mrsnazzypants

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Hi, i recently decided to upgrade my computer quite a lot, i decided to upgrade my motherboard to a z77 extreme 9 and buy another gtx580 meaning i would have 2 in sli.
Im currently waiting for the second 580 to arrive and today i managed to grab a gtx470 off ebay very cheap, £40 cheap.
I bought the 470 to make a few quid by selling it on straight away but now im thinking i might use it as a dedicated physx card.
I do play physx games, batman being the major one.
Will i see a performance boost from the 470 as a physx card, even if its a small boost ill be happy and prob end up keeping the card.

Another question is power, my power supply is a Xigmatek Centauro 1000W Power Supply -http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-049-XG&adword=google/pla/PUP_Components_Power_Supplies/Xigmatek/CA-049-XG/&pup_ptid=41170223075&pup_kw=&pup_c=pla&gclid=CNn_2qKMlrQCFTDMtAodVmMAxA

Its on the nvidia certified list for 2 580s but im unsure if it will power the 470 as a physx card, i know it will never be maxed because its doing physx, do you think it will be ok?
 
You will see a performance increase in a game like batman arkham city however with a dedicated physx card you don't need much for example there are benchmarks that show that once you go beyond the speed of a gtx650 you no longer gain frames.
 

mrsnazzypants

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Thanks, im looking forward to testing it all out, a 650 is around £80 new in the uk, i would never spend that much on physx because of the lack of titles but seeing i now have this 470 sitting here ill have a play around with it.
 
BAC-DX11-TessHigh-PhysXHigh-FXAAHigh-PhysXSecondaryCardComparison.png
 

mrsnazzypants

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Thanks, that video was just what i was looking for, it will be interesting to see if the 470 is enough to keep up with 2 580s in sli, i would of thought it should be as the 470 isnt a bad card at all, i was quite happy to get it for £40
 
Dude with Arkham city you'll be fine. I would definitely say you would be fine with 2 580's in sli. My 670 kicks tail with physx on high. I recently picked up a 1920x1080 screen my numbers dropped a little but nothing crazy maybe a few here and few there.

BatmanAC2012-10-1517-56-33-91_zps99b41277.png

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mrsnazzypants

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I know ill be able to play it no problem, ive been playing no problem on one 580, it will be good to mess around with and see the results, im still a bit concerned about power though.
I also have 3d vision which with batman is good but frames are horrid, i dont use it that much as im not really that much into 3d, i bought it for the monitor more than anything but it will be good to see if it plays smooth insted of 25 - 30 fps average.
 
oh certainly having a dedicated graphics card will help with the physx portion. You don't use as much power using the card as a physx card. You should be good on the power end however its really hard to say I know 3 graphic cards in sli uses a ton of power I haven't seen a sli+dedicated physx card setup before. When you do this you can check your power consumption no with a program like afterburner?
 

mrsnazzypants

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Im looking forward to it, its not going to be for a while though because i have a ton of stuff to do but when i do get round to it ill do some proper testing and post the results on here.
 
Looking around at tri 580's to give myself an idea of how much power you would need. People are saying you would need around 60 amps on the 12v rail which is around 720 watts in which case you have 75 amps which amounts to 900 watts on the 12v rail you should be good I would say.
 

mrsnazzypants

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I looked on my 580 box and it says 42 amps on the 12v rail, now it cant double with 2 cards because my psu is certified by nvidia to run 2 which would be 84 but its not certified for 3.
 

mrsnazzypants

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just had a read, im convinced now that i could run the 2 580s and the 470 but not 3 580s, i overclock my cpu so im looking at a few extra watts there, i use a i5 ivy and im looking at getting it stable at 4.8 @ 1.37v which should be easy now ive removed the ihs and replaced the tim.
Ive not had chance to test it yet proper.
 
replaced what "ihs, and replaced the tim"? Yea once you go beyond 2 the power requirements ramp up a bit from what I remember. I was just trying to use a benching point since I have a hard time finding 12v amp requirements on video cards anymore.
 

mrsnazzypants

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ihs removal is going beyond the point most people are prepared to go when overclocking so it dosnt matter lol.
Im pretty sure my psu will be able to handle my setup, i cant wait to get started.
 

mrsnazzypants

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the ivy bridge is very bad for heat, its because of the very cheap and nasty thermal paste ( tim ) intel decided to use.
Removing the ihs and replacing the tim improves temps, your ok because you have a 2500k
 

mrsnazzypants

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i always use artic silver 5, its the best tim available, did you know you can speed the setting process up by about 30% turning on and off every hour, thats maxing things out for a hour so it gets hot then turning things off and letting it cool for a hour