580 SLI

[Gallarian]

Hey guys,

Im thinking about adding another 580 to my rig but I just wanted to make sure these 2 cards would be compatible:

My existing card: EVGA GTX 580 Superclocked 1.5GB

The new card: EVGA GTX 580 DS Superclocked 1.5GB


The reason why Im specifically want the DS version is because it is currently on sale at the store I use.

As far as I can see they would be fine with eachother (same VRAM, same clock speeds etc) but it never hurts to get a second opinion!

I will running them off a Corsair 1050wt PSU.



Sub question:

Im worried about having the two cards directly next to eachother on my board, what would be the loss if I spaced them apart and put one in a x4 slot?


Thanks,

 

[sosofm]

If you put the card on x4 slot will not run at his full capacity.

 

[Rockdpm]

Yea don't put it in the x4 slot. My recommendation is you want better temps. but the DS (Dual Fan) card on top, they like it at the top. then the reference cooler on on the bottom. Thats what i did with my SLI setup. but hopefully i can snatch up a nice kepler card to out perform my setup. or even two cards for a SLI GTX 600 series setup. But nah dude, dont put it on the x4. keep them together for a x8/x8 or x16/x16 setup. x4 just cripples it to the point of its better to have 1 card

 

[Gman450]

Agreed.
The X4 slot just wouldn't allow any card to run at it's full potential.
Temps is one thing to take in consideration.
See if anyone card becomes a bit hot. If it does, try upping the fan speed a little.

 

[Gallarian]

So the DS and reference cards are perfectly compatible with one another in a SLI set up?


And from what Ive seen guys, running SLI using 4x doesnt really hinder performance that much at all:

This is an article where they test SLI 480's in 16x and 4x - http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/25/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x4x4

They find minimal differences (1 or 2 fps dropped) in some games and absolutely no difference in other games.


Im just worried about the heat, my previous GTX 570 broke due to it exceeding 95C
and my single 580 reaches 80-85 on its own, let alone with another one sat on it!

 

[Gallarian]

To be honest guys, after looking at some close ups of my board, I dont think it even has a x4 slot, I think its just got 3 x16 slots, so I could afford to have a gap in between.

Could you double check for me? - ASrock Extreme 4 Gen 3 Z68 ATX

 

[Gman450]

Hmmm, I didn't know that. I thought X4/X4 setup would hinder performance a little.

Did you try upping the fan speeds on that single 580?
Try adding a case fan, it should lower the temperature in the cabinet and for the components.

 

[016ive]

no it does have x4

3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE4: single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode; PCIE5: x4 mode

 

[Gallarian]

Ah right ok, so it has 3 x16 but if I put a card in slot 5, it would run at x4.

Even so, it looks like there would still be a gap if I used the Top and middle slots, guess it might be time to open up my case huh? haha

 

[Gallarian]

Edit: Just found a vid from ASrock with a 580 installed on this board, there would be quite a nice gap between the 2 cards

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZCGt9BIjjw

The first set up you see is with a Gigabyte board, and you can see there would be a tiny gap, but the second one is with my board, it shows that there will be a PCI slot free between the two PCI-E slots.

 

[graemevermeulen]

Put the DS in the top slot as this card will do most of the work. In an SLI setup, only the first card's RAM is actually used (the card your main monitor is connected to). The only part of the bottom card that is used is the GPU chip for graphics processing as well as the actual CUDA cores, this is a common misconception about SLI - therefore if the bottom card's RAM is inactive less heat will be generated. That being said you probably won't notice a performance difference anyway no matter which card is on the top, just a difference in heat generated. And on a side note, the DS is on sale at overclockers.co.uk and I opted for a second GTX 580 with backplate because I want to be able to stare at it in all its beauty through the side window... I'm OCD and have to have identical cards.

 

[Gallarian]

Ok got it, DS on top and theres no need for me to drop my ref card down to a x4 slot.


Think I have all the info I need, thanks guys!

 

[ahnilated]

I sure hope the 580's use less power then the 480's. They say they do but I have seen my SLI'd 480's hit 975 watts. (i7 920 at 3.8G with 6 fans, 5 drives and cards overclocked 50MHz)