GTX 580 to GTX 580 SLI

[DennisColes]

Motherboard: MSI Z68-G45(B3)
CPU:i5 2500k
PSU: 650W OCZ powersupply.


I know that the 650w PSU will not be sufficient..what would you guys suggest i upgrade to?

Will my motherboard work well with 2 GTX 580's?
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z68A-G45--G3-.html

The reason I want to go SLI is because I want three monitors to play BF3.

 

[DennisColes]

For a PSU a decent 850w would do the trick but I would say a 1000w psu would do it for sure.

Your mobo will be fine for sli 580's

May I ask why are you going 580 sli?. What res do you game at?.

I am currently gaming on a single 23" monitor at 1080p. I want to get another 2 screens for a 3 monitor setup.

Board looks to have pretty good spacing between the pcie slots, (always handy with sli). +1 for a 1000w psu, it'll give you enough overhead for overclocking of the cpu and gpu's.

What about the sata ports...i think i might have a problem with another GTX 580 not being able to lock in its slot because of them.

Yeah, the i5 is overclocked to 4.4ghz.

The GTX 580 is also overclocked but i don't remember by how much.

 

[DennisColes]

Most importantly, which version of the 580 do you have? 1.5gb or the 3gb?

Adding an extra 580 (1.5gb) won't really do anything if you are going above 1080, particularly if you plan on playing games like BF3. VRAM does not stack, two 1.5 cards doesn't equal 3gb of VRAM, you'll simply be adding greater processing power.

I've got the 1.5gb.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-146-OK

 

[DennisColes]

Or you could just sell the 580 keep your PSU dont spend money on a new one and get a 7950 to CF with another 7950 as they use allot less power

Will the 7950 CF be okay on a 650w PSU?

Doesn't sound right especially if my CPU is overclocked to 4.4ghz..

 

[DennisColes]

Therein lies your problem - 1.5gb VRAM is going to limit your ability to play at higher resolutions (2560x1440?), providing that you wanted to have your settings maxed out.

You can see for yourself if you use MSI afterburner on-screen display to track memory usage when playing BF3 on ultra, just at 1080. Mine is reaching ~1480mb and I'm on the 1.5gb version of the 580 too.

My opinion, don't bother going SLI. If you have the patience to wait for Kepler then do so, the price of a good 1000W PSU, an extra 580, plus your existing one will easily afford a 680 when it hits the shelves, and will without question run on a single 650W PSU.

If you want something now then 7970 is probably your best bet, which again is easily within the budget of a good 1000W PSU and one new 580, you could even have some left over from the sale of your existing 580

Hi, thanks for the reply..the reason I wanted to go SLI or CF is because I want to play BF3 on 3 monitors. I don't think i'll be able to run 3 monitors on a single card.

EDIT: Just read about eyefinity...how will a 7970 perform on 3 monitors..playing BF3 on maxed out settings?

 

[DennisColes]

It won't be an issue for the 580, it will still lock in place. It might be in issue though as it will block SATA ports, so you wouldn't be able to use them all. How many do you need?

I have an optical drive, 64GB SSD and a 1TB Samsung HDD.