Possible GTX 780 3 way SLi setup ?

[oldestgregg]

Aww damn! I'm picking up my 2nd twin frozr 780 next week and I just realised that those sexy EVGA sli bridges wont fit

 

[dakotha]

You'd get more response if you post your own thread regarding that topic

Sure thing, but I was just thinking out aloud. Actually interested to see how your setup would turn out if you get the third card soon, and how are your temps

I was not going to hijack your thread

 

[Gripen90]

Sure thing, but I was just thinking out aloud. Actually interested to see how your setup would turn out if you get the third card soon, and how are your temps

I was not going to hijack your thread

No problem. I can tell you that I've too been running 3x GTX 280, 3x GTX 470, 3x GTX 580, 3x GTX 680 and all of reference cooled and all of them them have been in the 85 centigrade range with max load in my case

As for the GTX 780 SLi haven't seen any throttling as such. The GPU's max out at 80 centigrades due to GPU Boost 2.0 - that both good an bad, since the rpm is quite low and noise if very low too. If nVidia had made a more aggressive fan setting the cards would easily idle aroudn 70~75 centigrades with just a few more rpms.

As for my last card - the seller finally reacted. He has shipped the card albeit much later than agreed upon, so I'm actually a bit upset and mad at him for that and not informing me. But I got the tracking code for the parcel, and I'm expecting the MSI GTX 780 Gaming card to turn up monday, and then I'll have it installed and tested. When all that's done if get back to you all with benchmarks and temperatures and pictures I'm exited to see how 3-way SLi will work out with 2 reference and 1 non-reference card.

 

[Gripen90]

19/8-2013 update. So it's installed - temperature wise I don't know if there would be any difference if I used 3x reference coolers because temperature wise I'm getting around the same temperatures as I did with 3x GTX 670 reference cards. Anyhow I thought I'd just share some of the previous results etc with the new.

Temperatures.
Load - 3 runs of Unigine Valley benchmark: Top 82°C - Middle 86°C - Bottom 79°C
Idle - after idling 20min on desktop: Top 35°C - Middle 33°C - Bottom 30°C

Quick comparison:

3Dmark11 performance
GTX 670 TriSLI vs GTX 780 SLI
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm11/6833664/3dm11/6857435
GTX 780 SLi vs TriSLI
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm11/6857435/3dm11/7036149


3Dmark11 Extreme
GTX 670 TriSLI vs GTX 780 SLI
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm11/6724831/3dm11/6857489
GTX 780 SLi vs TriSLI
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm11/6857489/3dm11/7035803


3Dmark Firestrike
GTX 670 TriSLI vs GTX 780 SLI
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/454306/fs/644411
GTX 780 SLi vs TriSLI
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/644411/fs/778820

Unigine Valley 1.0 2560x1440
GTX 670 3-way SLi

GTX 780 SLi

GTX 780 3-way SLI

Unigine Valley 1.0 1920x1080
GTX 670 3-way SLi

GTX 780 SLI

GTX 780 3-way SLI (hmm looks like a CPU limitation at that resolution)

Unigine Heaven 4.0 2560x1440
GTX 670 3-way SLi

GTX 780 SLi

GTX 780 3-way SLI

Unigine Heaven 4.0 1920x1080
GTX 670 3-way SLi

GTX 780 SLi

GTX 780 3-way SLI

Negatives
Noise has improved again, but it's still quieter than the 3x GTX 670's were. I guess that's the cost of 3 way SLi - it's not as silent as SLI.
Hopefully things can improve a bit when I get a Cooler Master CM 690 III case soon.

Positives
Yay 3-way SLi again. I've been running 3-way SLI setups permanently since 2009. Lots of power and will last me a good while before I'll even consider upgrading again.

Future
I'll be getting the new Cooler Master CM 690 III (hopefully a nVidia Edtion when it comes), and that should greatly improve cablemanagement and airflow cooling. Then I will start looking into OC'ing the 3930K past 3.8GHz and also OC the graphics.

 

[dakotha]

Thanks for the results!

A bit toasty - maybe but that's with default fan profile?

If I'll get the third card I might do this (this worked with my GTX 580s on RIVE).

The only problem is that the front panel headers are under the third card and it's a very tight fit, it barely works with the headers connected..

 

[Gripen90]

Thanks for the results!

A bit toasty - maybe but that's with default fan profile?

If I'll get the third card I might do this (this worked with my GTX 580s on RIVE).

The only problem is that the front panel headers are under the third card and it's a very tight fit, it barely works with the headers connected..

Thank you. Yea it the default fan profile. However I have an zalman fanmate on my 120mm on the side panel and I just turned the RPM's up a notch so now the temperatures are about 2-3 centigrades lower on all cards (I updated to the new temperatures in the previous post).

Than setup would be pretty sweet and you have enough room for the cards to "breath" properly