2011 query, needing people with real experience

[Kroegs]

Hey, hey everybody. I have an interest in the 2011 platform as I'm currently runing 3x gtx 580's on an 1155 with a 2600k @2560x1600. I'm planning on getting an i7 3820 and sitting with it until 2013 when ivy-E comes out.

The cpu though, is not the issue at hand. I know this chip is capable of running at the expected freq's I already run on my 2600k. I'm just looking to ring out just a bit more performance and efficiency out of my 3 way sli. Especially since it is not intended for an 1155 platform anyhow without the addition of a nf or lucid chip.

My concerns are, sifting through the reviews on newegg there absolutely and overabundance of complete and utter static on the subject of socket 2011. Some people aren't exactly clear on what issues they have had, most likely because they don't grasp the understanding of what is going wrong themselves.

That's why I am here. I have come to really respect a lot of the info and knowledge that has been shared around here and could really use some experience on this platform. My personal criteria:

1) I need the lanes to run at least 16x 16x 8x or similar config. ( I know some run 16x 8x 16x)
2) This motherboard needs to be a decent bclk overclocker. It's a partially unlocked chip and I really can't settle for less than 4.6ghz.

Lastly, I don't post a lot but I read TONS on here and have to say thanks, and keep doing what y'all are doing. A forum I'm not actually afraid to post in. Also, if you have an outside of the box suggestion please by all means!

[akshayt]

IMO it only makes sense if you consider 3930k not 3820.

Also, 7970 OC CF or GTX 680 OC SLI will trump your setup overclocked or not, or at least be slightly better with lesser noise and power. IMO you should go for that upgrade instead.

Ideally if you want 2011, at least go for 3930k and then also get at least 680 OC SLI

[Kroegs]

IMO it only makes sense if you consider 3930k not 3820.

Also, 7970 OC CF or GTX 680 OC SLI will trump your setup overclocked or not, or at least be slightly better with lesser noise and power. IMO you should go for that upgrade instead.

Ideally if you want 2011, at least go for 3930k and then also get at least 680 OC SLI

Na, you mis-understood. I'm not made of money, though I wish I were. I'm not looking for a complete machine overhaul. My graphic setup can easily get me past this generation of cards without tears. I've been reading all the 7970/680 reviews intently, and comparing benches with what I have. I'm not missing out at the moment, at least not for my current resolution is concerned. And while the 3930k does look neat, I'm gonna wait and go big when ivy-e comes around. Then probly skip a tick and maybe even a tock. If I can get through this spending $6-700 that would be ideal. I'll go as high as 8.

My machine isn't sorrily lacking by any stretch of the imagination. I just want the 580's to be in there glory until that day it's time to let them go and I've just found a few rough edges running 3 way sli on the 1155. I don't always have the best, I'm happy to be just shy of it.

[Kroegs]

I just really need the right motherboard. That's the name of the mission I'm on.

[GripS]

I don't think you'll see a significant performance increase without spending more than you are willing to spend. Stick with your current setup for now and upgrade down the road when you REALLY need to. From the specs of your current system I'd say there isn't a real need to upgrade here.

[Kroegs]

I don't think you'll see a significant performance increase without spending more than you are willing to spend. Stick with your current setup for now and upgrade down the road when you REALLY need to. From the specs of your current system I'd say there isn't a real need to upgrade here.

You are absolutely right. Though there are a couple of factors though.

I've had my current p67a-ud7 motherboard since sandy launch and have been really unimpressed with it. Also in general performance is great, but only after tossing in the third card a few months ago I suddenly have issues tweaking games to their full potential. This board is also notorious for boot loops on bad overclocks, restarts, even cold boots sometimes. I have also noticed in order to reach prior medium overclocks on the 2 gpus (around say 850 core@ 1.05v) adding the third I have needed to raise the voltage far higher to reach the same speeds (close to 1.1v). Other general discomforts with it and wouldn't mind being rid of it. Do we really need 8 llc's that act in extraordinary ways I mean common. I could keep complaining but that's not what this thread is about. Sorry I always start going downhill talking about this mobo. back to topic

I'm not looking for huge gains. I'm just looking to polish the edges and prepare for ivy-e. I like to do one thing to my rig every year and I rekon this will be it. I have to mention I love working on my machines, and I don't like my current motherboard.

No, not huge gains right now, but it will be fun and I'll be set up for later. I've seen a lot of motherboards, this is one of the worst. I want a new motherboard and I want to switch platforms. But I don't want to go through another bummer of a board such as this one.

[donmarkoni]

I think I get your point... I was bored and unimpressed with P67/SB too.

So, if you wanna be impressed, go for Rampage 4 Extreme.
Or get R4 Formula for little less money.

[OC Nub]

^ +1

Rampage 4 Extreme is a great board and the support has been fantastic.

I would consider going with a 3930k with the Formula board to stay closer to your budget.

Either way you decide, 4.6ghz should be no issue at all, both chips are more than capable of that for daily use.

[Kroegs]

I have been looking at those.. man do they look nice, a little pricey but super nice. The last Asus board I had ran like a Mercedes too... Only motherboard I never flashed, never had to!

Oc nub, the formula looks about perfect too, though I'm not sure I need the extra threading of the 3930k. I've actually disabled hyperthreading on my quad to reach higher clocks for a period of time.

With the formula board and the 3930k, it will put me close to $1k. Is the benefits of a 3930k that much better than 3820? I've seen tri card reviews favor 2011 platform by quite a bit, but is that due to the proc (they always use the hexas in the reviews) or the actual platform itself?

[Kroegs]

Starting to think I may scrape and go for the 3930k.. Not like I have the money right at the moment so I have some time to think about it.

[akshayt]

I hope you realize that according to the latest rumors Ivy E may not release at all, and in case it does, that might happen some time in 2013, or even the second half of 2013. By that time we would have Haswell and before that Ivy. Going to Haswell be a reasonably big jump for you, but otherwise don't expect too much real world gains. Though a SLI 2011 nearly competes with Tri SLI 1155, I wanted to point this out in your favor

[Kroegs]

Though a SLI 2011 nearly competes with Tri SLI 1155, I wanted to point this out in your favor

This is a fairly insane statement. Even with all the reviews with 2x 680's on socket 2011, aside from raw cpu parallel processing from the difference 12 instead of 8 threads my 3 580's destroy anything reference in a 2way setup graphicly. And not by a small margin. For every 7970/680 review I have read I have re-launched every bench and compared to what their results are for 2 way sli/crossfire. You seem overly caught up with the notion that new generations mean incredible changes. Faster/better yes, but in comparison and on avg my 3 580's sit around the comparative performance of about 2.5 680's in benchmarks. On an 1155 motherboard.

Socket 1155 and 3 way sli has actually been pretty damn nice. I only run into issues tweaking with nvidia inspector/control panel with very elevated levels of gpu driver level added effects. There are a few oddballs of course like skyrim which seems to adore 2011 for various reasons. Even then, a 2011 3way has only ~10-15 fps at best on my 1155 with the same gpus. And that's at numbers way past vsync anyhow so it doesn't matter to me.

You do make one good point. Haswell is due between march and june '13. I may redo the whole rig by the end of next year. <rubs hands together>

[Kroegs]

I'm not counting out the rampage but this http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...erboard-review looks very interesting. Almost interesting enough for me to give giga a second chance... and it's only $255 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128532

[Kroegs]

Hey akshayt. I just ran this to give you a better idea of what I mean.



Edit:I used a 3dmark 11 score first and it was a poor choice since the bench utilizes full thread counts in evaluating it's final score. A little unrealistic in my book. Heaven is on par with this though.

[OC Nub]

I have been using the R4E for benching lately, its an awesome board period.

But for a lower priced board to use for 24/7 I am using an Intel x79 Extreme board. I have to say this board is very stable and clocks very well. Im currently at 4.8ghz on a 3930k @1.37vcore load, 16gb memory at 2133c9.

LLC is not as good as on the Asus board, it still has quite a bit of droop, but other than that I really cant find much else to complain about. The X79 SI supports 3 way SLI and CFX.

[Kroegs]

I spent hours looking at various boards yesterday. The formula seems to be my top prospect so far. I like the passive chipset, beefier audio chip. If I want to get a different sound board I oughtta be able to plug a 1x in the bottom pcie 16x, usually the case. I have a spare psu lieing around to flash it if need be when I get it as well. Like you and donmarkoni have said, if I want to be really impressed.

Extreme looks awesome too, but the formula is calling to me price/performance wise. The giga ud3 is a great bargain and giga has worked out their stability issues it seems, but their uefi is lacking in comparison with the rampage. Almost got caught up in an asrock though they are far to trouble prone. Too many things I have read scream hit or miss depending on the qc that was on shift when your board got stamped.

[s4pphire]

Don't bother unless you're going for a 3930 or 3960, you will barely see any performance gains with a 3820.

As for the board, Asus is definitely the way to go in terms of reliability/stability. Considering you're not happy with your current board due to said issues I wouldn't repeat that mistake because of a cheap board. The Rampage isn't exactly cheap but as someone else already mentioned, the support is great and it's quite amazing all in all.

[akshayt]

1. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...-CF-VS-580-SLI

2. Do a benchmark using 2 580s and then 3 580s. Tell me if the increase in performance is at least 30-35%

3. Acc to the above link a single 680 Oced to 1350 (hypothetical) can give a similar and better experience as two 580s in sli at stock

If that is true 2 7950 can give nearly as much power as 3 580 stock to stock considering that the second card increases performance by 80%+ but the third card increases performance by at most 20-30% instead of 40-50% as it should with perfect scaling

So basically 2 7950s Oced will beat your Oced stuff
2 7870s Oced real high will come close or equal your setup approx at stock
And 2 680s will trump it at stock no matter how high you overclock

IMO the best deal is 3770k plus z77 plus 2 680 Oced. That gives the best experience and max value for money. Then you don't need tri sli and 3770k will have higher fps in most games stock to stock with nearly as high oc possible

[Kroegs]

Yahaha, I liked the guy on the anandtech thread who posted a link to an actual review, one that I have already read. Nice work ak, though keep trying. No, I'm not gonna go running out to spend $1k on less than what I'm running. I am going to spend about $660 and refine what I have and prepare for later, and get rid of this junk motherboard I have while I'm at it.

[UNTAMED]

just saying

I have 2 580's and pending reviews , I plan to be getting a 3770k \z77 Sniper 3 with a plx 8747 chip ,[could go for tri maybe]. x16 + x16 or x8x8x8., and will have true pci-e 3.0 down the road ,when the cards get updated.
-had planned on a x79\3820 but they seemed stressed at 4.8 let alone 5.0 my target 7\24 oc on a new system.
notes: I have highish end water so cards never hit 40c @ 900 , moving to new cards[x2] mean new block's for me [gtx680 are not worth it IMO] , I like the low temps. and a cool room.
-at 2560x1440 580sli are not choked by any game , I only use the 900 profile for bf3. but the system minus cards needs a update.
-on paper the plx chip looks better than the nf200 even when run @ pci-e 2.0

-in your case you could even just go the z77 sniper3 and keep the 2600k [unless you were selling it.] - high end z77mb only $350.00 upgrade? ,then look around when you need new cards and feel a need for a new platform.
-good luck

[akshayt]

IMO getting a $350 mobo is a waste unless you want to pair with the fastest CPU and dual fastest gpus aka 680 or 7970 but dual and a $5000+ pc

Most high end mobos are $200-250 and are just as good, only few mobos cost over $250 and usually you don't need them except if you have money to throw in which case you should also buy 680 sli. Getting a gigabyte ud5h or msi gd80 or Asus deluxe at most is the maximum most users of 2-3 gpus need

[akshayt]

IMO getting a $350 mobo is a waste unless you want to pair with the fastest CPU and dual fastest gpus aka 680 or 7970 but dual and a $5000+ pc

Most high end mobos are $200-250 and are just as good, only few mobos cost over $250 and usually you don't need them except if you have money to throw in which case you should also buy 680 sli. Getting a gigabyte ud5h or msi gd80 or Asus deluxe at most is the maximum most users of 2-3 gpus need


And IMO you can get about $850 for 3 580s and you can buy 2 680 super Oced for $1100, so for just $250 you get at least 20% extra performance out of the box

[akshayt]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/..._card_review/5

Look at the last graph in the end

580 sli is unplayable and 680 sli is nearly perfect with about 70% more avg fps and much much better minimum fps
Your tri sli is only about 30-40% faster than the 580 sli and doesn't even come close to 7970 cf or 680 sli
Tis is for bf3


In skyrim your setup is just a little slower than 680 sli but much worse in terms of minimum fps

In batman your setup is nearly as good as 680 sli

In mass effect 3 680 sli is probably better

I see no game where 580 tri sli beats a 680 stock sli at best it trades blows. You can only get increased performance for the extra $250, it isn't possible for you to loose fps in any case

A 680 oc sli can probably get 3d mark 2011 7000-7500+. I doubt you get 7500+ even if you overclock at 24 7 clocks

[akshayt]

And for your info in think you posted a 680 sli is faster than 590 quad sli which is about as fast as 580 tri sli. Whether you like it or not your setup is slower, albeit by a reasonable but not large margin than a 680 sli. Your system is About as fast as 7950 cf

[bamtan2]

SLI sucks. the biggest upgrade you can do is get the hell off SLI.

socket 2011 sucks. the chips and chipset and boards are all abortions. you don't need the extra lanes unless you're playing with more video cards than you should be. see line 1.

even the e5 xeons are missing in action. socket 2011 abortion