Graphics for 3x 2711's

[DavidS14]

Am most of the way through putting a new rig at the moment (3930, R4E, 16GB Samsung Green, MB-ASR4E, 800D, AX1200, 360RX+240RX+5xGT's, D5+RP450+Res, FC5v2, Koolance fittings etc.).

Looking for 2 GPU's now and as I want to put them under water have mostly been looking at EVGA 670 or 680's.

Due to the monitors I was looking at the 4GB versions and found that I can get blocks for the:
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 Superclock w/Backplate 4096MB (02G-P4-2673-KR) and the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 4GB (04G-P4-2686-KR) but not the Classifieds or the FTW's.

Given the monitors and the resolution I'm leaning toward the 680's but I'd have to get them from elsewhere as OCUK don't stock the 2686-KR's. I know that the Zotac 680 4GB is reference and their 670 4GB uses the reference 680 PCB so I can get a block for that as well and Zotac seem OK with putting cards on water.

So given the monitors/block limitations are there any other cards to look at or am I better off with what I'm looking at already ?

TIA

 

[OptimaLnrg]

Maybe irrelevant, but you will be able to get a full cover for the classified 680 in the future. It will be the swiftech/evga hydrocopper classified.

Not that I'd buy one..

 

[DavidS14]

I've been reading up and have pretty much decided that SLI will not cut it at 7680x1440 unless the quality is knocked right down. I've been looking at either tri or quad and am pretty much sold on the argument for 4GB of VRam at the resolution I'm wanting to run.

Now crunch time, I have a week off next week so would like to get the cards/blocks ordered this week so I can do as much as possible during my time off.

My preference is probably to go for either tri 680 4GB or quad 670 4GB (as going 670 costs less but some of the saving buys the extra block/fittings). Majority of my builds cooling is Koolance but the blocks are in short supply so not too fixed on this.

Current rig is this (E8400@4GHZ, GTX260, 8GB Ram)

As you can see it's been ages since my last upgrade.

Current build is this, got an air cooler for a test run to check for DOA and broke out my trust 8800GTX

Having not run even SLI before let alone 3 or 4 cards any input on card choice/pitfalls would be appreciated or anyone else running similar res what graphics did you go for ?

TIA

 

[bemaniac]

I think 2 gtx690s with their built in hardware anti stutter solution is better than 3-4 single cards in terms of feel, but this is just based on some things I've read here on these forums but they won't give you enough vram so if I was you I would hold it upto 4 weeks and see if a 7990 type appears, the powercolor devil is ready and just needs release.

 

[DavidS14]

I had thought about 690's but as you say the limited Vram put me off really but I should really also consider 7970's I suppose as there are some good deals on but I do prefer team green.

I know Durzel on here runs 690 SLI but I think it's on one 30" monitor.

 

[Rusty0611]

I would personally avoid 2GB of VRAM at that resolution if you're going to back it up with significant GPU grunt of 3 or 4 GPU's.

Tri-SLI 4GB 680's would be my bet as from what I've read AMD's trifire support is not the greatest. That said 3 GPU's are always more likely to run into issues on both sides .

 

[Gregster]

I run SLI 680's with 3 3D monitors (5760*1080) and can say that your res 'will' need 4GB cards. I benched a few games at max settings and posted results in a different thread. To get the best frame rate possible, if I was in your shoes and knowing how games play, I would buy 3 4GB 670's. I am not sure on water blocks for these but with performance so close to the 680, it makes no sense spending the extra cash.

Your money/choice though and if you do go 680's, I am sure you will enjoy them

 

[andybird123]

crossfire support for 3 or 4 cards is practically non existent... there are a couple of reviews kicking about of 5760x1080 quad 680 vs. quad 7970 and above 2 cards crossfire seemed to scale very poorly (as in no better than 2 card in every game tested)... there are situations where this also happens on the green side but less so

I agree that you will want 4GB cards for that resolution!

according to the nvidia website, 670 only supports up to 3 way SLI... it's a tough ask to justify 680 over 670 but if you really wanted to go to 4 cards at some point then it has to be 680, or if you think you can make do with 3 cards then you can save a whole load of money by sticking with 670, 3 card vs. 3 card they are within single digit frame rates of each other

I did find a couple of forums posts where 670 users had managed to get 4-way SLI to enable itself, but they then had issues actually running games/benchmarks and the only way they found to fix it was to ditch the 4th card

you might be better off with regular SLI / single screen 1440 and then go to tri-sli when GK110 comes out

 

[DavidS14]

Thanks for the info all

Gregster - was going to post on your thread thanking you for the time and effort in doing the benchmarking, not much real world info around at higher res so great to see set ups in actual use

Funnily enough I was just looking at the Tech Lab 7970's with the Koolance blocks fitted and thinking "that's not a bad option" but have spent no time at all looking at multi GPU support on them as I'd pretty much dismissed AMD as an option.

 

[Gregster]

Thanks for the info all

Gregster - was going to post on your thread thanking you for the time and effort in doing the benchmarking, not much real world info around at higher res so great to see set ups in actual use

Funnily enough I was just looking at the Tech Lab 7970's with the Koolance blocks fitted and thinking "that's not a bad option" but have spent no time at all looking at multi GPU support on them as I'd pretty much dismissed AMD as an option.

Glad to give some info. It was purely for the reasons of biased reviewers dishing out iffy bench marks that I did it. I know Rusty did a great job on his BF3 bench proving that at 5760*1080, 2GB is enough VRAM but even SLI 680's over clocked struggle in the GPU grunt department to cope. With your res being even higher, 4GB is a must IMO and if your game of choice was BF3, 3 cards are a must.

Hopefully Locky or Besty can give some input into trifire.

 

[Rusty0611]

I've been compiling some information myself as well over time. I will publish when I've got more

 

[Gregster]

I've been compiling some information myself as well over time. I will publish when I've got more

I look forward to it the more games benched, the better.

 

[whyscotty]

TriSli 4Gb is the minimum at your res IMO, I run 3 x 680 FTW 4Gb's and they work very well for my surround setup.

Never had AMD so can't advise on them.

From what I've read Quad Sli on either 670/680 at the moment isn't worth it.

Stating the obvious is to TriSli and when Quad issues are resolved get the 4th card then.

Final option as above, go normal Sli and hope 2/3 of the next Gen cards can handle it.

 

[andybird123]

From what I've read Quad Sli on either 670/680 at the moment isn't worth it.

have you seen any 3 screen 1440p benchmarks on quad SLI? because I can't find any - the only thing I have found is 3 screen 1080p and they do show some good gains in some games (quad SLI 670 doesn't work / isn't supported by nvidia)... I am not having a go, just asking as I'd love to see some test results

 

[DavidS14]

The more "reliable" benchmarking info the better, it makes a huge difference to people like me who are moving to high res gaming and having to look at reviews for most of the info on what to spend our money on. Anyone who gives up their time for the benefit of the community as a whole should get the recognition they deserve

Soooo looking at what cards there are and what blocks are available the first candidate is (drum roll please......)

3 off EVGA GeForce GTX 670 Superclock w/Backplate 4096MB

This card has the benefit of being reference PCB according to EK configurator and being in stock so getting blocks/bridges should be easy.

 

[Kaapstad]

The more "reliable" benchmarking info the better, it makes a huge difference to people like me who are moving to high res gaming and having to look at reviews for most of the info on what to spend our money on. Anyone who gives up their time for the benefit of the community as a whole should get the recognition they deserve

Soooo looking at what cards there are and what blocks are available the first candidate is (drum roll please......)

3 off EVGA GeForce GTX 670 Superclock w/Backplate 4096MB

This card has the benefit of being reference PCB according to EK configurator and being in stock so getting blocks/bridges should be easy.

As andybird points out at the moment quad SLI 670s don't work so this option is cutting off upgrading to 4 cards.

 

[DavidS14]

TriSli 4Gb is the minimum at your res IMO, I run 3 x 680 FTW 4Gb's and they work very well for my surround setup.

Never had AMD so can't advise on them.

From what I've read Quad Sli on either 670/680 at the moment isn't worth it.

Stating the obvious is to TriSli and when Quad issues are resolved get the 4th card then.

Final option as above, go normal Sli and hope 2/3 of the next Gen cards can handle it.

Thanks for posting, are the 680's on air or water as I love EVGA but block support is limited

 

[Rusty0611]

There are benches out there but not many. While googling the other week to disprove some VRAM nonsense I was reading I found a really interesting thread on the EVGA forums where a guy had logged his progress on all kinds of multi-card set up's in Surround. He concluded on the same message as me but it was nice to see that he found the same and by testing all kinds of configurations.

But at your resolution of 1440 x3 you're even less likely to fin anything so it's tough. I think the only way to really tell would be to take the average difference between single 1080 and 1440 and then apply this difference in percentage terms to the 5760x1080 results.

It's not ideal but without a load of raw information you're always going to be compromising. I have about 5 games so far benched but these are just mainly from disproving people's preconceptions regarding VRAM so I need to check back on these results and then expand across my game collection .

 

[DavidS14]

As andybird points out at the moment quad SLI 670s don't work so this option is cutting off upgrading to 4 cards.

From Softpedia

When presented with four samples to play with, some reviewers discovered that their QuadSLI setup was nonfunctional.

The experts from pcperspective were quick to say that full triple-SLI and Quad-SLI was supported as it would have been normal to be.

Nvidia quickly replied that:

"As I’m sure you can imagine, we have to QA every feature that we claim support for and this takes a tremendous amount of time/resources. For the GTX 680 and GTX 690, we do support Quad SLI and take the time to QA it, as it makes sense for the extreme OC’ers and ultra-enthusiasts who are shooting to break world records."

In other words, the graphics company is practically dodging the main question and tries to preserve the status quo.

When further inquired by the journalists, Nvidia’s contact replied:

"Change in plans.....we will be offering 4-Way SLI support for GTX 670 in a future driver."

 

[whyscotty]

Thanks for posting, are the 680's on air or water as I love EVGA but block support is limited

Still on air but apparently blocks are in the pipeline to be made.Hottest card
creeps into low 70's on BF3 but not as much now with the weather cooling.

The 680 Classifieds have blocks but not available in the UK yet.

POV have just brought out a watercooled 680 4GB (1202 out the box on the core)but I can't link rules and all.

Hope your going to post pics when your rig is finished?