Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980 Tri Sli

I saw that picture and tracked down where it came from. That guy has an ASUS Rampage V MOBO and that was before he turned the PC on. If you watch the video, he talks about how he had to remove the backplates on the bottom two cards because the fans were getting hung up. I'm hoping that the Rampage IV has slightly better spacing because removing the backplates on a heavy card like that doesn't excite me too much.

So how do I make sure they will fit and not flex? The reason I'm asking is the cards are non-refundable from newegg. All you can do is return for a replacement of the SAME card so if they get here and I open them to try them myself, I won't be able to return them. I already called the Premier hotline to verify this.

Bump (Sorry but I have to know before I open them or I'm screwed)

I guess there's only one way to find out and if it doesn't work, I'll just have to climb the chain at Newegg because this is ridiculous. My other question is this: With the space between them being so minimal, do you think the middle card will be able to cool itself ok? The side panel of my case has room for 9 120mm fans which I have mounted so a TON of cold air from outside of the case is currently blowing on my PCIe Slots and CPU.

Holy crap! I'm actually really impressed with Gigabyte's support. I just called and got in contact with Eddie in their tech support department. He is going to have his tech team install three of the exact cards on a workbench, stand it vertically (to account for sag) and run it to see what happens and then send me photos of it to my personal email TODAY!

I've never had a company take such a tailored approach to a concern before so hats off to Gigabyte! The only x-factor is they obviously don't have my board to test it on (ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition) for obvious reasons so I will ask them what board they used when they send me photos and get the exact measurements between slots and then contact ASUS to get their exact measurements. Fingers crossed!

Well I spoke to soon about Gigabyte's support. They never emailed or called me back like they said they would.

I got two of the three cards in last night and after talking the PC apart to clean everything and installing the new Power Supply, I decided to see if the cards would fit and they do! I have them in the first and second PCI-E slot and am waiting for the third to get here tonight to install it before I power own. I took a bottle of canned air and used it to spin the fans on the top card to see if they get hung up at all and they don't so that's a huge relief.

My only concern with these cards is how heavy they are. There is a solid 3-4mm sag from the front of the card to the back. Are there any ways that you guys know of to try and support the cards better other than the power cables? The power cables help a little but the sag is still pretty extreme.

All three are in and it was a PAIN. The bottom card impacts the middle card near where the brackets screw in on the back of the case but I got them all in and the fans spin without hitting anything.

I formatted the PC while I was cleaning and upgrading my rig so I'm just waiting for games to finish downloading. Along with these I got 3 ASUS ROG Swifts and OHMYLANTA the desktop experience is so smooth at 144hz. I can't wait to get in game and see what it's like with GSync on top of that!

The middle and bottom cards are running at 28-30C at idle but the top card (where a monitor is plugged in) idles around 51C! This is with 22 fans in my rig setup properly too so I'm nervous about how it will be while gaming. I'll reply back with an update on temps as soon as they finish downloading and I can benchmark.

I only have one monitor setup right now. Will be setting up the other two after I test some games.

After Monday, I'll know how it will really perform temperature-wise.

You see, the side panel of my case allows for 9 120mm Fans and I have them installed. The fans literally point directly over the GPUs. The problem is the PCIE Power cables that came with my new PSU stick out too far so I can't put the side panel on. I ordered some low profile PCIE Power cables that should be here Monday. When I replace the current cables with those and put the backplate back on, I will test temperatures. It should make a big difference because right now, there is no positive pressure in the case and minimal air blowing on the cards because the backplate is leaned up against the desk far away from the GPUs.

Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra. This thing is an absolute MONSTER.

I'll definitely keep you updated. I'm going to do some re-configuration on the cables in addition to installing the new ones when they come in tomorrow. After that, I'll run a battery of games, record temps and report back here.

Alright so here's the update:

All three cards are in and they all touch to the point where they're basically bending which makes me really uneasy. I got the low profile PCIE Cables installed and the side panel put on with 9 120mm fans blowing directly onto the GPUs. The middle two cards reached their thermal limit of 81C and started to downclock to stay cool. The bottom card stayed around 55C under load because it's entire cooling solution could breathe. Keep in mind that if one card downclocks, they ALL downclock regardless of how cool they are because SLI requires the same clock speeds across all cards.

So, the Gigabyte G1 Gaming cooling solution is AWESOME in a single or Dual SLI configuration. But when you move to three cards or more, there simply isn't enough space so they impact one another and can't cool properly. The cards are under a non-refund policy at newegg but I called the Premier hotline and they made an exception because nowhere on their site or Gigabyte's does it say they won't fit in a Tri SLI configuration. So the cards are getting RMA'd for store credit so I can buy three slimmer cards.

I must say I'm really disappointed because the cards are truly amazing but I am extremely pleased with Newegg doing the right thing. Prior to receiving the cards, I called Newegg and had them note on my account my concern about them not fitting. I also created a thread on Newegg's "Eggxpert" forums and the users there said they thought it should fit. Because of that, Newegg allowed the RMA to go through. I should get the store credit in a week to a week and a half at which point I will purchase the new cards.

At this point, I'm going to go with EVGA just in case the 980ti is released in the next 3 months so I can step up. My question to you guys is this: Should I get the reference cards with the blower style cooler so air is exhausted out of the back of the case or should I get the ACX 2.0 versions which are slimmer so there should be room for them to breathe?

Thanks in advance for your advice and I hope this experience was helpful to someone.

Thanks for the reply. Because of cooling or what? The ACX 2.0 cooler is slimmer than the G1 Gaming cooler so I figured there would be enough room for it to properly cool right? What are your thoughts?

Gotcha. Up until this build, I have only ever had two cards in SLI or Crossfire so a triple card setup is new territory for me. After doing some reading while waiting on your reply, I agree that the blower design for triple SLI is the way to go. I'm going to get the EVGA Superclocked versions with the reference cooler. Hopefully the 980ti will be released in the next 90 days so I can step up to that too!

Thanks for your help.