Help with SLI please

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Patchwork Neurology

n00b
Joined
May 4, 2008
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Alright everyone, here's my scenario. I have a 7900 GT CO with a 7900 GS on the way. Planning to use in SLI. I normally use my two monitors plus my TV. Two monitors running on the 7900 with the TV running off of a PCI 5500. Now what i want to do is use the SLI to run ONE monitor for gaming and the 5500 to run the other monitor plus my TV for movies, itunes, etc. Any idea if this setup will work? Please let me know. Thanks.
 
If you are using XP it shouldnt be an issue. Vista on the other hand doesnt like to cooperate with multiple video cards if they arent the same company. I ran SLI with an old 1650pro for my 2nd monitor in xp, but couldnt get it to cooperate in vista.
 
A 7900 GT and a 7900 GS won't work together. Other than brand, the cards must be identical to function in SLI.

You might be able to flash the 7900 GT with the BIOS of the 7900 GS and fool the drivers, as they at least do use the same core, but do so at your own risk.
 
farfromhome said:
A 7900 GT and a 7900 GS won't work together. Other than brand, the cards must be identical to function in SLI.
Click to expand...

The 7900s might work in SLI. However there is enough difference in those two cards that I'd be doubtful.

The usual mantra in SLI is that the cards MUST be of the same type......ie 7900 GT,8800GT,8800GTX; you name it. The vendor doesnt matter nor do clock speeds, in other words an 8800 GTX OC and an 8800 GTX reference speed card will work in SLI AND run at their usual speeds.

The 7900 GS is identical to the stock 7900 GT in clock speeds. The difference is that it comes with one less vertex pipeline and four fewer pixel pipelines. It also comes with an MSRP of $199 compared to $299 for the 7900 GT, so while it may offer slightly lower performance, the difference in price appears likely to make it a more attractive card for many people. In raw pixel processing power, the additional pipelines make the 7900 GT potentially up to 20% faster, which is in line with the price difference we expect to see. We will take a closer look at how the GT compares to the GS later to see if this approximation is accurate. From anantech,:http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2827&p=2
 
Yeah I am running in XP. So do you guys think I should just return the GS and try to pick up another GT a little later down the road since i don't really have the cash for it now or is there a chance they will cooperate together?
Thanks for all the help :D
 
Patchwork Neurology said:
Yeah I am running in XP. So do you guys think I should just return the GS and try to pick up another GT a little later down the road since i don't really have the cash for it now or is there a chance they will cooperate together?
Thanks for all the help :D
Click to expand...

I think you should return the 7900 GS, sell the 7900 GT, and get a 9600 GT. ;) Which would be much faster than two 7-series cards in SLI.
 
If I had the money that would be my main priority. Unfortunately I'm still making payments on my motorcycle and can't really afford much of anything right now. Definetley gonna be picking up one of those eventually.
 
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