Is my Motherboard compatible with SLI?

[CosMic92]

Ok, i know i can have SLI but there are some stuff i don't quite understand, some help would be appriciated :-)

 

I have one of these but i want to buy another one so ill get SLI, but there are some requirements

Norwegian Link: http://www.komplett.no/gainward-geforce-gtx-770-4gb-physx-cuda/782151#!tab:extra

English Link: http://videocardz.com/nvidia/geforce-700/geforce-gtx-770-4gb

 

And this is the motherboard i have.

Norwegian Link: http://www.komplett.no/asus-p9x79-pro-socket-2011/652807#!tab:extra

English Link: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P9X79_PRO/

 

 

I just realized this is in Norweagian will try and find an alternate site, thanks.

Also, i have a power supply for 650W and it says "Minimum 600W or greater system power supply (with a minimum 12V current rating of 42A)"

does that mean i have 50W left to spare?

[CosMic92]

Bump

[obobski]

From the bottom up:

 

- No, it doesn't mean you have 50W left to spare. Power supply requirements/suggestions are written with overhead in mind - basically, "have a power supply of X size and you shouldn't have problems as long as you don't have a ton of extra stuff hiding in the machine that you aren't telilng us about" (like 20 hard disks or something).

 

You can get a better estimate of your power supply needs here:

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp (remember to put in a value for capacitor aging!)

 

In general the more accurate you can be in filling it out, the more accurate it can be in estimating your power requirements. You should not plan to run your PSU at greater than 80% of its rated output as a long-term solution. If the calculator says you need 630W of power for what you want to pull off, I'd suggest upgrading your PSU - what you have now will probably start the system fine, but when you have a chance, upgrading to something like say, 850W, would be a good choice (for a few reasons: efficiency, reliability, and future expansion support).

 

- Your board supports SLI, so assuming the power supply is AOK you just need the second card (try to buy from the same manufacturer if at all possible; I know it's supposed to work heterogeneously, but years of experience tell me not to roll the dice if you don't have to) and the bridge (should have come with the motherboard if I'm not mistaken; they can be bought for a few bucks aftermarket if you don't have one). From what I could get off the Asus site (Asus' site always loads very poorly for me) you will want to use the first blue and first white PCIe slots for your graphics cards - and ensure that the BIOS properly sets them to dual x16 (if you have an expansion card that needs PCIe and isn't a graphics adapter, move it out of the bottom slot if possible, or the board will run 16/8/8) for the best possible performance.

 

Other things to consider:

 

- A second graphics card means more heat, is your case cooling up to that? It may be as simple as moving the case into a better venilatated spot in your room, but you may find that you need another case fan or something as well. Keep on an eye on the GPU temperatures (ideally whatever temps you have now for a single 770 should not change very much with two).

 

- Is SLI something you "need" (obviously you don't need it like you need food or air, but I mean is it the best solution for whatever your ultimate goal is?)? You may or may not be better off either going with a more powerful single card (like a GTX 780 Ti) or waiting for the next generation of cards, as multi-GPU setups have some intrinsic quirks related to SMP (that is, they don't always provide a performance gain in all applications, the performance gain is not consistent across all applications, and in some cases they introduce additional compatibility problems). This isn't to say that multi-GPU solutions are bad - but they are not without flaws. I'm just suggesting that you make yourself aware of any potential flaws, and consider your other options (like a faster single GPU) to ensure you're making the best choice for your specific system's needs.