GTX 570 SLI

[nabroc]

So ive had my MSI Twin Frozr 570 gtx for about a month now and im very happy with it a nice upgrade from my 5850, and my new psu is fitted (850HX from corsair) and well with all the upcoming games and the fact ive been wanting to try SLI for some time, i have picked up another 570. Sadly its not another MSI but a bargin deal i managed to find on ebay, im hoping this wont be a problem running them together as everything ive read tells me this will be fine (other card is a twin fan PALIT).
So my questions really are just seeking comfirmation firstly that my PSU is enough (again ive read it is) and secondly that SLI'ing these cards wont be an issue , i believe my case along with them both being non reference and having extra cooling will mean temperatures are not an issue.
Any tips or advice would be great.

 

[ThePengu1n]

AFAIK as long as they are the same GPU (which they are) you will be fine to SLI (this is certainly true for XFire)

 

[setter]

As long as both have the same amount of ram, youll be fine. If one card has a higher core clockspeed, both cards will run at the speed of the lowest clocked card. Psu will be fine as well, using an hx 850 with the older more power hungry gtx 470's here.

 

[Cleeecooo]

Same GPU, same RAm - you're good to go

 

[nabroc]

This is good news and means its possible i can read! Ordered the card yesterday and its arrived 9am this morning , very impressed will install and test today and hopefully see some nice results!.

 

[nabroc]

Ok so first update and please bear in mind these are rough figures when i give them.

So installed both cards and well i was very concerned that the cards seem to have about 1-2 mm distance between them when setup with my mobo, took some pictures and went and spoke to friends about this. The general consensus seemed to be that they would be fine.
Soi have installed them both and now just running the pc for the first time , knowing next to nothing about running SLI i wanted to start from scratch. I have installed the SLI bridge both cards are installed and showing as working fine in device manager and in MSI afterburner. I have not overclocked anything yet its all stock, temps for card 1 while idle and in windows was 51 with lowest being 50 second card was 35 with lowest being 32.
Now for the slightly scary part, i ran crysis 2 (dx11 + texture patch) with all settings on max and it ran flawlessly couldnt be happier with the performance i played for about 10 minutes. However i could hear a fan spinning up very loudly the entire time the game was running (all panels off the pc atm so could be with everything on its not noticable as the ft02 has good sound dampening i think). I closed crysis 2 and loaded afterburner and the temps showing for card 1 were 76 with lowest being 73 and card 2 50 and lowest 48.

Granted i have more reading to do and some experimenting but the lack of space between the cards concerns me and the loud fan spin up also does. These are just my first fumblings but i do know my board is the reason the 2 cards have to be so close as its a Gigabyte ud5 x58 , as far as i can see theres no other option where to put the cards as theres only 2x 16x pci-e.

More to follow, please feel free to explain my mistakes or point out if im doing something dumb

 

[ReAPeR101]

I noticed you said "I closed crysis 2 and loaded afterburner"

I would suggest that whilst you play have afterburner running. I have afterburner running on startup of windows. That way i understand exactly what my temps are, at idle and during gaming, i understand exactly what speed my fans peaked at, this helps me decide on maybe putting in custom fan profiles, incase i need them, just to help keep the GPUs nice and cool.

I have the MSI Froza2 580s and i must say the GPUs are the best i have ever owned, after a good runaround on BCBF2, and heaven benchmarkings, the max temps i have seen are GPU1 70 GPU2 76

What GPU is the closest to your CPU cooler ??

 

[nabroc]

The PALIT is the one closest im going to try switching them i think.

 

[setter]

Set afterburner to show temps in the on screen display, then when playing a game youll see what temps your cards are hitting.

 

[ReAPeR101]

The PALIT is the one closest im going to try switching them i think.

IMO a good idea, the Frozr card should be able to cope with the heat better due to the very good cooler it has. That would be my first thing to do.

Then as setter has said get afterburner working as a on screen display

 

[nabroc]

Small update , switching cards around was a disaster the MSI is thicker so the fan wouldnt even spin. Decided this wouldnt work with this board so upgraded.
Ended up with a 2600k P67 Sabertooth ASUS and 16GB of GSKILL Sniper ram (bought used at a good price).
Now there is good clearance between the cards the heat issues are gone and the rebuild has been a success.
Waiting on a cooler to arrive and then im all set for the new wave of games.
Thanks for the advice all.