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GTX 670 4-WAY SLI Cooling

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Graphics card Expert

Whats up guys. So i'm upgrading my rig in order to run my 3 Asus 27in 3D 120hz monitors in "3d Surround" or 5760x1080 @120hz.

Here are current specs: Other specs: i5 2500k @ 4.5 / Ripjaws 8gb 1600 CL8 / Crucial M4 256gb SDD / Spinpoint 2TB HDD / Corsair 1050w Pro / CM HAF X 942 / 3x Asus VG278H monitors (im selling my current EVGA 680)

So I was trying to wait for the 670 4gb versions to release(which they never did :fou:  ) and i have my 3 Asus's here begging for power. I did see some benchmarks with 670sli and the extra 4gb did not help performance(not sure why)even with AA turned all the way up. So when the 670s came back in stock my trigger finger took over and got 3 of them for $399/ea. Then today i came across another amazing deal where i was able to get another EVGA gtx 670 for $250(of course i couldnt pass that one up!) Dont ask how, long story. And i plan to use the great EVGA set-up program to upgrade to the 4gb versions whenever the hell they come out and if benchmarks are good.

So my question is about placement of the 4 gtx 670 on my new mobo Gigabyte Z77 G1.SNIPER 3 http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-CrossFireX-NVIDIA-Mother...
This is going to be my first time using 4 GPUs and by the looks of it they will sit right next to each other with no space in between. How will they get adequate cooling? I have seen similar setups with all the GPUs touching each other before, but never inquired about it. Two good things:
#1 the evga gtx 670 is almost completely enclosed with all exhaust coming out back vents out of case.
#2 my CM HAF X 942 case has amazing flow and a huge 240mm(i think) fan on side blowing fresh cool air right on the GPUs.
So will i have a problem with the GPUs being next to each other? Do i need to look for another method of cooling?

BTW i know 670s 3-way and 4-way SLI are still not working properly, i'm putting my trust into Nvidia to come through promptly!! But Nvidias driver team has always been top notch, so im not too worried.

More about : gtx 670 sli cooling

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Graphics card Master

Hi

I'd try out all four cards first of all and see what the temps are like, they may be acceptable (although possibly loud).

Most aftermarket coolers are either larger than 2 slots (so wouldn't be compatible with your setup) or they expel all the hot air inside your case which isn't ideal.

Have you considered watercooling?
Graphics card Expert

i havent considered watercooling yet, but im open to the suggestion if needed. Noise is not a big factor for me, i usually game with the surround system cranked up or headphones.
Graphics card Master

Well like I said, I would try them all out first of all and see what the temps are like, if noise isn't a problem then I expect you'll get away with using the stock coolers with the fans turned up.
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Graphics card Expert

too late 4 670s already being shipped. like i said i had just bought 3 670s and i was going to have some extra room, but then a 670 came up for $250 and i couldnt pass. but my Coolermaster case has tons of space. Are you positive i couldnt run the 4 670s on air even at stock speeds. the new 600 seried run pretty cool.
Graphics card Authority

omgitzfatal said:
Apparently nVidia will be releasing a driver update that includes Quad SLI support for the GTX670.


They have already released it, Driver: 301.42 is the one that fixes the 4 way SLI isue :D 
Graphics card Authority

Does that board have any connections below the bottom pci-e slot such as a USB or the power/reset/hdd led/internal speaker? If so, then you will need to bend all the wires over to the point of possibly breaking them to get the bottom card to fit. I have two motherboards with 4 double spaced pci-e slots and each one has that issue with the bottom pci-e slot. I tried running a 6990 and two 6970's with each card touching the other and even with rubber spacers inbetween the cards for airflow, they still ran almost 10 degrees hotter. With the stock cooler the 6990 ran at max 85 degrees at stock fan settings and it went up to 95 degrees when a 6970 was installed directly below it. Part of the problem was the back of a gpu is pretty hot to the touch and that heat really has nowhere to go but into the blower of the card above it. I even had a 230mm sidemount fan blowing down on the cards and it did not help much.
Graphics card Expert

alrobichaud said:
Does that board have any connections below the bottom pci-e slot such as a USB or the power/reset/hdd led/internal speaker? If so, then you will need to bend all the wires over to the point of possibly breaking them to get the bottom card to fit. I have two motherboards with 4 double spaced pci-e slots and each one has that issue with the bottom pci-e slot. I tried running a 6990 and two 6970's with each card touching the other and even with rubber spacers inbetween the cards for airflow, they still ran almost 10 degrees hotter. With the stock cooler the 6990 ran at max 85 degrees at stock fan settings and it went up to 95 degrees when a 6970 was installed directly below it. Part of the problem was the back of a gpu is pretty hot to the touch and that heat really has nowhere to go but into the blower of the card above it. I even had a 230mm sidemount fan blowing down on the cards and it did not help much.


Yes I have the same 230mm side fan on the HAF X case. These new GTX 600 series cards run pretty cool from what I've seen. My GTX 680(which in selling) would only get up to 48 degree max temp at 100% full load with GPU OC 200mhz over stock speeds (1268mhz) to the core with fans @ 85%. So if 10 degrees is all it increases then I will be ok.

I do see what you are saying about the ports under the 4th card slot. I will have to try to work my way around it. The rubber spacers is a good idea, I will try that. Thanks.

Hello sir

Nvidia Driver release does not put 670gtx to 4way sli if it did id be getting a 4th 570gtx :) 

once all the parts come in use the 3way SLI bridge that comes with the mobo
Configure the 670s to 3way sli and use the 4th for PHysix

sry guy :( 
Graphics card Master

When I installed my GTX 680's, I first tried them both in the x16 slots, which leave no space between the cards. I was hopeful due to the design of the cards where the back part tapers off a little, to create a little extra air space. It worked, however, I noticed that MSI Afterburner was reading the top card getting to about 90C and the fan got up to about 75-80%. Needless to say, it was fairly loud and I wasn't comfortable with the heat.

I switched the cards into a x16/x8 configuration with 3 slots of space between the cards. I lost about 3% performance, but the cards never go over 80C with 60% fan speeds, which is pretty quiet.

I'm sticking with the x16/x8 configuration. Noise matters to me.

Swolern said:

I did see some benchmarks with 670sli and the extra 4gb did not help performance(not sure why)even with AA turned all the way up. .



3x 2GB cards =/= 6GB

3x 2GB cards still only = 2GB

"....my trigger finger took over and got 3 of them for $399/ea. Then today i came across another amazing deal where i was able to get another EVGA gtx 670 for $250(of course i couldnt pass that one up!) "

[-->$1447 gfx...damn!]

"BTW i know 670s 3-way and 4-way SLI are still not working properly, i'm putting my trust into Nvidia to come through promptly!! But Nvidias driver team has always been top notch, so im not too worried. "

--> The faith is strong in this one. If nvidia dosen't pull through can you send me 1 (or 2) ? ;) 
Graphics card Expert

When I crossfired some 4850s I was getting really high temps that forced my computer to restart. I bought some after market heat sinks (Zalman VF1000) which brought temps down dramatically.

If you don't want to go the water cooling route you could try some after market heat sinks.
Graphics card Expert

peanut_316 said:
Hello sir

Nvidia Driver release does not put 670gtx to 4way sli if it did id be getting a 4th 570gtx :) 

once all the parts come in use the 3way SLI bridge that comes with the mobo
Configure the 670s to 3way sli and use the 4th for PHysix

sry guy :( 


New drivers came out 2 days ago for 4-way SLI :) 

Quote:
If you downloaded our 301.24 beta drivers or the releases specifically for the GTX 670, 680 or 690, you'll definitely want to upgrade to the new 301.42 WHQL drivers as we've fixed bugs, improved functionality, added 4-way GTX 670 SLI support, improved Mass Effect 3 override anti-aliasing performance, and listened to user feedback to fine-tune and tweak the elements you care about.
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforc...

Graphics card Expert

bystander said:
When I installed my GTX 680's, I first tried them both in the x16 slots, which leave no space between the cards. I was hopeful due to the design of the cards where the back part tapers off a little, to create a little extra air space. It worked, however, I noticed that MSI Afterburner was reading the top card getting to about 90C and the fan got up to about 75-80%. Needless to say, it was fairly loud and I wasn't comfortable with the heat.

I switched the cards into a x16/x8 configuration with 3 slots of space between the cards. I lost about 3% performance, but the cards never go over 80C with 60% fan speeds, which is pretty quiet.

I'm sticking with the x16/x8 configuration. Noise matters to me.


Hey Bystander.
Man 90 degrees is pretty high. Was that at OC or stock speeds? I had 680sli before and had them x16/x8 also with space in between. I did notice the x16 slot would run @ 10 degrees hotter than the x8. Whith my new mobo I will be running pci-e 2.0 x8/x8/x8/x8, so the decrease bandwidth might help with the temps a little. If all fails there is always watercooloing. I can get all the slots to run pic-e 3.0 if I switch to IB, but i don't think I need to right now.
Graphics card Master

I also noticed that the card in the x16 slot is a few degrees hotter. I've just assumed that card runs hotter, but maybe it is the x16 slot. I do know that high FPS on low stress games can often run hotter than lower FPS on high demanding games. Maybe there is something to that.
Graphics card Expert

Yes you will get @ 4% more performance from pci-e 2.0 x16 compared to x8 with the gtx 680. Found this awesome graph.


So the x16 will run a little faster and hotter due to badwidth. Not sure how this works when you SLI a x16 slot with a x8, but the temps show there is a difference.

Hey swolern

i guess nvidia fixed the issue lol +1 to u and nvidia

on the HAF X case did u remove the filters on front and top fans?

IM using this case all 3 570gtxs are side by side hanging out no spaces,
i removed most of the fan filters on top and side 230 exhaust fan so far cooling not to bad just sounds loud though but thats what 5.1 and 7.1 sound systems are for.

and i have a question? are u sure there wont be a bottleneck on fps on ur current cpu/board??

i was using i7-950 cpu at 4.5ghz 24gigs of ram and 3 570s 3xdisplays and bottled.
i was sad panda so i sold 2 monitors and 2xreference 570s to a buddy
Graphics card Authority

amuffin said:
Go Watercooling.



+1

If you have that much invested in this rig, a watercooling kit with some waterblocks shouldn't be that big of a deal for you.

Graphics card Expert

peanut_316 said:
Hey swolern

i guess nvidia fixed the issue lol +1 to u and nvidia

on the HAF X case did u remove the filters on front and top fans?

IM using this case all 3 570gtxs are side by side hanging out no spaces,
i removed most of the fan filters on top and side 230 exhaust fan so far cooling not to bad just sounds loud though but thats what 5.1 and 7.1 sound systems are for.

and i have a question? are u sure there wont be a bottleneck on fps on ur current cpu/board??

i was using i7-950 cpu at 4.5ghz 24gigs of ram and 3 570s 3xdisplays and bottled.
i was sad panda so i sold 2 monitors and 2xreference 570s to a buddy


No I havent removed the filters, trying to keep the dust out. Does that help with cooling?

As far as bottleneck, I dont think i will have a CPU bottleneck, but not sure until my system up and running. I had my i5 2500k @ stock speeds 3.3ghz with 680 SLI with one 1920x1080 120hz monitor previous to this and the only bottleneck i found was at extreme framerate above 150fps. I found the bottleneck by comparing benchmarks to other 680sli PCs (with new IB i7)where their peak framerate would be 170s. I OC my CPU to 4.3ghz and then i would reach the 170fps limit also.

How did you see your bottleneck with your i7-950 @ 5760x1080? Are you sure the bottleneck wasnt the 1.25gb vram on the 570s? I have hear of other people that had the vram bottleneck issue with multiple 570s and 3 monitor setups.

My new mobo will be no bottleneck it can run x16/x16 or x8/x8/x8/x8 PCI-E 2.0 with SB, 3.0 with IB. 670 cannot fill pci-e 2.0 x8 bandwith. But might upgrade to Ivybridge CPU later if i see the need.
Graphics card Expert

alrobichaud said:
+1

If you have that much invested in this rig, a watercooling kit with some waterblocks shouldn't be that big of a deal for you.


Yes im keeping that an option. The 670 waterblocks are not out yet, that i know of. I havent done a watercooling setup before, but it looks fun!
Graphics card Authority

I have not done a real water setup either. I can just picture 4 fans running overtime to keep those cards running at normal load temps. I agree that it was probably the 1.25 GB of VRAM that bottlenecked at 5760x1080 and not the i7 950 @ 4.5GHz. At that resolution BF3 uses all 3GB of VRAM on my 7970's.
Graphics card Expert

Ive been working almost every day so not a lot of time to work on my rig :(  I got the G1 Sniper mobo and 3 670s in so far. Couple things ive noticed. The 670s actually cool pretty good on reference fans. I noticed that the EVGA 670 reference cards are designed with a slant towards the end on the cards. The slant is exactly where the fan would touch the next card so even though the cards are touching each other at the video cable connection end, the opposite end where the fans are there is a gap, which is great for airflow. So i did a quick run and idle temps for 3-way where 32-36 degrees and full load temps were 60-70s which is amazing for an air cooled 3-way sandwich, lol.

But on the other hand i did notice some pretty bad microstutter and wide fluctuating fraterates that did not look good, so it looks like im going to have to do some more work on it, hopefully soon!

I try to post some benchmarks later this week.

***Edit*** Fixed the micro-stutter. The SLI connector was faulty. Changed it out and now smooth as butter. Absolutely gorgeous! :o 
Graphics card Expert

alrobichaud said:
I have not done a real water setup either. I can just picture 4 fans running overtime to keep those cards running at normal load temps. I agree that it was probably the 1.25 GB of VRAM that bottlenecked at 5760x1080 and not the i7 950 @ 4.5GHz. At that resolution BF3 uses all 3GB of VRAM on my 7970's.


It looks like like Nvidias 600 series utilize VRAM differently. When i had my 680SLI BF3 @ 5760x1080 max vram usage was 1600mb. And 5760x1080 in 3d "Nvidia 3D Surround" max usage was @ 1900mb. 3d surround did not utilize all the vram of 2048mb, but it was too close for comfort.
Graphics card Expert

i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz/Ripjaw8gb 1600 CL8/ Gigabyte G1 Sniper3/ Corsair 1050w/ GTX 670 configurations @ stock speeds
(i had to return my SSD and these benches are on HDD and min framarates seemed to be when different scenes loading)

Unengine 3.0 5760x1080 FXAA/Anisotropy 16x/Tesselation-Extreme/ all other settings maxed.

(GTX 670 x1)




(GTX 670 X2)




(GTX 670 X3)





(GTX 670 X4)




(GTX 670x4) 3d Surround
Graphics card Expert

Battlefield 3- Good Hunting. GTX 670s @ stock speeds. All settings ultra except FXAA 5760x1080.

I ran just a quick benchmark of the first 1 1/2 min of the stage. I did not include the high altitude part of the map where the framerate almost doubles.


(GTX 670 X1)
Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
103912, 31, 48, 37.917


(GTX 670 X2)
Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
103335, 59, 89, 71.679


(GTX 670 X3)
Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
103865, 84, 125, 99.379



(GTX 670 X4)
Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
104287, 86, 166, 125.126



(GTX 670 X4) 3D SURROUND
Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
103850, 51, 82, 63.775
Graphics card Master

? How does he get four way SLI with one of the cards not getting any power?

Nice scores but even just two of those cards are over 60FPS so whats the point? Your monitors aren't going to go above that. (unless you are running the newer 120Hz monitors.)
Graphics card Expert

^First post, first sentence "5760x1080 @ 120hz" or 3d 60hz.
Ran out of pci-e psu cables so had to use different color peripheral cables that looked ugly, so I left it out the pic.
Graphics card Expert

HOLY CRAP!! I just disabled Aero and my VRAM usage just dropped by 400mb on BF3. That's huge! I can game @ MSAAx4 now, maxing VRAM @ 1825mb usage!


BTW BF3 5760x1080 @ 120hz is the $HIT! Wow! And 3d Surround is absolutely mind blowing, but I use it in racing/ adventure games. Fast paced Shooters @ 120Hz all day long!

2 Things!
1 power supply
2 cpu bottleneck
I would get a 1200~1500w psu, you are near to the edge there!
And a 3930k so you can have all the performance 4 gtx670 can give you! I think even a 3770k OCed to 4.5GHz will get a little bottleneck.
Of course, your upgrade is much cheaper with that G1 and a 3770k, which would make sence to ignore the bottleneck of the CPU!
@ the temps, I don't think is a problem with your case, maybe only a little tweak in the gpu coolers.

Best solution

Graphics card Master

Swolern said:
HOLY CRAP!! I just disabled Aero and my VRAM usage just dropped by 400mb on BF3. That's huge! I can game @ MSAAx4 now, maxing VRAM @ 1825mb usage!


BTW BF3 5760x1080 @ 120hz is the $HIT! Wow! And 3d Surround is absolutely mind blowing, but I use it in racing/ adventure games. Fast paced Shooters @ 120Hz all day long!


A couple things you might want to know.

You may want to make a nice little Aero script to toggle it on and off, so you don't have to go to your themes, which an be very sluggish:
@echo off
sc interrogate uxsms | find "1062"
if %errorlevel%==0 goto :sc_start
sc stop uxsms
exit

:sc_start
sc start uxsms
exit

Put that in a .bat file. I created an extended toolbar on the taskbar for that and a few other useful scripts.

You may also need to know that enabling the 3D Vision drivers, even if you aren't using 3D, will hurt performance quite a bit (checking enable 3D Vision in the Nvidia control panel). Even if you ctrl-t to turn it off, you lose a good chunk of performance.

I created 2 scripts for that. One to turn it on, the other to turn it off, then I just click one before I start a game.
@echo off
"C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\3D Vision\nvstlink.exe" /disable
exit

and

@echo off
"C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\3D Vision\nvstlink.exe" /enable
exit

Anyways, I'd love to see the 3D Surround benchmarks.


Graphics card Expert

@ Dredlocks and Bystander, thanks for the tips.

Dred I know im close to my psu limit, but i havent had any issues yet, even with my CPU OC and i tried @ +50 to GPU offset and power target increase to max 122% with my 4 GPUs. About the CPU, i'm not too sure i have a bottle neck, if any, at least with the games ive played so far. BF3 being the highest usage with my i5 @4.5ghz ranging from 58-75% usage while in game. The CPU will touch 100% for a second while loading map, but thats it. I would need to see some benchmarks with a similar setup with a new high-end IB CPU to be sure.

Bystander those are some great scripts, thanks. I will implement them when i get back for sure. Im about to leave for Cancun. Hell ya! When i get back i will put some 3D Surround benchmarks up also.
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