Noob SLI Overclocking Question

[NoodleAssassin]

Hi everyone, I have what is probably a really stupid question about overclocking SLI video cards. When they are in SLI, do you use the same overclocking methods that are used for one card? Or do I have to disconnect them and overclock each one individually? Or if I leave them connected, will the overclock be applied to both cards at the same time? I know the wording might be a little confusing, so sorry.

[Raudi_]

Hi everyone, I have what is probably a really stupid question about overclocking SLI video cards. When they are in SLI, do you use the same overclocking methods that are used for one card? Or do I have to disconnect them and overclock each one individually? Or if I leave them connected, will the overclock be applied to both cards at the same time? I know the wording might be a little confusing, so sorry.

You overclock both cards at the same time. When you run SLI and overclock the cards the setting will be applied to both cards at the same time.

[LIGISTX]

I am pretty sure you have the ability to overclock them different, but I would change the settings on them identically as you tweak the OC. That way they are always running at the same speeds, although voltages you could change from card to card. As long as you keep the same speeds (core clock and RAM) it all should be fine. Once you get it dialed in, if it lets you change voltages on a per card basis, you could probably see if one will run with less volts just to save a few watts and a bit of heat.

[LIGISTX]

Or the review above me, as he said they will OC the same. If thats true... there ya go. lol

[Jey R.]

There are certain overclocking software like msi afterburner and evga precision x where you can synchronize all the settings you had done to gpu1 with gpu2. All the clocks and stuff are linked.

Nevertheless you can also overclock then separately. In afterburner and precision x you can break the link between them two, they get different overclcoking values. So you can do either both.

However I recommend both cards running at same clock frequency speed. Note that it all depends what model you are using, if you are using the exact same card with same model and vram then you might as well synchronize both of their setting to gpu1. But if you have unlike aftermarket gpus tied together with different models I suggest finding the highest common denominator clock speed of both and have them set at that specific speed for both.

Let's say if msi 970 can to to 1520 while the Asus gtx 970 can go to 1480. Then your best option would be setting the msi to run at 1480. So both are at same speed.

So, first of all I would overclock them individually and see what's the card that runs at lower clock and then I'll go with that.