I have a basic EVGA GTX 480, can I run that in SLI with another brand GTX 480 as long as it is the stock model? For example pair it with a asus or msi version.

I have a corsair tx750w power supply can that run 2 gtx 480 or is it pushing it? I am guessing I need at least 1000w to be safe I just want to verify.

Lastly here is the situation I am in and my options.

I have a computer at work with a gtx 465 1gb at home where I do basically all of my gaming i have a gtx 480 and a 9800 gt for phys-x with a 750w power supply (yes having the dedicated phys-x card actually helps). I was thinking of the following, please let me know what would be the most optimal for gaming and not too expensive.


1) sell the 750w psu and the gtx 465, bring the 9800gt to work, buy a 1000w psu and another gtx 480 (for sli) for home.

2) sell only the gtx 480, and buy another gtx 465 to run sli at home, and bring the 9800 gt to work

The powersupply is absolutley the worst thing you can skimp out on and underpower.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-580-sli-review/14

2x480 was drawing 702w on a power hungry rig, but at 620w your right on your limit. I would upgrade to at least a 750 or 850w model or risk the psu going bang and taking the rest of your computer with it.

As for the OP yes you can run any other brand of gtx 480 with your current 480. You can even run an overclocked one with a normal one if you have the power supply and cooling for it.

If you check out the following link you can see what sort of performance difference you will have between an 465 sli and a 480 sli.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-465-sli-review/12

Just use the drop down box to go between different games. It does appear that only on the most demanding games at the moment like metro 2033 will you notice a difference 53fps on the 480 sli oposed to 32fps on the 465. Any game that you get over 60fps or there abouts on a 465 sli you won't notice any difference with say the 480 sli giving you 100fps on it.

Your first option is alot more expensive then the second. Mainly due to the gtx 480 costing a fair bit more then the 465. A 750w PSU should be fine provided you don't have alot of other computer components(hard drives etc) and haven't overclocked anything. If you have I would get a 850-75w at least.

I had a friend that skimped on his PSU and when it blew up it took his ati 5970 out with it. An expensive lesson at around £450-500 for the card. It mainly comes down to how much you want to spend and what performance you want out of it though.

When people say "don't skimp on the PSU," they usually mean something more along the lines of brand name, don't they? Obviously you should give yourself some breathing room, but I see no reason to buy 300W over what you actually need, and it's pretty easy to do that in the current market.

Agreed. I believe it's an urban myth that you need 800W or more just to run a normal gamers computer

My rule of thumb is to use a PSU calculator, such as I provided, and add about 100W to it's final output, just to be sure

Well you do certainly want a reliable brand and yes 300w over the top is overkill unless you plan to add or upgrade to more power hungry components in the near future. You do want to give yourself a bit of headroom though, and you certainly don't want to starve your system of power when you push it with a demanding application.

Ok Just saw your edit, that makes a whole lot more sense now and yea a 620w is probably more then enough for your computer.

I also agree people probably do go overboard but it is better then going under by far, but you still have to take into account degredation of the PSU. A PSU after a year is not going to be giving out the same watts that it did when it was brand new so a little overhead is always needed.

so i guess it is safe to say from my original post. that being that i already have a spare gtx 465 i should sell my existing gtx 480 and buy another gtx 465 for sli. based on the links to guru3d.com it appears that gtx 465 in sli gets anywhere from 4-20 fps extra fps in a variety of high end games over a single gtx 480. based on ebay sales I can get approximately $200 for my evga gtx 480, then I can use that money to buy a evga gtx 480 ($160 on newegg with rebate). if my math is correct i would basically be upgrading my graphics power and not paying anything.

just to confirm, i should be able to run 2 gtx 465s with a corsair tx 750 w psu?

my main sli fear, is no support at the launch of game. do most games have sli support at launch? if not will the game still work properly?

thanks for all your help.

I don't want to scare you aways from SLI... but good god, if you have problems, it can be a horrible pain trying to get things to work. Graphical glitches, etc. I would recommend a single card if you can get the performance you want from one without paying too much.

at the very worst if your sli setup is acting up and causing problems can you jsut disable the second card in the nvidia control panel? basically turning it off. or you could just unplug the second video card until a fix is released for the game you are playing. to have 2 gtx 465s with better fps than a single gtx 485 and deal with a few occasional problems sounds tolerable to me. also, a gtx 465 on its own, if ever needed is a powerful single card.

Yeah, disabling a card is always an option. Just wanted to make sure you knew what you were signing up for!

If there's no support you can use nVidia Inspector to cure that. It can also fix problems that occur in games like lights shining through walls (as happens in the Witcher 1)

The Antec page is running a widely used calc called "eXtreme PSU Calculator Lite". My experience is that it is good but not quite conservative enough. It suggests you estimate the power draw of the CPU at 90% TDP, but some things (like running Folding@Home) will push it well over TDP.

An excellent 620W supply, which that Corsair is, is fine for a dual GTX 460 rig. I would worry about it if you went to dual 465's, though; those draw a good 40-50W more, each. In that case, the TX 750 would be a wise choice.

On the other hand, even a 1000W Rosewill or similar crap PSU would cause me to cancel your fire insurance if I was your agent.