Bottleneck with i7 5960x and 4 Way SLI980 Gtx ?

rooy · Sep 30, 2014

Im thinking to sell my old pc for a new one... i thinking to buy i7 5960x and 4way SLI 980 GTX with Watercooling Both.
What do u think they will bottleneck without cpu OC ?
I want to ask something else.. i dont know what cpu cooler i have to buy for the 4 way sli 980 gtx and the cpu and ram and mobo

fully watercooling.. what u prefer ?

rubix_1011 · Sep 30, 2014

Not sure I would go with 4-way SLI. Maybe 2-way, at most. You aren't going to see much benefit going over 2-way SLI with 980's.

Please read through the watercooling sticky linked in my signature below. MB and RAM watercooling aren't needed in almost every instance...MB possibly if you are really pushing high OC's.

faalin · Sep 30, 2014

you cant 4 way sli with normal nvidia cards, the best you can do is 3 way with a 4th for physx. 4 way can only be achieved with 2 690 or any nvidia card that has 2 gpus on one card.

rubix_1011 · Sep 30, 2014

^ Apparently I haven't had enough coffee today...how did I not catch 4x SLI vs 3x SLI... doh

faalin · Sep 30, 2014

Its ok.... happens to the best of us

Also sli does not scale well after 2 cards. as for watercooling research the water blocks for the 980's first to see what cards they will support. Its easier to find a waterblock and fit a card to it then getting a card and finding out they don't offer a block for it.

Also as the front news feed is reporting Evga is going to put out a hydrocopper card so if you really want to be on the safe side i would buy the card with the block already on it.

If you do the math after you subtract the block from the card the hydro cards cost more then a normal card but they are also hand picked to be able to handle overclocking, so IMOP it worth the extra money. You also dont void the warranty buy adding a water block to a card since it cam from the factory with it on.

rubix_1011 · Sep 30, 2014

EK and others will almost positively support reference PCB with full cover blocks. At this point, it's unknown what vendors and what SKUs will follow reference PCB and which do not.

rooy · Sep 30, 2014

i want pc for gaming ther is no difference between 2 way and 4 way sli ?

rubix_1011 · Sep 30, 2014

4x SLI doesn't exist. Only 2x and 3x SLI. There have been plenty of tests done about the performance differences between them.

I'm curious what you are playing that you think you need 3x SLI 980's for?

rooy · Oct 1, 2014

I want Maxout at all games.

rubix_1011 · Oct 1, 2014

That isn't very specific. What games specifically in which a single 980 or 2x 980's wouldn't be able to handle?

This seems like a thread where someone is just wanting to buy the most expensive everything without any specific merit or requirements. Without knowing what specific games and applications you are wanting to run that might require that much hardware, it isn't really feasible to recommend a solution beyond 2x SLI 980's. Can you provide more details on what all you are planning to run with this machine? It sounds like you are likely trying to spend far more money than you remotely need in order to meet your goals.

faalin · Oct 1, 2014

rubix_1011 :

a 690 is two 680 on one board in sli putting two of them in a system will give you 4 way sli. There is nothing right now to do 780 or 980 4-way sli only 3-way.

3-way does not scale well at low resolutions, it only starts to shine after 2560x1440

Damn_Rookie · Oct 1, 2014

faalin :

Am I missing soimething here? Are people conflating Quad SLI and 4-way SLI? Quad SLI is normally used, at least by motherboard manufacturers, to refer to two dual GPU cards put together (like two 690s for instance), while 4-way SLI is used to refer to four seperate graphics cards together. ASUS for example lists their X99 deluxe board as being capable of 3-way and quad SLI setups, while their X99-E WS board lists 4-way SLI.

The specifications for the 980 specifically list it as being 4-way SLI ready (as opposed to the 970, that lists only 3-way SLI ready), so I find it a little hard to believe that 4-way SLI doesn't exist.

rubix_1011 · Oct 1, 2014

Dual GPU cards? I suppose you would consider that Quad SLI, but I guess it depends if you are counting per PCB or per GPU. If running 4x PCB boards, no, I don't believe you can actually run SLI in that manner...3x is the max + 1 Physx.

Damn_Rookie · Oct 1, 2014

The difference between quad SLI and 4-way SLI I mentioned (2 x 2 gpu cards vs 4 x 1 gpu cards) is certainly how many motherboard manufacturers do it, and I'd have to assume nVidia accepts this naming scheme, seeing as it's used so often.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree that 4-way SLI doesn't exist, as there are 4-way SLI reviews out there (not many, unsurprisingly), for example here, here, and here. Scaling can be a real issue, and lead to worse performance when moving from 3 to 4- way SLI, so I certainly wouldn't recommend 4-way SLI, but it does exist, and the 980 supports it.

rubix_1011 · Oct 1, 2014

Interesting since Nvidia doesn't sell 4-way SLI bridges; only 2 and 3-way bridges. I realize that you can technically SLI w/o a bridge being in place, but I guess I was misguided thinking it wasn't possible as 4x PCB cards; I have always assumed it was via 2x PCB/4x GPU.

980's are only single GPU/single PCB, so we'd be drawn to assume 4x PCB SLI as this example.

Still appears that there is almost negligible difference between 3 and 4-way on those charts (albeit, comparisons of 780Ti and Titan), which falls in line with most 2x and 3x SLI scaling and diminishing returns.

I'd still challenge to see what is needed that 2x SLI 980's would not be able to handle.

Damn_Rookie · Oct 1, 2014

I agree, it's all a bit of moot point really, as 4-way SLI often works so badly. Here for example, is an actual 4-way 980 GTX review, and while there is a gain in some games, in others the performance with 4 cards is almost identical to what you get with 3. 3-way is certainly the absolute limit I'd ever recommend, and even then I'd be unlikely to recommend it, and only for extreme resoltutions.

It is a bit strange that nVidia seems to top out at selling 3-way bridges though, isn't it? It leaves it up to the manufacturers like EVGA to sell the fancy looking 4-way bridges.

EDIT: Anyway, sorry for derailing the thread everyone! The pedantic side of me just wanted to clarify that 4-way SLI does indeed exist, but that doesn't mean you ever want to opt for it!

rubix_1011 · Oct 1, 2014

No, it actually was a good addition to the thread. I had kind of thought 4-way SLI used to exist, but was certain it was long gone and dead. Apparently not. I understand the NEED for 4 cards, though, as CUDA processing can be used as a very powerful resource in a small package.

rooy · Oct 3, 2014

I have one screen 27' and i want to play all games maxed out battlefield 4 call of duty crysis 3 metro last night . i want to get the most fps! i have now 780 ti and i want more . and cpu 3970x

iamlegend · Oct 3, 2014

A BIG LOL for the OP. Maybe you only wanted to buy all the most expensive hardwares without knowing why you need them. Maybe you are a prince of Malaysia or something.

rubix_1011 · Oct 3, 2014

rooy :

So why not just buy another 780Ti? That would be a much less cheaper option and would still keep you very much in the same range of performance.

Let me ask this: how many FPS are you seeing now? What is your goal? It would seem this is just a thread about choosing maxxed out expensive hardware without really understanding why or how or what differences you would see.

Also, you aren't going to see vast improvements going from a 780 Ti to SLI 780 Ti or even SLI GTX 980's. You might see some minor improvements with AA and shaders, but as it stands now, I'm betting you can play all those games on maximum and at good frame resolutions.

TonyRoma · Oct 3, 2014

Maybe this article will be helpful to you.... http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6726/4k-showdown-intel-x79-vs-x99-with-asus-geforce-gtx-980-4gb-quad-sli/index.html

Automatiic · Dec 11, 2014

I know this thread is old but I stumbled upon it and had to give my two cents since I HAVE 4 GTX 980s.

First of all, how in the world do people think that 4 way SLI does not exist? Whatever.

Moving on, do not get 4 GTX 980s. Ever. In fact, don't ever 4 Way SLI anything. 3 Way is fine and at 1440p, it really shows off. I couldn't be less happy with my fourth card. Battlefield 4 stutters every few seconds now. Titanfall, Assassin's Creed Unity, Far Cry 4 and Planetside 2 are simply unplayable no matter what I do. WoW's performance DROPPED. I have been in support forums for each of these games and tried hours and hours of tweaks. Nothing helps. But then I go run benchmarks in Unigine and Fire Strike and everything is flawless and performance is off the charts.

I don't know if it's an SLI issue or a game engine issue but the microstutter that occurs with four cards simply makes them unplayable. It's a complete waste of money.

jshatraw · Dec 15, 2014

I have 4 Asus Strix 980's, 5960x and a 55" 4k Samsung . Depends on the game if it will run smoothly with all 4. Other Times i Can use 3 Cards and Dedicate the 4th to Phys X. I find ubisoft games to be the worst in the business when it comes to playing in 4k with decent settings...

Bottleneck with i7 5960x and 4 Way SLI980 Gtx ?

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