are two GPU's possible with my specs?

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obsidiankitty

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Nov 17, 2013
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So I've current got:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4770k (3.5GHz) 8MB Cache


Motherboard
ASUS® Z87-K: ATX, USB2.0, USB3.0, SATA6GB/S, XFIRE


Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)


Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 770 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready


Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)


2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)


Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ MODULAR TXM-650 V2-80 PLUS®


Processor Cooling
Corsair H40 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

I was looking into getting another 770, so I kinda need to know what changes i'd have to make aside from needing a bigger PSU as i'd overall need like 886W to power both.

thankyou :3
 
Solution
D
Your motherboard's 2nd PCIe slot is limited to PCIe v2 x4, which will bottleneck the hell out of the second gtx 770.
The PSU might be enough, I suspect total system draw at full load (at stock speed, no overclocks!) to hover around 550 - 600 W, but just to be safe you should upgrade it.

So for a proper configuration, a second GTX 770 will require a motherboard and psu upgrade, which should be fine if you manage to use your current parts on another computer or sell them for a good price, but to me this seems like too much trouble.

If I were you I would just try to sell the 770 and get something like the GTX 690 or GTX 780 / 780 Ti (if you're sold on Nvidia).

For performance comparisons you can see Tomshardware's review of the 780 Ti...
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cookybiscuit

cookybiscuit

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Everything is adequate, even the PSU, assuming it has enough power connectors.
zpw-xbt.png

Thats with a 3970X at a stupid overclock (plus wasted PSU power, so cut 10% off), comparatively, Haswell uses no power what so ever. 650w for your system is plenty.
 
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doron

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Feb 15, 2009
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Your motherboard's 2nd PCIe slot is limited to PCIe v2 x4, which will bottleneck the hell out of the second gtx 770.
The PSU might be enough, I suspect total system draw at full load (at stock speed, no overclocks!) to hover around 550 - 600 W, but just to be safe you should upgrade it.

So for a proper configuration, a second GTX 770 will require a motherboard and psu upgrade, which should be fine if you manage to use your current parts on another computer or sell them for a good price, but to me this seems like too much trouble.

If I were you I would just try to sell the 770 and get something like the GTX 690 or GTX 780 / 780 Ti (if you're sold on Nvidia).

For performance comparisons you can see Tomshardware's review of the 780 Ti, which is pitted against the latest high-end Nvidia and AMD's offerings. You can check it here - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-780-ti-review-benchmarks,3663-5.html

EDIT:
Since this is the Best Solution, I must mention that on a second inspection, this board (and probably any other board with second pcie lane at x4) does not even support SLI.
 
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Solution
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doron

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@cookybiscuit, JohnPMyers - I suppose you're assuming that since the board is Z87 it's automatically suitable for proper SLI on high-end hardware.

This board's 2nd PCIe slot is completely inadequate for a GTX 770.
 
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JohnPMyers

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Actually, no. What i'm assuming is he didn't want to have to upgrade his motherboard too. Sometimes you have to work with what you've got. Yes the first slot is x16 @ 3.0, yes the 2nd slot is x4 @ 2.0. However if he does have the cash for a new mobo, a new PSU and a new GPU all at once, great. But he also may decide it's not worth going through all that trouble just to add another GPU. That's his call.
 
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obsidiankitty

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Nov 17, 2013
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I'm a she btw :p and yeah, I did suspect my mobo wasn't really up for it, want to avoid touching that for obvious reasons of effort really. but I think it's probably less hassle to just upgrade my GPU and psu if appropriate rather than the mobo as well.. and just stick with one and upgrade in a year or two when it becomes more of an issue. It's not like an immediate upgrade as everything I play runs perfectly on the highest settings anyway :p
 
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JohnPMyers

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Oops! sorry :p But you know the #1 rule: "Assume everyone is a dude" lol...believe me, it's safer that way :D

You would still see a performance increase even though that 2nd slot has lower bandwidth. Tests show the penalty is only 8-9%. If you keep Vsync on, that'll prevent the 2nd slot from becoming overwhelmingly saturated and should give you decent results until you get around to upgrading the board :)

 
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doron

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Dude, I really hate to write so much, but since other people might see this post and take your false claim as advice.. *Sigh* Here we go..

This tomshardware review shows the difference between pcie x4 and x8 to be almost 13%, and the difference between x4 and x16 to be over 20%.

The aforementioned test was done with the gtx 480. As the gtx 770 is around 1.5 times faster than the gtx 480, if you're running at pcie 2.0, the full x16 lanes are probably needed.
To back my claim, you can see in this review that even the gtx 680 has a (however marginal) fps advantage on pcie 3.0 vs 2.0, full lanes, meaning that even pcie 2.0 x16 is barely adequate for the gtx 770.

Sometimes it's better to admit you were wrong, or say nothing at all, than back up your claims with misleading 'facts'.

@obsidiankitty - Thanks for voting me for best answer, I'm with you on keeping things the same for now, the 770 should be more than enough for the foreseeable future (at 1920x1080, at least).
 
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doron

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....... Aww snap, your board doesn't even supports SLI.

Never thought of checking that, sorry. Looks like you're going to have to stick with single card configurations if you're planning on sticking with this board.

Sorry again for not catching this earlier..
 
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determinologyz

determinologyz

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I would recommend getting another mobo that supports x8/x8 sli /crossfire so you can toss the 2nd 770 in which would give some insane performance. I ran into the same issue before upgrading to the asrock z77
 
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