Current SLI Support (or lack of)

Dirk Diggler · 7 Dec 2014 at 11:10

I'm trying to talk myself into buying another 970 to pair up with my current Gigabyte G1 Gaming. I upgraded from 670 SLI, and part of talking myself into that particular move was the benefit of a single card set up. :rolleyes:

Two questions really...

1. What games are you having to settle on one card with? I'm not looking for a massive list, but when do you find yourself short of FPS and think "I wish I had a profile to get this running sweeter with the hardware I already own which is capable of so much more".

2. Could anyone who has them both on air give me an idea of temperatures?

Thanks.

andybird123 · 7 Dec 2014 at 12:02

The only game i've had issues with recently was cod advanced warfare, though it runs at 100+fps at 1440 on a single card, so a lack of sli support was not really a problem

MasterOC · 7 Dec 2014 at 12:13

Hey pal ,

Using GTX 970 ex OC , on a z97 board without a plx chip and the ability to use a lower PCI-E slot for the 2nd card with an air 540 chassis it's about 80c top card and 72c for the lowest card, will be moving over to the x99 platform soon with a lot better GPU spacing options .

It rarely throttles and only hits those temps under rare conditions in benching , 1500mhz overclocks or uber demanding games including downsampling ... If it does throttle it only goes down by 1 13mhz increment , however moving the temp adjuster In MSI afterburner to 86c enables it to not throttle and keep top cards temp at max of 82

80% of my games work with SLI , 10% of those need custom profiles or other games SLI bits and around 20% don't work , however out of that 20% a single 970 dominates or isn't the deciding factor in overall performance such as DayZ standalone and such

Michaeljcox24 · 7 Dec 2014 at 12:24

I bought Evil Within in the Steam Black Friday. It only uses one card. Bit of a pita when you're running a 690.

Dirk Diggler · 7 Dec 2014 at 12:47

MasterOC said:
Hey pal ,

Using GTX 970 ex OC , on a z97 board without a plx chip and the ability to use a lower PCI-E slot for the 2nd card with an air 540 chassis it's about 80c top card and 72c for the lowest card, will be moving over to the x99 platform soon with a lot better GPU spacing options .

It rarely throttles and only hits those temps under rare conditions in benching , 1500mhz overclocks or uber demanding games including downsampling ... If it does throttle it only goes down by 1 13mhz increment , however moving the temp adjuster In MSI afterburner to 86c enables it to not throttle and keep top cards temp at max of 82

80% of my games work with SLI , 10% of those need custom profiles or other games SLI bits and around 20% don't work , however out of that 20% a single 970 dominates or isn't the deciding factor in overall performance such as DayZ standalone and such

Great info, mate.

I'll have them in a Gigabyte z87-OC board also in an Air540, and I'm hoping they can fit in both top slots as I'll only be dropping to x8 PCI. If I need to use slots 1 and 3 I think I'm looking at x4 PCI. Do you think x4 will be a problem?

I'm going to fit 2*120mm AF fans where the hot swap bays are on the 540, as I think it could improve things with some nice cool air coming in from the bottom. Airflow will be 3*SP120 at the from (360 rad), 2*120AF on the bottom, 2*120AF on the top and 1*140AF on the rear exhaust. They will all be run via fan controller so hopefully I can dial them all down a wee bit and still get some good temperatures.

I really don't want to put the 970's under water because I'm struggling to sell my 670's with water blocks in the MM right now... and it's been a lesson learned. If the 670's had air coolers they's be sold by now.

Uncle Petey · 7 Dec 2014 at 12:48

SLI doesn't work with x4 unfortunately.

Dirk Diggler · 7 Dec 2014 at 12:49

Michaeljcox24 said:
I bought Evil Within in the Steam Black Friday. It only uses one card. Bit of a pita when you're running a 690.

I had my 670 SLI setup at the time I bought this game, and it was disappointing. Kinda why I've kicked off this conversation really. It's bearable in a few games, but if the list stacks up then questions have to be asked about the viability of SLI setups.

Nvidia need to do more to support the facility, it's not as if it isn't in their interests... :rolleyes:

Dirk Diggler · 7 Dec 2014 at 12:54

Uncle Petey said:
SLI doesn't work with x4 unfortunately.

Hmmm. Then I've got something wrong somewhere with my info. I had 670's in slot 1 and 3 and they definitley run in SLI mode.

Here's some pics...

Benchmark...

According to Gigabyte, the 3rd slot runs x4 (that's how I've read it).

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4514#sp

setter · 7 Dec 2014 at 12:56

Uncle Petey said:
SLI doesn't work with x4 unfortunately.

Unfortunate indeed, and as I've been looking into getting a PLX enabled Maximus 6 extreme mobo. Its not possible even on this board to move 2 card down a slot as dual sli only works in a certain slot configuration which is the same as my current board.

Uncle Petey · 7 Dec 2014 at 13:10

I'm reading it the same as you, String. Dunno what's going there tbh. Hey, if it works, it works

Setter, are you wanting to do that just due to heat concerns?

setter · 7 Dec 2014 at 13:16

I am yes as my pair only have a one slot gap. Id have been better off with a Z87 pro motherboard as I had the Z77 version with a 2 slot gap and windforce 670's in sli. Temps were much better. But I'm thinking of putting a side fan on the case window panel.

shankly1985 · 7 Dec 2014 at 13:25

Isn't the PCI 2.0 4x for SLI limit? Now we have PCI 3.0 4x = 8x 2.0 reason String had it running.

That's my guess.

Uncle Petey · 7 Dec 2014 at 13:29

That would make sense.

setter · 7 Dec 2014 at 13:32

No idea on that board string is using tbh. But it seems to be working grand. Mine in sig only has 3 pcie slots and iirc the bottom one is x4.

MasterOC · 7 Dec 2014 at 13:42

Wouldn't work with my 2 970s at x4 even with PCI-e 3.0 ... I thought requirment was 8x minimum regardless of gen . As I tried for better temps

Uncle Petey · 7 Dec 2014 at 13:43

Ok, it doesn't make sense

String, are you sure that your board isn't the OC FORCE variant?

shankly1985 · 7 Dec 2014 at 13:55

Then I have no idea

setter · 7 Dec 2014 at 13:58

Iirc the SOC Force is a PLX enabled board. But it must work differently from the Maximus 6 extreme. Good thing with xfire your not limited by lane speed like sli.

Darren_uk · 7 Dec 2014 at 14:40

String :
2. Could anyone who has them both on air give me an idea of temperatures on Air

SLI Score for Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4096MB & Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 Mini-ITX 4096MB

Heaven Benchmark 4.0 on Extreme with 8xaa 1920 x 1080p Great temps in SLI Main card G1 Gaming temp 65c at end of benchmark & 66c for the mini ITX card & did not hear any sound from fans of the cards. SLI Score 2574 on defort Cards OC speeds

Dirk Diggler · 7 Dec 2014 at 15:03

Darren_uk said:
String :
2. Could anyone who has them both on air give me an idea of temperatures on Air

SLI Score for Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4096MB & Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 Mini-ITX 4096MB

Heaven Benchmark 4.0 on Extreme with 8xaa 1920 x 1080p Great temps in SLI Main card G1 Gaming temp 65c at end of benchmark & 66c for the mini ITX card & did not hear any sound from fans of the cards. SLI Score 2574 on defort Cards OC speeds

Thanks, temps are certainly acceptable.

As for the x4 slot, it's definitely not the FORCE version of the board. The only possible reason I can think that the cards ran fine in SLI was that slots 1 and 3 were running x8. If this is the case then it's great news because I can get excellent spacing between the cards.

When I get the 2nd card (seems it's changed from "if" to "when" already

) I'll test both slots and benchmark.