BiG BaD SLi Setup Under Scrutiny - Advice Needed for Next Move

Digitalcaveman

Digitalcaveman

Gawd
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
Messages
602
Guys,

I have 3 GTX 480's water-cooled because of the noise and heat. Had them for a few years now or so. I think I lost my 2nd (middle) card because in my Tri SLi system it got gunked up and probably had some blockage and fried the card. So I have two working and already fitted with water blocks installed. I pulled my system apart and looking to replace the water parts with new tubing and water parts. Question is I'd like to know should I get rid of the 480's for something better or just add another 480 to get back to 3 way SLi again?

What would you do?

Thanks,

DC
 
Last edited:
This is kind of one of those questions that only you can answer. Your gtx 480's are getting a bit old for todays games at the resolution you play at. You could replace the missing one for about $100 bucks used, but the difference between dual and tri SLI isn't near as big as going from one card to SLI in the first place.

All I can offer is my opinion though. I think the gtx 480's are too old to replace. It wont be long before they yet another generation behind the curve and games get more demanding every year. Unless you could get another gtx 480 for dirt cheap (under $50) I would leave it at two card SLI and then upgrade when I could. Then get a couple of gtx 780's/290s or better to replace them when you can. Your i7 950 has more life than those gtx 480s. At 2560x1600 x3.... thats a lot of pixels though. Not sure how even 3 480s will give you decent settings in most games.

Of course I am only talking about gaming. If you are doing about anything else than two vs three SLI is going to be pretty meaningless.
 
Digitalcaveman said:
Guys,

I have 3 GTX 480's water-cooled because of the noise and heat. Had them for a few years now or so. I think I lost my 2nd (middle) card because in my Tri SLi system it got gunked up and probably had some blockage and fried the card. So I have two working and already fitted with water blocks installed. I pulled my system apart and looking to replace the water parts with new tubing and water parts. Question is I'd like to know should I get rid of the 480's for something better or just add another 480 to get back to 3 way SLi again?

What would you do?

Thanks,

DC
Click to expand...
New cards are much faster and efficient. I would easily step up to a 780.
 
Thanks Guys,

I was starting to go down that road and if you look at my setup in my sig, you'll notice I'm pushing (3) 30" Dell monitors so the $$ is not the issue. It's what to get. So thank you for your recommendations, I'll go ahead and check out the 780. Have to look at water blocks too... and if you might comment, since the cards are obviously much better, would Dual SLi be close to Triple SLi or what that difference is would help greatly.

Thanks,

DC
 
I would look at SLI 780's at least. You don't even need to water cool as they don't run anything like those old lava-powered fermi chips.
 
LigTasm said:
I would look at SLI 780's at least. You don't even need to water cool as they don't run anything like those old lava-powered fermi chips.
Click to expand...

What about the heat and noise? With WC there is no noise..my monitors also put off heat...that can be a lot if the cards are not cooled ... not sure how different they would be from the 480's.. but I hear things like a lot... is that true?

Also how is this card: EVGA GTX 780SC ACX ?

Thx
 
Digitalcaveman said:
What about the heat and noise? With WC there is no noise..my monitors also put off heat...that can be a lot if the cards are not cooled ... not sure how different they would be from the 480's.. but I hear things like a lot... is that true?

Also how is this card: EVGA GTX 780SC ACX ?

Thx
Click to expand...

780's are quiet, reference cooler is quiet and the aftermarket ones are even better. I had two of the EVGA ACX SC 780's and they were amazing. The 480 is a furnace with a blow-dryer strapped to it, you will be amazed at the difference when the GK110 chip is over twice as fast with way less heat and almost no noise.
 
LigTasm said:
780's are quiet, reference cooler is quiet and the aftermarket ones are even better. I had two of the EVGA ACX SC 780's and they were amazing. The 480 is a furnace with a blow-dryer strapped to it, you will be amazed at the difference when the GK110 chip is over twice as fast with way less heat and almost no noise.
Click to expand...

So your totally stating I can forgo the water cooling and run these in dual or triple SLi and not worry at all about noise or major heat issues?
 
Digitalcaveman said:
So your totally stating I can forgo the water cooling and run these in dual or triple SLi and not worry at all about noise or major heat issues?
Click to expand...

They run MUCH cooler than your current cards. See the card in my main rig (sig) and I can barely hear the card at 90%. Hardly noticeable.
 
Digitalcaveman said:
So your totally stating I can forgo the water cooling and run these in dual or triple SLi and not worry at all about noise or major heat issues?
Click to expand...
I think you actually need to look at whether you need two or three of them at all. Frame metering on Fermi SLI isn't like Kepler's hardware-based frame metering: you've been suffering through some relatively uneven frame rates so long that a smoothly-paced single-card solution, even if it's only able to produce the same or slightly lower frame rates, will feel like an upgrade. It's pretty much guaranteed to be less than half as loud too (logarithmically speaking), and that's substantial.

My advice is that you always favor the fastest single-GPU solution you can get. Start with one 780 Ti, clock it up a little bit if you feel it's not delivering what you want, water-cool it if you still aren't quite there and then and only then consider adding a second.
 
wonderfield said:
I think you actually need to look at whether you need two or three of them at all. Frame metering on Fermi SLI isn't like Kepler's hardware-based frame metering: you've been suffering through some relatively uneven frame rates so long that a smoothly-paced single-card solution, even if it's only able to produce the same or slightly lower frame rates, will feel like an upgrade. It's pretty much guaranteed to be less than half as loud too (logarithmically speaking), and that's substantial.

My advice is that you always favor the fastest single-GPU solution you can get. Start with one 780 Ti, clock it up a little bit if you feel it's not delivering what you want, water-cool it if you still aren't quite there and then and only then consider adding a second.
Click to expand...

And your positive that just 1 780Ti can drive my 3 30" Dells with no issues? Because if I can dump my WC setup and just use 1 card..holy cow would that be awesome... WC is awesome but a bitch to maintain and upgrade (since the disconnects weren't avail in 2010) I thought my 480's were pretty powerful at 7680 x 3 monitors...I reached that res with 3 480's in SLi water-cooled. So if I can do that across 3 monitors and with 1 card on air...I'm totally there! Let me know if that is the case here. Thanks man.
 
That really depends on what games you play, at what settings you play them and what your frame rate sensitivity is, but there's certainly no harm in just grabbing one card, seeing what you can get out of it and going from there. You might be happy with what it gives you and you might not be, but you'll always have that multi-card upgrade path available as an option if you need it.
 
wonderfield said:
That really depends on what games you play, at what settings you play them and what your frame rate sensitivity is, but there's certainly no harm in just grabbing one card, seeing what you can get out of it and going from there. You might be happy with what it gives you and you might not be, but you'll always have that multi-card upgrade path available as an option if you need it.
Click to expand...

Absolutely fabulous advice. And in my research it looks like the EVGA GTX 780 TI Superclocked is the one I'm going to get. Actually, I ordered 2 for SLi... as I have 3 monitors and the extra performance will be awesome!

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it and I will look forward to taking advantage of that upgrade path should I need to do so in the future. Appreciate all the help.
 
Last edited:
Whether the cards are water-cooled or air-cooled, they're still dissipating the same amount of heat.
 
Syphon Filter said:
Whether the cards are water-cooled or air-cooled, they're still dissipating the same amount of heat.
Click to expand...

Yes, but that heat was absorbed and not blowing into my office with the heat from my Dells. But I'm going to try it anyway just to see how it works out. I can always add the WC back into the mix. I like that having dual instead of triple will be better for the system and get me better perf upgrading from 480's so thanks all.
 
Looks like a solid upgrade for you. Just wondering, but what games and settings are you using currently? And can you report back what your frame rate / impressions are after you get them?

Thx!
 
I used to run 2x480's back in the day, and 1 680 was roughly the same as 2x480's in performance maybe 2-5% in favor of the 2x480's. A single 780 is around 30% faster than a 680 at high resolutions so you will get a huge boost out of 2x780's.
 
Kaos_Drem said:
I used to run 2x480's back in the day, and 1 680 was roughly the same as 2x480's in performance maybe 2-5% in favor of the 2x480's. A single 780 is around 30% faster than a 680 at high resolutions so you will get a huge boost out of 2x780's.
Click to expand...

I'm so excited... and looking for some future-protection for later years to boot. :p
 
cageymaru said:
Looks like a solid upgrade for you. Just wondering, but what games and settings are you using currently? And can you report back what your frame rate / impressions are after you get them?

Thx!
Click to expand...

Well I'm a huge Far Cry fan, Skyrim fan (haven't played in forever though), POE (Path of Exile), Diablo III, and then huge into photography and Adobe programs like Lightroom, Photoshop etc.. vid editing..so speed will be key as well. I'd really like to get into BF4 but I cannot, I mean HATE Cutscenes if I cannot get out of them.

Once I get them installed I'll certainly circle back with results.

One silly question, can I still use my 1500W Silverstone PSU - SILVERSTONE| ST1500

I was looking at the connectors and could take 2 eight pins to connect to the cards but most of mine are eight and six pin....just looked different on these cards, will it work?

Thx,


DC
 
Digitalcaveman said:
Well I'm a huge Far Cry fan, Skyrim fan (haven't played in forever though), POE (Path of Exile), Diablo III, and then huge into photography and Adobe programs like Lightroom, Photoshop etc.. vid editing..so speed will be key as well. I'd really like to get into BF4 but I cannot, I mean HATE Cutscenes if I cannot get out of them.

Once I get them installed I'll certainly circle back with results.

One silly question, can I still use my 1500W Silverstone PSU - SILVERSTONE| ST1500

I was looking at the connectors and could take 2 eight pins to connect to the cards but most of mine are eight and six pin....just looked different on these cards, will it work?

Thx,


DC
Click to expand...

Nevermind. I saw the config on the card, PSU should work no problem. :)
 
Digitalcaveman said:
Um.... yes it does... :D
Click to expand...

The radiator is dissipating heat into the air -- in your room. The liquid is transferring the heat to the radiator, right? You've obviously got a larger area with a radiator vs the small air cooler on a card so you can use larger, quieter fans and dissipate more heat, but they all do the same thing.

Edit: I wasn't sure if you were joking or serious btw. Don't mean to come across as a smartass.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Digitalcaveman said:
And your positive that just 1 780Ti can drive my 3 30" Dells with no issues? Because if I can dump my WC setup and just use 1 card..holy cow would that be awesome... WC is awesome but a bitch to maintain and upgrade (since the disconnects weren't avail in 2010) I thought my 480's were pretty powerful at 7680 x 3 monitors...I reached that res with 3 480's in SLi water-cooled. So if I can do that across 3 monitors and with 1 card on air...I'm totally there! Let me know if that is the case here. Thanks man.
Click to expand...

I don't think that a single 780 Ti will be enough for that extremely high resolution, at least on more recent games.
 
sonsonate said:
The radiator is dissipating heat into the air -- in your room. The liquid is transferring the heat to the radiator, right? You've obviously got a larger area with a radiator vs the small air cooler on a card so you can use larger, quieter fans and dissipate more heat, but they all do the same thing.
Click to expand...

Indeed.
 
verylostindeed said:
Indeed.
Click to expand...

Yes...I get it. ;)

Man if the heat / noise doesn't make a difference using air this will be really cool. Water cooling really is a pain even though it looks cool. If the cards on air will last 4 years then that his my upgrade timeline anyway, I'lll never have to go to water ever again, which would be cool.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top