FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Register Register  Login Login

3-Way SLI Pros and Cons

Post Date: 2010-10-25
 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
MagiK View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1074 		  Quote MagiK Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: 3-Way SLI Pros and Cons
    Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 11:49am
Sooooo Im looking at spending a bunch on a new system pretty soon and was all set to go with 2 way SLI but thought...why not go with 3-way.

I know that circa 2008 there were a lot of issues and compatibility problems early on, so was wondering if anyone here was running Tri-Sli and what your experiences are on it.  I havent had much luck finding current discussions regarding the state of things as they stand now with modern cards and mobos and Win7.
Ancalagon, My Syndicate SubZero Build Review
Back to Top
justin.kerr View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 06 May 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5084 		  Quote justin.kerr Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 12:13pm
What will  you be using this PC for?
 
Multi monitors?
30" monitor?
I have had a lot of SLI, TRI-SLI, and one quad SLI PC.
For gaming, TRI-SLI is the sweet spot in my eyes. Quad sucks donkey pee pee's.
I had tri sli rigs in 2008, and had no problems, same with 2009 lol.  Some games may have some scaling issues, but if you are patient, and seek a fix, (updated drivers, modded .EXE's ect) it usually does not take long to have any issues ironed out.
Back to Top
MagiK View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1074 		  Quote MagiK Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 12:34pm
This machine will be doing a variety of things, but a lot of that is CPU intensive, the GPU's will be for 30" monitor gaming at 2560x1600 and maybe later Ill move to 7680x1600 on 3x30" monitors, (not really interested in the whole 3D vision thing)

However.....If Im honest, the bulk of the week will be multi-tasking Office work, Surfing and the Occasional BluRay / DVD Ripping and transcoding.  The Gaming will be after hours and weekends.

(initial Build will be 2 monitors one 30" at 2560x1600 and one 28" at 1920x1200)


Edited by MagiK - 25 Oct 2010 at 12:37pm
Ancalagon, My Syndicate SubZero Build Review
Back to Top
justin.kerr View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 06 May 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5084 		  Quote justin.kerr Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 12:38pm
most of the time a single GTX 450 would be more than enough then. lolBig%20Smile
Back to Top
MagiK View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1074 		  Quote MagiK Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 12:51pm
Most of the time but not when I want to PLAY  Drooling

So Im trying to figure out if I want to go Dual SLI or Tri.....

Cost isnt an issue....its "how much do I want"  LOL

More seriously though, I thinking since the LCS loop for this is limited to a dual rad inside the case, I may want to stick to the 2 card configuration.  With the CPU being cooled by the "new" cooling solution and a triple rad in the case.
Ancalagon, My Syndicate SubZero Build Review
Back to Top
justin.kerr View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 06 May 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5084 		  Quote justin.kerr Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 1:17pm
prolly a good idea, I always figure a "dual" radiator a minimum for each card, 3 GTX 480's on one dual rad would be pushing it a bit. lol but I imagine temps would still be 20C cooler than air.
Back to Top
!ender_ View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran


Joined: 24 Oct 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 1:40pm
id go with dual cards and LC personally, i understand no budget limit, but theres enjoying your money, and there is wasting it. for what you listed, even dual cards is overkill imo
avoid the bugs/compatibility problems, get 2 cards, lc and overclock the crap out of them
Back to Top
MagiK View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1074 		  Quote MagiK Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 2:02pm
I will probably stick to dual cards, I just wanted to find out a bit on the state of the current art of Tri-SLi

The Dual GPU's are a must as we are planning on building some of our sims to utilize GPU's for the computing power.....for now dual I think is fine, but It will be interesting to see how Graphics technology shakes out over the next 5 years.

Ok one last question to add,  So when would Triple SLI be desirable if not for a gaming rig?


Edited by MagiK - 25 Oct 2010 at 2:07pm
Ancalagon, My Syndicate SubZero Build Review
Back to Top
!ender_ View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran


Joined: 24 Oct 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 2:44pm
Originally posted by MagiK


Ok one last question to add,  So when would Triple SLI be desirable if not for a gaming rig?
 
at this point, personally, i would never reccomend more than 3 video cards to anyone for any use, only in the case of  a folding machine do i feel you would get any reasonable return on the money and hassle
 
i'd also throw in that at this point for me, monitors are already getting too big for a serious/competitve gamer, 21-23" @ 1920 is over the effective size in my opinion, bigger than that and i personally feel that a screen becomes less effective very rapidly, effectively removing any need for more than dual overclocked cards
Back to Top
MagiK View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1074 		  Quote MagiK Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 2:49pm
I don't do competitive gaming or online gaming (except for the occasional STO run)
I have a large desk and am further from the monitor than most gamers, I had no problem at all with a 40" 1080p Sony Television serving as my main monitor, I may put that back up as my Second monitor  when I get my new System.
Ancalagon, My Syndicate SubZero Build Review
Back to Top
!ender_ View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran


Joined: 24 Oct 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 3:34pm
eh, sad thing about tvs is that most max out at a pretty low res and refresh rate
so then you have streched pixels and lower refresh rates on a bigger more expensive screen thats further away :(
 
my argument to bigger screens is that yes, you can put them further away so you can see everything... but that just effectively reduces the size of it back to a smaller monitor that requiers more power to push
Back to Top
MagiK View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1074 		  Quote MagiK Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 3:53pm
Maybe, but it is silly  to waste desk space positioning the monitor so its 3 feet away which would mean losing half the usable surface of the desk.  I like....loooove my 30" monitor, and I enjoyed the 40" Sony at 1920x1080 andI never once noticed stretched pixels  Hahaha


I guess for me it is "A difference that makes no difference, is no difference" issue...like the audio issue, onboard is good enough for me because I cant hear the difference, and I don't see the stretched pixels so...


Edited by MagiK - 25 Oct 2010 at 3:54pm
Ancalagon, My Syndicate SubZero Build Review
Back to Top
Tidgxor View Drop Down
DS ELITE
DS ELITE

The Kokopelli kid
Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 17 Sep 2010
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13000 		  Quote Tidgxor Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 4:00pm
Hey everyone, I have a question that seems somewhat related to topic, so I'll just ask here as to not create an entirely new thread.

I'm going to be helping a friend build his computer next weekend, he currently has 2 GTX 480s, (one of which he won in a contest, lucky punk!). However, he only games on a single 27" monitor (not sure on the resolution). Is there any point in going SLI or would it be worth his while to sell the 2nd 480 while its still worth a pretty penny?
Back to Top
MagiK View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran

Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1074 		  Quote MagiK Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 4:07pm
Resolution is key to the answer to that question,  1 480 is good for most games but 2 will let you get crazy at higher resolutions and all those silly eye candy things like AA and AF
Ancalagon, My Syndicate SubZero Build Review
Back to Top
!ender_ View Drop Down
DS Veteran
DS Veteran


Joined: 24 Oct 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 4:10pm
res is key as he said and that depends on the person
id keep it, more future proof, but i play a lot of games and overclock as a hobby, if he doesnt care that much, a single would probabaly be fine
Back to Top
Tidgxor View Drop Down
DS ELITE
DS ELITE

The Kokopelli kid
Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 17 Sep 2010
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13000 		  Quote Tidgxor Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2010 at 5:08pm
Thanks for the replies!

I'll let him know that resolution is key to performance and that he needs to do some self research on the matter in regards to what kind of games he plays, etc. Knowing him, he will go with SLI, I just wanted to let him know if there was any major reason not to.
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 7.421875E-02 seconds.