Must match brand/model for SLI?

[TheJTrain]

How important is it to have exactly the same brand and model card when going for a SLI setup? I looked and looked but haven't really found any straightforward answer because all of the testing that I see being done ALWAYS has identical cards. That could very well be an indication that it's terribly important, but not necessarily. Anyone have any experience or knowledge in mixing card types?

For example, I kind of assume that the GPU version must be the same (2 8800GTXs for example), but do they both have to be eVGA 8800GTXs, or can I do one eVGA and one BFG? How about clock speeds? Memory size?

Thanks all,
JT

 

[narcotic]

I'm not a big expert and been off the loop for a little while now, but from what I do remember you can't use 2 different brands of the same card for SLI because it will be unstable or something like that, could be sync. problems...
So I don't remember the exact reason, but I remember its not really a good idea.

 

[krnmastersgt]

You can match any brand together as long as the card family is the same, so an EVGA 8800 GT and a PNY 8800 GT can SLI together, however keep in mind if the EVGA is running at higher clocks, it automatically underclocks to the PNY's speed or vice versa.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
You can match any brand together as long as the card family is the same, so an EVGA 8800 GT and a PNY 8800 GT can SLI together, however keep in mind if the EVGA is running at higher clocks, it automatically underclocks to the PNY's speed or vice versa.

Clockspeed will remain at both card's respective defaults w/o issue if you do not try to OC them.