GTX580 Sli

[maniac]

So I need some help. Currently I already own a reference GTX580 and this week Scan.co.uk has an offer that one like mine will got for £137.50 which is a total bargain, I wasn't really planning on upgrading the graphic card any soon but I can't let an offer like this go unnoticed. Now a couple of questions, is it worth the money or should I just wait until something like the 780 or 880* become a bit cheaper, I don't really wish to spend more than 300eu.

• if I buy it, will the corsair hx850 be enough for both of them?
• is scaling any good on a somewhat older gpu?
• and what is best, install them both in 16x slots and be sandwiched together or install one in 16x and the other in 4x and be two slots apart?

 

[Remmy]

1) I have 2 GTX580 SLI, and I use an AX850 and it copes perfectly.

2) IIRC my 3D Mark 11 score went from ~7,000 to >11,000, so that's like just over 150% increase

3) I assume you mean regarding airflow? Mine are watercooled so it wasn't a consideration for me, and I think regardless I had no choice but to do x8/x8. To be honest you could just try both configs, compare benchmarks and temps and see if the benefits outweigh the extra heat, it wouldn't be too difficult.

Getting a 780 may well be better, but it's a lot more expensive. I chose to add the second GPU fairly recently instead of upgrading to a single higher one because I really like the look of SLI, and I wanted to watercool them, so it would have been too expensive getting a 780 + a waterblock, and it wouldn't have looked as good (despite improved performance of course).

 

[SavageCupcake]

I'm pretty sure that sli wont work with a 4x slot. only xfire will.

 

[antihero]

Hey mate would you mind sharing that link? I've been wanting to buy a 580 as my PhysX card but I can only find used ones on Ebay. (sorry for off-topic)

 

[maniac]

Link : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1536...r-1544mhz-512-cores-mhdmi-dual-dvi-oem-brown-

I have this mobo which supports 3-way sli so it should work, I need to clarify, the pci-e is 16x electrical and 4x bandwith http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P6T/#specifications

Edit: did some reading on the manual and it mentions nothing which regards using 1st a 3rd slot, I'll try using 1st and 2nd as it shouldn't be that bad as I have a fan blowing directly in front of the gpu's.

I'll probably go to Scan Malta tomorrow to get a quote as prices are constant when getting stuff from scan uk, sometimes they're cheaper, sometimes theyre double the price, if it's sub 200eu I'll get it for sure.

 

[iBeInspire]

I'd think 2x580 should be as fast, if not faster than a single 780 or maybe even a titan

For £137, that's a bloody bargain

also, SLI doesn't work with x4 slots, so you'll have to sandwich the cards together :/

 

[maniac]

ok thanks guys, if I'm not happy with the temps, well, it might be a good excuse to go custom wc

 

[Remmy]

Yeah definitely Maniac, the Switch is just so perfect for water IMO

 

[maniac]

Yeah definitely Maniac, the Switch is just so perfect for water IMO

Yeah I know it tickles me so bad to go custom, but the stupid amount of money it takes to do it properly just puts me off, I know one day it will happen, only that day is not today (or anywhere close for now)

 

[antihero]

I'd think 2x580 should be as fast, if not faster than a single 780 or maybe even a titan

For £137, that's a bloody bargain

also, SLI doesn't work with x4 slots, so you'll have to sandwich the cards together :/

The 580 is roughly as fast as the 660 Ti. SLI 660 Ti gets 68.8 FPS in Unigine while the 780 gets 65.4 so SLI 580 should be on par with a 780. For that price I'd say go for it. Essentially you're getting 780 performance (benchmark-wise) for half the price.

 

[vorticalbox]

1) I have 2 GTX580 SLI, and I use an AX850 and it copes perfectly.

2) IIRC my 3D Mark 11 score went from ~7,000 to >11,000, so that's like just over 150% increase

That's a 57% increase. Still a very nice boost.

 

[remember300]

The power is fine
And yes id get the 580 if i was you, that's a big boost for lets be honest not alot of money, in comparison.

 

[Remmy]

That's a 57% increase. Still a very nice boost.

Well perhaps bad wording saying that was the increase but what I meant was that 11,000 is 157% of 7000

 

[maniac]

just ordered the 580 an hour ago, should be here in a week or so. on the bright side it comes with free AC3, but I have to get me a sexy black sli bridge, a backplate and power extensions to match the ones on the other 580. So frickin psyched right now

Edit: I forgot to mention it came at exactly 185eu, an exact conversion from gbp to eu came at ~156eu so I paid almost 30 eu for handling and shit, anywho its still super cheap and I was willing to pay <200eu anyway.

 

[SuB]

580 sli = beast I'll be moving to single then dual 780 just for power saving to begin with then, cuz.. well sli is awesome dual 780's eventually

You won't regret that 580 though.

I didn't check but are yours the 3GB or 1.5GB versions?

 

[maniac]

580 sli = beast I'll be moving to single then dual 780 just for power saving to begin with then, cuz.. well sli is awesome dual 780's eventually

You won't regret that 580 though.

I didn't check but are yours the 3GB or 1.5GB versions?

They are 1.5gb versions but its not really worth the extra money to get the 3gb versions as I only run a single 24" monitor, and don't plan on upgrading that any soon

 

[Kaapstad]

OP if your GTX 580 is one of the 1.5gb vram ones, I would avoid getting another as the lack of memory could let you down.

The minimum for 1080p these days you should be looking at is 2gb from a new card.

 

[maniac]

OP if your GTX 580 is one of the 1.5gb vram ones, I would avoid getting another as the lack of memory could let you down.

The minimum for 1080p these days you should be looking at is 2gb from a new card.

Lol I call bs to that, the only time that I came close to maxing 1.5gb on 1080p was when I played metro last light. Once the next one arrives I will have 3gb available and the only monitor I can see myself getting in the next 5 years is a 1440p one, and I doubt the 580's will be still around by then.

 

[Kaapstad]

Lol I call bs to that, the only time that I came close to maxing 1.5gb on 1080p was when I played metro last light. Once the next one arrives I will have 3gb available and the only monitor I can see myself getting in the next 5 years is a 1440p one, and I doubt the 580's will be still around by then.

If you run two GTX 580s in sli you will still only have 1.5gb of vram available as it does not stack in sli. The memory on each card in sli has to hold the same info as the other cards in the array.

Have a go at running Crysis 3 maxed out @1080p, it is an absolute nutbuster for graphics cards and vram.

Another game that springs to mind is Skyrim with lots of mods, this pushes vram usage per GPU to well over 2gb and some people claim to nearly 3gb per GPU.

 

[Feronix]

Lol I call bs to that, the only time that I came close to maxing 1.5gb on 1080p was when I played metro last light. Once the next one arrives I will have 3gb available and the only monitor I can see myself getting in the next 5 years is a 1440p one, and I doubt the 580's will be still around by then.

Just to get this straight but 1.5GB card + 1.5GB card = 1.5GB effective VRAM. It does not double.