SLI with two different cards

Bravius

I recently (last summer) built my PC from parts I personally bought. The setup is as follows:

AMD Phenom Black Edition Quad Core Processor clocked at 3.5 GHz

4096 MB Corsair Gaming Memory

Nvidia GTX 275 with 2 GB dedicated memory,

1 TB 7200 Hard drive

Windows 7 Ultimate

900W Silent Power Supply

 

Now, I just graduated college with an engineering degree and I have a bit of extra money to throw around so I was planning on buying Nvidia's new GTX 480 with 2GB of dedicated memory. I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to SLI the 480 with my 275 or if I should just go ahead and remove my old card and simply use the new one.

Treekodar

Sure. Just use the GTX 275 as a dedicated PhysX card.

eyeswideopen

Originally posted by Bravius

I recently (last summer) built my PC from parts I personally bought. The setup is as follows:

AMD Phenom Black Edition Quad Core Processor clocked at 3.5 GHz

4096 MB Corsair Gaming Memory

Nvidia GTX 275 with 2 GB dedicated memory,

1 TB 7200 Hard drive

Windows 7 Ultimate

900W Silent Power Supply

 

Now, I just graduated college with an engineering degree and I have a bit of extra money to throw around so I was planning on buying Nvidia's new GTX 480 with 2GB of dedicated memory. I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to SLI the 480 with my 275 or if I should just go ahead and remove my old card and simply use the new one.

No, you cannot effectively SLI them. However, you can leave the 275 in as a dedicated physx card if you wish.

Treekodar

You could get a motherboard with the Hydra chipset, then you'll be able to SLI them. Is it going to significantly increase your performance? Hell no, it's still new technology.

Gruug

Originally posted by Bravius

I recently (last summer) built my PC from parts I personally bought. The setup is as follows:

AMD Phenom Black Edition Quad Core Processor clocked at 3.5 GHz

4096 MB Corsair Gaming Memory

Nvidia GTX 275 with 2 GB dedicated memory,

1 TB 7200 Hard drive

Windows 7 Ultimate

900W Silent Power Supply

 

Now, I just graduated college with an engineering degree and I have a bit of extra money to throw around so I was planning on buying Nvidia's new GTX 480 with 2GB of dedicated memory. I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to SLI the 480 with my 275 or if I should just go ahead and remove my old card and simply use the new one.

 Save your extra money so you can start paying down those college loans. Better yet, put the cash into some interest earning instrument and start saving for your retirement.

eyeswideopen

Originally posted by Treekodar

You could get a motherboard with the Hydra chipset, then you'll be able to SLI them. Is it going to significantly increase your performance? Hell no, it's still new technology.

Hmm, what's this "Hydra" chipset? Sounds interesting if it will allow mismatched cards to work together.

Treekodar

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

Originally posted by Treekodar

You could get a motherboard with the Hydra chipset, then you'll be able to SLI them. Is it going to significantly increase your performance? Hell no, it's still new technology.

Hmm, what's this "Hydra" chipset? Sounds interesting if it will allow mismatched cards to work together.

http://www.lucidlogix.com/

It makes it possible to use say a 5850 and a GTX 260 together, but the technology is a bit... rough around the edges, but heck if they get it to work properly then I'm getting it for sure.

eyeswideopen

Originally posted by Treekodar

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

Originally posted by Treekodar

You could get a motherboard with the Hydra chipset, then you'll be able to SLI them. Is it going to significantly increase your performance? Hell no, it's still new technology.

Hmm, what's this "Hydra" chipset? Sounds interesting if it will allow mismatched cards to work together.

http://www.lucidlogix.com/

It makes it possible to use say a 5850 and a GTX 260 together, but the technology is a bit... rough around the edges, but heck if they get it to work properly then I'm getting it for sure.

Interesting, I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks for the heads up.

I actually wondered when SLI was first being introduced why something like this couldn't be done, have some of the simpler graphic calculations sent to the less powerful card while the big card handles the intense stuff. In fact, not much different from using a second lesser graphics card as a stand-alone Physx card in principle. Don;t think I'd bother mixing AMD/ATI cards with Nvidia cards for example, though. Differing architectures getting in the way would seem to be too much hassle for me.