SLI VRAM Question

MarioSaltalamacchia · September 14, 2016

Alright, so basically, I have a 4GB EVGA GTX 960 SSC in my rig currently. I just was given another 960 for nothing, completely free of charge. I understand that the 960 in SLI is basically pointless, as the gains aren't substantial enough to warrant it. As a disclaimer, I would NOT even consider this if I had to pay even a nickel for the second 960. That being said, here is my question: the 960 I have in my rig is the 4GB variant. The 960 I was given is an MSI GTX 960 2G Gaming edition. The second one has half the memory of the one I am currently using. Would this pose any problems in an SLI configuration? I realize that the performance increase is going to be minimal at best. I get it. I will eventually probably try selling the second 960 for like $75-$100 or something, but I want to run them in SLI at least temporarily to try it out, but not if it is going to cause all kinds of issues.

Thanks in advance.

bughtoo · September 14, 2016

2 minutes ago, MarioSaltalamacchia said:

Alright, so basically, I have a 4GB EVGA GTX 960 SSC in my rig currently. I just was given another 960 for nothing, completely free of charge. I understand that the 960 in SLI is basically pointless, as the gains aren't substantial enough to warrant it. As a disclaimer, I would NOT even consider this if I had to pay even a nickel for the second 960. That being said, here is my question: the 960 I have in my rig is the 4GB variant. The 960 I was given is an MSI GTX 960 2G Gaming edition. The second one has half the memory of the one I am currently using. Would this pose any problems in an SLI configuration? I realize that the performance increase is going to be minimal at best. I get it. I will eventually probably try selling the second 960 for like $75-$100 or something, but I want to run them in SLI at least temporarily to try it out, but not if it is going to cause all kinds of issues.

Thanks in advance.

The sli would work, but you would only get 2GB of memory on them to your disposal, since it takes the lowest and uses it.

don_svetlio · September 14, 2016

You cannot SLI. unlike CF, SLI requires the same VRAM amounts

typographie · September 14, 2016

I'm not certain how it will behave because I haven't done it myself, but I assume both cards will be effectively limited to 2 GB of available VRAM.

The performance difference won't always be minimal, it depends on the game. Some scale really well with SLI and you end up with 80%+ scaling. Some scale poorly or not at all. Scaling isn't the only reason people suggest staying away from SLI. It's that for the price of two GTX 960's, you could afford a much better, much more consistent single card. If you've already got one 960 and you're getting another for cheap/free, absolutely give it a shot.

MarioSaltalamacchia · September 14, 2016

1 minute ago, typographie said:

I'm not certain how it will behave because I haven't done it myself, but I assume both cards will be limited to 2 GB of available VRAM.

The performance difference won't always be minimal, it depends on the game. Some scale really well with SLI and you end up with 80%+ scaling. Some scale poorly or not at all. Scaling isn't really the reason people suggest staying away from SLI. It's that for the price of two GTX 960's, you could afford a much better, much more consistent single card. If you've already got one 960 and you're getting another for cheap/free, absolutely give it a shot.

Yea, this is kind of what I assumed, and when I started to look into it, that was the basic opinion. It will work, but both cards will be limited to 2GB of VRAM.

typographie · September 14, 2016

2 minutes ago, MarioSaltalamacchia said:

Yea, this is kind of what I assumed, and when I started to look into it, that was the basic opinion. It will work, but both cards will be limited to 2GB of VRAM.

If @don_svetlio is correct above, disregard all I said. Nvidia may block this completely, I didn't know about that. It would be a very "Nvidia" thing to do.