Need help, GTX 480 SLI + Physx card or 3 GTX 480s?

[btdvox]

Hey guys I have 3 X GTX 280 's at the moment, and I'm finding that alot of games dont work as well as they use to with TRI SLI. Nvidia seems to not be optimizing this very much.

So I have been prepared to buy 3 X GTX 480 or 2 X GTX 495 (if and when they come out)

But I'm looking to get great performance and I have two setups that I use, my 2560X1600 monitor and my 1920X1080p 3D Vision monitor.

Thing is with 3D Vision TRI SLI sucks for sure, in fact SLI barely works at the moment. But it seems like most would agree that 1 GTX 480 is either = to or better than 2 GTX 280's. I know at the moment it's all speculation but instead of going 3 X GTX 480 and giving Nvidia more money, I'm thinking about keeping one GTX 280 to use as a PhysX card (I know over kill, but I have it anyways) and buying 2 GTX 480's.

Since alot of game sthat I do play on PC are 3D and Physx enabled.

What do you guys think is the best solution? My CPU is a i7 965 EE @ 4GHZ.

[Frag Maniac]

I would guess that 2 x 480 in dual SLI with a dedicated PhysX card would be the way to go without wasting lots of money and having an extremely hot system with a VERY powerful PSU required. Even with 2 480s you are no doubt going to run into problems with one of them running pretty hot if you cram 3 cards in there, even if one is only a PhysX card. Personally I would sell the 280 and just run two 480s, and only if you have a very well ventilated case and a MB that allows the cards to be mounted away from one another vs side by side.

[zanzabar]

i would not go over 2 rendering cards/gpus for 3d. and u may want to rethink staying with NV or upgrading the fermi is looking like another FX

[pwolfe]

i would not go over 2 rendering cards/gpus for 3d. and u may want to rethink staying with NV or upgrading the fermi is looking like another FX

And this is based off what performance numbers?

[zanzabar]

And this is based off what performance numbers?

for the gpus and 3d, flicker 3d works by having steady frames and u need 30 frames per eye and with NV's simulation drivers its kinda glitchy so if u get a good amount of micro shutter or to much prerendered frames like with tri sli (or any 3 gpu system) its not going to be to good for 3d. (i am not saying that any1 else is doing better just that its new tech and u shouldent tempt fate, especially for an extra $500+)


for the other comment, NV is hiding behind leaked benches that did not have proper settings on both platforms were they are just a little ahead of 1 5870 and the cards are at 225W+ and a secretly extended NDA or atleast the actions are the same as when secret extensions has happened, but the NDA is under NDA. from the architecture info thats out now u can tell its not really made to be a gpu its alot more GPGPU focused and trying with more cashe per shader and better ways to get code to run without being recursive.

[btdvox]

for the gpus and 3d, flicker 3d works by having steady frames and u need 30 frames per eye and with NV's simulation drivers its kinda glitchy so if u get a good amount of micro shutter or to much prerendered frames like with tri sli (or any 3 gpu system) its not going to be to good for 3d. (i am not saying that any1 else is doing better just that its new tech and u shouldent tempt fate, especially for an extra $500+)


for the other comment, NV is hiding behind leaked benches that did not have proper settings on both platforms were they are just a little ahead of 1 5870 and the cards are at 225W+ and a secretly extended NDA or atleast the actions are the same as when secret extensions has happened, but the NDA is under NDA. from the architecture info thats out now u can tell its not really made to be a gpu its alot more GPGPU focused and trying with more cashe per shader and better ways to get code to run without being recursive.

Thanks for the input so far but please read before answering. I am not switching from NV to ATI as I have 3D Vision.

Power + Temps arent a power as I have a 1200 Watter and will be water cooling all GPU's.

Any other opinions though TRI SLI or DUAL SLI + GTX 280 for PPU?

[zanzabar]

i was saying wait on it since u might not want to upgrade

if u are then i would go 2 card sli and ppu

[CryptiK]

SLi works well these days on most games so long as the SLi patch/drivers include updates for the game in question. Tri/quad SLi has been great for benches but can stutter babdly when gaming, and scales very poorly. Also, do you really need an extra card for PPU when you have 2 top end cards anyway? I don't know from experience, but are the gains worth the extra bother and considerations? 2 cards should meet your needs, look a lot neater in the case, be less expensive to cool and less expensive to run. Cost can be no option up to a point, and you obviously have a decent budget considering 3 cards at release, but there's a point too where it's just excessive and unnecessary. From my point of view, 2 x GTX480's is all you really need. However at not even twice as fast as a GTX285 (from testing I've seen), I'm not sure they're worth it.

[zalbard]

Go for Tri SLI if you have the budget, will definitely be faster, especially since you're using 3D Vision which is killing FPS.

[btdvox]

Go for Tri SLI if you have the budget, will definitely be faster, especially since you're using 3D Vision which is killing FPS.

The main problem is that Tri Sli is barely optimized. And for 3D Vision it is NOT optimized. I get no benefit from having TRI SLI atm with 3D Vision, though nvidia only gave us a beta driver, I have a feeling their having issues with TRI and Quad SLI and 3D Vision.

I've been using my GTX 280's TRI SLI since release and I can say that TRI SLI works good for non 3D Vision, maybe not as good as we'd all like it though but when it comes to 3D Vision I only get SLI.

[ovan febriawan]

2 x GTX480 and 1 GTX280,I guess it would better

[hennyo]

The main problem is that Tri Sli is barely optimized. And for 3D Vision it is NOT optimized. I get no benefit from having TRI SLI atm with 3D Vision, though nvidia only gave us a beta driver, I have a feeling their having issues with TRI and Quad SLI and 3D Vision.

I've been using my GTX 280's TRI SLI since release and I can say that TRI SLI works good for non 3D Vision, maybe not as good as we'd all like it though but when it comes to 3D Vision I only get SLI.

Well, you should check out some more of the GTX 480 SLI reviews out there right now. From what I have seen, the scaling on this arch is really amazing in SLI. I have seen I think it was 6 SLI reviews with 2 cards, and 2 that also included TRI SLI. My guess is that, since from what I have seen, the drivers for the single cards are quite immature, that these cards are very easy to code to work well in SLI, something that the 2xx series wasn't.

Tho that all said, wait until someone reviews SLI again with the 256 drivers coming out next month, if you are up in the air about it.

EDIT: You should also consider, that unlike the 2xx series, that had 1 GB of ram, these come with 1.5 GB of ram which can often be the main bottleneck in SLI systems depending on how you are using the cards. There are many things to consider when looking at what could be causing SLI issues, from ram limitations to PCI-E bandwidth issues, and slow processors.

[btdvox]

Well, you should check out some more of the GTX 480 SLI reviews out there right now. From what I have seen, the scaling on this arch is really amazing in SLI. I have seen I think it was 6 SLI reviews with 2 cards, and 2 that also included TRI SLI. My guess is that, since from what I have seen, the drivers for the single cards are quite immature, that these cards are very easy to code to work well in SLI, something that the 2xx series wasn't.

Tho that all said, wait until someone reviews SLI again with the 256 drivers coming out next month, if you are up in the air about it.

EDIT: You should also consider, that unlike the 2xx series, that had 1 GB of ram, these come with 1.5 GB of ram which can often be the main bottleneck in SLI systems depending on how you are using the cards. There are many things to consider when looking at what could be causing SLI issues, from ram limitations to PCI-E bandwidth issues, and slow processors.

Thanks for the info, i took all of it to account; I have right now and will keep my i7 965 EE @ 4 GHZ and 6 GB of DDR3-1600 ram on a Rampage 2 Extreme board, so it runs x16, x8, x8 which makes no difference really.

But I am definitely going SLI. Thanks for the help guys! SLI+PPU for me it is.

[ajaidev]

if you have a good enough PSU get tri sli...

[carpo93]

go for 2x480 and update the cpu to a 980x

[imersa]

tri sli and buy a second psu, do it!

[Amorphous]

3-way SLI GTX 480s should perform wonderfully, even if they're also running PhysX. The Fermi architecture is something like 12x faster than the previous generation at switching between graphics and CUDA-mode (plus 2x more powerful, core for core, in CUDA).


Amorphous

[btdvox]

^^ If your an Nvidia forum mod, you should know that 3 way sli and 3d vision does not work together well. You guys state its still in "beta" stage. Many users dont see any scaling from SLI to TRI SLI on 3D Vision and I ran tests to prove that. If you guys get TRI SLI working with 3D Vision, I'll get another GTX 480

[Amorphous]

3-way SLI support for 3D Vision and 3D Vision Surround is still in development. I don't have an ETA. Doesn't seem like it'll be in the initial 256 driver release; hopefully it'll be in shortly after. I believe the initial focus is getting 3D Surround working correctly, then adding 3-way, quad, and 4-way SLI support to it.

3x 1080P monitors requires a lot of graphics power for maximum settings. Just Cause 2 and Bad Company 2 look great in 3D Surround though. I wasn't expecting much benefit for FPS titles, but the peripheral vision really adds to the immersion factor.

For some reason I thought you were interested in 3D Surround, which would really benefit from the extra card, once it's supported.

Being a forum admin doesn't really have much to do with knowing a technical limitation, by the way. "You guys" doesn't really include me, I'm not employed by NVIDIA.

Best of luck with the build.


Amorphous

^^ If your an Nvidia forum mod, you should know that 3 way sli and 3d vision does not work together well. You guys state its still in "beta" stage. Many users dont see any scaling from SLI to TRI SLI on 3D Vision and I ran tests to prove that. If you guys get TRI SLI working with 3D Vision, I'll get another GTX 480

[owned666]

go three

what was the last game that supported physx anyways

[btdvox]

3-way SLI support for 3D Vision and 3D Vision Surround is still in development. I don't have an ETA. Doesn't seem like it'll be in the initial 256 driver release; hopefully it'll be in shortly after. I believe the initial focus is getting 3D Surround working correctly, then adding 3-way, quad, and 4-way SLI support to it.

3x 1080P monitors requires a lot of graphics power for maximum settings. Just Cause 2 and Bad Company 2 look great in 3D Surround though. I wasn't expecting much benefit for FPS titles, but the peripheral vision really adds to the immersion factor.

For some reason I thought you were interested in 3D Surround, which would really benefit from the extra card, once it's supported.

Being a forum admin doesn't really have much to do with knowing a technical limitation, by the way. "You guys" doesn't really include me, I'm not employed by NVIDIA.

Best of luck with the build.


Amorphous

Thanks! Sorry I came out pretty rude there, on the 3D vision forums, many users are stating that TRI SLI works with 3D Vision when it doesnt. Just want to get that straight.

In the past year I played a ton of games that were Physx, and I see it being used more and more. Just Cause 2, Batman AA and RE5 to name a few.

[grimREEFER]

i would just go with just plain gtx 480 sli.
you don't need a dedicated physics card, you can still use physx without one and i imagine it would run fine since you would have gtx 480's.

[kill_a_wat]

Be xtreme and get 3 GTX480s

[btdvox]

I already got my setup 2 GTX 480
in SLI + Physx GTX 280. water cooled.

SLI is all that works with 3D Vision, and I am using that more and more!

[Marios]

^^ If your an Nvidia forum mod, you should know that 3 way sli and 3d vision does not work together well. You guys state its still in "beta" stage. Many users dont see any scaling from SLI to TRI SLI on 3D Vision and I ran tests to prove that. If you guys get TRI SLI working with 3D Vision, I'll get another GTX 480

Any links about the problems you mentioned with 3d vision and 3-way SLI?