2 x gainward GTX 460 GLH SLI Whats the besst sli set up

mmeezzchris

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hello

I would like to know if when running multi PGU's in SLI what is best

if a mobo has 3 pci E slots and thetop slot is 16x , midle is 16x and bottom is 4x then if i have 2 cards then would they have to run on the top and midle slots (both 16x slots) to run better?

also if these cards were very close next to each other with a single cntre fan would the top card draw the heat up from the bottom card making it over heat.

or should i use a GPU card that has a single fan set at the end of the cards.

if i used top slot 16x and bottom slot 4x would that be good?

some sli set ups have 4 cards or 3 cards and these all seem close together with very little room...... are these generaly cards that have fans set at the end of the card or do they have them in the midle?

the two cards i would like to use are listed in the title

chris

 
I would not recommend using the bottom slot (x4) as it will reduce the performance.

Using the 1st and 2nd PCI-E lanes will mean that the 2 cards are close together and the top card will run hotter than the bottom card, however GTX460's run fairly cool so you shouldn't have a problem.
 



zotac_gtx460x2_02.jpg
 

mmeezzchris

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hi

i previously had 2 x gtx 260 sonics with twin fans and the top card run so hot it shut down with in secs of playing crysis.


would you say that the gtx 260 run much hotter?
 

mmeezzchris

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the pci e slots run @
single card top 16x middle 16x bottom 1x
daul card top 16x midle 16x bottom 1x
triple top 16x moddle 8x bottom 8x
 

mmeezzchris

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i have just been ready the manul that come with the mobo and i can reconfiq the bios settings for the north bridge chip set but i dont seem to be able to go
top 16x middle (1or 4 or 8 x) bottom 16 x.


how would 16x and 8x run for 2 cards?
 

firebird

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So these cards run @800 mhz and have a non-reference cooler...

If you had 2 cards with "fans at the end" you'd be in almost the same situation as the top card would have almost no room to pull air in even though it's exhausting out the rear.

As mentioned earlier, the top card should run hotter.

I think you'd be fine, but only someone with this actual setup can tell. I'm assuming you have adequate case cooling??

Did you have the same pc setup with the 260s?
 
You can, surprisingly, use any lane x16, x8, or even x4 and you will not see a performance decrease:

"The results are actually a bit shocking to us to be honest. We weren’t so surprised that in the previous evaluation x8/x8 did not cause any differences at 2560x1600 but did at 5760x1200. However, we thought certainly at x4/x4 PCIe 2.0 mode there would be some kind of a bottleneck at 2560x1600, but the results have proven otherwise. Even with all the data that GTX 480 SLI is pushing across the PCIe bus, x4/x4 is NOT a bottleneck in a single display setup at 2560x1600 with AA enabled. The only game to show us any difference was AvP, but it did not affect the gameplay experience. Therefore, if you are on an aging PCIe 1.X system at x8/x8 mode (equivalent to PCIe 2.0 x4/x4) on a single display fear not, you are not holding back the performance of GTX 480 SLI or we guess with any CrossFireX or SLI configuration."
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/25/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x4x4/
 

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