Is there any point in TRI SLI?

Choimaloy75 · 12 Dec 2014 at 14:35

Uncle Petey said:
Which is why I specifically said a PLX board

I have 3x290x's on a z87-oc motherboard that does not have a Plc chip, so what benefits would I gain from getting a Plx motherboard?

Uncle Petey · 12 Dec 2014 at 14:49

Choimaloy75 said:
I have 3x290x's on a z87-oc motherboard that does not have a Plc chip, so what benefits would I gain from getting a Plx motherboard?

You get away with it due to having PCIE 3.0 which pretty much negates any 2.0 x4 bandwidth issues.
What or if you'd gain from getting a PLX board is questionable and I'd like to see some data on this tbh. With Sandybridge, yes, definitely recommended.

My point was basically regarding the assertion that a 5820K is really needed for trifire/triSLI.

setter · 12 Dec 2014 at 15:42

In sli you need x8 on each slot, unlike xfire where it works on x4.

Kaapstad · 12 Dec 2014 at 15:52

Crysis 3
1600p Maxed
Using 4 x 980s and a Single 980 @stock
5960X @4.0

Uncle Petey · 12 Dec 2014 at 16:21

setter said:
In sli you need x8 on each slot, unlike xfire where it works on x4.

I know mate

Here's a question though: If 3.0 bandwidth effectively doubles what you get from 2.0, can you not use SLI with a 3.0 x4 slot?

almighty15 · 12 Dec 2014 at 16:25

Uncle Petey said:
I know mate

Here's a question though: If 3.0 bandwidth effectively doubles what you get from 2.0, can you not use SLI with a 3.0 x4 slot?

No because electrically the slot will be wired for x4

Kaapstad · 12 Dec 2014 at 16:27

Uncle Petey said:
I know mate

Here's a question though: If 3.0 bandwidth effectively doubles what you get from 2.0, can you not use SLI with a 3.0 x4 slot?

With multi GPUs at very high resolution you need all the bandwidth you can get. For 4 cards and 4K PCI-E 3.0 x 8 is the minimum needed before it starts effecting fps big time.

I have not tested 3 card setups @4K but 2 way setups don't need so much bandwidth and will run ok with PCI-E 2.0 x 8.

Uncle Petey · 12 Dec 2014 at 16:45

almighty15 said:
No because electrically the slot will be wired for x4

Well that sucks...

Kaapstad said:
With multi GPUs at very high resolution you need all the bandwidth you can get. For 4 cards and 4K PCI-E 3.0 x 8 is the minimum needed before it starts effecting fps big time.

I have not tested 3 card setups @4K but 2 way setups don't need so much bandwidth and will run ok with PCI-E 2.0 x 8.

Yeah, I can imagine.

While you're here Kaap, what's the deal with your old chip that I'm rocking and 3.0 status? I gather that it wasn't originally supported properly, yet everything I test it with says it's 3.0.
Haz I bin lied to?

Not particularly bothered, just mildy curious

whyscotty · 12 Dec 2014 at 16:55

sgoaty said:
Your the one who started my 780 addiction!

Glad I could help

Kaapstad · 12 Dec 2014 at 17:00

Uncle Petey said:
Well that sucks...

Yeah, I can imagine.

While you're here Kaap, what's the deal with your old chip that I'm rocking and 3.0 status? I gather that it wasn't originally supported properly, yet everything I test it with says it's 3.0.
Haz I bin lied to?

Not particularly bothered, just mildy curious

No problems running PCI-E 3.0 at all.

When the 290Xs first came out it did not like running 4 of them but I think that was sorted with bios updates as Matt ran 4 x 290Xs ok a year later without problems.

Choimaloy75 · 12 Dec 2014 at 17:02

Kaapstad said:
With multi GPUs at very high resolution you need all the bandwidth you can get. For 4 cards and 4K PCI-E 3.0 x 8 is the minimum needed before it starts effecting fps big time.

I have not tested 3 card setups @4K but 2 way setups don't need so much bandwidth and will run ok with PCI-E 2.0 x 8.

So for tri fire @4k you would recommend x99 and a 5820 or above?

Uncle Petey · 12 Dec 2014 at 17:04

Kaapstad said:
No problems running PCI-E 3.0 at all.

When the 290Xs first came out it did not like running 4 of them but I think that was sorted with bios updates as Matt ran 4 x 290Xs ok a year later without problems.

Schweet. Cheers

I only ask because GPU-Z used to lie and tell me my 2600K was running the cards @3.0

Kaapstad · 12 Dec 2014 at 17:38

Choimaloy75 said:
So for tri fire @4k you would recommend x99 and a 5820 or above?

For gaming and trifire or even quadfire a 6 core IB-E or SB-E is way better than Haswell-E for one simple reason.

They overclock very well meaning your cards are less likely to bottleneck.

For one or two cards Haswell-E is the better option as being limited to 4.4 or 4.5ghz is not so much of a problem and you can use the tiny bit of extra Haswell efficiency.

For gaming (with 3/4 cards) a 3930k @5.0 is a lot better than a 5960X @4.5.

I think I am going to take a lot of flak for this post.

Kaapstad · 12 Dec 2014 at 17:46

Uncle Petey said:
Schweet. Cheers

I only ask because GPU-Z used to lie and tell me my 2600K was running the cards @3.0

Easy way to test it is run Heaven 4 with PCI-E 3.0 set in the bios and then with 2.0 set, you should see a tiny difference switching between the two.

Your 3970X was actually better for graphics scores on my 290Xs than the 4930k I replaced it with and there are still some scores I can not beat even using water and much higher clocks on the 290Xs. There was one Valley score where I had to run the card 80mhz faster with the 4930k to score a single point extra on the bench.

setter · 12 Dec 2014 at 17:48

Finding Z87 to be pretty ok for dual sli, don't know how it would fare with 3 though? I've thought about buying a Maximus 6 extreme on the cheap to give it a whirl as 780's are pretty cheap now. Though vram could be an issue with some newer games.

Uncle Petey · 12 Dec 2014 at 17:54

Kaapstad said:
Easy way to test it is run Heaven 4 with PCI-E 3.0 set in the bios and then with 2.0 set, you should see a tiny difference switching between the two.

Your 3970X was actually better for graphics scores on my 290Xs than the 4930k I replaced it with and there are still some scores I can not beat even using water and much higher clocks on the 290Xs. There was one Valley score where I had to run the card 80mhz faster with the 4930k to score a single point extra on the bench.

Interesting... Shame it's not a sweet clocker though

4.9 @1.6v is a bit scary :eek:

and I haven't gone there since the first day or two of playing around with it.

I have to say that there are only a few scenarios that I've found it to noticeably beat out a 24/7 5Ghz 2600K funnily enough (mainly Firestrike and Sleeping Dogs off the top of my head).
If it could do ~5ghz at reasonable voltage, I'm sure that wouldn't be the case and I'd be contributing to the bench threads more than I have.

Perhaps it would be more noticeable at 4K.

Silent_Scone · 12 Dec 2014 at 19:37

resolution dependant, for 4K you'll need three. Scaling isn't what it used to be however.

Choimaloy75 · 12 Dec 2014 at 21:02

Kaapstad said:
For gaming and trifire or even quadfire a 6 core IB-E or SB-E is way better than Haswell-E for one simple reason.

They overclock very well meaning your cards are less likely to bottleneck.

For one or two cards Haswell-E is the better option as being limited to 4.4 or 4.5ghz is not so much of a problem and you can use the tiny bit of extra Haswell efficiency.

For gaming (with 3/4 cards) a 3930k @5.0 is a lot better than a 5960X @4.5.

I think I am going to take a lot of flak for this post.

I may look into getting x79 then as I won't have to buy new ram, in gaming I'm getting the feeling im not getting the best out of my 3 gpu's @ 4k with my 4770k.

DavidS14 · 13 Dec 2014 at 15:11

Still running 3x670 4GB feeding 3x2713's

They've lasted really well for me but I am looking for an upgrade now but since I've decided to skip X99 and stick with my X79 rig (3930@5GHz) I can spend more on the new GPU's

I just need the red/green teams to show what's next so I can decide to go with what's out now or wait but I'd still look at three cards really unless multi gpu cards are viable.