Asus GTX680 Top SLI questions. Help Appreciated

[lauri999]

Motherboard is Asus P8z77-v Deluxe I was able to get 2 GTX680 CUII TOP cards for close to the same price as 670's. Looking at my motherboard I have 3 PCI x16 slots. Two PCI 3.0 and the one at the end is PCIe 2.0.

These are 2.5 or 3 Slot cards. My question is if I am going to have heat issues by putting them in the two PCI.e 3 slots. It looks like they will fit right next to each other. It does not leave much space between. I do not know if I even have the option of using the other slot because not sure if the SLI Bridge is long enough. I have not received the cards yet.

I have a Cooler Master HAF X case with a side fan that would blow air on the cards. (I think).
I got both cards because I will be running them for a 120HZ Benq XL2420TX monitor and I read on different forums the extra card would help with 120hz as well as 3D.

So I am looking for someone that has same setup and how they did their SLI and if they ran into heat issues.
Or anyone that has helpful information and suggestions. Greatly Appreciated.

Other info. PHANTEKS PH-TC14PE (3 fans), CPU i7 3770K

I would also mention this will be my first build.

Lauri

 

[battguano]

i have that exact case but I think you want that fan blowing out. I'm liquid cooling my 3570 and the airflow is such that the top fans suck out, the front fan sucks in, the back fans blow out, so to keep the airflow consistent I think you want that fan pushing air out. that said, I don't think you'll have any issues with the heat but I also think dual 680's are overkill if you're just doing 3D. No doubt it will help but I don't think you'll find that 3D over taxes a single 680. If you check out the scores of that card you'll see that it handles almost everything thrown at it on high settings with ease.

 

[lauri999]

This case has a spot where you can put an 80mm fan right behind the two cards which would blow air towards them I think. Would that help or best not to use it. It goes with the VGA holder. You can also put a 120mm fan with the VGA fan duct.

My main concern is the two cards right so close to each other. I even saw some info here on one of the cooling reviews. But before I bought both cards, I saw other info that said the cards cooling solution was excellent and there were a couple videos that by ASUS that show the cards side by side.

 

[Watchful Raven]

I have the same setup with a Coolermaster Haf 912 case. I bought a mb that had double slot express lanes for extra space between the two cards. My cards don't overheat or come close to it for that reason. Do you have double slot express slots or are they going to be essentially touching do you think?

As far as 120hz goes, I have the acer 120hz 3d monitor. Even though you have 2 of the best cards, some games just won't go that high. For guild wars 2, not even on max settings, they will be around 100-120 when just pve, but in towns, pvp, etc, it will drop big time to like 30. Not really your cards fault, just be aware even though you have the potential power, a good deal of games don't allow you to use them or aren't optimized well for them. I would say most games you will get 120 when there isn't too much going on. In games such as skryim, gw2, bf3, etc you will have difficulty maintaining 120 at least on max settings. Many games can easily achieve 120fps on max settings easy, but also many games can't. It disappoints me.

Not saying I regret the purchase that much, but it does get me thinking about why I spent so much on cards when games don't let me use them well. I will say with 100% confidence though, if you are running 120hz, skyrim's physics engine goes wacky above its cap of 64fps, which is the only game I have to run at 60hz. If not, things, animals, people, objects start floating and weird stuff happens O.O

 

[lauri999]

My motherboard is ASUS p8z77-v deluxe. I am not sure if it as double slot express lanes. How would I find out? Thanks for the info on how it works in games. I play mostly RPG so hearing the info about Skyrim is pretty disappointing. I suppose I still have the option to send the card back though I think it would cost me 15%. Definitely something to think about. I guess its possible more games will support SLI in the future. What are your thoughts on that?

 

[battguano]

http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z77I_DELUXE/#specifications

as for your FPS keep in mind that disabling vsync will allow your FPS to go much higher - I have not had any adverse impacts by disabling that on several different games that I play but as mentioned above a lot is contingent upon the game itself.

 

[lauri999]

Watchful Raven. Can you tell me which motherboard you have. Then I can compare it to mine to see if I have doubleslot lanes. I checked my specifications and it does not really say.

 

[Watchful Raven]

It probably won't tell you anywhere. You would just need to look at the spacing. If you put both cards in, do they touch or is there around an inch space between them? Most motherboards won't say they have double space, so you will need to put the cards in and see.

 

[lauri999]

Thank you. I got the cards and will be doing the build this weekend.

 

[lauri999]

Best answer selected by lauri999.