SLI newb question

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polonyc2

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Joined
Oct 25, 2004
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I have an overclocked MSI Lightning GTX 580 card but also will have another EVGA vanilla GTX 580 soon and was wondering if I could run them in SLI...or do they have to be the exact same manufacturer and clock settings?
 
They don't have to be the same clocks or manufacturer, but they do have to be the same hardware type...Like a GTX 580 3 GB and a GTX 580 1.5 GB won't work together. Also I believe they default to the clock speeds of the slower card (?).
 
memory is the same on both cards...I was mostly worried about the clocks not matching being an issue as one card is overclocked and the other at default settings...good to know I can run them in SLI
 
I was wondering, because with EVGA Precision I am able to set the clocks differently on my two GTX 280s, and by default they are actually slightly different. That's why I wasn't sure.
 
Why not just get another lightning? Your hurting yourself by getting a slower gtx 580 as in you would have been better off getting a standard one to begin with. I figure since you've come this far, save $ for another week and get the extra $100 and get a second lightning.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Why not just get another lightning? Your hurting yourself by getting a slower gtx 580 as in you would have been better off getting a standard one to begin with. I figure since you've come this far, save $ for another week and get the extra $100 and get a second lightning.
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the reason is that I purchased the EVGA GTX 580 around 10 months ago but it recently started acting weird so I did an RMA...I couldn't wait 3 weeks for the new card so I ended up buying the MSI Lightning card...I'm actually planning on either selling the new EVGA card or potentially using it in SLI with the MSI
 
polonyc2 said:
the reason is that I purchased the EVGA GTX 580 around 10 months ago but it recently started acting weird so I did an RMA...I couldn't wait 3 weeks for the new card so I ended up buying the MSI Lightning card...I'm actually planning on either selling the new EVGA card or potentially using it in SLI with the MSI
Click to expand...

How high do you have your lightning card clocked to? Also is the evga the same vram e.g. 3gb model as the lightning? Maybe you can overclock the evga to match the lightning and if so and they have the same amount of vram your good to go. Manufacturer doesn't matter, it just needs to be the same gpu and hopefully one card doesn't force both to downclock so I wish you the best.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
How high do you have your lightning card clocked to? Also is the evga the same vram e.g. 3gb model as the lightning? Maybe you can overclock the evga to match the lightning and if so and they have the same amount of vram your good to go. Manufacturer doesn't matter, it just needs to be the same gpu and hopefully one card doesn't force both to downclock so I wish you the best.
Click to expand...

both cards are 1.5GB memory...I left the MSI at its factory overclocked settings

EVGA GTX 580
core clock= 772
shader clock= 1544
memory clock= 2004

MSI GTX 580 Lightning:
832
1664
2100

havn't decided if I want to overclock the EVGA or just try and sell it as honestly I prefer single card setups vs SLI...I'm only considering SLI because of the upcoming Battlefield 3
 
polonyc2 said:
both cards are 1.5GB memory...I left the MSI at its factory overclocked settings

EVGA GTX 580
core clock= 772
shader clock= 1544
memory clock= 2004

MSI GTX 580 Lightning:
832
1664
2100

havn't decided if I want to overclock the EVGA or just try and sell it as honestly I prefer single card setups vs SLI...I'm only considering SLI because of the upcoming Battlefield 3
Click to expand...

You should have no problem reaching the lightnings speeds or even exceeding them on he evga. The lightning will more than likely give you a higher maximum overclock as that's what it's designed for specifically. What I'd do is overclock the evga to match the lightning and call it a day. That should be fine for battlefield 3 especially on a single screen 19x12 or 19x10. on 25x16 or 26x14 screen or eyefinity type of thing expect to turn settings down big time.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
You should have no problem reaching the lightnings speeds or even exceeding them on he evga. The lightning will more than likely give you a higher maximum overclock as that's what it's designed for specifically. What I'd do is overclock the evga to match the lightning and call it a day. That should be fine for battlefield 3 especially on a single screen 19x12 or 19x10. on 25x16 or 26x14 screen or eyefinity type of thing expect to turn settings down big time.
Click to expand...

or he could sell me the card for super cheap :D
 
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