SLI 580's - Blower vs non-ref cooler

[TallPaul_S]

I know, I know, welcome back to 2010

I'm currently running an MSI GTX580 Twin Frozr II and to keep me going until the 980ti is released and increase my minimum FPS in GTA (20's in certain areas) I'm gonna pick up a 2nd one to go SLI with as they're going for about £50-60 used.

I'll be running them in a Phanteks Evolv Micro ATX case, so the cards will be next to each other. Question is, do I get another non-ref cooler (ideally another twin frorz II to amtch the one I already have) or a reference blower cooler? They're not cool cards, my current one sits at around 75 degrees when playing GTA V, and it pumps out a fair bit of heat - but will a blower style ref cooler be insanely loud compared to a (for the time) decent non-reference cooler?

If anyone could cast their mind back to when they still ran 580's it would be appreciated

 

[stulid]

With the 980ti so close I think you are actually wasting £50 trying to find a 2nd 580.

 

[TallPaul_S]

Hmm, you reckon it's that close to bring released? I would have thought June/July time. Also there is a chance if it's a silly price (£600+) then I'll wait a month or 2 to see if prices come down a little.

Any used 580 I buy I should be able to sell on for very little loss, and theres plenty for sale.

 

[stulid]

Its like June/July. Coming out to steal AMDs thunder.

The case you have has some big fans, air flow shouldn't be an issue.

 

[TallPaul_S]

Thought so, I'll still pick one up as it could be 2 or more months before I upgrade to a 980ti, I'll be picking one up in the next week so still worth it.

So, blower (noisy but possibly lower case temps) vs non-ref (quieter more hot air in the case).

Oh and if it helps, the CPU (3570k with a mild OC on it, 4.0/4.2 or around that) will be cooled by a H110i GT. I'm thinking rear 140mm exhaust, top 2x 140mm exhuast and front 180mm intake. Would prefer to have positive pressure but may have to wait until I get rid of the 2 hot air blowers before that happens

 

[stulid]

Dont think nvidia did a rubbish blower cooler on the 580s, it was the 470+480 and before that the 5800 that all sucked.

 

[Rroff]

The reference coolers on the 470, 480 and 580 IIRC are pretty much silent upto 60% fan speed and then really noisey after that - the 470 and 580 when not overclocked from what I remember could be kept below 60% fan speed but the 480 not so much :S

IMO with an SLI setup your better off with a card in the top slot that has a cooler that exhausts out the back like the reference ones - but check why your seeing such performance dips in GTA V - if its due to running out of VRAM then SLI won't help.

 

[setter]

I wouldn't recommend x2 non reference cooled cards in sli. I've got dual 780 wf cards in such a setup. Temps on the top one can get pretty high. 85c vs 55c max on the bottom one. Not helped by poor slot spacing.

 

[stooeh]

I ran two non ref 580s for 3 years (they came with massive accelero xtreme coolers)

They were triple slot coolers in fact and I ended buy a mobo with maximum spacing so that I didn't need to worry about the top one's temps

 

[Doogles]

Sell your card now for £40-£60 and buy a used HD 7970 for £80.

 

[Ste]

Go for it if you're planning to play a lot for the next few weeks. Make sure it's a blower card and sell it on afterwards. It'll probably cost you 10-15 quid net which is well worth it to make GTA playable

 

[P.B]

Sell your card now for £40-£60 and buy a used HD 7970 for £80.

this would be a better idea be much smoother

 

[TallPaul_S]

Slower than SLI 580s though according to anandtech bench.

And AMD... eugh.

It's mainly the north of city, grassy areas that hurt the frames, basically where everyone get the same drops. Vram sits around 1400MB all the time, I've had no issues with dframe drops hitting the vram buffer. It's perfectly playable in 90% or the areas, just some locations the frames drop down to 30 or so. Most of the time it's sat at 55-60fps.