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What are my options (SLI 780)

powdaman

powdaman

powdaman

Associate
Joined
30 Jul 2009
Posts
175
Good Morning All,

I am seriously considering purchasing another 780 in order to go SLI as I have been running a 1440 resolution setup for about 3 years now and to be honest the single card does struggle (a little) on certain titles.

With that in mind it seems that the 780 I purchased backed in October is no longer available so what are my options? (Gainward GeForce GTX 780 Phantom 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card)

Does the card have to be identical or can I purchase any GTX 780?

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Powda
 
What games you finding a single 780 not doing well mate? You can see my set up and to be honest i've no issues running any games at a very good framerate.

Whats your full spec and games you are playing? If you use AA, just bin it as at 1440p its pointless for me.

But yes any 780 will work, try to get a ref cooler to exhausted the heat out of back if you can unless it's water cooled!
 
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Any 3GB 780 will work with your existing 780 but take into account the extra heat/noise and power draw, so make sure you have ample air flow in your case :)
 
It is easy to see how a 780 might not live up to someones expectation for gaming in 1440P, it could definitely be greatly improved by adding a second. I had a 780 for 1080P for a while and I still longed for more grunt. :D

As said, any 3GB 780 will do just fine. Personally I'd get another Phantom card so that they match (just a cosmetic thing) but if you see a good deal on another brand it will still work just fine.

Make sure your cooling and PSU are up to the task!
 
I would also recommend getting matching cards so they look neat when in SLI.

Also might be worth flashing the bios of them so they match. Will make sure they are running at the same speeds and will be simpler for overclocking.
 
You can use any 780 3gb but I'd recommend getting the same model. Otherwise the 2nd one downclocks to match your original card which is just wasted potential.

IMO you should overclock the crap out of it and just wait for now ;)
 
IIRC the Phantom was a triple slot cooler? in which case you're going to need fans over the GPUs bringing air in.

I ran two Palit Jetstream 670s in SLI and it was a complete nightmare until I fitted two fans blowing over them. The top card was well up in the 90s, and these were top end coolers.

Certain types of open air coolers just don't work well in SLI, and I suspect the 780 Phantom would be more of the same.

Also, make sure you space them apart as much as is possible, as this helps the hot air the bottom card is producing dissipate rather than just circulating straight into the cooler on the top card. That was my main issue with SLI and why I went back to blowers.
 
No need to worry about matching clock speeds. Each card will run at its own independent boost speed. Though you'll want to have the higher boosting one in the topmost gpu slot.
 
ALXAndy said:
IIRC the Phantom was a triple slot cooler? in which case you're going to need fans over the GPUs bringing air in.

I ran two Palit Jetstream 670s in SLI and it was a complete nightmare until I fitted two fans blowing over them. The top card was well up in the 90s, and these were top end coolers.

Certain types of open air coolers just don't work well in SLI, and I suspect the 780 Phantom would be more of the same.

Also, make sure you space them apart as much as is possible, as this helps the hot air the bottom card is producing dissipate rather than just circulating straight into the cooler on the top card. That was my main issue with SLI and why I went back to blowers.
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Pre-waterblocks I had my 780 phantoms in slots 1 & 5 (2.5 slot cards). In normal orientation they worked brilliantly and quietly, inverted atx (upsidedown) they got quite hot.

Probably the best air cooled cards I've owned.
 
Had gigabyte wf 670's in sli. Temps were pretty good in my Z77 setup as the P8 Z77 v pro had a two slot gap. Bit hotter in my current Z87 M6f as the gap isn't as wide. Wouldn't put me off going for another wf 780 if I could source another at the right price. Would look much better than non matching cards too.
 
pgi947 said:
Pre-waterblocks I had my 780 phantoms in slots 1 & 5 (2.5 slot cards). In normal orientation they worked brilliantly and quietly, inverted atx (upsidedown) they got quite hot.

Probably the best air cooled cards I've owned.
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Yeah I hear they're very good cards for temps :)
 
wow. thanks for all the advice guys, you are all very helpful. I will most probably get another Gainward card although they dont do the phantom anymore so I'll go with Ths one. Do you think I would need to upgrade my PSU as well as its currently 650W???
 
powdaman said:
wow. thanks for all the advice guys, you are all very helpful. I will most probably get another Gainward card although they dont do the phantom anymore so I'll go with Ths one. Do you think I would need to upgrade my PSU as well as its currently 650W???
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think 650W is pushing it with 2 x 780's.

Annoyingly 750-850W would be fine.

Here are some suggestions of 850W PSU's:

YOUR BASKET
1 x SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 850W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £99.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova B2 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Hybrid Modular Power Supply (110-B2-0850-V3) £89.99
1 x Seasonic M12II EVO Edition 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £79.99
Total : £384.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
powdaman said:
wow. thanks for all the advice guys, you are all very helpful. I will most probably get another Gainward card although they dont do the phantom anymore so I'll go with Ths one. Do you think I would need to upgrade my PSU as well as its currently 650W???
Click to expand...

I know you don't have access to the MM (neither do I unfortunately) but do you not have a make that has access to it. If so you could ask him to keep an eye out for another phantom model for you and if one pops up give him the cash and get him to buy it. That's of course if your ok with buying 2nd hand. personally I don't have a problem with that.
 
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