3-way SLI, are these cards too close? pic included

[xxxlun4icexxx]

Hi guys,

I just installed a 3rd GTX 980 and I have to say, it took me about an hour to squeeze all 3 in there. It was awful. It was to the point where when trying, the back plate on one of them even got scratched. They do seem to have some fluff plastic in front and on back, but basically I want to know if this is safe to have them like this. Everything seems to be running ok. The only concern I have is GPU #1 (which I'm assuming it's the one on top, maybe not). GPU #1 seems to run very warm. During heavy gaming it seems to be at 70-72C with 95% fan speed. The reason that concerns me is because it's the top card so I'd expect GPU #1 to be very cool. I'd expect the sandwiched card to run hot. Maybe it's because of the giant block by the blackplate that it is pressed against (that giant thing that says rampage on it where the back p.c. ports are. The black plate is pressed against that pretty firmly)? Didn't seem to go much above that within an hour. So does this seem viable to you? This is for a 4k rig, and the performance gain seems worth it. To be honest the first time I booted all 3 it didn't even recognize them until I jiggled them around a bit and rebooted. Pics below, please disregard the crappy cabling, I was just trying to test these and make sure they worked. Wasn't trying to make it look pretty just yet.

 

[Xyos]

Their thermal limit is around 95-100C so you are good. Its fine that they are so close, I have had 3x 480's in SLI, and currently have 2x 780ti's very close, operating for years for the 480's and 780ti's for just over a year with no issues.

The backplate cards do cause some issues though for these kind of setups. You should be fine even with 70C temps under load, but if you are worried you could remove the backplates to give them a better fit/airflow. If the front of your case can accept a fan, try to get an intake fan to bring air in on the front of the cards.

 

[xxxlun4icexxx]

Their thermal limit is around 95-100C so you are good. Its fine that they are so close, I have had 3x 480's in SLI, and currently have 2x 780ti's very close, operating for years for the 480's and 780ti's for just over a year with no issues.

The backplate cards do cause some issues though for these kind of setups. You should be fine even with 70C temps under load, but if you are worried you could remove the backplates to give them a better fit/airflow. If the front of your case can accept a fan, try to get an intake fan to bring air in on the front of the cards.

Thank you for the reply. One more quick question if you have a second. Do the boost clocks on these cards only go full speed when it is needed? Reason being I was doing some BF4 and saw that the boost clocks for the cards were at 1423, while the max is 1447. Is that normal to not utilize the full clock speed like that? BF4 is a pretty intensive game and i just want to make sure that it is not being throttled by either temp, power, or faulty installation (if that could even cause that).

 

[Xyos]

Their thermal limit is around 95-100C so you are good. Its fine that they are so close, I have had 3x 480's in SLI, and currently have 2x 780ti's very close, operating for years for the 480's and 780ti's for just over a year with no issues.

The backplate cards do cause some issues though for these kind of setups. You should be fine even with 70C temps under load, but if you are worried you could remove the backplates to give them a better fit/airflow. If the front of your case can accept a fan, try to get an intake fan to bring air in on the front of the cards.

Thank you for the reply. One more quick question if you have a second. Do the boost clocks on these cards only go full speed when it is needed? Reason being I was doing some BF4 and saw that the boost clocks for the cards were at 1423, while the max is 1447. Is that normal to not utilize the full clock speed like that? BF4 is a pretty intensive game and i just want to make sure that it is not being throttled by either temp, power, or faulty installation (if that could even cause that).

That is perfectly fine, that small difference is nothing to be concerned about. Throttling would be something more severe like a 300-400 difference. The card up and downclocks itself depending on what is needed.