Here is a tough one.

[ctjoyce]

Okay, so I want to throw in a second card for SLi, yea yea I know wait for DX10, but I'm going to DX10 in april and the cards are going into rigs for my mum and sister. Anyway I'm surfing Newegg, and I find that my 7900GT has been out of stock since, well since I got one. So this is what I am thinking. If I buy say an XFX card could I throw that along side of my eVGA card and have them work fine. And if not, could I just BIOS flash the XFX card to an eVGA BIOS to make both think they are the same. I mean as long as they are G71 cores they should be happy together.

If worst comes to worst, I can get one from TigerDirect, but I would prefer to keep my busness with newegg.

Cheers
Cameron

[GeForce]

As long as they're the same core, manufacturer shouldn't matter.

Jon 8-)

[ctjoyce]

Thats what I figured.

Second card comin up!

Cheers
Cameron

[Politically Incorrect]

As long as they're the same core, manufacturer shouldn't matter.

Jon 8-)

That is my understanding as well.

[ctjoyce]

Doing some outside resurch here is what I found.

I can infact use two different manufactures as long as the cores are the same. Also since the cores are the same technically I could use a 7950GT insted of a 7900GT as a primary and use the 7900GT as a secondary. The problem is that the amount of RAM will be off along with pixel pipelines, so the 7950 would way underclock itself, and disable half the RAM.

I also found that again as long as the cards are the same cores, and the same amounts of RAM you could infact flash the BIOS of the card so that your system would read that you have two eVGA or whatever cards. It was also suggested that you copy the BIOS of your first card and flash it to the second so that you have two identical cards working together in x32.

Cheers
Cameron

[Brett_Henderson]

I also found that again as long as the cards are the same cores, and the same amounts of RAM you could infact flash the BIOS of the card so that your system would read that you have two eVGA or whatever cards. It was also suggested that you copy the BIOS of your first card and flash it to the second so that you have two identical cards working together in x32.

Is that universal .. and really that simple ? Same core.. same amount of RAM.. same BIOS and they'll happily co-exist in SLI ?

[Viper22]

I think the tough part would be the copying and flashing of the video card BIOS.  I have no idea how to do that...I'm sure Cam does though

[ctjoyce]

I also found that again as long as the cards are the same cores, and the same amounts of RAM you could infact flash the BIOS of the card so that your system would read that you have two eVGA or whatever cards. It was also suggested that you copy the BIOS of your first card and flash it to the second so that you have two identical cards working together in x32.

Is that universal .. and really that simple ? Same core.. same amount of RAM.. same BIOS and they'll happily co-exist in SLI ?

Yup. Same goes for crossfire.

@ Viper22: Very simple. Boot up nVFlash on a floppy, at the A:/ type in nvflash.exe -b "your BIOS name here".rom Then shut down your computer and restart with the new card. Again boot up nVFlash and at the A:/ type in nvflash -p -u -f "name of BIOS".rom The BIOS gets overwritten, and again you shut down. Then insert the new card into slot 2, the origional card into slot one, add the SLi bridge, and set your motherboard to SLi mode. Boot up windows, reinstall your nVidia Forceware and vwalla you have a SLi rig.

Cheers
Cameron

[Politically Incorrect]

Here is something that isn't always mentioned when it comes to SLi.
With a Nvidia SLi set you it won't support multiple monitors I did not know this until recently. I am uncertain if Crossfire allows it or not.
So in order to run more than one monitor you must turn off SLi, which can be a pain.
Supposedly dual monitors and SLi will work when Vista comes out, or so I read still uncertain what Visa has that will allow it.

If anyone knows of a workaround that will allow this please let me know as i have yet to find anything.

[ctjoyce]

Nope, crossfire and SLi both require SLi to be off for multiple monitors. However a Matrox works fine in SLi or crossfire.

Vista did fix this problem for SLi, I don't know about Crossfire.

But if you think about it, who needs multiple monitors when running SLi? I mean in all seriousness the FS world is probibly a slim less than 10% of the gaming world. Multiple cards were designed for FEAR, BF2, HL2 things of that nature.

Cheers
Cameron

[Politically Incorrect]

Nope, crossfire and SLi both require SLi to be off for multiple monitors. However a Matrox works fine in SLi or crossfire.

Vista did fix this problem for SLi, I don't know about Crossfire.

But if you think about it, who needs multiple monitors when running SLi? I mean in all seriousness the FS world is probibly a slim less than 10% of the gaming world. Multiple cards were designed for FEAR, BF2, HL2 things of that nature.

Cheers
Cameron

True I only switch to SLi when running games that can use it. What concerns me is if there is wear and tear on the cards by doing so (switching back and forth) ??

[ctjoyce]

There isn't any. The wear and tear would be the same as turning on and off the computer.

Cheers
Cameron.

[Viper22]

Hopefully the Hiper Type R can hold out with SLi, it is SLi compatible, but some reviews do not look highly at those abilities.  I stopped experiencing issues with mine (actually a short with new cathode lights), and I think it would do alright at SLi.

[Mees]

Woah, I better get outta here, this has to be a hardware-guru topic!!!

[ctjoyce]

Hopefully the Hiper Type R can hold out with SLi, it is SLi compatible, but some reviews do not look highly at those abilities.  I stopped experiencing issues with mine (actually a short with new cathode lights), and I think it would do alright at SLi.

It will hold SLi just fine on my rig, but the problem is that once I add that card, I can't add anything else that requires power.

Next rig is going to have a PC Power and Cooling 850W PSU.

@Mees: True, but did you learn anything?

Cheers
Cameron