GTX 680 vs. GTX 670

I assume that you're going to be gaming on triple monitors and/or playing heavily modded games cause otherwise they don't need 4 gigs of vram. (most don't even come close to 2 gigs of vram usage...)

and nope. the extra $400 isn't worth it. the performance doesn't scale in a linear fashion and the the difference in performance between the GTX 670 and 680 is roughly 5-10% at best. (well, the GTX 680 you linked has significantly higher clock than the GTX 670 you listed so more like 10% improvement) but this would go down in quad SLI I imagine.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/598?vs=555

680 is slighlty above the 670.

IMO, if budget its not a prob get the 680

If 4GB isn't necessary and you are set on 4way SLI, 690's may be the way to go. Getting 4 air cooled 670's or 680's on a single board would be a nightmare with airflow, noise and heat issues.

You don't think the Blackhawk-Ultra would handle that?

The problem wouldn't be the enclosure. The problem is finding a motherboard that handles at least 4 PCIe x16 slots working at x8, and being able to fit all 4 cards side by side with only about 1/8" between them, assuming every one stays perfectly spaced. Very little air could get in the gap to cool the cards down, forcing the fans to hit high speeds, causing a ton of noise and heat.

I need at lest 3GBs of VRAM and I was considering going with Quad 7970 GHz but I really want to stick with nVidia. What do you suggest?

Water cooling or two HIS 7970x2 with a motherboard that has the ability to take two 3-slot cards and have a space between them.

IMO

U can get 2 of these http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=76981&vpn=04G-P4-2699-...

And water cool them since u have that case

Also, and this might change our recommendations, but what do you need 4 cards for? What sort of setup are you trying to power?

I agree about water cooling, but that card does not meet his asked for requirements. That only has 4GB for two GPU's, that means 2GB's each.

I can't find that card anywhere. Do you have a link?



I'm going to be running a triple monitor 5760 * 1080 120Hz setup.

Than he must wait for Gtx 680 Hydro copper

That already exists.

And it's out of stock everywhere

Ok, well that explains the horsepower you are after. You still may not need the 4gb per core, as you are likely to keep the AA levels lower than most at 5670x1080, because you will be wanting over 60 FPS.

But as far as the HIS 7970x2 and Powercooler 7990 goes:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I can't find either in stock, and I don't even see the 7970x2 listed for sale. I just know they exist from this article: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-devi...

Edit: You still may want to look into water cooled 670 4gb if you really want to stick with Nvidia

Oh yes, the 7990. I really want it but from what I heard, it was only available for a limited time and nobody knows when it will be again.

That leaves either extreme noise of 4 cards in sli or cf, water cooling (I don't know of any sold with a block, so this requires some no how), or going with two 690's.

The 690's may not have 4GB (per GPU), but as it is, 2GB does not run short on vram unless settings are pushed to a point that only 3-way SLI can get enough FPS for playability, or you mod a game to death (like Skyrim). You are going 4-way SLI, so that may be a concern, but you are doing so for 90+ FPS, so you aren't likely going to be after 8x MSAA levels, or the settings capable of running you out of vram. However, that does not mean that in the near future, it doesn't become a problem.

Well, noise isn't really an issue to me. Are you saying that if I run four 670s in SLI with the Blackhawk Ultra, they'll be cooled fine, just noisy?

You can't run 4 GTX 670's in SLI. Nvidia only allows up to 3 GTX 670's in SLI. The only good cards you can probably go with 4 way SLI/CrossfireX is the GTX 680, HD 7950, 7970, or 7970 Ghz edition.

I'm not so sure they'd be cooled fine or not. You used to see people having troubles in the past when motherboards weren't designed to get an extra space between cards in crossfire, but that has been addressed with most newer motherboards. However, your situation will be rare today. They should run and you might need to put some sort of bracket or shims to make sure the gaps between the cards don't close, but they will be noisy.

Why does the 670 I linked to claim to support 4-Way SLI then?

Well let me ask you why are you wanting to go with a 4 way sli setup anything pased 3 way will create serious issues in most games where games will actually start to perform worse. Now if you are someone that is trying to get super high benchmarks then go for it. Running 2 680's with 4 gigabytes of ram will do just fine with 3 monitors and you will get the same or around the same frames as you would with a single 680 on a single screen.

He mentioned his setup earlier.

I read it however even so! You don't need more then 2 680's in sli for a multi monitor setup. Hell even two 670's in sli would be more then enough for a triple monitor setup.

However that being said unless you are needing your setup for 3d or for physx you may be better off going with the amd solution they do a superior job with multi monitor either get 2 7970's or a 7990.
7990
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

7970 x 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

You should watch this video for example and realize how *** 4 cards are together for games. It is just beyond me why anyone who wasn't going to do anything other then benchmarking or trying to boost up there epeen would consider 4 way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gFxAlGjwms&feature=g-us...

and perhaps not exactly a 680 in quad but look at this 690 sli review

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl91wDnsvbI&feature=plcp

I assume, by your comments, you didn't pay attention the 120hz part. If he has 3 pricey 120hz monitors, he's likely looking to take advantage of them, and wants more than the 30-60 FPS he'd get with 1 or 2 cards.

Wouldn't matter if it was 120 hz or not.

A single 680 at 5760x1080p will require you to lower settings or live with 30ish FPS on many newer games. 2 might get you near 60 FPS. Clearly, you don't buy a 120hz monitor for 60 FPS. We can only assume that in buying 120hz monitors, he intends to play over 60 FPS, and hoping for 120 FPS if at all possible.

Not that I don't agree that 4-way SLI is troublesome, but clearly this is the path he has set for himself.

What I'm saying is this is that if anything you go to tri sli and look at the situation before you would go to quad sli because quad sli does create issues.

I can agree with that. I was disagreeing with your insistence that 1 or 2 is plenty for that setup. While 2 might give a chance, if you lower a lot of settings, 1 has no chance to make the 120hz monitors worth anything.

That said, 690's do not work with 680's, so if he goes down that route, it would not be an option.