Do I need to have the same exact video cards for the SLi mode to work? Or can they be different? Im talking about companies. Not the actual hardware. Thanx

SLi onyl works for Nvidia firstly, crossfireX (formerly known as crossfire) for ATI. ATI let you use different GPUs, aslogn as they have the same core, (aka all the RV670, and the RV680) together in xfireX.
so you can run one 3870 and a 3850, or a 3870x2 and a 3850. or two 3870s and two 3850s ETC.


BUT Nvidia, can only allow the exact same hardware to run. so you would need 2x8600GTs, or 2x 8800 ULTRAs. ETC.

Sorry that is what I meant, Talking about nvidia.

I wanted to know being it the same hardware, if lets say a BFG card and a GIGABYTE card would work together.

A simple Google search found this:

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They don't have to be the exact same video cards, but you'll probably get better stability results by running two video cards that are sold by the same company; XFX, EVGA, MSI.. etc.- it's nice to run two cards from the same company that you know will give you the best bang for the buck, quailty card, instead of running an XFX with an odd ball that was just released a month ago and has ZERO customer reviews.

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Dave!

Originally posted by cldbld:

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Sorry that is what I meant, Talking about nvidia.

I wanted to know being it the same hardware, if lets say a BFG card and a GIGABYTE card would work together.

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yeah that would work, as long as they are the same card. ie. on BFG 8800GT and one GIGABYTE 8800GT.

but remember that if one has been OverClocked, then it will downclock to the slowest version.

Originally posted by shaffaaf:

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but remember that if one has been OverClocked, then it will downclock to the slowest version.

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Same with memory aswell. i.e. If one has 512mb and the other has 256mb, both will appear to have 256mb of memory.

Originally posted by dsgtrain:

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Originally posted by shaffaaf:

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but remember that if one has been OverClocked, then it will downclock to the slowest version.

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Same with memory aswell. i.e. If one has 512mb and the other has 256mb, both will appear to have 256mb of memory.

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exactly :D

Interesting, I always thought the cards had to be identical. When did that change?

they do have to be identical,

bu the company and clocks can be different. and witthe RAM, it happened with the 320 and 640 GTS.
if you had both, then SLi, then you would only have two 320s, not a 320 and 640

By identical I meant same brand, same revision etc. not just the same model. Interesting that it's been loosened up now.

Cool thanks for the info shaffaaf!

Found this quote from Google:

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The 81.95 drivers support different manufacturers, have a look at the change logs at Nvidia.com

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Ah right, makes sense...