MSI 290 CF -> EVGA 780 SLI

BaDBoY_uK · 30 Apr 2014 at 23:25

Had a lil' play and stuck the second 290 in the third slot. It runs PCIE 3.0 but 4x. Checked Heaven and it lost 30 points. Tombraider bench lost 2fps

Both temps never go above 80degC now max load and clocked to 1025MHz

Probably keeping this setup until I can go water

shankly1985 · 30 Apr 2014 at 23:35

I had pci 2.0 so maybe that's why I had such performance loss. Pci 3.0 4x isn't that pcie 2.0 8x

triss · 30 Apr 2014 at 23:38

Thats not a bad drop really considering how much it changed your temps

Kaapstad · 1 May 2014 at 00:16

shankly1985 said:
I had pci 2.0 so maybe that's why I had such performance loss. Pci 3.0 4x isn't that pcie 2.0 8x

Using the above instead of PCI-E 3.0 x8 or 2.0 x16 gives about 5% performance drop last time I tested.

Marine-RX179 · 1 May 2014 at 07:16

BaDBoY_uK said:
Had a lil' play and stuck the second 290 in the third slot. It runs PCIE 3.0 but 4x. Checked Heaven and it lost 30 points. Tombraider bench lost 2fps

Both temps never go above 80degC now max load and clocked to 1025MHz

Probably keeping this setup until I can go water

Sounds good. Thought you said you have had huge performance issue with one being in the third slot so didn't look into it further.

Even with one in x4, on PCI-E 3.0 would mean it's roughly equal to x8 on PCI-E 2.0, so the performance lost shouldn't be to bad (as you yourself already found out from your bench). With the temp at sub 80C and card no longer throttling, you can probably overclock the cards a little further to make up for the lost performance as well.

BaDBoY_uK · 1 May 2014 at 08:03

Marine-RX179 said:
Sounds good. Thought you said you have had huge performance issue with one being in the third slot so didn't look into it further.

Even with one in x4, on PCI-E 3.0 would mean it's roughly equal to x8 on PCI-E 2.0, so the performance lost shouldn't be to bad (as you yourself already found out from your bench). With the temp at sub 80C and card no longer throttling, you can probably overclock the cards a little further to make up for the lost performance as well.

I think it was someone else who said they suffered with performance loss. Maybe because it was PCIE 2.0

And yes, I can probably hit 1050MHz with +25mV added. We'll see. Only have to survive until next pay day anyway when I can grab some real WC stuff

BaDBoY_uK · 1 May 2014 at 08:07

P.S. The backplate is close to melting after three rounds of Heaven. Crazy!!!!

ubersonic · 1 May 2014 at 08:44

BaDBoY_uK said:
I cannot afford water right now

/snip

But I'd pay an extra 200-300 on top now to change

Error! Error! Does not compute!

BaDBoY_uK · 1 May 2014 at 09:11

ubersonic said:
Error! Error! Does not compute!

Full WCing will cost me around £500 mate after I buy rev 2 blocks for the GPUs

tommybhoy · 1 May 2014 at 09:21

BaDBoY_uK said:
P.S. The backplate is close to melting after three rounds of Heaven. Crazy!!!!

Take off the backplate, instant temp reduction right there.

Your needing a 120mm fan blowing through the cards onto the mb to push hot air away and get cooler air into to the fans, sit it as close to the vrms as possible (tucked flush right up next to pcie cables).

You can also position a 120mm pointing straight down onto the top core too, that'll shave off another few c's.

If you still can't live with it, if you have an old aio wc kicking about, getto mod the top gpu with cable ties and a fan for the vrms, it's the top card that holds the heat.

Failing that, just remove one until funds are in place for a loop, 1's plenty fast anyway.

BaDBoY_uK · 1 May 2014 at 09:30

Is taking the BP off easy? By the looks of it, the front fan would come off too? Or am I going mad?

tommybhoy · 1 May 2014 at 09:44

Should just be a case of sitting the cooler on a flat surface, unscrewing the cooler screws(NOT the gpu core screws, iirc they put void stickers on one of them), lift off the plate and re-do the screws.

shankly1985 · 1 May 2014 at 11:08

If you still getting high temps even with card in bottom slot. I would question your case fan layout.
How are the fans in your 540 setup?

BaDBoY_uK · 1 May 2014 at 12:47

tommybhoy said:
Should just be a case of sitting the cooler on a flat surface, unscrewing the cooler screws(NOT the gpu core screws, iirc they put void stickers on one of them), lift off the plate and re-do the screws.

Noted, cheers

shankly1985 said:
If you still getting high temps even with card in bottom slot. I would question your case fan layout.
How are the fans in your 540 setup?

Front 6 x in push pull as intake but blowing across my 360 rad. Top two as push exhaust blowing across the 240 rad. Rear single 120 as exhaust. All Scythe 1900rpm 110CFM fans. All on 30W channel fan controller. I think 80degC is pretty good for 3 x loops of Heaven at 1025MHz on this GPU... no?

shankly1985 · 1 May 2014 at 12:59

BaDBoY_uK said:
Noted, cheers

Front 6 x in push pull as intake but blowing across my 360 rad. Top two as push exhaust blowing across the 240 rad. Rear single 120 as exhaust. All Scythe 1900rpm 110CFM fans. All on 30W channel fan controller. I think 80degC is pretty good for 3 x loops of Heaven at 1025MHz on this GPU... no?

Yeah guess so

three runs heaven 80c is very good tbh didn't know you done three runs. Plus most games wont even stress the cards temp wise that much, BF4 for me my cards stay around 65c This also @977/1250 I see you running 1025 so that will increase temps.

BaDBoY_uK · 1 May 2014 at 13:36

shankly1985 said:
Yeah guess so three runs heaven 80c is very good tbh didn't know you done three runs. Plus most games wont even stress the cards temp wise that much, BF4 for me my cards stay around 65c This also @977/1250 I see you running 1025 so that will increase temps.

Yeah BF4 mainly Ultra using Mantle, 2560x1440 never goes below 120fps cap and also only uses 66% each GPU... which is annoying haha

BS Dave · 1 May 2014 at 13:53

if it only uses 66% per core downclock and undervolt your cards!!! run them at 800/900 and i reckon it'll take a loads of heat out

Doogles · 1 May 2014 at 13:54

Just have the fans on 100% and it is fine, mine tops out at 70c on BF4 like that

BaDBoY_uK · 1 May 2014 at 14:00

BS Dave said:
if it only uses 66% per core downclock and undervolt your cards!!! run them at 800/900 and i reckon it'll take a loads of heat out

Not a bad thought really... may try it. I don't like the card being in the bottom slot tbh as it is very close to my HDD

shankly1985 · 1 May 2014 at 14:04

BaDBoY_uK said:
Not a bad thought really... may try it. I don't like the card being in the bottom slot tbh as it is very close to my HDD

Yeah I own the 540 and because my gpu in bottom I moved my hard drive into the back of case ghetto zip tie