If I use two different vid cards is Oc-ing out?

[Grail]

Hi, Just need to buy one more hardware component to be able to multibox wow one day. I have an EVGA 460 GTX and want to get the 2 GB 560 GTX by MSI. I don't plan to sli of course. Just want to run my main on the 460 and my other four characters on the 560. However, I know EVGA and MSI both have their own overclocking tools. How would that work? If I don't oc, then am I all set?

I could buy EVGA's 2 GB 560 but really like the looks of the MSI (even though once I install it I will almost never see it again :)

Also, if I don't want to spend more than 280.00, is the 560 a good bet?

I did search a little, but it is late and I want to get it tomorrow, it keeps selling out. So thanks for any advice in advance.

-Grail

p.s. good to be back on these forums.

[MiRai]

In the realm of GPU overclocking everyone uses MSI Afterburner regardless of which manufacturer you buy from because it
works with all nVidia cards. I'm almost positive that all the overclocking programs are based on drivers and not which
manufacturer you buy from. However, if you buy a super special card (like an EVGA Classified GTX 580 or the Asus MARS II)
you may be forced to use that particular manufacturer's tool.

The reason I (and almost every other EVGA customer) will recommend EVGA is because of their amazing tech/customer
support and their warranty. EVGA also has a large forum (like this one) where you can ask questions and get a lot of
suggestions from regular members on how to go about whatever it is you're wanting to do/fix. And... EVGA offers a 90 day
step-up (http://www.evga.com/support/stepup/) program for nVidia reference cards. None of this is a comparison to MSI since I've never used MSI hardware before.

As for the GTX 560, most people overlook the fact that there are two different GTX 560's that carry 2GB of VRAM. I don't
know if you're talking about the base GTX 560 or the GTX 560Ti. For $280 the base GTX 560 is expensive... so I'll assume
you mean the Ti model. In my opinion, I wouldn't go with anything lower than the Ti model of the 560 even though the
regular 560 isn't all that worse. I only say this because I like to play with a lot of eye candy which takes more GPU
horsepower. I will always recommend an awesome single-card solution over a mediocre dual-card solution for multiboxing
because it's just less hassle.

[Grail]

Thanks Fenril!

*smiles* - I mean MiRai; I love your avatar btw and I just wanted to call you Fenril one more time!

I do mean the Ti. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005RAUOQ8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&m=AZ8ZZL30AH7DI

I thought of the names "Afterburner" and "Precision" for EVGAs ocing program after I posted last night. Is Afterburner recommended over Precision also?

Lastly, I too have been a fan of EVGA for some time. Their support has always come through for me. I just saw Newegg also has the card and for less than the above link. I then noticed this talk about the 560 Ti with 448 cores, so have a question there. But I will make that a new post to aid anyone who might do a search down the road.

Thanks!

-Grail

p.s.- apologies if I dropped this post in the wrong category originally. I see now it belonged in Hardware. :)

[MiRai]

Is Afterburner recommended over Precision also?Afterburner is always recommended at the moment if you're going to be changing voltage and/or overclocking the card
because it's the only program that will automatically reapply your changes upon a system restart. With other programs
you have to manually reapply your OC and voltage changes every time you restart your system. I think EVGA is working
on changing that for Precision.



Lastly, I too have been a fan of EVGA for some time. Their support has always come through for me. I just saw Newegg also has the card and for less than the above link. I then noticed this talk about the 560 Ti with 448 cores, so have a question there. But I will make that a new post to aid anyone who might do a search down the road.The 448 Core version of the Ti comes with about 40% less RAM (compared to the 2GB models) and only carries a 3 year
warranty as opposed to the limited lifetime warranty that other Ti's come with.

[Multibocks]

I read your response, so pardon if I missed it, but can you have one over clocked card and another card as stock? In non SLI, does out matter if the cards don't match frequencies?

[Ughmahedhurtz]

In non SLI, does out matter if the cards don't match frequencies?With some possible edge-case caveats, no, it generally does not matter. If you can run an ATI and an NVidia in the same system on different monitors, variable OC should be a non-issue.

[Multibocks]

Ok cool