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3 way sli gtx470 doesnt work

arfur

arfur

arfur

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Joined
26 Nov 2006
Posts
1,091
i've just got a 3rd card to add to my sli but the system just blue screens as its loading windows. 2 cards has worked fine for a couple of years, they were 1.2gb asus cards, the new one is a zoltac 1.2gb, i've tried with and without the sli bridge, if i disconnect the power to any 1 of the 3 cards then the system boots fine and both cards are detected (i've tested it by unplugging power from all 3 1 at a time). i'm running a i7 920 with 2 ssd's and a coolermaster 1kw psu. it could be a power issue but before i upgrade i want to know if anyone has any ideas, it doesnt even get into safe mode on. 3 cards, error 0x0000007 or 50. i'm on the latest bios and my board is a ga-x58-3dr v2.0
 
pgi947 said:
It could well be a power issue, thats 4 very power hungry components you're trying to run :)
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setter said:
Id have thought a 1000w psu would be fine running three 470's? Guru 3d article states a max draw of 800w with tri sli on an oc'd 900 series i7 setup.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_470_2_and_3_way_sli_review,23.html

With an i7 920 @4ghz and dual sli 470's at 750mhz, my power draw at the wall in games was 630w. P95 and furmark extreme burn simultaneously was 860w.
Click to expand...

I agree with both but I would try and nick another PSU from a friend or family member and run 1 card solely on that. At least it would eliminate or confirm.
 
Just a quick question why would you want 3 470's i had this type of set up and caused me a lot of head aches with vram. it would hit the limit too oftern.

But it does sound like a power problem have you checked the amps needed and what your psu can deliver i used a AX1200 and never had a problem with power.

Have you tried reseting any of your overclocks?
 
Hmm, going from setters read outs you'd probably be pushed to stress 1kw if everything was stock.

Is the PSU dual or single rail? If dual it could perhaps be a load imbalance?
 
I would have thought it would have booted up, don't think booting up would cause too much stress, it's not like the system will be under much stress at boot surely?
 
Last edited:
Durring boot doesn't everything initially flex to higher clocks? - I genuinely don't know btw, just a presumption.

If we can rule out the PSU then I suppose the next thing to look at would be the motherboard.
 
heres another question, 3 way isnt much better than 2 way (probably a few FPS in it), cpu is about 40-50% usage overall, 12 GB 1600 DDR3, SSD. GPU's are running about 45-60% on each card, if I drop it from ultra to high it is a slight increase in FPS. What my question is, if each card has 1.2Gb of VRAM does that mean the system has 3.6Gb available or just 1.2Gb? I'm wondering if I'm hitting a limit with VRAM
 
With gtx 470's in sli on a 4.2ghz i7 920. I was seeing 99% gpu usage per card. Bf3 on ultra with no msaa, got close to the vram limit of 1280mb on the cards, 1920x1200. My advice, sell them and either buy a single gtx 670/80 if you need nvidia features. Or a single 7950. With either, you have the future option of going sli/xfire.
 
When you hit the ram limit you won't get low gpu usage you frame rate will just plummet and it can do this by just changing one setting and over stepping the ram limit.
 
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