to the other card verison for it to "work".

 

[Topweasel]

80 series drivers not only allow for mismatching of manufacturers but also the mismatching of speeds. This would allow people to run each card run at its full potential and let the drivers and the SLI connector do all the load balancing for optimal performance.

 

[rickyman]

that mean if you have 6800gt and 6800nu and put it on sli , it works with the 80 series driver

 

[GeekSupportCom]

Just wanted to let you all know about the new official beta drivers that lets you SLI different mfg cards together! It has been tested with my 6600GT eVGA and XFX and yes, they have different BIOS versions :-D

Drivers