Elite: Dangerous PvE - Mobius

I was hoping to draw on the knowledge of the wonderful people here (butter up, butter up...)

Basically a few months ago I upgraded to the GTX 960. It is great and all, I get 40FPS at ultra 1080 in stations mostly (goes down when there are a load on other CMDRs a little bit). However I want to use my 2 other monitors and that is just bearable at medium with some high settings.

I have been thinking about buying another 960 and SLi'ing it. I believe that I don't need to use the SLi bridge but it helps with performance? I also need to get a card that is the same memory (4GB in this case) and as close to the GPU and memory clock speeds as possible, my original card is no longer available. However I don't need them to be the same manufacturer?

They don't have to be the same manufacturer, but they do need to be the same card for Sli. Sli always uses a bridge, as far as I know, but DirectX 12 aka Windows 10 allows 2 graphics cards of any make and model to be used at the same time as long as they are DirectX 12 compatible. I have yet to see comprehensive testing done on systems with mixed cards, but what limited testing I have seen showed similar to better performance than SLI or Crossfire. Hope that helps

While i know that it is possible to mix cards from different manufactorers it is not adviceable. I use 2 GTX 770 4GB OC and everything works fine. But i bought both from Gigabyte to be sure they match each other.

Especially in the case that u got a OC'ed version of your card this can lead to problems because of different MHz-Settings, different VRam-Specs, etc.
Also, u will need a dedicated SLI-Board and a SLI-Bridge Connector. Most SLI Boards come with one.
It is also very important to keep power consumption and cooling in mind when running SLI. I got a 860W Power Supply installed to feed my 2 cards and the rest of my system. But i guess my system is also a bit beyond your specs.
Still, u would have to check if your system can handle the addional load and if u need to upgrade. And if so if buying a single better card wouldnt be cheaper, especially in the long run.

-> http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

The link above provides u with a chart where u can read out what kind of power supply u need with a multi-GraCa-setup. These numbers are conservatie ones, so normaly if u have what they specifie u will have enough (thats why i got a AX860i from Corsair).

If u want to be on the safe side get exactly the same card again. Most manufactorers pimp their cards in one or the other way. While it can work with different cards, i wouldnt risk it. Also, it is pointless to use SLI without a bridge. Your SLI-Motherboard should have had one delivered with it anyway.
If u get different cards make sure they have the same amount of VRam (mandatory!) and try to find out of they have tools that allow u to adjust the MHz-numbers, etc so u can edit them to make them equal. Otherwise u might risk system instability.
Also, make sure u check your power supply and cooling. Keep in mind that 2 GPUs produce MORE than double the heat because every GPU heats up the rest of the system as well.
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm <- This link provides u with a chart where u can see what kind of supply u will need. The chart is conservatie, so having what they specifie is mostly enough, especially if u dont overclock your system.

I got a Corsair AX860i Series PSU and it works like a charm with my system (see signature below).

Another thing about SLI:
Be prepared that it wont always work. I am currently playing World of Warships which almost doesnt work at all with SLI-enabled. So u might run into problems with specific programms. As WoWs is still in Beta i dont mind it much, still: it is a brand new game and there is no gurantee that they will ever add support for it. Same with a lot of older games and programms, not all can handle SLI-Configs.

smartroad wrote:I was hoping to draw on the knowledge of the wonderful people here (butter up, butter up...)

Basically a few months ago I upgraded to the GTX 960. It is great and all, I get 40FPS at ultra 1080 in stations mostly (goes down when there are a load on other CMDRs a little bit). However I want to use my 2 other monitors and that is just bearable at medium with some high settings.

I have been thinking about buying another 960 and SLi'ing it. I believe that I don't need to use the SLi bridge but it helps with performance? I also need to get a card that is the same memory (4GB in this case) and as close to the GPU and memory clock speeds as possible, my original card is no longer available. However I don't need them to be the same manufacturer?

If you have a sli capable motherboard, sufficient power supply and a bridge, you might see an increase in some games. SLI and Crossfire are by no means an easy and certain path to gaming heaven, and you don't get double the performance.

My safest bet for getting a guaranteed upgrade in performance is buying a stronger single card.

Glancing at the differences section further down in this link, shows an approximate 40% gain by stepping up to 970:

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-970 ... ce-GTX-960

Stepping up to the 980 is considerable, but should handle most things with ease. Though I'd hold out for Nvidia's next gen if I was spending that kind of cash:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/new ... an-maxwell

I have the 780 myself, and very pleased with it, but I hope to buy the Oculus and next gen 780/980 some time next year. Should be a match made in heaven.

Fly safe