When the GTS 450's first came out, I purchased an SC edition and used it as a back up card...I never really played with it much...until recently...I actually decided to run another one in SLI to give me a performance boost
 
I proceed to buy another brand new one, same GTS 450 SC...when it arrived, the box says SC, the part number and stickers say SC...so I'm assuming everything is the same as the card I bought way back a year ago...Anyway I put the brand new card GTS 450 SC on the TOP primary PCI-E slot.....and my OLDER GTS 450 SC on the BOTTOM PCI-E slot....so of course, the top card "should" get a few degrees hotter in games
 
Well I proceed to play some games and notice my TOP GTS 450 is way COOLER than my bottom...like a good 5-6 degrees...I thought something was strange...it should be equal or hotter if you ask me...I fire up GPU-Z to check the clocks and see if anything is off...GPU-Z is reporting the new card that I recently bought, is a GF116, which is a GTX 550 Ti.
 
The specs are the follow...both bios version is different too
 
OLD CARD = 882 core, 1900 memory, 1.075 stock voltage with maximum allowed 1.162 in afterburner, GF106 GPU according to GPU-Z
 
NEW CARD = 882 core, 1900 memory, 1.025 stock voltage with maximum allowed 1.150 in afterburner, GF116 GPU according to GPU-Z
 
So whats the deal with this?  I am gonna have any problems?  I thought SLI can only with exact same GPU?

 

 
sorry about that, here are some screen shots...hope you can see it

Device ID is different between the cards. Usually that means no SLI. Are you getting relatively the same GPU usage in games with SLI enabled?

dukenuke88

well its saying in afterburner that both are being used....and yes they are around the same usage...and I'm positive SLI is working just because I did "feel" the increase in performance in Fallout NV

I can't seem to Sync both cards in afterburner...like if I request a bump in core clock, it only does it for the primary card...if I try to bump fan speed, it only does it on primary card, etc etc...I'm pretty sure with afterburner and SLI, it should sync correctly right?

It should yes...I'm pretty sure the difference in device ID is causing the issues with AB. Does AB give you the option to 'sync settings for similar graphic processors'?  When you click on the 'i' button at top middle of AB's interface, what does it tell you? You should see some thing like this:
 
GPU1
________________________________________________________________________________
Display device       : GeForce GTX 580 on GF110 GPU
Display driver       : ForceWare 280.26
BIOS                 : 70.10.20.00.81
GUID                 : VEN_10DE&DEV_1080&SUBSYS_15803842&REV_A1&BUS_2&DEV_0&FN_0
Multi-GPU role       : master

GPU2
________________________________________________________________________________
Display device       : GeForce GTX 580 on GF110 GPU
Display driver       : ForceWare 280.26
BIOS                 : 70.10.20.00.81
GUID                 : VEN_10DE&DEV_1080&SUBSYS_15803842&REV_A1&BUS_3&DEV_0&FN_0
Multi-GPU role       : synchronized with master

dukenuke88

GPU1________________________________________________________________________________
Display device       : GeForce GTS 450 on GF116 GPU
Display driver       : ForceWare 280.26
BIOS                 : 70.26.26.00.50
GUID                 : VEN_10DE&DEV_1245&SUBSYS_14523842&REV_A1&BUS_1&DEV_0&FN_0
Multi-GPU role       : master

GPU2________________________________________________________________________________
Display device       : GeForce GTS 450 on GF106 GPUDisplay driver       : ForceWare 280.26
BIOS                 : 70.06.1f.00.50
GUID                 : VEN_10DE&DEV_0DC4&SUBSYS_14523842&REV_A1&BUS_2&DEV_0&FN_0

On-Screen Display server________________________________________________________________________________
Active client(s)     : On-Screen Display module
Active 3D process    : not detected

Thanks for the reply hemi....thats what I copied and pasted with AB...and yes, I do have the option in AB where it asks if I want to sync all GPUs together...its clicked yes...thats the default option anyway

It looks like my GPU 2 doesn't say anything regarding synchronizing with master like yours

That because the Dev ID is different and is being called out as a different GPU type.

dukenuke88

Does that mean I have a GF116 and something is up?  Sorry for the noob questions, I don't know what the DEV ID is and what it does

The device ID is programmed into the BIOS to let your system and the drivers know what it is. It's hard to say if the wrong BIOS was flashed at the factory or something else is up. Just out of curiosity, what does Nvidia System information tell you?

Strange one as there isn't a GF 116 450....I'd suggest you contact EVGA. See what they think. The may want you to try flashing a stock 450 BIOS.

Well the syncronise gpu's is not working properly and the new card does have a lower stock voltage so that might explain the temps a bit.

bump 

dukenuke88

Krony

Well the syncronise gpu's is not working properly and the new card does have a lower stock voltage so that might explain the temps a bit.

yeah you are right...i didn't think too much of it...but when I made both cards equal in voltage, the top card does get hotter

Who should I contact in eVGA?  Just regular customer service e-mail?

Depends on if you are in Europe or the States. I would contact technical support to see what they have to say. Just shoot them an e-mail with your concerns and they should respond to you.

I got in touch with eVGA...they asked me to send pictures and so I did....they are doing some researching right now...but they say its most likely a BIOS Flash...which is fine by me
 
I'll keep everybody updated

Looking at your screen shots of GPU-Z, you can see that you had different BIOS versions. I would have tried flashing the new card with the old card's BIOS first just to see if that was the issue. I'm surprised EVGA didn't try that first, actually.

blah this is lame!
 
I have been at home this whole time...then I get a e-mail notification saying my package was delivered a few minutes ago...I didn't hear anything...so I walk outside and nothing...the e-mail notification says the package was left at my porch just a few minutes ago...I'm like ****?
 
Now I did get someone ringing at my doorbell like 3 hours ago.  I ran asap to the door, and nobody was there....I highly doubt this was the UPS man, as it is nowhere near the time frame of when the notification says it was delivered.  Or is it?
 
I sent a ticket off to evga...hopefully this gets resolved soon

so is yours reading as a GF116 too?

did this ever get resolved duke?