Moving Sideways GTX 480 SLI

Too Tall · 20 Jul 2011 at 00:22

Hi guys,

I'm getting a bit fed up of the heat/noise created by my 480 SLI setup, I was thinking of putting the cards on ebay where they seem to be going for around £170, then buying two 6950's and unlocking them to 6970 spec's as per the thread here.

How much difference is there between a 480 SLI setup vs X-Fired 6950's or 6980's?

Nath.

arc@css · 20 Jul 2011 at 00:32

AMD's 6XXX series of cards scale very well in crossfire, supposedly better than the 5XXX series did. In comparison though your 480gtx's in sli will overall perform better than 6950 / 6970 crossfire, so it probably wouldn't be a particularly worthwhile move, unless you play at very high resolutions, that's where the extra vram on the 6950's might come in handy. I'd only consider the move at all if I could get a good enough price to not then need to shell out too much to swap over.

Why don't you just buy a couple of coolers for your 480's? You'd then benefit from lower temps and less noise. I assume they are reference models?

Too Tall · 20 Jul 2011 at 00:35

I've thought about buying coolers but it's finding some that will fit into the case. I have an antec 902, with the cards set up so there is a pci-e slot free between the cards. I could fit a larger cooler to the top card but the lower one would have to remain a dual slot cooler.

Surveyor · 20 Jul 2011 at 00:37

Finding 6950's which will unlock is very difficult now.

Too Tall · 20 Jul 2011 at 01:22

I only game at 1920x1080, I have the two cards as the pc was replaced under my insurance and was a bit OTT to be honest. I would prefer to go to a quieter one card solution so i think i will read some 6970 reviews

.

If i bought the aftermarket coolers for the 480's i'd only be able to use one anyway, due to the space.

Mr. May · 20 Jul 2011 at 07:24

aftermarket coolers would work worst as well as the dump all the heat in your case is water cooling out of the question as that is the route i've took for my 470's after having the same problems as you

pastymuncher · 20 Jul 2011 at 08:56

If you only game at 1920x1080 get rid of one of the 480's. I can max out just about everything on my rig at 1920x1200. You will then have the space for a better cooler as well.

andicole0 · 20 Jul 2011 at 09:09

You might be better off with a single video card, then if it's too noisy it's easy to upgrade the cooler. A single GTX580 maybe? There will also be no driver changes required

Also the Gelid Solutions Icy Vision (rev 2) claims to be SLI compatible.

Andi.

vectisitch · 20 Jul 2011 at 10:00

deffo go watercooled.no noise from my 2 gtx470,s and it's not as hard as ppl think to do.wc is a must for 470/480's imo

Duff-Man · 20 Jul 2011 at 10:24

I also have a 480GTX SLI setup. It's not an ideal setup, very power hungry, and I could use more power and VRAM at high resolutions (7680*1600, and one or two games even tickle the VRAM limit at 2560). That being said, there really isn't much out there that will offer a substantial increase in performance over the 480s, and any other setups that will match performance will not be far behind in terms of power draw (and associated heat output).

Personally I'm waiting for the 28nm cards before I upgrade... If you upgrade before then it will certainly be nothing more than a sideways step.

harmony · 20 Jul 2011 at 11:39

I'd say wait for the 28nm cards. You could adjust the fan profile using MSI Afterburner. Just tell the fan not to spin up until temperature reaches 95C.

F1aw1ess · 20 Jul 2011 at 12:35

I went from dual 470's which were awful to live with and the top card regular hit 95c to a single 580 and omg what a difference.

Temps never go about 60c with a custom fan profile and ooooh the silence is just lovely

An Exception · 20 Jul 2011 at 20:02

Duff-Man said:
I also have a 480GTX SLI setup. It's not an ideal setup, very power hungry, and I could use more power and VRAM at high resolutions (7680*1600, and one or two games even tickle the VRAM limit at 2560). That being said, there really isn't much out there that will offer a substantial increase in performance over the 480s, and any other setups that will match performance will not be far behind in terms of power draw (and associated heat output).

Personally I'm waiting for the 28nm cards before I upgrade... If you upgrade before then it will certainly be nothing more than a sideways step.

TBH though, at the res the Op is gaming at, he only needs something like a single 6950/70 in terms of performance, then he's just left with a solution that's much easier to live with, gives him all the performance he needs, AND may get some money back after selling off those 480's.
Wasting yet more money on 3rd party coolers or water cooling is pointless imo, when he could just buy an off the shelf solution that's far more practical/cost effective.

Duff-Man · 20 Jul 2011 at 22:05

Ejizz said:
TBH though, at the res the Op is gaming at, he only needs something like a single 6950/70 in terms of performance, then he's just left with a solution that's much easier to live with, gives him all the performance he needs, AND may get some money back after selling off those 480's.

Yeah, for 1920*1200 dual GTX480s are overkill in almost all titles (metro2033 and Crysis2 dx11 being notable exceptions).

Personally I run in single GPU mode 90% of the time, and only enable SLI for games that are taxing. Even at 2560 most of the games I play run very smoothly with a single GPU, and it solves most of the heat/noise issues.

setter · 20 Jul 2011 at 22:24

Running dual 470's here (1920x1200), with a custom fan profile they rarely hit 70c, (clocked at 750mhz). Good case airflow helps an awful lot with the nv 400 series.

Too Tall · 21 Jul 2011 at 00:09

I have custom fan profiles and more than adequate airflow over the cards. I think i will probably sell both cards and get an 580 or an 6970 and see how it goes.

AWPC · 21 Jul 2011 at 13:31

Pointless move do this instead:

1: Fit either:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-050-ZA&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

Both are 100% silent & you have headroom to overclock but thats pointless as well really on a GTX480!

2: Sell the other GTX480 or sell both & get a GTX580 but GTX580 are not silent in the warm weather you can hear the fan slightly its not too loud but depending on how close you sit to your PC or if you have headphones/loud speakers on so you may need a HSF for the GTX580 as well!
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-057-ZA&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

xtremedetailz · 21 Jul 2011 at 14:12

AWPC said:
Pointless move do this instead:

1: Fit either:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-050-ZA&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

Both are 100% silent & you have headroom to overclock but thats pointless as well really on a GTX480!

2: Sell the other GTX480 or sell both & get a GTX580 but GTX580 are not silent in the warm weather you can hear the fan slightly its not too loud but depending on how close you sit to your PC or if you have headphones/loud speakers on so you may need a HSF for the GTX580 as well!
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-057-ZA&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

Why sell both and have to put money ontop to get a GTX580 ?

Thats not good advice because everyone knows if you clock the 480 to the same speed as the GTX580 they are almost the same (GTX580 marginally quicker)

Holdon Tight · 21 Jul 2011 at 19:47

Thats not good advice because everyone knows if you clock the 480 to the same speed as the GTX580 they are almost the same (GTX580 marginally quicker)

I have done the above and set custom fan, runs fairly quiet. Try it beforevshelling out for a new card.

Jfan · 22 Jul 2011 at 14:40

Id love to watercool my 480, but have no idea where to start

all I know is I would probably want a universal gpu block so I could use it again if I ever upgrade