A Few Questions about SLI

[LiLvi3tbOi69]

i heard from somewhere..(i forgot) that in order for you to have sli and for it to work. you have to buy a SLI-ready Power Supply and SLI-ready RAM? is this true?

and yes..i do know you have to buy a sli-ready mobo and vid.card(s) i am just wondering about ps and ram.

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Not necessarily. You need an SLI motherbaord, and two identical SLI video cards (doesn't have to be same brands) to have SLI. But you need sufficient power. Some PSUs exceed SLI Power Requirements, but aren't SLI Certified. But you can still use SLI. And for memory, you don't need SLI Ceritified memory either.

As long as you have 2 identical SLI capable video cards, an SLI motherboard, SLI Bridge, and a PSU that meets requirements, then you can have SLI.

 

[randomperson21]

azn's right. personally, i think its sort of a marketing gimmick you have to see through.

sli sucks down a lot of power, so make sure your psu can handle it. i'm thinking 500W as a BARE minimum, i'd like 600-700 to be safe.

or 1kw....hehe but thats expensive.

 

[LiLvi3tbOi69]

haha

do any of u guys have it?

 

[pt]

azn's right. personally, i think its sort of a marketing gimmick you have to see through.

sli sucks down a lot of power, so make sure your psu can handle it. i'm thinking 500W as a BARE minimum, i'd like 600-700 to be safe.

or 1kw....hehe but thats expensive.

depends on the gfx cards, the 7600GS doesn't suck much power

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

Even the 7600GT doesn't require much power, it doesn't even have the PCI Express power connector.

 

[pt]

Even the 7600GT doesn't require much power, it doesn't even have the PCI Express power connector.

both of them are good choices for low power comsuption SLI, the good thing is that most GS are passive making a silent SLI system and pretty good too

 

[drade]

7600gt Don't even require that power connecter on them, they suck not that much power out of the system,. There also is the SLI bridge that comes with the motherboards (SLI-READY) You connect that bridge to both of your video cards. I have on single 7600gt, No need for another yet, this thing is rockin on games . Like the others said, 500W minimum.

 

[Azn Tr14dZ]

With 2 7600GTs in SLI, I would say 450 Watts can handle it. When DirectX 10 comes out, I want to go SLI w/ 2 Mid-Range DX10 cards similar to 7600GT (8600GT Maybe?) because they have such low power consumption.

 

[randomperson21]

With 2 7600GTs in SLI, I would say 450 Watts can handle it. When DirectX 10 comes out, I want to go SLI w/ 2 Mid-Range DX10 cards similar to 7600GT (8600GT Maybe?) because they have such low power consumption.

That would be schweet. But i doubt that nvidia is going to have anything like that for awhile.
And theres no gurentee that the 8000 series cards will also have low power consumption, because i bet its going to be a totally different core w/ totally differnet archatecture than the 7000 series.

Haven't there been rumors that next-gen gfx cards might require dedicated psu's?

 

[cdawall]

they now sell 200watt 5.25 drive bay psu you could use those for a card