Picking The Right Motherboard
Generally speaking, it should be “enough” to buy an SLI-capable motherboard and expect your dual-card array to work. That’s technically true, but when it comes to the GeForce GTX 480, there’s a right way to go about picking a platform.
You want a board equipped with two second-gen PCI Express x16 slots that are electrically wired to run at x16, and not x8. Moreover, you want them to be at least three slots apart, leaving at least one space between the top and bottom cards. Anything less and you’ll sacrifice frame rate and/or acoustic performance.
Fortunately, there are quite a few boards with ample spacing. Some of these include:
| Motherboards With Ample Spacing For SLI | ||
|---|---|---|
| X58 Express | P55 Express | |
| Asus | P6T Deluxe | Maximus III Extreme |
| P6T Deluxe V2 | Maximus III Formula | |
| P6T Deluxe w/ OC Palm | P7P55 WS SuperComputer | |
| P6T WS Professional | P7P55D Deluxe | |
| P6T6 WS Revolution | P7P55D EVO | |
| P6T7 WS SuperComputer | P7P55D Premium | |
| P6TD Deluxe | P7P55D Pro | |
| P7P55D-E Deluxe | ||
| P7P55D-E EVO | ||
| P7P55D-E Premium | ||
| P7P55D-E Pro | ||
| SABERTOOTH 55i | ||
| EVGA | X58 Classified 4-Way SLI | P55 Classified 200 |
| X58 SLI Classified | P55 FTW 200 | |
| X58 SLI | ||
| Gigabyte | P55A-UD4P | |
| P55A-UD6 | ||
| P55A-UD7 | ||
| P55-UD4P | ||
| P55-UD5 | ||
| P55-UD6 | ||
| MSI | Eclipse Plus | Big Bang Trinergy |
| X58 Platinum | P55-GD80 | |
| Eclipse SLI | P55-GD65 | |
| X58 Platinum SLI | P55-GD85 | |
Now, obviously the P55-based boards are going to give up some performance, as integrated PCI Express connectivity on LGA 1156-based CPUs gets divided into a pair of x8 links. But if you're going with an X58 board (and if you're spending more than a grand on graphics, I'm willing to bet you're also running an LGA 1366-based processor), double-check your platform of choice, ensuring the properly-spaced slots are both of the 16-lane sort.
Again, we’re using MSI’s Eclipse Plus, which comes armed with an NF200 bridge chip, capable of multiplexing the chipset’s connectivity into a trio of x16 slots for our three GTX 480s. Special thanks to MSI for also supplying that third card.
Related Stories :
- The GeForce GTX 480 Update: 3-Way SLI, 3D Vision, And Noise
- Nvidia GTX 480 3-Way SLI Tested Against Radeons
- EVGA Experiments With 4-Way Fermi GTX 480 SLI
- Amazing SLI Scaling: Do Two GeForce GTX 460s Beat One GTX 480?
- GeForce GTX 580M SLI Vs. Radeon HD 6990M CrossFire
- Core i7: 4-Way CrossFire, 3-way SLI, Paradise?
- Inno3D's GeForce GTX 480 Boxed for Shipping
- CrossFire Versus SLI Scaling: Does AMD's FX Actually Favor GeForce?
- Origin PC Millennium: 3-Way SLI And A 4.6 GHz Core i5
- Do Two GeForce GTX 680s Beat Three GeForce GTX 660 Tis In SLI?
Why don't you overclock that cpu higher? Only 3.3 Ghz? The 3rd GTX 480 looks like it's being bottlenecked. You can see the scaling is excellent at high resolutions with AA (from 1 to 2 to 3 cards), but at lower resolutions without AA there's no gain.
and why not check it against the 5890, the 480GTX is nvidia fastest card, put it against ATI Fastest Card
There's a good chance that more CPU would def. help at the lower resolutions--one of the reasons I chose 2560 for the comparisons at the end ;-) For one reason or another, wasn't having much luck getting the retail i7-930/Eclipse Plus combo to overclock very well.
and why not check it against the 5890, the 480GTX is nvidia fastest card, put it against ATI Fastest Card
A pair of 5870s is actually going to be faster. Should I swing a second 5970, though, I do think a pair of 5970s vs. the three GTX 480s would be a good comparison!
Crappy ATi drivers.
Did I miss something, but there is NO mention of the power consumption of the 3 x 480's??
I have no clue where you people are getting this "5890" Statement from... They have the 5870, and then the next step up is the 5970... Is that what you're trying to say?
I have no clue where you people are getting this "5890" Statement from... They have the 5870, and then the next step up is the 5970... Is that what you're trying to say?
Bleh, it's late and it has been a long weekend. Edited
Quad fire with 5850 would have been nice (thinking back to a builder marathon with quad fire) to see if ati's quad cards made any improovement over last years ones. Also i agree with lunyone, I for one would have been interested to see the numbers on load for the 3 nvidia cards with the 800W gold power supply (and maybe a comment from you cris about what power supply u think is best for the job. Either go lower wattage but a high efficiency psu or higher wattage but lower efficiency)
Anyways, it was a informative article, looking forward to a full 512 sp card from nvidia and the second revision to the fermi core.
I have no clue where you people are getting this "5890" Statement from... They have the 5870, and then the next step up is the 5970... Is that what you're trying to say?
The only place where the "5890" exists is in ATI's folder under 'What to do if Fermi is good".
And yes where is the tri-sli power consumption numbers, there's no mention of it's omittance in the analysis.
The only place where the "5890" exists is in ATI's folder under 'What to do if Fermi is good".And yes where is the tri-sli power consumption numbers, there's no mention of it's omittance in the analysis.
Actually, addressed in a couple of different places ;-) As mentioned in the test setup section, the 3-way SLI numbers crested 900W under load. But because this was above the Enermax unit's max. continuous power rating, this almost certainly isn't a very efficient measurement. Not that it matters--the noise of three cards was so loud that it's simply not a realistic combination using the Eclipse Plus board.
Who wants to pay $10 for 1 fps?
I'm going to stick with my old 9600 SLI config that I spent $100 dollars on a few years back.
and why not check it against the 5890, the 480GTX is nvidia fastest card, put it against ATI Fastest Card
dummy...the 5970 is a dual gpu card, that's why it was not compared. as far as since gpu cards go nvidia is the fastest one out ther.
i wonder if nvidia strong armed toms into agreeing not to show tri-sli power consumption in exchange for the third card (of the available "tens of thousands" /endsarcasm)
Did I miss something, but there is NO mention of the power consumption of the 3 x 480's??
He wasn't able to upload the results before the power outage caused by the setup.
i wonder if nvidia strong armed toms into agreeing not to show tri-sli power consumption in exchange for the third card (of the available "tens of thousands" /endsarcasm)
Once again, it's like, mentioned in the story :-P
What couldn't get your hands on a 3rd HD5870? Also ATI makes Crossfire bridges long enough. I got 2 with my MSI K9A2 Platinum, and another one with my MSI HD5870.
I do wonder about how the results are presented. Its obviously given in a method that favors nVidia. The only results chosen to be highlighted are the only results that show AMD in a poor position. I think to present these findings to consumers is rather misleading and more information should be furnished so consumers can make a proper decision on a product.
Right now the most common resolution is 1680x1050. 1920x1200 is becoming more popular as well. At these resolutions even considering a single GTX480 as having a performance advantage is questionable compared to an HD5870. The HD5870 also scales better in those scenario. Yet the basis of your conclusion of consistent SLI scaling comes from the least favorable scenario for the HD5870 on resolutions that are uncommon. I don't think its a mystery why a lower memory card would perform worse doing a post processing effect at a large resolution. However, there is more to a graphics card then memory and its evident the difference in architecture choices at common resolutions.
always great articles from u chris, hoping u might take on the 5970 and 2x5970 soon.
So, I'm wondering how much of overclocking potential these GTX 480 cards have. Yep, they are running hot as it is. But, what if you throw liquid cooling on that 2X SLI setup to keep the temps at 35C highest. How far would they go then?