Home made 3-Way SLI results

Hi everyone,

Since NVIDIA's European PR department is not very interested of Nordic hardware sites (or overclockers) we naturally didn't get any chance to test 3-Way SLI system or even got hold of the 3-Way SLI bridge (not to mention lack of nForce 780i SLI samples etc). This situation has been continuing already over a years for us with every NVIDIA product launch :down:

Anyway, since there was no support from NVIDIA, I had to make my own GHETTO-STYLE 3-Way SLI configuration:

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3sli_01.jpg

First I checked my SLI-bridge situation... it was good with different length of bridges.

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3sli_02.jpg

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3sli_03.jpg

Next I installed bridges to three GeForce 8800 Ultras on EVGA nForce 680i SLI board. (One of the boards was Leadtek's watercooled Leviathan so I mounted 8800 GTX cooler on it).


Using Windows Vista, ForceWare 169.25 beta-drivers, Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 and Silverstone OP-1200W PSU I managed to get 3-Way SLI working properly :toast:

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/si...03_default.png

3DMark03 score with Single GeForce 8800 Ultra: 42273

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/sl...k03_defalt.png

3DMark03 score with two GeForce 8800 Ultras in SLI: 63061 (+49% compared to single card result)

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3s...03_default.png

3DMark03 score with three GeForce 8800 Ultras in 3-Way SLI: 72614 (+71% compared to single card result and +15% compared to SLI result)

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3sli_04.jpg

I'll continue my testing during the weekend. Since I don't have nF780i SLI board I'll have to stick with QX6850 and nF680i SLI :(

That's what oc'ing is all about, awesome Sampsa :D

Nice looking good so far ,,, But The more cards you use the slower the GT1

nice pictures!

In my opinion 3-Way SLI with 8800 Ultra's isn't anywhere near ghetto-style :-D

Niceone Sampsa :clap:

Ahh looking good is seen it have real performance after 3way-SLI :D

nice Sampsa :up:

btw. ah can overclock GFX on 3 SLI ? Thanks ;)

Guys in case you din't notice but GT3 is overhoaling GT4 LOL???:shrug:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BeardyMan

Guys in case you din't notice but GT3 is overhoaling GT4 LOL???:shrug:

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What's wrong with that. It's normal in 03??

Nice going there Sampsa :D Waiting those OC results.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SF3D

What's wrong with that. It's normal in 03??

Nice going there Sampsa :D Waiting those OC results.

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normal ? dunno :D

http://homepage2.nifty.com/NewBeetle...1_1150-950.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BeardyMan

normal ? dunno :D

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With Nvidia cards GT3 is better than GT4

Top CF results are like newbeetles 89K result. CF is more effective in DX9 I quess and that's why Nature is better than GT3.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SF3D

With Nvidia cards GT3 is better than GT4

Top CF results are like newbeetles 89K result. CF is more effective in DX9 I quess and that's why Nature is better than GT3.

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could be yes :)
that's why i asked :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BeardyMan

normal ? dunno :D

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See and that's why Sampsa should include some real world gaming results like Crysis, CoD4 etc. Cause SLIed ultras normally perform better than CFed 2900s in games.

Man 3GHz 72k is nice

Nice one sampsa :up:

The home made bridge really makes it all worthwhile.

And by the way, XFX has an office in Sweden now. I'll pass their info on to you.

//Andreas

Stock cooling overclocking:

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3s...rk03_82531.png

3DMark03: 82531

QX6580 @ 3,6 GHz
Ultras 650/1150

More coming :)

now thats really geto :D

CPU @ 4,7 GHz should give ~100k..

Nice results Sampsa! What mobo?

That's super!:eek: :clap:
Fantastic work Sampsa!:up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by over@locker886

Nice results Sampsa! What mobo?

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EVGA nForce680i SLI

Works on 680i? Sweetness. :)

Nice going, Sampsa.

Great! :)

The fact that they limited this to only GTX's/Ultras is gonna KILL the appeal of 3 way SLi. They could easily produce a bridge that has a middle connector for the 8800's that dont have 2 SLi conections on each card. They NEED to do this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AC3421

The fact that they limited this to only GTX's/Ultras is gonna KILL the appeal of 3 way SLi. They could easily produce a bridge that has a middle connector for the 8800's that dont have 2 SLi conections on each card. They NEED to do this.

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Maybe it is a bandwidth issue? Maybe later? Anyway, I think GeForce 8800 GT 3-Way SLI configuration would be very attractive :)

thanks for posting this sampsa shows it works hopefully ati tri crossfire will work as well when implemented

But don't you agree it would seem very practicle for them to start producing a bridge with 3 connections on it?? As in an extra 1 in the middle. It would open up the tech to a broader audience = more success for them.

Ok, tweaked the system little bit.. I'm not very familar with Vista but managed to sqeeze couple of thousand extra points with stock cooling:

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3s...rk03_87934.png

QX6850 @ 3677 MHz
Ultras @ 665/1725/1165 MHz

And now.....

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3sli_05.jpg



PS. Last time I ran 3DMark03 was 4th of June 2005 with 7800 GTX SLI. Sorry if I'm a little bit rusty in this benchmark ;)

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3871335

Grats Sampsa ;)
Dont let anything stoop you :D

Sampsa,

I was looking at the photos and the 2nd graphic card isn't an 8800GTX?

So, your 3-way SLI is composed by 2x8800Ultra + 1x8800GTX, right?

N3RO,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by N3RO

Sampsa,

I was looking at the photos and the 2nd graphic card isn't an 8800GTX?

So, your 3-way SLI is composed by 2x8800Ultra + 1x8800GTX, right?

N3RO,

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2nd card is Ultra with 8800 GTX cooler since it is originally Leadtek's PX8800 ULTRA Leviathan with watercooling (http://www.leadtek.com/eng/3d_graphi...&pronameid=352)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sampsa

2nd card is Ultra with 8800 GTX cooler since it is originally Leadtek's PX8800 ULTRA Leviathan with watercooling (http://www.leadtek.com/eng/3d_graphi...&pronameid=352)

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Yes ;) It's what I thought :)

Thanks,

Score is not scaling as well as I wanted but I'm getting there :up:

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3s...rk03_94877.png

QX6850 @ 4500 MHz
Ultras @ 650/1700/1150 MHz

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sampsa

Score is not scaling as well as I wanted but I'm getting there :up:

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3s...rk03_94877.png

QX6850 @ 4500 MHz
Ultras @ 650/1700/1150 MHz

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i wanna see 3dmark06 :D

over 30k in 3DMark06 hmm :rolleyes:

:D

exciting

I wanna see a 3DMark06 WR!!!!

Please?

This was the best I could push today:

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3s...rk03_97382.png

QX6850 @ 4705 MHz
Ultras @ 660/1720/1160 MHz

Unfortunately 2618 points short from 100 000 :)

Tomorrow I'll vmod all three Ultras and try to push them +700/1165 MHz. Hopefully that will be enough for 100k. Otherwise I'll try LN2 for CPU.

I wish I had nForce 780i SLI board so I could use my Yorkie :( I'll hunt one in next couple of weeks!

nice work so far. looking forward to more :)

wow, that result is simplay amazing :toast:

looking forward to 3dmark05 and 06 :D

Very very impressive. The fact that you jimmied it together makes it even better. It will be interesting to see how well this performs against the "official" version. Excellent work nonetheless, can't wait to see more. :D

Very nice!!!

Looking good so far.... :D

Aww, that's painfully close to the magic 100K barrier.

A little bump in core/shaders/mem should do.

Good luck hunting 100K, keep pushing it. :)

I was benching at my office till 4:30 am last night.. now I have couple hours to do vgpu mods and some tweaking before Premier League's Grand Slam sunday starts (Liverpool - Manu and Arsenal - Chelsea) :p:

OMG, near 100k '03 with stock cooling cards and QX6850:eek:
Do you have also a QX9650 to play with?:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nachthymnen

OMG, near 100k '03 with stock cooling cards and QX6850:eek:
Do you have also a QX9650 to play with?:D

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Yes and QX9770 but no nForce780i SLI board.

... and you figured out tri sli with old bridges how exactly :p:

great results :) :up:

Hello Sampsa, what Vista version on your install it's Ultimate or other and
it need to update hotfix ?

Thanks for sharing it looking goods :up:

Finishing up now. This is working.

For phase change users, 780i is the best. bios changes without power cycle is a definite plus.

Half multiples work 12.5 is the max multiple working for both QX9650 and QX9770

Ill have my numbers up in a few hours along with more info's.

Try with Xp for better scores?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

Finishing up now. This is working.

For phase change users, 780i is the best. bios changes without power cycle is a definite plus.

Half multiples work 12.5 is the max multiple working for both QX9650 and QX9770

Ill have my numbers up in a few hours along with more info's.

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Ahhh It works on Windows Server 2008 ? and what driver version is your using ?

Thanks :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZoLKoRn

Hello Sampsa, what Vista version on your install it's Ultimate or other and
it need to update hotfix ?

Thanks for sharing it looking goods :up:

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Using Vista Ultimate 32-bit.. no hotfix (yet, just downloaded it)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sampsa

Yes and QX9770 but no nForce780i SLI board.

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Thanks your answer!

I have nf780i but only have wolfdale (fsb limit).
I heard NF780i officially no support 45nm quads! What did you hear?

I would like do sli test later with yorkie, but if no support.....back CF..:(

Vista drivers work for everything so far in 2008

Vista 8800 ultra 169.25

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

Finishing up now. This is working.

For phase change users, 780i is the best. bios changes without power cycle is a definite plus.

Half multiples work 12.5 is the max multiple working for both QX9650 and QX9770

Ill have my numbers up in a few hours along with more info's.

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What you mobo using? What is the max fsb?

Sweet Sampsa! Nice to see some 03 action :D

this is cool.. hehe, what about 06 sampsa..?

I modified all three Ultras today (vGPU 1,35 -> 1,44V) and managed to raise GPU clock from 660 MHz to 685 MHz, I also installed Vista 945149 hotfix for Multi-GPU scenarios (http://support.microsoft.com/KB/945149), adjusted High Performance setting instead of Quality from Control Panel (:slap:) and raised HTT speed from 240 MHz to 300 MHz (thanks for the tip Kinc).

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3s...k03_100862.png

Thank you everyone for your great support on this (except NVIDIA).

I'll aim for Un-offical 3DMark03 WR later tonight with higher CPU speed and I also try to squeeze those few of extra-MHz from graphics cards :toast:

How much do you estimate that is left in the system at full speeds? Are we talking about 115-125k?

Very well done Sampsa!! :clap: 100K broken without the aid of a Yorkie. :toast:

Nice Sampsa! :toast:

As dpa I want 06-results! :D

hm sampsa and nvidia?

strange..

goood work anyway

Sampsa! Have you adjusted the pci-ex ports to 125-140Mhz...? That will help alot....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dpa

Sampsa! Have you adjusted the pci-ex ports to 125-140Mhz...? That will help alot....

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For what?
Will the cards clock better? :)

+ marks :).

Looking really good.

Keep pushing it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sagart

For what?
Will the cards clock better? :)

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it will increase the Pci-e bandwidth so the the score should bump up a little :)

Sampsa really nice work there :)

Sampsa congrats man, looking good :up:
I think it has some serious potential, with an increased PCi-E frequency and the QX6850 @ 4.9GHz under LN2 ;)
Keep up the good work ! :clap:

P.S. How on heck did you figure out the 3-way SLi using the old bridges only ? :confused:

I really wonder what is holding him back from 3DMark06. :( :( :(

excellent work sampsa.. hehe they dont call you a legend for nothing :D

@Sampsa: Is that Vcore real ? Only 1.688Vcore for 4600MHz ? It's kinda low ... which is of course good :)
What was the cpu temperature under this little monster-cascade (:D) ?

Grats on 100k! :up:

:eek: I can see here that the highest 3D Mark 03 result at HWBot is a 99000 run from hipro, done with a X6800 @ 5250MHz and 2 Ultras on LN2 ...
Sampsa's 100k run might be unofficial, but still he broke the 100k barrier ... :clap: Now, how would they perform with a yorkie on LN2, hosted on a 780i m/b ... ? ... :eek: :D

thanks everyone,

PCIe bus is of course overclocked. Haven't noticed much difference between 125 and 135 MHz.

3DMark06 is almost completely a CPU benchmark so it is no fun with Kentsfield QX6850 and nForce 680i SLI motherboard. With nForce 780i SLI board and Yorkfield you'll see interesting 06 scores though.

No difference even with 140MHz PCIe bus freq ? ... Why's that ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by George_o/c

:eek: I can see here that the highest 3D Mark 03 result at HWBot is a 99000 run from hipro, done with a X6800 @ 5250MHz and 2 Ultras on LN2 ...
Sampsa's 100k run might be unofficial, but still he broke the 100k barrier ... :clap: Now, how would they perform with a yorkie on LN2, hosted on a 780i m/b ... ? ... :eek: :D

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Not everyone submits to HWBot: KP broke 100k a long time ago: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=5412866

Quote:

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Originally Posted by massman

Not everyone submits to HWBot: KP broke 100k a long time ago: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=5412866

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Sorry, I already knew that not everyone submits scores to HWBot, but I wasn't aware of the fact that Vince has broke 100k ;) :)

Small improvement, CPU @ 4687 MHz:

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3s...k03_101272.png

I'll try one more time tomorrow to improve the score but after that I'll just lean back and watch kingpin to show some numbers with nForce780i SLI + Yorkfield and three LN2 cooled Ultras :) I'm guessing the score will be between 120 - 140k ;)

If this is Tri-SLi with three Ultra's, I'm really looking forward to see results from Quad-SLi if it's coming a 8850GX2 with two G92's! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sagart

If this is Tri-SLi with three Ultra's, I'm really looking forward to see results from Quad-SLi if it's coming a 8850GX2 with two G92's! :D

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My wallet does NOT look forward to quad-sli :down: :rofl:

100K@03 very nice score.I want yorky with 3Way SLI:D:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FUGGER

Finishing up now. This is working.

For phase change users, 780i is the best. bios changes without power cycle is a definite plus.

Half multiples work 12.5 is the max multiple working for both QX9650 and QX9770

Ill have my numbers up in a few hours along with more info's.

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Any numbers yet? :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sampsa

Small improvement, CPU @ 4687 MHz:

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/3s...k03_101272.png

I'll try one more time tomorrow to improve the score but after that I'll just lean back and watch kingpin to show some numbers with nForce780i SLI + Yorkfield and three LN2 cooled Ultras :) I'm guessing the score will be between 120 - 140k ;)

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Your run look very optimized compare to kingping ,, he is running faster CPU and GPU and still lower score :shrug:
http://www.overclockingpin.com/tripl...0tri%20sli.jpg

1.85-1.9v on the cpu for 5ghz run :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kemo

Your run look very optimized compare to kingping ,, he is running faster CPU and GPU and still lower score :shrug:

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In worst case I'm experiencing 1500 - 2000 points difference between two runs with exact same clock speeds and settings. Maybe nForce780i SLI Yorkfield support isn't very well optimized.. yet?

some nice toys you're playing with Sampsa :D
Looks excellent so far and I am curious what you would do with Yorkfield and 780i in your hands :eek:

I'll get EVGA nForce780i SLI board when their European office receives them together with 3-Way SLI bridges (hopefully this week).

Checking in with my 2k3, not tweaked at all and using "let application decide" setting in ntune. No LOD adjustment.

I am sure I can pick it up more, I stopped at 100k

Nice clocking Sampsa and Charles :up:

Anyone of you happen to have a watt meter laying around? :)

how about some 2k6 results?
its not scaling well or didnt you try 2k6 yet? :D

lol at all the nudges at nvidia in this thread :lol:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

how about some 2k6 results?
its not scaling well or didnt you try 2k6 yet? :D

lol at all the nudges at nvidia in this thread :lol:

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Does SuperPi scale with 3-way?? =)
same with 3dmark06 (or 05) at stock low rez settings - its a CPU benchmark, it doesnt scale with extra GFX power (excluding Canyon Flight).

so... when will 4 way crossfire take down 100k in 03 Macci..? :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by macci

Does SuperPi scale with 3-way?? =)
same with 3dmark06 (or 05) at stock low rez settings - its a CPU benchmark, it doesnt scale with extra GFX power (excluding Canyon Flight).

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hmmm thats right 2k6 is is way too cpu dependant for my tastes as well.
id still like to see some 2k6 numbers with really high cpu clocks to see if tripple sli does scale at all over normal sli or if its entirely the same.

fugger, are u gonna do tri-sli with your skulltrail setup?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

hmmm thats right 2k6 is is way too cpu dependant for my tastes as well.
id still like to see some 2k6 numbers with really high cpu clocks to see if tripple sli does scale at all over normal sli or if its entirely the same.

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how high is REAL high

5.5+ 45nm quad :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by massman

My wallet does NOT look forward to quad-sli :down: :rofl:

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i know what you mean :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by macci

Does SuperPi scale with 3-way?? =)
same with 3dmark06 (or 05) at stock low rez settings - its a CPU benchmark, it doesnt scale with extra GFX power (excluding Canyon Flight).

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Have you been benching 2900s with 5.5GHz+ QX9650? With that cpu it is not all about the cpu :D