Sli GTX 285 2gb with GTX 285 1gb
 

Is it possible to do? I've always just heard that they need to be same chipset but I've not heard if the onboard RAM's need to match up. I haven't bought either yet but I'm just wondering for the future about it. And I've read that 2 gb is very minimal gain which I'd believe but I'm just on ebay and I'll snag the best deal on them whether it's 2 gb or 1 gb depending on if they can SLI interchangeably or not.

Thanks :)

Yep, it's possible, but both of the cards will be limited to 1GB of memory, and all speeds (memory/core/shader) will run at those of the slower card.

Such a waste of the 2gb card! for reasons [Ion] stated :)

my mate has 2x GTX285 2gb OC by EVGA, and I forsee him being happy with his gfx for a loooong time, but a 1gb and a 2gb just seems odd unless there are specific circumstances surrounding each purchase.

I wasn't planning on going with a 2gb then a 1gb if I can avoid it. I'm just starting to see less and less of the 2gb 285's on the market so I'm just hoping that if I get one now the rest won't disappear on me and I'll be stuck with that solo (which is by no means a bad thing lol) Essentially right now I'm just looking on ebay to see what'll get me the best bang for my buck and I was wondering what the future options would be and if they were interchangeable or if, like both of you said, the 2 gb would lower itself to the 1gb standard.
Thanks much for your help :)

Next ? I'm selling my gts 250's right now, if I'm not able to sell one and am left with it but still buy the gtx 285, could I just use the 250 as a physX card? And if I can, do I need an sli bridge for them or can the PhysX card just be standalone in the third pci e slot?

Dude in your shoes, I'd put bang for buck on a GTX275, maybe even the gigabyte super overclock 1792mb model (readily pars and even beats a stock 285), or a 2gb 285 if you have you heart set on one, and keep one GTS250 for physx.

This is all assuming you definitely want to stay nvidia, which I can understand (can understand loyalty to any brand you have had good experiences with)

for physx you do not need the SLi bridge, this is only to link the two same GPU's that will split the rendering load, whereas in your new case, the GTX2xx card will do rendering, and the GTS250 will be standalone for physx.

again that's me in your shoes, and definitely wanting to stay with Nv.

The ebay price difference between 275's and 285's is next to nothing so i figure why not just spend like an extra 20 bucks and up myself to the 285. I'll keep an eye out though for a solid 275. Maybe If i can catch 2 of them for under 300 (highly unlikely) I'd get those and sli them.

Also, thx for the explanation on the PhysX :)

No problemo dude, let us know how it works out for you aye!

Would coolermaster be a good brand of psu to upgrade to? I'm just concerned on brand quality as I finally know how to check for correct amperage on the rails.

I always go Corsair: A TX 750 or HX 750 would be more than enough for 2 GTX 285s. Cooler Master's Ultimate line of PSUs is supposed to be good, but I have always gone for Corsair PSUs and see no reason to change :p

How about the Real Power 1000? I would like to go with Corsair too but they are a bit out of my price range. I can find a couple of the real's for about 100 on ebay again (I'm starting to like that site more and more until I buy something from a bad seller and get ripped off)

That would also be more than enough, but as I said, I would rather have a Corsair TX 750 (which, if you are willing to wait a bit, can be had for ~$100 on Newegg.com after a rebate). The Real Power Pro isn't a bad power supply at all, but I'm just a Corsair fanboy :p

gotcha, if I were wanting to go to a three way SLI. Since it's a single rail system would I just be able to use converter cables off of the 4 pin peripherals to the necessary pci and not have to worry about it as much as I would if I were on a multi-rail sysem?

Actually, it would be either 3 way sli or 2 way and one PhysX card. Regardless, would the coverters be a problem in terms of overloading the psu amperages or would I be ok provided I just stay within the listed max of the psu itself?

can i ask why you want switch to an GTX285 if you have SLi-ed your GTS250? the GTS250 SLI will last you until maybe next year and then when nvidia release there new line of gfx card you be prepared easily.
You wouldn't notice a massive difference from a GTS250 to a GTX285 in my opinion an GTS250 is good enough and you got them in SLI so its better

My case is quite inefficient at airflow at the moment until i do some redesigning the outer shell so I can get my fans remounted and that'll take some time. So i figure the 285 is a better option for heat purposes. And I'll more than likely be Sli-ing that guy in the very near future with possibly one of the gts 250's as a dedicated PhysX card. Also another reason is because I'm competitive and my friend wants me to build him a computer and I can't build a computer for someone that'll be better than mine less than 3 months after I get my own off the ground lol. That last reason is probably the biggest, 2x 285's instead of 250's is, i agree, not going to do me much good in performance boosts as it will sit in slightly overkill mode but a lil more futureproof mode too. Side bonus is the 285 will crush the sli 250s if the game I'm playing doesn't support sli (but I don't know of any of those though i do know they exist so I just use that as a side point lol)

Would you be willing to consider joining our Folding@home and WCG teams? Each of the 285s should do 8k PPD (points per day) in Folding@Home (F@H), and the i5 should do ~2200-2300 PPD or so in WCG. All of the resources you need for setting up WCG are in the link in my sig

I've never run F@H on a gpu before. i used to run it hardcore on my ps3. I kinda stopped doing that when I got roommates and we all took a share of the power bill. But I'll jump my computer in w/ you guys why not.

For power supplies, I'd also take a good look at the Enermax Revolution 85+ 850w, if you are after quality and stong 12v rails, this PSU can also be considered, however they are rather pricey, much more so than a Corsair TX750 as I remember it.

I just picked up a corsair HX 850 so I should be pretty content with that one I hope. I found a little mistake with zipzoomfly on ebay and they were selling 10 of them for 41 bucks a pop so I bought all ten with intention to re-sell them :) As soon as I bought them they relisted 3 more at $250 lol. So, anyone looking for a new power supply? lol

You got 10 Corsair HX 850s for $41 each? That's incredible! I payed that much for my CX400 :banghead: :mad:

They had the hx 1000 up for 72 dollars but for some reason I decided against that, I should've gone for it. They've since caught their errors and have everything relisted at correct prices

Damn
I think I hate you now :p
You should list those up in the FS section, I'm sure you'll be able to get at least $100 for each of them (maybe offer a slight discount for WCG and F@H team members :o)

What country are you in Jasper? I'd consider a couple of those if your resale price is right :D

pm me.

I'm tracking a few on ebay to see about where their prices are hitting, I'm hoping for 120-150 because the profits from these are going to go support Watoto orphanage in Uganda. I figure if God's going to provide a crazy provision like that, He's got some plans for the money gained, so I probably won't be giving too many discounts. But I'll let you know when I get them posted in there; probably about 3 weeks as school is unnaturally busy right now lol.

Hey jasper1605, did you ever actually get this working?

I tried pairing a GTX 285 1gb with a 2gb model and I never could get it to work. I'm using the SLI hack with a non-SLI motherboard, but when I put in a 2nd 1gb card it worked, so I don't think using the hack was my problem. Despite what all the internet experts seem to think, 2gb won't SLI with 1gb. The only reason it might have not worked that I can think of is that the hacked drivers are version 190.62 and maybe you need the absolute latest version to support this type of asymmetric SLI. But that seems unlikely.

Can anyone actually confirm that it is possible to SLI a 2gb with a 1gb from direct experience?

I did not get the opportunity to test that out unfortunately. The bids on ebay got much higher than I was hoping to part with and I figure when the GT300 comes out there'll be a huge price drop on all the other cards when people dump them to upgrade. So I cannot say that I did get it to work sry. Best of luck to you though!