Overclocking SLI and fitting a card inbetween

[Inaharry]

Hi,

I'm waiting for the 4GB GTX 670s to arrive in stock so I can get two for an SLI setup.

What would be the best way to overclock them? Is it better to test each card individually, work out the maximum stable overclock and set them both to the slowest ones limit, or is it better to overclock them while they're running together in SLI?

The other thing is that I've got an MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 which has 3 x PCI-E 1x slots. I can't use the top one because it's covered by my Noctua heatsink, the next one down will be covered by the top GTX 670's heatsink which leaves one between the two graphics cards when they're installed. I've got an Asus Xonar STX PCI-E card which looks as if it'll just about fit betwen the two 670s, (albeit without a lot of room). Is that going to be a bad idea? Will the heat generated by the two GTXs damage the sound card?

Thanks

 

[tommybhoy]

Out of interest you may want to find out what the best clocking card is and put it in the top slot(in case a game doesn't support SLI), but tbh, 2 of them in SLI don't really need to be oc'ed anyway, they fly as it is.

If you are to oc them, it's best doing it in SLI as that's how your going to use them.

On the subject of the sound card sandwiched inbetween, I done that using 7800 SLI with an X-Fi stuck in the middle with no adverse effects a few years back, just check temps at first to see if they are normal.


Are you sure you need all that grunt anyway?

2 oc'd 7850's are way less than the price of 1 4gb 670 and won't be that far behind, after a game hits a certain fps, you won't notice the difference anyway.

The only way I'd contemplate the 670's was if I was going multi monitor.

 

[andybird123]

Are you sure you need all that grunt anyway?

2 oc'd 7850's are way less than the price of 1 4gb 670 and won't be that far behind, after a game hits a certain fps, you won't notice the difference anyway.

The only way I'd contemplate the 670's was if I was going multi monitor.

3 x BenQ XL2420T

 

[Inaharry]

TBH I probably won't leave the cards OC'd if they generate too much heat, it'd just be nice to see what they could do on benchmarks.

Thanks for the info on the sound card, I'll give it a go. I really didn't want to lose my STX because of this, so it's good to know you were able to do it with your X-Fi.

Unfortunately, I've made a bit of a commitment now that ties me to getting an Nvidia card instead of AMD because I've bought 3 x XL2420T monitors and a 3D Vision 2 kit.

That's also the reason for having an SLI setup. I was originally going to get a 680 4GB, but when the 670s appeared, I realised that I could get two of them (almost) for the same price. Also, after reading some reviews of the 6xx series cards running at 5760 x 1080, I realised how many current games drop below 30FPS when set to a high IQ and using a single card.

Thanks again for your advice.

 

[tommybhoy]

No problem Inaharry.

That's the only downside with Nvidia 3D imo, it does tie you up really, but it's not too bad considering the grunt available from both teams these days.

Out of curiosity, I presume 3D surround hits the vram as well as the gpu(heard it half's your fps)?



@andybird123,

lol, well spotted!

 

[Inaharry]

From what I've read, it does have an impact on performance when using 3D, although some people say that it's not necessarily something you'd notice. I expect it relates to the particular game you're running, so if it's quite demanding at high res or you have texture packs installed, then your FPS might take a fair hit when running in 3D.

When 3D is being done by the drivers / card compared to being simulated by an in-built function on some monitors, it'll be worse because everything is being rendered twice, (I'm guessing), so at a high res, it's going to have a fairly large impact on performance. If running multiple monitors, particularly with 3D, the more VRAM the better, but you'll still need a fairly decent GPU...or 2...3...4!

The reason I went for 3D Vision 2 over the AMD Tridef solution is that I had a chance to try both - I got a Samsung S23A700D when OcUK had them on offer with the VAT back promotion - thanks OcUK... and using Tridef with my 5870 seemed a bit hit and miss. When I tried the 3D Vision 2 kit with one of the XL2420Ts and a GTX 560, the 3D was easier to get working and (for me at least) I found the depth perception better.

 

[tommybhoy]

Cool, thanks for the info there, should have been more clearer that I was interested on the vram hit using Nvidia 3D.

Been using Tridef on the S23A700D myself for a few weeks using 6950>70 CrossFire, happy as larry with it especially for the price I paid and pleasantly surprised that I'm enjoying the 3D experience so far.