i7 960 with Rampage III socket 1366 Can it run GTX 980 SLI ?

Predcaliber · Mar 25, 2015

Hello guys,

I currently have the following setup:

Asus Rampage III GENE
i7 960 @ 3,20 ghz
12GB DDR3 RAM
EVGA GTX 980

I bought a Philips 4k monitor today, but I have to admit a single GTX 980 is not doing the 4k trick. I definatly need GTX 980 SLI, but thats old news

The problem is, can my old i7 960 with my Rampage III gene actually still fully run GTX 980 SLI?

(My Rampage III Gene has only 2 PCI-E x16 slots, currently 1 slot is being taken by a Xonar Essence STX sound card, so that card has to go when I go SLI on this board. )

rolli59 · Mar 25, 2015

Yes they can run the SLI setup!

Predcaliber · Mar 26, 2015

Oke thanks for your answer

but may I ask how you know that for sure? because I read a lot of different stories on the X58 1366 chipset, and people running a i7 920 are having problems running it. I am wondering if my i7 960 is capable to run all lanes on 4k resolution.

maxalge · Mar 26, 2015

Predcaliber :

If you want to go that route, then you are also going to need to overclock that cpu.

Luckily you have a nice asus board, so that should not be an issue.

pcie 2.0 x16 is fine.

Predcaliber · Mar 26, 2015

Is there a way to check or calculate on which clock speed the i7 960 is capable of running a GTX 980 SLI?

Because it would be bad if I dont have the preffered performance if my CPU's 3,2 GHZ base clock would be the bottleneck, and 3,8 GHZ would run it fine.

maxalge · Mar 26, 2015

Predcaliber :

The faster the better.

rolli59 · Mar 26, 2015

The thing is that with a 4K monitor the resolution is so high that CPU bottleneck is less because the cards are working hard. 3.2GHz should run it fine but any higher may be bonus.

maxalge · Mar 26, 2015

rolli59 :

That's not how it works.

At higher resolutions the gpu's need to work more yes, doesn't mean the cpu works less.

rolli59 · Mar 26, 2015

maxalge :

It does in a way since the higher the resolution the more GPU bound the game is. At 1080P two 980 in SLI would be idle and CPU max at 4K the CPU still maybe max but the cards will be far from idle!

maxalge · Mar 28, 2015

rolli59 :

No, the higher the resolution the harder the gpu needs to work regardless of cpu, BUT with a poor cpu you would just get massive fps drops and stutter. You would never allow the gpu to give it's full potential performance.

Doesn't matter how badass the workmen are, they still need to wait on the fatass foreman to give them instructions from time to time.

rolli59 · Mar 28, 2015

maxalge :

rolli59 :

No, the higher the resolution the harder the gpu needs to work regardless of cpu, BUT with a poor cpu you would just get massive fps drops and stutter. You would never allow the gpu to give it's full potential performance.

Doesn't matter how badass the workmen are, they still need to wait on the fatass foreman to give them instructions from time to time.

I would take your point if we had a bad CPU but in this case we are not talking about bad CPU we are talking I7 960 at 3.2GHz which almost matches modern I5's and does AMD's FX offerings http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/363?vs=100
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

maxalge · Mar 28, 2015

rolli59 :

You do realize that NONE of those cpus in its tier class are particularly worthy of 980 sli right?

That tier overclocked I would at most run a single 280x.

He kinda needs to overclock.

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