+1 580

Bri62 · 11 Apr 2011 at 11:24

Hi i got a KFa2 580 1536mb and would like to add another for 30" gaming would it be ok to add a 3072mb to a SLi set up and would the system use the 3072mb of memory?

psychas · 11 Apr 2011 at 11:33

i think it will only use half of the memory as the other one is not 3 gig . others should clarify

d_brennen · 11 Apr 2011 at 11:34

Cards keep the same data in both banks of VRAM, so you only have the total of one card

Boff_in · 11 Apr 2011 at 11:35

Another consideration, those cards at full tilt will be working your sig psu very hard. Mentioned in another thread they can pull over 500w each under load.
Just a mention.

d_brennen · 11 Apr 2011 at 11:39

Boff_in said:
Another consideration, those cards at full tilt will be working your sig psu very hard. Mentioned in another thread they can pull over 500w each under load.
Just a mention.

That's nonsense. 500w each?

guru3d said:
Measured power consumption

System in IDLE = 187W
System Wattage with GPU in FULL Stress = 447W
Difference (GPU load) = 260W
Add average IDLE wattage ~ 20W
Subjective obtained GPU power consumption = ~ 280 Watts

Boff_in · 11 Apr 2011 at 11:41

Hmm, I accept that. I'm still looking at this myself.

Edit*- I can only assume the figures I found were for
total system, and certainly not guru bench.
Thanks for clearing it up.

ewarwoowar · 11 Apr 2011 at 11:42

Running sli 580s on 850w is asking for problems tbh

Cleeecooo · 11 Apr 2011 at 12:23

ewarwoowar said:
Running sli 580s on 850w is asking for problems tbh

I would only get a 1kw PSU for that. OP, do you really need another 580?

Stoner81 · 11 Apr 2011 at 12:32

Surely a single 580 would be more than enough to game on a 30" screen?

Stoner81.

drifting · 11 Apr 2011 at 12:47

Stoner81 said:
Surely a single 580 would be more than enough to game on a 30" screen?

Stoner81.

Nope. 580 with only 1.5GB vram is bottlenecked. No 580 1.5GB dare run Metro 2033 at 2560x1600 with MSAA 4X and DOF enabled. Here is also a list of games reported (unconfirmed) to exceed 1.5GB vram usage at 2560x1600 under certain circumstances:

GTA
Crysis
Call of Duty
Napoleon: Total War
Starcraft 2
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
Dragon Age 2
Total War: Shogun 2
Homefront
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Sid Meier's Civilization

Bri62 · 11 Apr 2011 at 13:51

so if i were to sell this 580 and buy just 1 3 gig 580 would that do the job?

Bri62 · 11 Apr 2011 at 13:55

ewarwoowar said:
Running sli 580s on 850w is asking for problems tbh

not acording to this

cmndr_andi · 11 Apr 2011 at 14:06

Looking at this review (with an i7 [email protected] and an SSD) the load power draw for 580SLI in furmark is 777W and running crysis (a much more realistic usage of the cards) is 620W.

With a 30in display (2560x1600 is a really tough resolution to to play modern games with due to the resources required) I would certainly consider going down the road of selling the current card, buying a 3GB one and seeing how your performance is. From there you can always add in a second 3GB card and preserve 3GB per GPU.

Bri62 · 11 Apr 2011 at 14:38

Thx all..... i think i'll go down the road that andi suggests and get a single 3gb to start

ebilcake · 11 Apr 2011 at 18:56

double post ***

ebilcake · 11 Apr 2011 at 18:59

There’s an easy solution to this, buy a 1920*1200 monitor.

2560x1600 is too much, buying a monitor with this resolution is usually the start of a very expensive and unnecessary upgrade path.

Speed · 11 Apr 2011 at 19:05

ewarwoowar said:
Running sli 580s on 850w is asking for problems tbh

Depends on the PSU, it is a lot less to do with wattage than it is amps on the 12v rail/rails.

ebilcake said:
There’s an easy solution to this, buy a 1920*1200 monitor.

2560x1600 is too much, buying a monitor with this resolution is usually the start of a very expensive and unnecessary upgrade path.

By the sounds of things he already has one 30" monitor. Personally I love the extra resolution on a 30" monitor, upgrades needed or not.

ebilcake · 11 Apr 2011 at 19:24

Speed said:
By the sounds of things he already has one 30" monitor. Personally I love the extra resolution on a 30" monitor, upgrades needed or not.

Which is why I said buy a 1920*1200 montor, if all you do is game higher resolutions are pointless.

My advice is gid rid of it now unless he actually needs it, which I doubt.

Speed · 11 Apr 2011 at 19:37

ebilcake said:
Which is why I said buy a 1920*1200 montor, if all you do is game higher resolutions are pointless.

My advice is gid rid of it now unless he actually needs it, which I doubt.

I don't agree, anyone who has gamed on a large high resolution monitor wouldn't want to go back. Most 1920x1200 monitors are 24" which a considerable step down. If he doesn't own a 30" monitor at the moment, then he likely already has a monitor of the size and resolution you suggested.

Sure they are not only good for gaming, but that is the main reason I purchased mine. The other benifits were just bonuses. Yes you need some decent hardware to power them but he already has a GTX580.

Marvin · 11 Apr 2011 at 19:38

It's only an expensive upgrade path if you really care about running all games at the highest settings. Since 95% of games run easily on a single high-end card at that resolution, and those that don't (Crysis, Metro etc) still look really good, even at lower settings, it's only an expensive upgrade path if you're really anal. I started to go down that road (nearly bought 2 6950s, and had 2 GTX460 2GB cards), but have now toned down to 1 GTX480(which I'll overclock the hell out of). I'd much rather play on my 30" IPS loveliness with 35 fps than at 70 fps on a 24" IPS of similar quality. And of course, lowering the res to 1920x1200 and sitting a little further away isn't out of the question either on really demanding games. Doesn't look that bad to me.