Dual gpu questions

[Duskguy]

Originally Posted by fb III IX ca IV

With Nvidia, you MUST have the same card, also with the same amount of ram (you can't SLI a GTX 460 768MB and 1GB). AMD allows for cards within the same series (for example a 6950 and a 6970 because they are in the 6900 series) to work together in CrossfireX. The only exception I can think of is the dual GPU 6990, even though it is a 6900 card it is in a "series" of its own.

i did not know that... good thing i no longer plan on running dual cards, otherwise i might've screwed myself over badly.

[Pancake]

The failures of buying a second 550Ti:

1. GTX 460 pwns 550Ti.
2.They suck, even in SLI.
3. Could have bought a better card.

When you do get that new card, you can use the 550Ti as a dedicated PhysX GPU.

[Rbstr]

Originally Posted by Duskguy

i did not know that... good thing i no longer plan on running dual cards, otherwise i might've screwed myself over badly.

You know, man, there is the thing called Google that will tell you about anything you can type into a box...I even linked the Wiki article on SLI that explains _everything_.
It's not that you shouldn't ask questions to be sure about things. But doing the basic research is simply a thing you should do before anything else.

[Duskguy]

i went to best buy and spent an hour and a half talking to the geek squad guys about dual cards, and i was assured i could run 2 different nvidea cards.

perhaps im misunderstanding your meaning, but you are now saying i could NOT possibly run a 550 with a 680, and instead would need two 550s. am i getting this correct?

because earlier it was claimed, i believe by you yourself that i COULD do just such a thing.

hence my "i did not know that" as in i did not know the cards had to be exactly the same. if you meant they had to both be nvidea, then yes i knew that

[Goku]

What do you mean by two different Nvidia cards? As in two different GTX 550 Ti from different makers or a GTX 550 Ti and GTX 670? If its the GTX 550 Ti and GTX 670 well that is very very wrong. You can only SLI the same type of card, but they can be a different version of that same card. Like using this ASUS 670 and Zotac 670 are able to be used in SLI despite having different designs.

I would never seek advice from Geek squad to be honest. Far majority of the time they do not know anything really.

[Duskguy]

lol aparently.

and yes as i had asked originally i was intending on putting a gt 610 with the 550, and was told i COULD do that, but not recommended as said by Rbstr...who now says i should've known by looking at his link, which as far as i could tell makes no mention of same spec cards.

anyway, all of this is a moot point as i likely wont be running a dual setup as i have no real need for it and it wouldnt be worth it for me atm. only have a tv main monitor and a small side monitor which may not even be compatible with PS2 the way i want to use it, to display the map. <- which i can do by running the "real time" website with an "up to date" map on this laptop assuming their website really is real time when they get it up and running.

[Goku]

Yeah most employees even in Geek Squad in those type of stores don't know shit. At least you know that now.

Rbstr's link did actually have that info.

SLI allows two, three or four graphics processing units (GPUs) to share the workload when rendering a frame. Ideally, two cards using identical GPUs are installed in a motherboard that contains two PCI-Express slots, set up in a master-slave configuration

In an SLI configuration, cards can be of mixed manufacturers, card model names, BIOS revisions or clock speeds. However, they must be of the same GPU series (e.g. 8600, 8800) and GPU model name (e.g. GT, GTS, GTX).[20] There are rare exceptions for "mixed SLI" configurations on some cards that only have a matching core codename (e.g. G70, G73, G80, etc.), but this is otherwise not possible, and only happens when two matched cards differ only very slightly, an example being a differing amount of video memory, stream processors, or clockspeed. In this case, the slower/lesser card becomes dominant, and the other card matches. Another exception is the GTS 250, which can SLI with the 9800 GTX+, as the GTS 250 GPU is a rebadged 9800 GTX+ GPU.

In regards to the live map I hear SOE may do that for an extra monitor. I have a spare 19 inch 1280x1080, which would be perfect for that. I would prefer a in game option as you could put your chat box, squad/platoon list, and so on over there too. There is going to be app for tablets to have a live map I know, but i don't know if it can show the location of your squad mates for example.

[Duskguy]

alright, i missed that in the link, but from his explaination i got the understanding i could run the two different types.
for that, i apolgise rbstr, it was my misunderstanding.

and they might have that for the map? thats good news. not sure how well the 550 would perform like that, but i dont plan on running high graphics anyway, plan on going for steady fps, even if i have to turn a few things to low.

and i agree, the map as well as other random things on the side would be nice. i have a 27 inch tv and then a small 18-9 inch square monitor which would suit a map perfectly.

[Goku]

I don't think having the map up like that would cause any issues performance wise, but who knows.