How loud does crossfire get?

[samuelmorris]

With crossfire, luckily that will work - SLI isn't even supported using 4x slots...

 

[Met-AL]

When I was putting my PC together, I was planning on using my PCI Soundblaster X-Fi sound card, but my motherboard's single PCI slot is right between my two graphics cards. I didn't even bother trying to stuff that card in there, as my top GPU would have had that PCI card right up against it again (it's like about an 1/8" inch spacing), just like when it was in my old micro ATX motherboard.

 

[samuelmorris]

Again, smacks of poor board layout - properly laid out boards should be designed in such a manner that even with two 2-slot cards installed, there are two spare 1x slots, one above the first card and one between them, and a spare PCI slot at the bottom.

 

[Met-AL]

Again, smacks of poor board layout - properly laid out boards should be designed in such a manner that even with two 2-slot cards installed, there are two spare 1x slots, one above the first card and one between them, and a spare PCI slot at the bottom.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If the PCI slot was at the bottom, then there wouldn't be the third 16x slot.

Thankfully, Realtek HD Audio doesn't suck as bad as I remember it sucking the last time I tried using it.

 

[Lord_Exodia]

My2c.

Yes the 2 gray slots are the slots you would use. You cannot use the black slot on the bottom for a graphics card (even for physX) It's compatible with pcie 4x devices only. There is a lot of confusion on ther cougar point chipset around that and I wish everyone would simply use a 4x size slot so people would stop thinking that you can do tri sli/crossfire or dual card + physX.

Using the 2 gray slots would actually put the cards close together, But not too close. The top card would probably come to the middle of the bottom set of capacitors and the bottom card would come down to the end of the pcie x 1 slot below it. That would leave a few mm of space between them. it's a shame evga couldn't add another slot in between the top 2 slots like asus did with their p67 motherboards. There are worse scenarios where the cards are almost touching.

As for the fan being on the middle card, I'd put that card in the bottom slot to allow it to breathe better and use the card with the fan on the right side on the top slot. Nonetheless it was a poor design by EVGA but then again they use SLi in the name. Having the cards that close together or closer, wouldn't be a problem in SLi but is a problem because AMD was short sighted when they designed their 6900 reference coolers.

 

[samuelmorris]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If the PCI slot was at the bottom, then there wouldn't be the third 16x slot.

Thankfully, Realtek HD Audio doesn't suck as bad as I remember it sucking the last time I tried using it.

If you're using three graphics cards, you should not still be using old PCI hardware!

 

[Hailwood]

If you're using three graphics cards, you should not still be using old PCI hardware!

Some decent soundcards are still PCI-based, although that's rapidly changing .

 

[samuelmorris]

The majority of the ones I see also have PCIe derivatives. I'm no fan of change for change's sake, believe me, but there's no real reason to inhibit the connectivity of top-end tri-SLI/CF boards so people can still have antiquated PCI slots

 

[Met-AL]

If you're using three graphics cards, you should not still be using old PCI hardware!

I have had it since 2005 and there is nor has been no reason to upgrade it till now.

It kinda bums me out that I will probably end up buying the same sound card a second time.

 

[Ohmycaptain]

It will only be as loud as you want it if you manually set the fans, haha.

I have two GTX 570's in SLI and I idle @ 42c with fans at around 50%, which isn't very audible. Well, it's audible but not annoying at all. I run them at 70% when I'm gaming and it's a little loud.

AMD's cards are louder, though more efficient at cooling on lower settings.

 

[Blkout]

A good case and good slot spacing and they don't really get much louder - I wouldn't say the noise levels are identical though, there's normally a 10-20% increase in fan speed.

If there's any increase in noise in both of my crossfire setups, I haven't been able to hear it. Of course your results may vary based on the your case, and your cards.

 

[samuelmorris]

Depends on the default fan profile - normally graphics card fan profiles are quite sensitive and even a 1-2C difference in temps will cause a corresponding minor increase in fan speed - if you have cards with a much less stringent fan controller though, you may never notice the difference.