GPU Replacement - LF Feedback [SOLVED] Buildout Pics

[Tinsley847]

Yeah, my GTX 770 gets 1350Mhz without the skyn3t mod. I considered pushing 1.25 and 1400, but I'm happy for now. It's a great chip. OP, don't forget you can sell that 6990 for a fair amount with the current mining prices.

Can I really sell a 3 year old 6990? I saw 1 yr old going for 400-475 on ebay, but mine is 3 yrs and has the HIS sticker starting to peel. Any suggestions on where you would try to sell it? On the plus side, its never been OC and I'm embarrassed to say I've never even turned the boost switch on.

On another note, in addition to the 780ti I'm also looking at (2x) SAPPHIRE TRI-X OC R9 290. Lots of stuff to research and consider.

One more question, how much can you usually squeeze out of a gpu before adding voltage?

Thank you to everyone for helping so far. This community is always great to me, and I appreciate your help.

 

[lavaheadache]

If I were you I would look for a guy like me who has 2x780 ti's ready to go out the door. I have chronic gpujumpaholism and buy new cards all the time just to try them out so I can get in discussions with internet benchmark junkies about what is what.

780ti sli yesterday means I play with 290x crossfire tomorrow.

oh, and it's addition. Not edition. Not a grammar Nazi, just really stuck out to me.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Can I really sell a 3 year old 6990? I saw 1 yr old going for 400-475 on ebay, but mine is 3 yrs and has the HIS sticker starting to peel. Any suggestions on where you would try to sell it? On the plus side, its never been OC and I'm embarrassed to say I've never even turned the boost switch on.

I think ~$250 is on the lower end of what you could get, with $450 being the higher end. If it's never mined or been overclocked that is a huge plus, and the HIS cooler was a good one IIRC and should be snapped up by miners pretty quickly. You might sell here at AT.

On another note, in edition to the 780ti I'm also now looking at 2x SAPPHIRE TRI-X OC R9 290. Lots of stuff to research and consider.

One more question, how much can you usually squeeze out of a gpu before adding voltage?

IMO, the 780tiSLI vs 290CF is a pretty fair game. In my situation I would go for 2 reference 780tis, but that's due to power and aesthetics. It's all fairly close.
Clock-wise a non-reference 290 seems to hit 1100 and a 780ti will hit 1200, but as always, its random. My cards are "known" for ~1200Mhz clocks, but I can push nearly 1400 on my GTX 770 and 1300 on my HD 7770. Others can barly push stock.

Both the flagship cards seem to be able to get another 100Mhz out though. They might not have the same perf/clock though.

 

[TreVader]

Never buy a vendors low range card if it's not reference. Example of this would be the EVGA super clocked. EVGA gets a certain number of chips and all the best ones go to classified models, they bin the crappy ones and if they can handle a 10% OC they put the crappy chips on a cheap board, OC them 10%, called them "SUPERCLOCKED" and call it a day.


Stick with Lighting, Classified, TOXIC, and HOF

as far as 780tis go the HOF and Kingpin holds all the records for 3Dmark (mostly HOF)

 

[Tinsley847]

Round in circles I go, now I’m looking at (2x) EVGA GTX-780 Classified. Everything I read says that SLI just works more often than Xfire. Even if I sacrifice a little performance/money, I think/hope it’s worth the reliability.

As long as I’m in the upgrading mood, I want to pick up a Samsung 840 EVO SSD 500gb. Are the Seagate Hybrid drives worth looking at for gaming? Anyone here using one?

 

[Insomniator]

Why do you wanna go multi GPU again if the main issues you've had over the years are the lack of immediate support for it? Or do you just mean multi gpu on a single card?

Just get a single 780ti or 290 for now... you're only on 1080p anyway.

 

[nwo]

As long as I’m in the upgrading mood, I want to pick up a Samsung 840 EVO SSD 500gb. Are the Seagate Hybrid drives worth looking at for gaming? Anyone here using one?

Not really worth it if you ask me. You would be much better off using a SSD cache drive or SSD alone.

 

[blackened23]

Round in circles I go, now I’m looking at (2x) EVGA GTX-780 Classified. Everything I read says that SLI just works more often than Xfire. Even if I sacrifice a little performance/money, I think/hope it’s worth the reliability.

As long as I’m in the upgrading mood, I want to pick up a Samsung 840 EVO SSD 500gb. Are the Seagate Hybrid drives worth looking at for gaming? Anyone here using one?

Blower coolers are better for SLI or CF, and I think reference would be better for your somewhat smaller enclosure. Remember, open air coolers dump 250W of heat per card at 100% in your case which will cause your GPU temps to rise, and that can cause TDRs (ie, instability). Being that classified cards are for OC'ing, that will either force stock clocks or severely limit overclocking. Long story short, unless you're on an x79 platform (which allows tons of pcie card spacing, while z77/87 doesn't) reference is better for SLI or CF. I can almost guarantee if your motherboard requires you to "sandwich" SLI'ed cards, and they're open air like the classified, that you're going to have problems. Trust me on this. If you want to exclude hassle, ensure you're on x79 or just go with a single card. (you're at 1080p right? You don't really need SLI 780s for 1080p...)

That said, you can make open air work in sli or CF. It can be an extreme headache, i'm saying this from first hand experience. The lower card will dump 250W of heat onto your top card which will make it get toasty and potentially unstable with open air designs. If you want to exclude any possibility of headache, blower reference design is superior for SLI or CF. X79 allows more spacing though like I said. Z87 or Z77? Probably want blower reference for SLI.

Second question. Short answer, no. Get the EVO 500gb. If you truly want caching, intel provides RST SSD caching for all z87 and z77 platforms. Aside from that, samsung's magician software has RAM cache which can double read/write speeds on pro and evo 840 drives. What I would do is this. Get the 840 EVO, and get whatever platter HD you choose. If you want to cache with intel RST, you can do that - although you may have to reinstall windows for that to work. Either way, this option of caching is far superior to the hybrid drives by seagate in terms of performance.

 

[Tinsley847]

Blower coolers are better for SLI or CF, and I think reference would be better for your somewhat smaller enclosure. Remember, open air coolers dump 250W of heat per card at 100% in your case which will cause your GPU temps to rise, and that can cause TDRs (ie, instability). Being that classified cards are for OC'ing, that will either force stock clocks or severely limit overclocking. Long story short, unless you're on an x79 platform (which allows tons of pcie card spacing, while z77/87 doesn't) reference is better for SLI or CF. I can almost guarantee if your motherboard requires you to "sandwich" SLI'ed cards, and they're open air like the classified, that you're going to have problems. Trust me on this. If you want to exclude hassle, ensure you're on x79 or just go with a single card. (you're at 1080p right? You don't really need SLI 780s for 1080p...)

Thank you very much for the insight into Z87 vs X79. I was wondering about sandwiching 2 cards like that. I will be rotating all of the parts in my signature to my secondary box. So buying a motherboard is in the cards. If I rock a X79 can I keep my classified plan?

Why do you wanna go multi GPU again if the main issues you've had over the years are the lack of immediate support for it? Or do you just mean multi gpu on a single card?
Just get a single 780ti or 290 for now... you're only on 1080p anyway.

Very good point. What I’m doing is counter intuitive, considering multi gpu problems got me here in the first place. You’re also correct that I am only using 1080p, but I’m on a 144Hz monitor. So if I ever expect to hit 120/144 fps, don’t I need a powerhouse setup like this? I just want to push more FPS, and I keep getting stuck where if I kick in another $100-200 I can go bigger.

I started at 780 ($500) > 780ti ($770) > 2x 290 ($1000) > 2x 780 ($1100)

Not really worth it if you ask me. You would be much better off using a SSD cache drive or SSD alone.

Thank you.

 

[Headfoot]

You will hit a CPU bottleneck before you can hit 144 in a lot of cases, especially if you leave your 3570k at stock. You really ought to overclock that thing. SLI adds additional CPU load as well.

I'd say just go 780 Ti and have the single fastest card. No SLI issues, no frametime reduction. Then you can even upgrade Gsync into your monitor later. 780 Ti on Gsync would be the smoothest thing ever. Even without Gsync, you can expect very high framerates anyways

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Thank you very much for the insight into Z87 vs X79. I was wondering about sandwiching 2 cards like that. I will be rotating all of the parts in my signature to my secondary box. So buying a motherboard is in the cards. If I rock a X79 can I keep my classified plan?

To keep a solid 120fps you will need something like 2x780 to keep up. However, in a standard higher-end ATX z78 mobo you don't need to smush the cards, they allow for 1-2 slot spacing. It depends on the mobo.

 

[Tinsley847]

You will hit a CPU bottleneck before you can hit 144 in a lot of cases, especially if you leave your 3570k at stock. You really ought to overclock that thing. SLI adds additional CPU load as well.

I'd say just go 780 Ti and have the single fastest card. No SLI issues, no frametime reduction. Then you can even upgrade Gsync into your monitor later. 780 Ti on Gsync would be the smoothest thing ever. Even without Gsync, you can expect very high framerates anyways

What about a stock i7-4770k? That is what I will be pairing with this new GPU config.

To keep a solid 120fps you will need something like 2x780 to keep up. However, in a standard higher-end ATX z78 mobo you don't need to smush the cards, they allow for 1-2 slot spacing. It depends on the mobo.

I was looking at Z87 Extreme6. I just grabbed a quote from a review, please see below...

"The layout has well-spaced PCI-E x16 slots for 2-way SLI/CFX when using 2-slot GPUs, leaving a slot’s worth of space between the cards where the first PCI slot is located. Not only does this allow for better cooling when running 2-way SLI/CFX, it also leaves a PCI slot and PCI-E slots available."

Would this be enough space?

 

[blackened23]

You might get it to work well. You might not. And if you sorta maybe get it to work, then you're limiting your over-voltage or overclock headroom. Which begs the question why'd you spend the money in the first place for classifieds in that situation?

IMO, the only boards that truly have enough space are the workstation quad SLI boards with the PLX chip. Or x79. Of course these boards cost 400$+ and if you're in that price range you'd probably get x79 anyway. The PLX chip is used on all quad SLI motherboards. I don't know if the motherboard mentioned is quad SLI, but all of those boards are absurdly expensive due to the PLX chip and workstation features.

You can try it. It depends on your enclosure and amount of fans. I would say, based on MY EXPERIENCE, it isn't worth trying. That's a TON of heat being dumped into the case. If you have a super large EATX case, it can be easier. But 1 slot spacing? That's nothing really. x79 allows 2-3 slot spacing. Which is desirable when cards are dumping 250W TDP of heat in the case.

It's all up to you. I think you'll have limited OC headroom or headaches. Just get reference if you really want sli. The classifieds aren't worth it if you're limiting your overclocking headroom. Which you will if they are heat limited. Or you may even have instability issues, I have had such issues with CF/SLI in the past with 1 slot spacing. Again, 1 slot spacing for open air cards is practically nothing. I just think that, with 2 GPUs, why bother with classifieds. Reference 780s will kill 1080p 120hz. And there's peace of mind without having to worry about potential case cooling or GPU spacing issues, or having to get a new motherboard. Just my .02. I'd get reference in this situation. Unless I were water cooling.

If you get X79, this is a non issue. You can space the cards however you want since X79 has 32 PCIE lanes. Z87 / Z77 without PLX (on workstation motherboards) only have 16 lanes. So, 99% of non PLX Z87/Z77 boards have 1 slot spacing for SLI or CF which is a practical joke with cards that dump that much heat in the case.

 

[Tinsley847]

I just realized that X79 is a different socket >.<

What is the ideal gaming CPU for LGA 2011? I was originally planning on getting a i7-4770k when I was looking at LGA 1150.

EDIT: Also wondering which 780ti would be best if I go the z87 single GPU route. The HOF & Kingpin listed in the post above are not available anywhere that I can find. The gigabyte Ghz edition was mentioned as well, but has horror stories in the newegg reviews. I will never be water cooling anything, but if it is easy enough I will probably try to OC the gpu a bit.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

What is the ideal gaming CPU for LGA 2011? I was originally planning on getting a i7-4770k when I was looking at LGA 1150.

Only two reasonable ones are the 3930k and 4930k.

 

[Tinsley847]

Reference 780s will kill 1080p 120hz. And there's peace of mind without having to worry about potential case cooling or GPU spacing issues, or having to get a new motherboard. Just my .02. I'd get reference in this situation. Unless I were water cooling.

(2x) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130917 ?

 

[blackened23]

(2x) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130917 ?

Yep, that'll work with no hassles for SLI, and like I said they will absolutely decimate 1080p @ 120hz. I think you'll really like them. You may want to buy these through amazon at the same price if possible, amazon does have a better CS policy and you can get a free trial to prime if you don't have it already. Just not sure what the sales tax situation is for you between amazon and newegg.

 

[Tinsley847]

Picking out a new PSU for an sli setup. Some PSU are listed as "SLI/Xfire ready". I have a feel that this is just marketing similar to monitors being "Windows 8 approved" lol

So is the Corsair RM850 (link below) going to suffice? I know the wattage will be fine, but I'm not sure what is all involved in completing the power to an SLI setup.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139056

 

[KaRLiToS]

Do yourself a favor and don't get that power supply, there are many that are better.

Recommended Power Supplies

Get this one instead http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139011

Also, if you don't want multi-GPUs, just get a single GTX 780ti or 290x ( I would choose the single GTX 780ti for 1080p)

Great overclockability, I built a friend's rig this week and it had a MSI GTX 780 Twin Frozr Gaming OC. I flashed to skynet BIOS and I was able to OC it easily at 1250/1800 with 1.212v.

I almost wanted to sell my Quad 290x and go back to single card single monitor. MUCH LESS HASSLE WITH SINGLE CARD.

 

[blackened23]

g

Picking out a new PSU for an sli setup. Some PSU are listed as "SLI/Xfire ready". I have a feel that this is just marketing similar to monitors being "Windows 8 approved" lol

So is the Corsair RM850 (link below) going to suffice? I know the wattage will be fine, but I'm not sure what is all involved in completing the power to an SLI setup.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139056

Yeah that PSU is 100% fine for 780 SLI. You don't need to spend 50-100$ more on a higher end unit for tons of bells and whistles - Basically with PSUs, the differentiation is features, warranty, modular design, and that sort of thing. If modular models with sleeved cables matter to you (this is purely aesthetics, doesn't affect usage) then those cost a bit more. Some brands have better warranties, seasonic IMO is by far the best, but they're expensive as heck. And then there's the whole 80+ gold rating, which isn't required but is better efficiency. It looks like this unit is 80+ gold.

Long story short. That PSU is 100% fine. SLI will have no issues with it. Just buy whatever PSU you want based on features, warranty, and whatever aesthetics you want (modular, sleeved, etc). The latter doesn't matter. IMO, warranty does matter. Corsair are great in this respect as are seasonic, although seasonic has a longer warranty I think (not 100% sure). Anyway. You will be good to go with that unit.

Oh yeah. Some PSUs are loud. Be sure to look for reviews on this, PSUs vary a lot in this respect. I really like seasonic and corsair AX models which are usually very quiet, I haven't personally used the model you linked. So this is another thing you pay for. Quiet PSUs cost a bit more, and are worth a bit more IMO. . Quietness matters to me personally, although some here don't mind white noise with their PC parts. As mentioned, just look for reviews on that unit for noise levels if it is something that matters to you.

 

[Tinsley847]

Do yourself a favor and don't get that power supply, there are many that are better.

Recommended Power Supplies

Get this one instead http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139011

Also, if you don't want multi-GPUs, just get a single GTX 780ti or 290x ( I would choose the single GTX 780ti for 1080p)

Great overclockability, I built a friend's rig this week and it had a MSI GTX 780 Twin Frozr Gaming OC. I flashed to skynet BIOS and I was able to OC it easily at 1250/1800 with 1.212v.

I almost wanted to sell my Quad 290x and go back to single card single monitor. MUCH LESS HASSLE WITH SINGLE CARD.

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply on my thread.

At that point it seems like I should jump up to the Corsair AX860 to maintain full modular?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139044

Also, I have seen your quad 290x thread.... OMG. I would hate to hear the price total on your setup. Your monitors/setup look amazing, I had never seen a good picture of a Korean panel. I'm hoping that alot of my multi gpu issues from my 6990 are tied to AMD product. If I go for this (2x) 780 reference setup and fail. I'll be tainted on dual gpu for life.

My main issue at this point... which is my fault. Is I already bought a $400 Asus 144Hz panel. So in order to take advantage of the increased framerates, It looks like i'll need 2 gpu's. >.<

 

[blackened23]

FYI, the RM850 is fine for SLI. It is gold certified, has 6 pci express connectors (ie more than enough), and has enough juice to handle it. As well, a quick google search shows that numerous people are using it with sli or CF great. I think you could save a bit of cash on the RM850. The AX850 is just more money for features that you may or may not need. If you don't need those additional features and are on a budget, don't pay for them. It's all up to you though.

 

[Tinsley847]

FYI, the RM850 is fine for SLI. It is gold certified, has 6 pci express connectors (ie more than enough), and has enough juice to handle it. As well, a quick google search shows that numerous people are using it with sli or CF great. I think you could save a bit of cash on the RM850. The AX850 is just more money for features that you may or may not need. If you don't need those additional features and are on a budget, don't pay for them. It's all up to you though.

You have been a great help to me.

Thank you very much.

BF4 / Titanfall = Lightblood847

Steam = Lightblood

 

[KaRLiToS]

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply on my thread.

At that point it seems like I should jump up to the Corsair AX860 to maintain full modular?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139044

Also, I have seen your quad 290x thread.... OMG. I would hate to hear the price total on your setup. Your monitors/setup look amazing, I had never seen a good picture of a Korean panel. I'm hoping that alot of my multi gpu issues from my 6990 are tied to AMD product. If I go for this (2x) 780 reference setup and fail. I'll be tainted on dual gpu for life.

My main issue at this point... which is my fault. Is I already bought a $400 Asus 144Hz panel. So in order to take advantage of the increased framerates, It looks like i'll need 2 gpu's. >.<

You are welcome my friend. If you want two gpus on air, I suggest 2 x GTX 780 Reference, non-ti.

 

[Tinsley847]

Is a stock i7-4770k going to bottleneck 2 reference 780's?

Time to fork out $100 for the Noctua cooler and watch OC tutorials?