SLI Vs. Watercooling

[tcmike]

okay so im building a new computer.. getting parts and trying to do what i can for my machine... i have had trouble finding this sort of topic anywhere... searched these forums a bit and didnt get me anywhere so i decided to create a thread..

im considering buying a 2nd EVGA gtx 280... but what i want to know is... would SLI'ing 280s have better performance over watercooling an i7 920 and a evga gtx 280 and then massively OC'ing them?

i like to play alot of high end games such as crysis and age of conan and such.. in age of conan my GPU reaches roughly 57C on max load with a OC of 720 mhz core clock ||| 1650 shader clock ||| 1420 memory clock (or 2840)... crysis it reaches about 74C on the same settings.. no artifacting and is a stable overclock

any info would be much appreciated.. trying to get the most bang for my buck at the moment and money is sort of an issue otherwise i would do both haha

build:

antec 900 case
PC P&C 910 watt PSU
EVGA GTX 280 (720 mhz CC / 1650 shader / 1420/2840 mem clock)
asus P6T deluxe V2 mobo
i7 920 (will be overclocked to roughly 3.33 Ghz)
mushkin DDR3 1333 mhz (6-6-6-18 timing) ram

 

[Maziar]

What resolution u play at ?

 

[Shadow703793]

^+1. If playing at 1900*1200 then it may be worth it, if not WC is a good idea ESP. IF you plan to OC TO 4Ghz+.

 

[tcmike]

my monitor only supports 1680x1050.. but eventually in the next year or so i might be upgrading..

i dont know the most about WCing.. but my gtx 280 doesnt seem to get all that hot when playing age of conan and i cant run it at max and crysis i get about 30-50 fps and this is not in DX10 FYI

 

[tcmike]

and im not too worried about the CPU being OC'd to 4 ghz.. would be nice to kinda show it off, but in experience most games i play dont even use my CPU or atleast when i monitor the usage.. it stays at roughly 6% from firewall program n OS n such

 

[Maziar]

my monitor only supports 1680x1050.. but eventually in the next year or so i might be upgrading..

i dont know the most about WCing.. but my gtx 280 doesnt seem to get all that hot when playing age of conan and i cant run it at max and crysis i get about 30-50 fps and this is not in DX10 FYI

Well for that resolution i say stick with your card,a single GTX 280 can handle games fine as u are reporting it too.

Also a Core i7 920 can be OC'd to pretty good and high clock speeds on air so IMO watercooling wold be a waste too.

 

[Shadow703793]

So....
A good WC system will cost you $300-400.
A good LCD (1920*1080) will cost you $280-400.
A 2nd GTX280 will cost you $250-300.

Depending on what games you play, get the new LCD first and then get the 2nd GPU if needed down the road.

 

[Maziar]

+1^ if u want to go with SLI,then first get a new monitor then SLI your card.

 

[daedalus685]

Frankly, the first thing I ever recommend peopel to upgrade (assuming they have an alright system, which you certainly do) is the monitor. Getting a nice high resolution display is the best way to get more enjoyment out of the computer, hands down.

If you want more power later you can certainly get it. A display will also generally last a lot longer as well.

 

[Shadow703793]

^Agreed. I still have a few mid-high end CRTs that I still use after ~6-7 years.

 

[tcmike]

i really dont see all that much quality difference between 1680 and 1900 resolution.. i put the 2 next to eachother n just saw that the 1900 made pixels less choppy and blocky.. but i guess thats the point haha ;P...

but i dont know.. crysis cant run on ultra high.. just high and i get about 20-30.. forgot to turn on AA.. and yeah this things a beast age of conan wise.. but i couldnt imagine my FPS with directx10.. im thinking it will cut those frames in half.. what you guys think?



thanks for the insight btw fellas

 

[Maziar]

If u want to run crysis on ultra high then PM me i will give u some tips

 

[geofelt]

Your i7 @3.3 is plenty to drive a very high end vga configuration already. Overclocking more will do virtually nothing for games such as crysis.

The following comparisons were done with a E8400 @3.0, a much less capable cpu:
http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts_crysis/

Adding another GTX280 raised the crysis fps from 49 to 57.

 

[tcmike]

thanks a million for that chart.. went on a trip so havent been reading this post...

another question...

gtx 280s have fans on the bottom sucking in the air to push it out the back of the PC... the tops of the cards get rather hot sometimes... wouldnt the heat from the TOP OF THE BOTTOM card affect the temperature of the top card since its kinda sucking in heat from the other card?

sorry if that sounded a bit confusing hehe.

 

[trkorecky]

thanks a million for that chart.. went on a trip so havent been reading this post...

another question...

gtx 280s have fans on the bottom sucking in the air to push it out the back of the PC... the tops of the cards get rather hot sometimes... wouldnt the heat from the TOP OF THE BOTTOM card affect the temperature of the top card since its kinda sucking in heat from the other card?

sorry if that sounded a bit confusing hehe.

Yes, it will run hotter, though how much depends on ambient temps, fan speeds, case ventilation, etc. The GPU on my 4870 X2 that's furthest from the fan runs significantly hotter than the other, since the heat from the first blows over the second. Once I finally get money, I'm finishing up a liquid cooling setup as well.

 

[tcmike]

nice.. they need to make MOBO's where some PCI slots are reversed.. that way u can keep the heat away from eachother ><