evga 660 ftw sli problems

Seanb1888

Honorable
Sep 21, 2013
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Hello all, i recently built a new computer specs are, 2 evga gtx 660s in sli, an i5 4670k 3.40ghz, 8gb of standard ram, corsair h80i cpu cooler, mobo is asrock z87m exstream 4 micro atx curucial 120gb ssd with a 1tb hdd, and a corsair cx750 psu. the fans i use is corsair sp20s silent editions. the problem i have is gpu overheating and noise, my mobo dose not have enough space to put a decent space between both gpus witch means the top 660 runs very hot, the bottom gpu runs well at 70c it has the best airflow tho, i have had to set a fan curve via msi afterburner, because when i game the fans crank up to reduce heat, but itis way to loud, i have my computer in my bedroom, and the gf complanes ha anyway i have set the top gpu at 50 percent speed top card at full load will hit 90 to 95c and the bottom will get to 70 to 75c on full load with about 32percent fan speed, this setting reduces the noise to bearable, question is, is these degrees safe? i have changed thermal paste i have added more fans, i have put fans next to the gpus but no matter what the temps will hit the the high 80s to 90s i have a corsair 300r windows case also, there is not much room in there! also with my mobo is it possible to use psie slot 4? when i browses what i am using in bios it says psie 4 16x but when i put my gpu in this slot i cannot sli in nivida control panel, i sees the card but will not let me sli! is there a way to do this, this would put about a inch between cards and would reduce heat! thanks if anyone can help
 

toddybody

Distinguished
Hey Friend, I checked out your board...and its a pretty tight fit. Im assuming your 660s have an ACX cooler...which isnt good for stacked SLI configurations (card resting on card).

Seems like you have several issues going on...heat and SLI recognition in nVidia Control Panel. Have you tried moving the 2nd card to the lowest PCI slot? You shouldnt suffer a large performance hit using the bottom 2.0 x16 slot (http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Impact-of-PCI-E-Speed-on-Gaming-Performance-518/). Heat and spacing are the biggest concerns right now.
 

Seanb1888

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Sep 21, 2013
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yes i have put the card in pci - e slot 4, the sli bridge is in, and it works. nivida picks up both cards as dose msi afterburner. but i cannot sli itis really strange. when i open up bios pci-e 4 isn't even listed to change gens! but when i go to tools and browse hardware, it says pci-e x16 and shows my gpu active. if i could solve this, this would solve my problem as the space would be enough for both gpus to breath
 

cub_fanatic

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Nov 21, 2012
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That is most likely a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot but it is running at x4 which is not SLI compatible. You would have to use the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot for the 2nd card. Besides getting a new board with better spacing between the PCIe slots or getting reference cards, you could add a fan near the GPUs. They sell fans that slide into empty PCI slots kind of like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835888112
 
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