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Mythrilfan · Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:09 pm Post subject: SLI question

I know it is said that FS9 does not support SLI. Fortunately i have a life beyond FS (as an ordinary PC games gamer :twisted: ) and i am seriously thinking about another 6600gt by the old one where the free pcx slot is quietly turning into a black hole and yelling at me for not stuffing something in it. As the old one is a Leadtek WinFast PX6600 GT TDH Extreme (factory overclocked, both GPU and memory speeds up by 10%), surely i must buy another one of exactly the same kind?
but head to http://www.leadtek.com/graphic.html and down-down-down to the winfast PX6600 section. let us concentrate on the TDH and TDH extreme versions. they are basically the same but the extreme version, as i already stated, is overclocked. now... will i be able to add a "vanilla" TDH to my existing TDH extreme? At leadteks site, my cards description says that "NVIDIA SLI Multi-GPU Ready
Dramatically scales performance by allowing two graphics cards to be run in parallel. (PX6600 GT only)". PX6600GT. Does that mean that ANY of their 6600gt cards will work? i found this nice baby at newegg: http://tinyurl.com/ze5uy (the last one), it is still a Leadtek, still a "PX 6600GT series" card... but at the same time it is quite different, with twice the memory and with a vanilla core and memory clock... so will i be able to use that in sli with my old card, and will it make any difference over a 128mb card?

i thank those who even read this post through, thanks, thanks!

Tenspace · Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:53 pm Post subject:

My experience with SLI is that the vid cards have to be identical - same bus and clock speeds, same memory, same number of pipelines, etc.

I did some digging on the internet, and basically came up with the same info. If the cards are two different clock speeds they will not work together. Even cards that have identical specs, but come from two different manufacturers won't work together.

Also, it was mentioned that SLI with 128MB cards is not going to be worth it, performance-wise. 256MB is recommended for SLI. Check out sites like xbitlabs.com, or bjorn3d.com, or overclockers.net for more info.

Mythrilfan · Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:27 pm Post subject:

i know that different manufacturers' cards cant be coupled with each other. but what do You mean, not worth it? would it be more worth it to buy two 256mb 6600gts? or one new, costing twice as much as the new 128mb 6600 gt? :roll: no, it would not.

coming back to the original problem: i am curious what leadtek meant with the sentance "[...] allowing two graphics cards to be run in parallel. (PX6600 GT only)". PX6600 GT only... will that allow for any PX6600GT?

and i did find this nice link from nvidias site... http://tinyurl.com/rqbfl which should mean that i CAN connect the two different leadtek gfx cards. right?

Tenspace · Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:45 pm Post subject:

First, regarding the two 6600GT's, if they run at different clock speeds, they will not work together, even if they are both LeadTek. Also, if the cards are identical, but the BIOS versions are different they may not work together either. NVIDIA is supposed to be bringing out a fix for this problem.

Second, here is what I read from xbit on the 6600/128 card (the phrase "not recommended" is theirs, not mine):

That said, we do not recommend you to buy a multi-GPU SLI kit consisting of two GeForce 6600 GT cards. We think a single GeForce 6800 GT or Ultra or RADEON X850 XT/RADEON X800 XL will be a better choice since these cards will let you enjoy comfortable and trouble-free play even with enabled full-screen anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.

Link: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/leadtek-sli_22.html

Mythrilfan · Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:10 pm Post subject:

The site wrote:
That said, we do not recommend you to buy a multi-GPU SLI kit consisting of two GeForce 6600 GT cards. We think a single GeForce 6800 GT or Ultra or RADEON X850 XT/RADEON X800 XL will be a better choice since these cards will let you enjoy comfortable and trouble-free play even with enabled full-screen anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.

roger that, but that applies to the persons who buy a whole new system. it is understandable. but right now, buying a 6800 costs a lot more.

ok, so i'll keep looking for the same card as mine. if anyone thinks otherwise, please say something!

121a · Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:43 pm Post subject:

Here is a 6800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125010
$170.00 8O

Tenspace · Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:53 pm Post subject:

Dude, he needs a 6600 - I can get him 2 6800's for about $250.

121a · Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:04 pm Post subject:

I know what he needs but just saying that there are cheap 6800s, which are better in preformance.

Tenspace · Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:59 pm Post subject:

Agreed... now we need to figure out how to talk him into a 7800GTX! :)

Mythrilfan · Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:24 pm Post subject:

lol... if You can convince me that one 6800 gt or ultra is better than two 6600gt's (and costs just a bit more than one 6600gt, max 50$), then i probarbly will go for that instead.

keep the posts coming :wink:

Mythrilfan · Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:56 pm Post subject:

ok, i did some hours of digging on the net, and it really seems that one 6800 ultra is quite a lot better than two 6600gt's :( so it seems that sli is good for making high-end systems when You dont have any faster cards left, or when the cards are brand new and the prices between the high- and mid-range cards is still steep. right now, it seems that i would be very stupid if i bought another 6600gt.

well, i looked around a bit more, this time focusing on the 6800 ultra cards, but i have a new problem, and this time You cant solve it. it seems that all of them only have digital video outs, but at the moment my old monitor still uses a vga connection.

i guess i'm looking at a double (or rather triple, or quadruple) expense: a new monitor and then a new card.

Any new comments are very, VERY welcome!

121a · Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 2:08 am Post subject:

So does mine but they make DVI-VGA adaptors, usually comes with the card.

Mythrilfan · Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 11:01 am Post subject:

oh really? that is nice to know, i gotta check the cards' specifications out then. that info makes me very happy :) thanks!