NVidia SLI on Windows - basic manual

[shhnedo]

Are you ever been in our country?

Конечно. Я родился в России. )
Though I'll have to speak English in here. You know, forum rules and stuff. )

[humbert]

@Daniil & Shhnedo - thank you so very much for your advice. I saved your instructions. I'm under the impression that, taking my budget into account, the best way is to attach another GTX-660 and hook them up in SLI. The next size up would be a GTX-760 which is about $20-$30 more, beyond that exceeds my financial capabilities. Based on what I've been reading, it seems 2 660's in SLI will deliver better performance than a single 760, plus the setup won't be all that difficult.

@Daniil - you mentioned that getting 2 cards from the same manufacturer (Asus, Gigabyte, etc..) is the better way. I'd have to check my records to see who made my current card - all I know is I'm using drivers and software downloaded directly from NVidia's web site. Do you believe I'm going to have a major problem if the 2 cards came from different manufacturers.

@shhnedo - it's OK to post something in a language other than English assuming you attach a translation. In your case just one line won't really make much of a difference. BTW, Google translated that as "of course, I was born in Russia". Do you live in Russia too?

[shhnedo]

Based on what I've been reading, it seems 2 660's in SLI will deliver better performance than a single 760, plus the setup won't be all that difficult.

Considering your budget, yes. Two GTX660 would deliver better performance than a single GTX760.

@Daniil - you mentioned that getting 2 cards from the same manufacturer (Asus, Gigabyte, etc..) is the better way. I'd have to check my records to see who made my current card - all I know is I'm using drivers and software downloaded directly from NVidia's web site. Do you believe I'm going to have a major problem if the 2 cards came from different manufacturers.

He is absolutely right about the manufacturer thing. It's best to have two identical cards.
It won't be that difficult to identify yours. Here are some tools you'll find useful:
GPU-Z - specifically for monitoring your graphics card(s), it also displays detailed information about each GPU your system has
CPU-Z - sort of an AIO tool for detailed info about your CPU/motherboard/memory/graphics cards, but bare in mind that it doesn't detect GPUs very well
These were the free tools. You could consider buying/pirating AIDA64(the all new and improved EVEREST). It shows the smallest details about EVERYTHING in your PC, even software(dlls and such). It also has a Sensor option which monitors temperatures and voltages, two very important things when it comes to SLI or OCing. I recommend the Business Edition.

@shhnedo - it's OK to post something in a language other than English assuming you attach a translation. In your case just one line won't really make much of a difference. BTW, Google translated that as "of course, I was born in Russia". Do you live in Russia too?

Google translates correctly. I was born there but my parents decided to live in Bulgaria, soo... BOOM! 3 freaking languages in my head. And it's funny when I start mixing them up for no reason. xD

[Daniil]

@Daniil - you mentioned that getting 2 cards from the same manufacturer (Asus, Gigabyte, etc..) is the better way. I'd have to check my records to see who made my current card - all I know is I'm using drivers and software downloaded directly from NVidia's web site. Do you believe I'm going to have a major problem if the 2 cards came from different manufacturers.

Probably yes. Different vendors use a bit different elementary base (for example, different memory chips) and it can cause glitches.

The simpliest way to find the manufacturer of your card - open the case, plug out the card and watch on it. At most cases you'll see big brand label on cooler system of a card - something like ASUS, MSI, XFX, Zotac or such. Like this:

Then, on the back side of a card (side with cooler is "front" side) very often you can find a small white or pink stiker with bar code and kind of char code, for example something like ASUS NVG8800GTX. Like this:


Or if you don't want (or can't) open your PC case, you can use software recommended by shhnedo, he advise absolutely correct.

@shhnedo
ПривеÑ,! Рад слышаÑ,ÑŒ браÑ,а-славянина!
Of course, we'll follow the forum rules, кomяade. BTW, Bulgaria is very beautiful country, one of the best spa in Eastern Europe! Also, one my schoolmate today living in Bulgaria, in Varna (she's a translator in one company).

[shhnedo]

I just happened to be studying at a university in Varna. You'd think the world is bigger than this! xD
Yes, Bulgaria is a beautiful country, but if it didn't have so many retarded politicians, it would've been even better.

By the way, @humbert, we forgot to mention one of the most important parts of multi gpu configs - DA POWAH SUPPLY! I mean, @Daniil did mention it but he hasn't gone into detail. Make sure you have two of each connector the GTX660 requires, and be sure to check the label on the PSU block itself, it should have a table on it saying how many amps each rail delivers. Also, I strongly recommend having a PSU with a single powerful +12V rail. A friend of mine already had some headaches with a multi-12V rail PSU. He wasn't very lucky and had to bury one of his 560Ti's.
You'll really need a serious block since you're also running an FX-8350 chip.

[humbert]

Thanks for the advice on SLI. I went into NVidia's web site and it says that cards of the same model number (or at least the same GPU) will work. Also, both cards must have the same type and same amount of memory. Also, the web site clearly says 2 similar cards made by different manufacturers will work. Similarly, if one card is overclocked by the manufacturer and the other isn't, it will work too. Armed with this information, I bought an SLI compatible Asus card, 2 GB. The original one is Gigabyte. I did this because I saved myself $40 in the process, not to mention that Nvidia insists this setup will work. Fortunately, Newegg (the vendor) is very reasonable - I can always return it if there's a problem.

Oh, my PSU is 720W modular, which should be enough. I bought it last year when I bought my first GTX-660. Why? When I was playing my game and all these movements and explosions started happening, BANG! the computer shuts down completely! This has not happened since changing out the PSU. And, since I'm not planning to overlock this thing, I see no need for more fans or other coolers.

I'll tell you more when I receive it.

[shhnedo]

will work.  will work

Nobody said they won't. It's just MORE LIKELY for them to work if they're the same brand. Anyway, people mostly buy identical cards when they go shoping for both of them, not when they have one and are searching for a second piece.
If the PSU manufacturer went through the trouble of making it modular, I suppose it's a decent one and has atleast 600W of actual power output, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[humbert]

After a long wait I finally received all my SLI stuff. The 2nd card arrived a week ago but didn't include an SLI connector, so I had to run out and buy one.

This is 2 GTX-660's, one is Asus and the other Gigabyte. It works great! After booting up and waiting a second, it pretty much configured itself. All I had to do was enable SLI. Diablo III is much improved. Everything moves with much more fluidity. I see semi-transparent smoke coming out of thing that are on fire (not visible before), bigger and more rats crawling around, and no slowdown or freezes during intense battle scenes. I'm not seeing overheating or any other problem.

If you're a gamer and have an SLI compatible mobo, I definitely recommend SLI.

[Vasudev]

SLI can render more textures & everything that is why you seeing additional elements in game.

[humbert]

SLI can render more textures & everything that is why you seeing additional elements in game.

Very true! Another thing that impressed me was one scene where the character is standing in front of a waterfall. Not only does the water fall like real water, but there's also a semi-transparent rainbow where the water is falling. The rainbow is faint and looks exactly as it would in real life. Without SLI you don't see it at all.

Also, when I put both cards in, my case fan died! Here I am running 2 graphic cards at full tilt and no fan! Finally today I went out and bought 2 fans. I didn't buy more because they wouldn't fit in my case. Good thing last year when I upgraded the PSU, I got 720W modular.