GTX 480 SLI on water

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vjcsmoke

Supreme [H]ardness
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Dec 5, 2006
Messages
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Wow I love the temps I'm getting with water.
WatercooledOCTemps.jpg

I've got em clocked to 900mhz core/2000 mhz memory with no sweat. Not even a voltage increase needed.

SFIV_GTX480SLI_OC900.jpg

I Ran the SFIV bench and got over 200 FPS at max settings. But what really impressed me was that the gpu core temps never went above 50c during the entire bench! Everything looked really smooth too. Even the last part where they have numerous characters spinning in a circle. That is the most challenging part of the bench and usually makes video cards render herky jerky. On the OCed 480s that was the smoothest I've seen it and the framerate never dropped below 200 fps throughout the entire bench..

GTX480s on waterblocks.
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Hoses hooked up to the 480s.
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Entire loop completed.
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yep... wc'ing these GF100s is pretty nice.. not only the temps, but keeping the noise levels down and having even more OCing headroom.. the only bummer is not being able to see those nice chrome topped blocks easily while installed. ;)
 
It's all good. My HAF 932 has a small side window anyways so you can't really see the graphics cards. I still need to put in my UV lighting so the inside will be nice and lit up. I've also got a new NZXT fan controller and such coming so I can control my fan speeds, but I can hardly hear the GT 1850s even at full rpms. Think I'll take a break and reward myself with some gaming action on this rig and thankfully with :D no tornado noise!!!

I'm sure I'll tinker around with OCs more later, see how fast the 920 can get on water, and maybe flirt with 1ghz core speeds on the 480s. Muhahaha. Probably will need to overvolt the gpus and such to get there though. Something to look forward to. :D
 
nice.. I need to flash my cards and get the voltage past 1.087 and push them some more.. but been gaming too much to get into that.. lol. Just Cause 2 uberwide is just outtahand.. super fun game. :)

nice build there.. love the shiny copper bottoms on those blocks.. :)
 
vjcsmoke said:
Yup. It kicks some totally serious arse! :D
Oh getting to 1 ghz core might take a voltage bump though. I'll play with it more after dinner!
Click to expand...

what is ur VID ?

mine was 1.013, require volt mod 1.068v to get there... :S
 
AVP Triple Screen performance at default settings. This is an actual screenshot!

AvP_D3D11_Benchmark_TripleScreen.jpg


Code: 
AvP D3D11 Benchmark Report
==========================

**************************************************
* Report Created: 2010-08-25 @ 00:39:20
**************************************************
* Executable Build: V1.03, Apr 19 2010
**************************************************

*DX11 Hardware Detected*

Using Default Video Settings:

Resolution: 5760 x 1080
Texture Quality: 2
Shadow Quality: 3
Anisotropic Filtering: 16
SSAO: ON
Vertical Sync: OFF
DX11 Tessellation: ON
DX11 Advanced Shadows: ON
DX11 MSAA Samples: 1


Benchmark Summary:

Number of frames: 6341
Average Frame Time: 16.5ms
Average FPS: 60.5


Use command-line option '-logframetime' to report performance frame-by-frame.

So these aren't the highest settings possible but I was pretty impressed to top the 60 FPS average at 5760x1080 resolution with all the DX11 features enabled. And it looks so smooth too, you gotta see it to believe it.

BTW Ever seen a GTX 480 pulled apart? This is what it looks like:
gtx480disassembled-1.jpg


This is the gpu ready for mounting. Notice the thermal pads are on so we'll get vrm cooling as well.
gtx480copperblockside-1.jpg


Just for the contrast. Former gtx480 shell, stripped gtx480, and waterblocked gtx480.
gtx480blockedandgtx480stripped-1.jpg
 
with the coolers off these cards look a lot less impressive.. not that they're not impressive, but that's how I felt when I pulled the coolers off my 470s.. I was like "oh, they're ... light!" .. it's funny to think back in the day the high end video cards were just cards.. now there's more cooler than card. ;)
 
DarkStryke said:
Nice work, what rad are you running btw?
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2x XSPC 360 rads.

Rad 1:
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Rad 2:
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Case Front:
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The temps are crazy nice as noted in my first post. In fact I'm seeing even lower temps than initially noted after having attached the rest of my GT1850 fans. Only running intense stuff like furmark and OCCT Linpack for extended periods will warm it up. I remember thinking I'd never go with watercooling, until I got the 480s in SLI. The noise reports were not exaggerated! LOL. It was a lot of work getting set up but it was kinda fun to do so I'm glad that I went with the watercooling.
 
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Very nice!:D

Yeah the noise of the 480s just isn't that big of a deal, I've had louder but for the performance sure, but just another thing to deal with which is why I doubt I'll ever bother but might be tempted if the 480 refresh isn't much and just spend the some money on the cooling instead of new cards. I still would like to get 3D and PhysX running better on Surround.
 
Do you have anymore pictures of the final result? Did you have to adjust the inlets at all or did you just add on the plugs and compression fittings? What did you use to SLi them? The Danger Den doo-hicky?

Here is my setup so far. Seeing how we have the same case... if I order the XSPC kit with the radiator.. does it come with all the screws to mount it inside of the case or do I have to buy that seperately?

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My 480's ran smooth and noise free on water. All I had to control was the ambient temperature of the room after an hour or two of gaming.
 
I'm still rockin my 470s @ 1.087v 820/1900 on water.. they've been very solid and long lasting. I have had them for 2 years now.
 
2x480 > 1x680 in terms of raw performance.

My 480 SLI setup isn't WC, but with AXPs on them I still manage to run cool and quiet, and have no intention whatsoever of replacing them with a 680 configuration anytime soon.
 
...installed the backplates. I used to screw driver to increase the hole size for 2 larger screws that go into the waterblock... and used 3 small screws and nuts from radioshack for the other 3 holes. The rest of the holes are empty, due to not being able to screw it into anything. It's not completely flush due to the empty screw spots. Anywho, the thermal is still making good contact on the top of the pcb. So it's still pretty nice. :)

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jonneymendoza said:
does two 480gtx beat a single 680gtx?
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Necro'ed! :)

Yes - But not by all that much.

Nvidia Relative Graphics Performance Comparison Table

A single 480 is rated at 67X RGP (Relative Graphics Performance). So, accounting for a healthy 20-25% penalty as to overhead in SLI mode, a safe bet would be a RGP of 100X or more.

A 680 is rated at 95X RGP. So someone upgrading from a pair of overclocked 480GTX's to a single 680GTX really wouldn't see much in the form of a big performance bump - main reason why I haven't upgraded yet... still awaiting the arrival of the 780.
 
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Two 480s on water are pretty potent without a doubt, but the heat and power usage when they are overclocked is nothing to brush off. That being said, I had two EVGA 480s that maxed out at 990 core after a little voltage bump so the potential on those cards is pretty high as far as overclocking goes. Nice setup.
 
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