Quick SLI question

[iggie]

Going in a few hours for the final purchase and all my googling can't make sense of one key question: can any two 570 GTX's run in SLI together? I was going to buy an Asus ENGTX570 and then a year later SLI it with a card like the MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II since the ASUS card is so bloody massive.

[starwars quote about you being my only hope]

[vesseblah]

Yes, but you should take cards that run at same speed (same overclocking) and have same amount of memory.

In theory they should both work at the speed and memory of lower card, but getting two of same kind reduces any small risk of problems even smaller.

[iggie]

On newegg I saw the names being nearly identical so I figured they're work just as well as two ASUS cards... In the details one is 770 and the other is 742, is that a massive gap? I have a really good deal for an ENGTX570 but I can't seem to fit two into my z68 case, so I'm trying to see if there's any possible way to keep one in a future SLI setup. For a moderately adept user, could I mcguiver OC the lower card to match the other?


ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card


What I really mean is how detrimental would it be running a non matching card with the ENGTX570?

[redmund]

It won't make much difference at all. You don't need to overclock anything to get them to work and any performance penalty would be so small as to be imperceptible.

[iggie]

Quick follow up, would x2 ENGTX570's on a ASUS P8Z68 z68 pro mobo have enough air flow for x2 in SLI? I'm worried one card will run really really hot.

[Alan1187]

Quick follow up, would x2 ENGTX570's on a ASUS P8Z68 z68 pro mobo have enough air flow for x2 in SLI? I'm worried one card will run really really hot.

Top card in SLI arrangement will run hotter on every mobo. It's just a mater of how hot air rises. But with how standard motherboards are, it doesn't matter which mobo you have. They sit next to each other.

[redmund]

You've got a 1 slot gap between your cards on that motherboard. It's fine. If you're really worried, you can add a side-panel fan to your case if you don't already have one. That's what I had to do when I went with SLI. Even had to drill my own vent in my panel

[hayharut]

yep as long as its the same card

[iggie]

You've got a 1 slot gap between your cards on that motherboard. It's fine. If you're really worried, you can add a side-panel fan to your case if you don't already have one. That's what I had to do when I went with SLI. Even had to drill my own vent in my panel

I'm in China so the air is very dusty and going out to buy fans/case stuff is really, REALLY annoying. Decided to go with an EVGA GTX570 Superclocked 012-P3-1572-KR. Can't get the lifetime warranty models here... sigh

I think going with a smaller card will allow for better air flow/cooling on the top card overall.

[Demoness]

Going in a few hours for the final purchase and all my googling can't make sense of one key question: can any two 570 GTX's run in SLI together? I was going to buy an Asus ENGTX570 and then a year later SLI it with a card like the MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II since the ASUS card is so bloody massive.

[starwars quote about you being my only hope]

I have an MSI GTX 570 OC in SLI with a reference EVGA GTX 570. I have both their clocks synced up at 782 MHz. You can mix brands, you just can't mix models. You cannot mix a 570 with 560 or 580. If you use a clock utility like MSI afterburner, you can match their clocks, ram, and voltage together. Easy.

[iggie]

Thanks for the replies. The issue I see is that the Asus EVGTX570 would need to be in the second PCI slot so the weaker card is in the first slot. That means the big beast will be really close to the case wall limiting cooling potential...