My take on (my) GTX280SLI setup w/pics.

Pkirk618

Pkirk618

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 12, 2002
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First off, I don't dislike ATI and this thread is just for fun to show these cards in a setup with some of my own perspectives on its performance. Be nice in my thread--don't crap on the price of the cards, I know how much they cost. I had the money so I bit, THE END.

In a nutshell, the experience is like no other. I've never been blown away by technology but this sure did make me excited for the direction we're going. So much in fact I didn't even want to play games with my machine, I wanted my friends and kids to see how games looked so watching them play was equally satisfying.

So first, let me share my experience with Crysis. Personally, it is not a game I like but I do bench with it just to see where I'm at. I played some MP and it was awesome---not like any other time I've played online. It was like a new game. For the record, I play 1920*1080/very high settings. I didn't have any Microstuttering. I could turn without any lag. It was fluid. My frame rates were 40-50ish and as high as the ceiling ;)

Again, crysis is smooth as hell in playing multiplayer. For the life of me, I can't get the benchmark to start for single player benchimg. it just keeps asking me to "press a button" and then proceeds like normal game play. I did get it to work on my dual boot XP64 drive and benched 55fps on high.

But, do you need two of these? Absolutely not. I played with one for a few days and I thought, damn, it sure can do alot by itself where my three 8800s struggled. A gig of ram sure doesn't hurt things and I like the physics capabilities this card supposedly has.

I've been gaming on a 37" Westy for a while and though I love it, I want something else. So I really needed to prepare myself for 30" gaming and that's my primary reason for SLIing these cards. I could have waited but I didn't lol. Looking to get Dells new 30" LCD--still need to research more.

Not sure about some of my scores though:

Vantage Xtreme: Can't run--need 1920*1200
Vantage high: H13054k
Vantage Performance: P18256k
3DMark06: 21546...I really don't even look at this much anymore.

All stock speeds on the card.

I'm sure there's plenty more tweaking and maturing to do with these cards and drivers. Truth be told, I really thought hard about two 260s in SLI but I know I'd shoot myself later--just the way I am. The new 4800 series from ATI has intrigued me but it still lags many a benchmark and though it's high end value card, they produce way too much heat for my taste.

I own alot of games, pretty much all the new ones and none of them stutter or anything. They all shine.

Anyway, this machine is sigged. I feel this should last me 2 months until the next big thing comes around.

img0559ea3.jpg


img0561fu9.jpg


img0567qj1.jpg


img0568an9.jpg


Just for kicks, this is where they reside..under the desk, inside the stacker.

img0574sb6.jpg


Enjoy!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2825449...th/2630806442/
There are some dips but no problems keeping great gameplay in action. Without the numbers in the corner, i wouldnt think I was dipping into 30s.
 
That's a nice rig you got there, dude... Looks like a cozy gaming enclave....diet Dr. Pepper and all. :)
 
As soon as I saw the SLI bridge laying across the two cards like that, this is what I instantly thought of:

gtx280wrongiu1.jpg


I couldn't resist. :p


Talk about raw, monster power though. Now that you have the hardware pr0n out of the way, we need benchmarks!
 
Nice setup. What's up with the booster seat on your chair? :D
 
Nice setup!! I'm looking at getting that TV my self soon :)

I see your Army Unit Picture

Thanks for serving our country, just enlisted my self :cool:

HOOAH!!
 
Nice rig indeed. Such makes me drool a lot... I just bought a 260 & hope for the best over the 8800GTX I have now.

Thanks for serving, too. Did my 4 years with the USAF to know how valuable the Army is (Langley AFB & Osan AB). My dad was an MP during Operation Desert Storm, which is why my appreciation is strong.
 
Is that a XFX 780i under those cards? Man I knew looking at this thread was going to cost me money... now I want!
 
well thanks for the comments and thank you all too for serving. Nothing gets me going more than hearing other people are serving this great country of ours.

I salute you guys! (and gals :))

edit: yup, it sure is a 780i board. Couldn't do the DDR3 route, not yet :)

...and my kids and I play COD4 all the time. Sometimes they sit in my chair, hence the booster. My kid loves playing on my Westy or I'd send him to the wife's office to play. I hate playing on her 24 incher.
 
Nic rig!:D

I need to get a 30" monitor myself as I have my third GTX 280 on the way. Yes, Crysis is a difference game with two of these puppies. Once the game is loaded its about as smooth as anything I've every played single player. As smooth as CoD4 on one GTX 280. It's really a shame that it takes such exspensive hardware to make this game work well, but its simply a cut above everything else. Until you play it with a couple of GTX 280's at 1920x1200 or above at very high (or the ultra high config which I think looks a bit better) its just hard to describe the beauty and smoothness of this game.

BTW, let us know what 30" monitor you decide to get! Enjoy!:)
 
WOW! nice setup. I just ordered the evga water cooled gtx 280. that card is a monster, Can't wait to see the difference from my 8800 ultra.
 
Pkirk618 said:
...

I'm sure there's plenty more tweaking and maturing to do with these cards and drivers. Truth be told, I really thought hard about two 260s in SLI but I know I'd shoot myself later--just the way I am. The new 4800 series from ATI has intrigued me but it still lags many a benchmark and though it's high end value card, they produce way too much heat for my taste.
Click to expand...

I'm shooting myself for the 8800GTS. I decided that rather than go with a GTX i wanted to pick up some decent headphones (ended up with some sennheiser 515s, which I love) and a GTS. The GTS, for the longest time, was just on the threshold of making me upgrade and it drove me nuts. The 8800GT out performed and it was only $250! yehh... but it only outperforms by like 10% :|.... 8800GTS 512MB and 9800GTX, 30-40%, $300! ehh... $300..... commonnnn.... drove me mental. I did it before with my Radeon 9600 too, shoulda gone with a 9800.

So yeah, moral is, spend as much as you possibly can, it'l last longer.

Pkirk618 said:
I'm sure there's plenty more tweaking and maturing to do with these cards and drivers. Truth be told, I really thought hard about two 260s in SLI but I know I'd shoot myself later--just the way I am. The new 4800 series from ATI has intrigued me but it still lags many a benchmark and though it's high end value card, they produce way too much heat for my taste.
Click to expand...

The HD4800's produce the same amount of heat as the GT200, but the HD4800's do reach a higher temperature. I've got no way to test this but assuming the HD4870 and GTX280 have roughly the same efficiency of the heatsink, and both their fans top out at the same CFM (ie both have the same max cooling capacity), the GTX280 should be a little bit louder than the HD4870, as the GTX280 would be running the fan a little bit louder than the HD4870 to dissapate the extra heat. All of this is to say that if you boot up riva tuner and change the fan speed values manually you can get the HD4870 to run just as hot as the GTX280.

Pkirk618 said:
I own alot of games, pretty much all the new ones and none of them stutter or anything. They all shine.
Click to expand...

damn well better on over $1000 worth of graphic hardware alone...

And about those pics, I love the little story they tell. Nvidia said "we need moer power then then the pci-e lanes can provide, we need aux power connectors". so they got a molex 4 and later 6 pin aux power connector. Then Nvidia said "yeah, but we need more power than that too so give us a 2nd rail just in case". So they got a 2nd 6 pin (well 8 pin but they're identical really). Then the power supply companies said "yeahhh but you don't need that much extra power. We have 12V rails that can handle your card". so they ran the 2nd connector off the same 12V rail as the first connector.

I wonder if, just to spite this, Nvidia will requyire a 3rd connector on their next card.
 
Pkirk618 said:
...and my kids and I play COD4 all the time. Sometimes they sit in my chair, hence the booster. My kid loves playing on my Westy or I'd send him to the wife's office to play. I hate playing on her 24 incher.
Click to expand...
My sons played on my setup, both were giants compared to me. :p

(youngest was killed in a car accident when only 19yrs :( ). Glad you and yours are safe at home. :)
 
Hey man, I'm so sorry to hear that about your son. I am thankful everyday for my gifts--I assure you...and I don't take anything for granted.
 
Pkirk618 said:
Hey man, I'm so sorry to hear that about your son. I am thankful everyday for my gifts--I assure you...and I don't take anything for granted.
Click to expand...

well, if your sons dont mind a different screen that much.. and you really dont want that westy anymore..

ill buy it Oo

Also, post some screenshots and FPS on crysis and such. i can have it play at 30fps on my lone 880GTX on high (somehow) but slowdowns always occur.. must be amazing on very high without slowdowns...
 
I have the same screen but slower computer. Nice setup and thanks for sharing your pics. Please upload some screenshots or something!
 
Absolutly incredible setup and pics, and I thought high settings looked impressive! Great work.
 
becasue if I did that, I wouldn't be me.:D

Glad u like the pics.

I filmed some gameplay last night but other than utube, I'n not sure where else to post it. It's cheesy anyway as it's me getting clobbered in the same scene but because the scene is very intense graphically, I thought you guys would like to see it.
 
Do you have any way of finding out how much power your system draws at full gaming power?
 
Mine pulls about 550w minus monitor,speakers,modem while playing Crysis.
 
if there's a way that someone can recommend without purchasing something, I'll do it for ya.
 
thanks but I really don't want to spend money to confirm a large energy bill. If there was a way without buying that, I'd try it, just for you guys. Or u can buy it for me :)
 
Kowan, didn't notice your setup until now, even after the comment--stupid me! :)

Anyhow, your results similar?
 
Pkirk618 said:
http://www.box.net/shared/static/8o01bjk848.AVI

http://www.box.net/shared/static/p5xxlio848.AVI

http://www.box.net/shared/static/abg3s72o8k.AVI

http://www.box.net/shared/static/4964c5dwgs.AVI

For those interested in actual gameplay.
Settings: Very high, dx10, 4xAA 1920*1080
Click to expand...

Would you take a look at SLI indicators (enabled in nvidia cp) in Crysis?
On my tri-sli setup they barely reach halfway the screen, maybe with normal SLI Crysis works OK.
Would be great if you want to take a look for me.
 
I play at slightly higher resolution 1920x1200, so my numbers are slightly lower than yours Pkirk618. I started replaying Crysis since my old 8800GTX SLI setup would tank trying VeryHigh @ 1920x1200.
The SLI indicator jumps up to what appears 80% scaling at times. Then drops to 20-30% in many areas.
On COD4 on my old cards, I would run 16QAA/16AF and see great scaling. Running that high a AA made the video the bottleneck and the indicator would amost fill the bar.

Here's a thread ChrisRay started after previewing the GTX260/280s in SLI.
nVIDIA GTX200 Preview: GTX260 and GTX280
ChrisRay is an Admin @ SLIZone Forums.
 
i suspect the reason sli looks maxed is because the scene is pretty intense. Other times, it's not maxed out. You think that's the cause?

justifire, please share some numbers. I'm interested in Tri--very interested :D

Kowan, thanks for the linkage.
 
I wish that res ( 1920 x 1080) looked like that on my 30in. Anything other than native looks like poop.
 
Darkatom said:
I wish that res ( 1920 x 1080) looked like that on my 30in. Anything other than native looks like poop.
Click to expand...

seriously?

I contemplated getting your card and going SLI for a second. If not for the 512 buffer, it would have been a hard decision. I kinda feel like those 9800s are a much better breed if they had a gig o ram on board.
 
op congratulations on your cards! really expensive stuff.
 
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