Advice on possible SLI

simonhutchin322 · 29 Sep 2011 at 09:53

Hey guys I've played battlefield 3 on my current rig which is

[email protected]
8GB
64GB SSD
GTX 580 MSI Twin froza II

At 1920x1080 I've tried it at the highest settings on 580 I'm getting around 50-60 fps outside on metro and about 70-100 inside, however casbain border I get about 45 on average. I am abit of an fps whore lol I've got some spare cash to potentially get a second card or wait for next gen cards but I don't have a Gen 3 board. Any advice?

Thanks

Sy

ChrisD. · 29 Sep 2011 at 09:58

Can your case cope with the extra heat and is your PSU powerful enough? I've just bought a second 5850 to tie me over till next gen but I'd have thought a 580 would be fine for BF3. Do you get any noticeable slow down or are you just hunting figures?

simonhutchin322 · 29 Sep 2011 at 10:15

I doubt it, and I would need a new PSU as I've only got a 650W. From what I've read MSI OC 580s are know for getting stupidly hot. I'm I right in thinking I would need a Gen 3 board for next Gen graphics cards ?

ChrisD. · 29 Sep 2011 at 10:18

I would only ever consider dual cards if you have good cooling and a strong PSU.

gwobbles · 29 Sep 2011 at 10:25

why not wait til the full release of the game? by then it would be more optimised as well as new drivers coming out to bump up the performance too. im itching to spend my student loan on anotehr 580 too along with a new psu, but im holding fire for now and seeing how my single 580 copes, if it runs smooth at high with some ultra, im not really that fussed, it will still kick console version in the face anytime!

simonhutchin322 · 29 Sep 2011 at 10:31

gwobbles said:
why not wait til the full release of the game? by then it would be more optimised as well as new drivers coming out to bump up the performance too. im itching to spend my student loan on anotehr 580 too along with a new psu, but im holding fire for now and seeing how my single 580 copes, if it runs smooth at high with some ultra, im not really that fussed, it will still kick console version in the face anytime!

I was just thinking that, nice advice. Have you played the beta yet ? Your system is similar to mine, any advice on nvidia control panel settings for GTX 580 ? Thanks

gwobbles · 29 Sep 2011 at 10:33

unfortunately i was sent the wrong beta code, it was for 360 rather than pc so i havent had a chance to put my rig through hell yet

so im eagerly waiting for the obt release today!

simonhutchin322 · 29 Sep 2011 at 10:59

Let me know how you get on, we can then bounce of each other for optimal settings. I have the exact same board as you as well :-)

do you run 1920by1080 ?

Surveyor · 29 Sep 2011 at 11:31

Which motherboard do you have (to check for SLI compatability)?

Which PSU do you have (to check it will run SLI'd GTX 580's)?

simonhutchin322 · 29 Sep 2011 at 11:43

MSI P67A-GD53-B3 and cosair 650w

gwobbles · 29 Sep 2011 at 11:45

simonhutchin322 said:
Let me know how you get on, we can then bounce of each other for optimal settings. I have the exact same board as you as well do you run 1920by1080 ?

haha yup, im running at 1920x1080 aswell lol, this should be interesting

Surveyor · 29 Sep 2011 at 11:54

simonhutchin322 said:
MSI P67A-GD53-B3 and cosair 650w

Yes to SLI compatability.

No chance of the PSU running SLI'd GTX 580's.

You're looking at needing a good 850W PSU.

simonhutchin322 · 29 Sep 2011 at 12:14

Surveyor said:
Yes to SLI compatability.

No chance of the PSU running SLI'd GTX 580's.

You're looking at needing a good 850W PSU.

Yeah I thought that would be the case, just the heat it would generate that concerns me

zia · 29 Sep 2011 at 13:59

With msi 580 twin forzor in sli you don't need heating in you room,

you'll need plently of ventilation and some really good air flow in you case.

zia

simonhutchin322 · 29 Sep 2011 at 14:53

zia said:
With msi 580 twin forzor in sli you don't need heating in you room, you'll need plently of ventilation and some really good air flow in you case.

zia

How stable is it ? This is the case I use http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-196-CM and fan recommendations ? And do you mean ventilation around the case ?

Rroff · 29 Sep 2011 at 14:58

You are using the latest nVidia drivers for BF3? some decent performance gains in them and possibly another 10-15% in the next set.

simonhutchin322 · 29 Sep 2011 at 15:01

Rroff said:
You are using the latest nVidia drivers for BF3? some decent performance gains in them and possibly another 10-15% in the next set.

Yeah I've got the latest drivers.

Rroff · 29 Sep 2011 at 15:03

Another 580 is a lot of cash to throw at GPUs right now... but... I doubt we will be seeing their replacement upgrade wise for a few months now.

You should be able to run next generation cards on your motherboard tho.

On a related note tom mentioned his GTX480 SLI was hitting 640watt in BF3, GTX580 SLI isn't gonna be hugely less so PSU wise your definitely looking at a good 850watt unit IMO.

gwobbles · 30 Sep 2011 at 00:02

with my rig im getting high 50s outdoors and high 60s when in doors. though i had 2 bsod for some reason, i did a clean install of 285.38 again, so hopefully that solves it, havent tested yet though

ill try and nab a shot of my settings in a second, if i remember im running everything on ultra, have 2x AA and NO HBAO or SSAO (which gave me a roughly 10fps more on average, and i dont even notice the difference lol)

simonhutchin322 · 30 Sep 2011 at 07:47

gwobbles said:
with my rig im getting high 50s outdoors and high 60s when in doors. though i had 2 bsod for some reason, i did a clean install of 285.38 again, so hopefully that solves it, havent tested yet though

ill try and nab a shot of my settings in a second, if i remember im running everything on ultra, have 2x AA and NO HBAO or SSAO (which gave me a roughly 10fps more on average, and i dont even notice the difference lol)

Cool my settings are roughly the same, would love to play maxed out but fps decreases to much. I'm happy to hold out for the next Gen cards.