SLI mix&match from different brands possible?

[TheStigma]

Heya,

I'm wondering wether or not it will be possible to mix&match identical models under different brands in a SLI setup. Nvidia spesificly says that SLI does NOT support mixing of brands, but I think thats a load of hogwash personally. They likely just say that because they can't actually control what screwy stuff the different BIOS'es might do, and don't want to take any responsebility for any problems relating to that.

My theory? I think that when using the same drivers for both cards, differently branded but otherwise identical models would work just fine in SLI. At least I am unable to forsee any problem if they were also flashed with the same BIOS'es. The hardware is just too damn identical for there to be any reason for them to be incompatible. heck, you can flash ANY 6800GT with the BIOS of ANY other 6800GT from a competing brand, and it will work just fine, so I ca'n't see differently branded cards not working properly in SLI...

So what do the gurus here think? mixed brands: not even worth worrying about, or impassable wall for the perfect SLI setup?

I highly apreciate all intelligent and/or well thought out input ^_^

 

[Rhagz]

I think i read that is possible if both cards are of the same reference design. As long as the cards have the same hardware (ram, gpu core, and probably the same BIOS) I don't see any reason why they wouldn't work. The only thing that distinguishes one card from another is the BIOS.. the programs dont care what sticker is on the cooler, they just see what the system tells it to see.

 

[Genx87]

afaik it shouldnt matter. In fact I believe you can mix and match differentmodels. But the drivers will default you to the the lowest frequency of the cards.

So a 6600GT and a 6800GT = 350mhz core for both.

 

[Rage187]

Originally posted by: Genx87
afaik it shouldnt matter. In fact I believe you can mix and match differentmodels. But the drivers will default you to the the lowest frequency of the cards.

So a 6600GT and a 6800GT = 350mhz core for both.

not likely.

 

[Genx87]

As far as board requirements go, the main thing to make sure of is that both of your GPUs are identical. While clock speeds don't have to be the same, NVIDIA's driver will set the clocks on both boards to the lowest common denominator. It is not recommended that you combine different GPU types (e.g. a 6600GT and a 6800GT) although doing so may still be allowed, yet resulting in some rather strange results in certain cases.

Wasnt ruled out but probably not likely.

 

[Spike]

From the review I read (I believe it was the first one here on Anandtech about SLI) they said only two of the same nVidia cards could be used. I took that to mean on the same cards, and only the nVidia cards with the spot on them to hook the bridge too. I highly doubt you can mix and match even with the same card from different brands, they will all be different in some way (different brand transistors, capacitors, etc...)

-spike

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Genx87
afaik it shouldnt matter. In fact I believe you can mix and match differentmodels. But the drivers will default you to the the lowest frequency of the cards.

So a 6600GT and a 6800GT = 350mhz core for both.

I seriously doubt it. Different number of pipelines, etc.

 

[TheStigma]

It has been confirmed that matching different models dosnt work (anandtech review i believe). I'm still not 100% sure if it would work if you used a 6800GT BIOS on a GT and an ultra tho, since those should be identical apart from clockspeed. 6600+6800 is ut of the question tho. Atleast fro the current SLI-tech Nvidia uses.

-Stigma