First gtx 780, later sli them?

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Joniostis

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Hey everyone,

do you guys think it's smart to build a system that is sli ready (mobo + psu + case) but only buy one gpu? and then later when it starts to faal behind, buy a second one to get myself going again?
it would be a palit gtx 780 super jetstream.
and then in the far future buy the exact same gpu again.

also would 2 of those fit in a corsair 500r?
i read that one takes up 3 slots!!!???

and a 1000w psu would be sufficient for that future sli right? (cooler master silent pro m2 1000w)

other planned specs:
i7 4770k
asus z87-a
16gb 1600mhz RAM
120gb ssd
seagate barracuda 1tb 7200rpm hdd
cooler master hyper 212 evo

Thanks everyone :D
 
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It's good to plan for the future, but it depends what you consider the 'far future'. You have about two years to get the second card before they start becoming hard to find and out of production. Then you have another year on Ebay in the used market. If you don't plan to get the second 780 within two to three years, build your system around one GPU.

enemy1g

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That is what many people do, and you can tell whether or not a GPU will take up 3 slots by looking at the pictures, if it looks like it'll take up three slots, it will. I would recommend getting a Corsair or Seasonic 1000w+ PSU.
 

bumnut53

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Only if you wait too long, I plan on buying an additional 780 early next year after the price drop.
 

Yeah. It's just that early next year - just a few months from now - isn't what I think of as "the far future".
 
It's good to plan for the future, but it depends what you consider the 'far future'. You have about two years to get the second card before they start becoming hard to find and out of production. Then you have another year on Ebay in the used market. If you don't plan to get the second 780 within two to three years, build your system around one GPU.
 
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Joniostis

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was thinking about 2-ish years.
 
It's *probably* not going to be available at retail at that time, but you'd still be able to get a used one. It's probably still going to be a little more performance overall than a new high-end graphics card, but with the downsides of SLI (less driver support, more power draw, and more noise). Personally I'd probably go for a new high-end GPU and sell the 780, but SLI 780s is a viable option too.
 


What less driver support? I've been using SLi rigs for years and have never seen this "less driver support" so what are you talking about? AMD may ignore Crossfire but that doesn't mean Nvidia ignore SLi.
 

SLI performance takes longer to be optimized (or for SLI to even be supported). Have you even heard of SLI profiles?

AMD have had more trouble with Crossfire, but that just illustrates that multi-GPU configurations take more work.
 

enemy1g

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I've heard of SLI profiles. SLI might not be supported in older games, but if you're savvy of current nvidia drivers, you'll see that new games that haven't even been released have SLI profiles already, namely BF4 and Batman Arkham Origins. Graphics drivers are always going to need to be updated, so unless you're expecting a perfect driver where no improvements are needed, then I fail to see your point.
 


I have heard of SLi profiles but have never needed them as SLi has always just worked on any of the AAA games that I have ever played, the games that I know SLi hasn't worked on from the get go are the AMD sponsored titles but that is no surprise really as we know they will do what they can to knobble the competition.
 

My point is that SLI driver support is always going to be a step behind single-GPU driver support. It's only natural, SLI is more complicated.

Just look at the 326.19 beta driver - GTX 770 got a 15% performance boost in Dirt: Showdown, but SLI GTX 770s got a 19% performance boost in the same game. Why is that? Because SLI configurations were less optimised.

Or look at some of the patch notes, like this. More known issues with SLI than single-GPU.
 


One of the great things about that asus z87-a motherboard is two slots of separation between the first and second PCIe x16 slots. Problem solved.

PCIe x16 (insert first 3-slot card here)
PCIe x1
PCI (old school)
PCI x16 (insert second 3-slot card here)
PCI (old school)
PCI x16
 


I haven't had any issues with SLI personally. I just play my games. SLI is great tech. You don't have to fiddle with it. Nvidia's drivers are solid. Even when the profile is not yet optimized, it provides better performance than a single card.
 

Joniostis

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So it would work, are you really sure, it would be kind of a bummer if i buy all this stuff and then notice it's not going to fit :/

Thanks
 

Rahbot

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Thats why I said buy 2 Slot cards.... because if it can take a 3 slot card there will be no room for air to pass threw the card on top. then that will lead to over heating of the card on top... but it all falls on what you want and what will fit in your case.
 

I like more separation between my cards as well, but the 3-slot card will work on that motherboard. The jetstream doesn't fully use the 3rd slot so there is still some separation.

When I had two 2-slot 580s stock-cooled on an X58 motherboard, the GPUs were sandwiched together due to the slot configuration. They had no separation and I never had any issues with them overheating.

 
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