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Need advice on Crossfire setup.

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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Hi everyone.

First of all I'd like to say thanks to the community for helping me on my purchase of 2x Asus HD6970 (refrence design) cards. With 2560x1600 res I have no problems running the games I play, The cards are nice and strong.

BUT there is one problem and that is noise/heat (90+ degrees c and fan around %50+). My mobo is Gigabyte GA EX58-EXTREME and the two x16 PCI-E are close together so theres like a 3mm grab seperateing the cards.


There is however a 3rd PCI-E slot but its x8.... i think.... x16 x16 x8. I'm not sure how it all works but if i take it out of the 2nd slot and put it in the third one will that still run at x16, x16? or x16 x8?

Heres a link to my mobo
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=...

Its really anoying because it just doesnt get loud but because the cards are so close together it makes a it makes a anoying noise also not to mention the heat too.

Anyway if I put one card on the top PCI-E slot and the second card on the bottom PCI-E will they both run at X16?

thanks guys any help would be great.

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I'm not 100% but I don't think it should cause you a problem 1 vga will be working at x8 but it will still work ..... I reckon try it out . Also what case do you have maybe you need some airflow

The penalty is small when running one of the cards in 8x but the air flow is nonexistent with the cards side by side with no gap between them. Give 16x8 a try and if your fps are down enough to be a problem then revert back and try to mount a fan near the rear of the cards to force air between them.
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I've tried to mount the 2nd card in the 3rd PCI-E slot but as you can see in the photo above the PSU is in the way =( FFS. My excellent cpu adventures have gone down hill agian =( im gonna have to sell the second card or buy a new mobo or tower *sigh* already spent $770 AUD on the 6970s.

I've taken the bottom card out for now and the single 6970 runs really quiet and cool BUT you can see the proformance drop.

A bigger tower might not be the cheapest option but I read somewhere if I put the 2nd card in the 3rd PCI-E slot it will runn @ x16, X1 is this true?

If i were to say sell this mobo and get another what are some good recomendations? I'd like to keep the budget to $200AUD

Thanks agian team.

Have you tryed adding a side fan to your case? I have the same case so you could try adding a fan on the lower side slot it should force some ccol air between the 2 cards and help with temps. Also were did you get the cards at and can you possibly return them? I say this because with that mobo spacing you would have been better off going with a card that has an aftermarket duel fan cooler. I have a MSI twin frozer it has 2 fans and the side is open allowing the side fan to further help with the coolng of the card. Just an idea :)  If you cant return/exchange the cards then try the side fan idea a god one is only $10 and it should help somewith the temps.

Well I did say in my previous post that you can try to mount a fan near the rear of the cards to force air between them. There are two types of fans that you can try. A traditional case fan but success might be limited but any improvement counts while a 1U server fan can force air into a more confined path vs the traditional fan but they are very noisy.

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Firstly the difference is between 1%-2% (x16/x16 vs x8/x8) depending on the resolution.

Secondly if you put the second card in the third PCIe slot it will run x8.
Quote:
(Note 3) The PCIEX8_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_2 slot. When PCIEX8_1 is populated with a PCI Express graphics card, the PCIEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.

So crossfire x16/x8 (third slot) and if your running tri-fire it will be x16/x8/x8.

Third the case is not really the problem, I have a HAF-922 case and it fits two dual slot graphics cards with a spare slot between. As you said it is the motherboard in the current configuration. However what would be cheaper, a new mobo or a new case? I can't see a great saving going one way or the other (an upgrade from a HAF-922 your looking at around $AUS130+ and your mention $AUS200 for a new mobo). So really up to you on what you.

Forth if you are considering a new mobo consider this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... (sorry couldnt find it on pccg) It has x16/x16 and will have a slot spare between each card allowing for increased airflow. Also as others have mentioned I would advise a side fan here (922 can support a 200mm CM megaflow here for $AUS35, or two 140mm (I think, maybe 120mm)).

Hope that helps.

Thanks guys

That ASRock x58 extreme mobo is probably the best option I think I'll go ahead and order one of those only problem I have now is I'm left with a LGA1366 gigabyte GA ex58-extreme mother board with no use for, the damn thing cost me $480AUD (nother one of my crazy ideas)

anyway thanks everyone like always this community has been very helpful. cheers.
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