Thales what motherboard are you running, are the 3 cards all in x16 slots ?
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Just ordered my third GTX 480 but i'm a bit worried as my mobo is the Asus P6X58D and it has a x16 slot and 2 x8 slots if run in tri SLI, some say the performance hit is negligable eg 3 % ? anyone running a config like this ?
Yes all 3 cards on x16, im running now my rig with a EVGA Classified, the performance hit you mentioned would be very small, like 1 - 2 %.
Just sold my 3 GTX260s and my TH2G, bought 2 GTX470s.
I have now tried nVidia Surround, EyeFinity and Matrox, I can tell you that the nVidia solution is the far easiest to set up and use.
Noise and Heat of the cards is not an issue if running stock in SLI, but if you start overvolting and overclocking you need the fans at 100% and they make a hell of a racket. Gonna be putting them under water to remove the noise (even using headphones, you cant really use the fans over 80%).
Just some more feedback on 2 x GTX 470s, running them stock and most games don't even cause them to work too hard and so no noise, a few games kick them into high gear and I cannot hear them at all with headphones, and they are not too loud without headphones. I run my case closed and the sound goes out the back...so must depend on your setup.
I have tried to overclock them but not had good results, causes lock ups...so will have to count on better drivers to get better fps...
[quote]Is there anyway to have the monitor you want in the position you want? Even though they are all the same monitor, the computer seems to know which one is which and it won't let me play musical chairs. Very bizarre.
Ron
lol yes sure, in fact it sounds quite weird.
Aliens Vs Predator looks great all maxed on DX11 (including tesselation and extra shadows) + AA4x at 5040x1050, GPU usage running tri-SLI is also excellent, generally above 80%, and consequently FPS too. :rockout
I see you were running AVP with 100% fan. Looks about 75 cel temp wise. If you had it at 80% fan what temp does game go to?
I have a 5970 now with a haf 932 case with all fans installed. I am thinking of going nvidia but I do not play with headphones all the time even though I do have very good ones to do so. The 2 games that get my 5970 to get loud are crysis and metro 2033. Using 5040x1050. I do not have avp.
I see you were running AVP with 100% fan. Looks about 75 cel temp wise. If you had it at 80% fan what temp does game go to?
I have a 5970 now with a haf 932 case with all fans installed. I am thinking of going nvidia but I do not play with headphones all the time even though I do have very good ones to do so. The 2 games that get my 5970 to get loud are crysis and metro 2033. Using 5040x1050. I do not have avp.
I dont know m8, maybe 88ºC - 90ºC, but where i live is really hot, so dont take my fans x temp settings as some kind of standart to run Nivida Surround, i always play with headphones so the GPUs fans dont bother me at all.
Hi thales, Interesting to hear your experiences with tri-sli surround. I am looking at getting either the same setup (I already have eyefinity with a 5970) or 3 x 470 as I would not need a new power supply. What type of FPS are you getting with BC2 and could you let me know what type of difference would you get over normal sli (if you dont mind droping one card out to test with bc2 :D .
I have just taken the plunge and ordered 3 x 470's and a coolermaster HAF X case. If the 470's are not up to what I want they will go back and 480's will be ordered instead. So will try and get some figured up next week.
BC2 all maxed out gets me avg 90+ fps. SO in surround 2D its superb! 3D surround,i have to lower some settings, but i don't mind,3D Surround rocks.......
Hi thales, Interesting to hear your experiences with tri-sli surround. I am looking at getting either the same setup (I already have eyefinity with a 5970) or 3 x 470 as I would not need a new power supply. What type of FPS are you getting with BC2 and could you let me know what type of difference would you get over normal sli (if you dont mind droping one card out to test with bc2 :D .
Hey ill test it tonight and post back with results ok. :)
Edit: BFBC2 seems to run better with normal SLI than 3-way SLI, i get around 60-70 FPS with the settings below on DX11 and two GTX 480, very smooth gameplay btw.
Thanks for the reply. That is not really what I wanted to hear sadly. I am now thinking just send the 470's back and get 2 480's and pick up the third when/ if they fix the drivers.
I am getting similar frame rates as thales with my 5970 @6040 x 1080 but at 2 x AA and no hbao. So I can assume I would see no real improvements with just 2 x 470's running. :doh
I just returned my 5970 and replaced with 2 480s, I can now run BC2 at High (med effects and HBAO Off) and 4AA and only in a *LOT* of action/smoke/effects do I see it go down to the mid 50s, even then it's not noticeable unless I look at my fraps display.
I can't see how it would be playable (multiplayer) with HBAO on and High Effects..
Oh yeah and the 480s are so much nicer than the 5970.. Anything below 60 on the 5970 felt choppy, but so far even at 50fps the 480s still feel smooth.
Oh I don't miss that displayport adapter at all (would frequently need to be unplugged/plugged in to work), and I have yet to have my system crash since the switch...
Metro2033 runs great on Normal. That HardOCP review comparing Nvidia Surround to Eyefinity that showed it playable on High with SLI 480s must have been high themselves cause 30fps is not playable at all in that game, so I was a little disappointed there but Normal plays really really well.
I just returned my 5970 and replaced with 2 480s, I can now run BC2 at High (med effects and HBAO Off) and 4AA and only in a *LOT* of action/smoke/effects do I see it go down to the mid 50s, even then it's not noticeable unless I look at my fraps display.
I can't see how it would be playable (multiplayer) with HBAO on and High Effects..
Oh yeah and the 480s are so much nicer than the 5970.. Anything below 60 on the 5970 felt choppy, but so far even at 50fps the 480s still feel smooth.
Oh I don't miss that displayport adapter at all (would frequently need to be unplugged/plugged in to work), and I have yet to have my system crash since the switch...
Metro2033 runs great on Normal. That HardOCP review comparing Nvidia Surround to Eyefinity that showed it playable on High with SLI 480s must have been high themselves cause 30fps is not playable at all in that game, so I was a little disappointed there but Normal plays really really well.
Yes I am playing in MP. I have not really played the game in SP. I agree about HBAO it is unusable with both setups. I was getting between 55 - 85 with my 5970 @900/1200 no aa or hbao all high settings (AF might have been off cant remember!) With the 480's getting similar rates but can add AA and get similar rates. I never had problems with choppy feel unless the 5970 got hit with a big explosion right in front of me on atacama.
Overall happy with the 480's and with the coolermaster HAF-X case seems to do a good job of keeping them cool even at 800/1000. The difference in BC2 me is not huge but no crashes which is important. I really got these to add the third when the drivers are working better.
The 480 seem to have a very slightly higher average and lower max but a higher min which is important.
SLI/Tri-SLI question for the users with this setup. Hows the heat dump in your homes from this monster setup? I can stomach the price of the cards and water blocks and they would be going into an overkill water cooling setup but i'm not sure I want to turn my office into a sauna. I also like to GPU crunch so they would get about ~90% usage 24/7.
*Edit, also looking to dump my ATI setup due to poor drivers/ eyefinity-xfire support.
SLI/Tri-SLI question for the users with this setup. Hows the heat dump in your homes from this monster setup?
lol thats not so bad, the noise is much more noticeable than heat tbh, running tri-sli of GTX 480, and using headphones - no problems at all, the performance is awesome, so is the immersion.
lol thats not so bad, the noise is much more noticeable than heat tbh, running tri-sli of GTX 480, and using headphones - no problems at all, the performance is awesome, so is the immersion.
Thanks, thats good enough for me... i'm sold :rockout
[quote]Thanks, thats good enough for me... i'm sold :rockout
Haha cool :cheers
Again the noise with a custom profile is more noticeable than the heat. In saying that I have noticed my computer room is warmer than it was with my 5970! I am also using a new case so it could be a combination of better flow through the case as well. I am only on sli until the drivers sort out tri surround. In BC2 I am only getting up to around high 70's C at around 80% fan so not too bad. In crysis warhead much hotter closer to high 80's but the gpu use is near locked at 99% usage. Not really tried much else as yet.
I am only on sli until the drivers sort out tri surround.
3 way SLI runs great on surround, just some few games like BFBC2 dont like it, check the first page of this thread, ive added some CPU usage pics of MSI Afterburner running 3 x GTX 480.
[quote]I am only on sli until the drivers sort out tri surround.
3 way SLI runs great on surround, just some few games like BFBC2 dont like it, check the first page of this thread, ive added some CPU usage pics of MSI Afterburner running 3 x GTX 480.
This is a silly question (I know honest question is silly but i need to ask) I seen the gpu usage pics when you started the topic but is it actually adding anymore fps over normal sli. It is a pain as I wanted to get tri sli for bc2 and this does seem to be one game that does not like it for now.
As it happens something in bc2 does not something in my computer. I still get random crashes to desktop with both nv and ati even after fresh OS installs. I have the email address of a few people at ea and dice and have been told running everything on low will cut down the number of crashes something to do with multiple render paths causeing problems. So I dont actually need it for bc2 as I get lots of fps in bc2 anyway!! I suspect something in my gigabyte motherboard as it is the only thing I am have not chaged.... Actually I just suspect BC2 but some people never have any problems.
I may just get the third card when I see the drivers working a little better and a better fan for the gpu duct with the extra top fan in my HAF-X.
