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GTX 670 sli with GTX 460

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Hello all,

So, I finally bought the Gigabyte GTX 670 last week (the model is GIGABYTE GV-N670OC-2GD GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card) and it's amazing!
I really love this card.

I was wondering if I could use my old Asus GTX 460 along with the 670 in sli.
It looks like it's actually possible technically. you connect the 2 like a normal sli and in the settings you use the 460 as dedicated for physx.
I did some tests and ran "Heaven" benchmark and got the following results:
GTX 670 only - min fps 17, max fps 60, score 905
GTX 670 with GTX 460 for physx - min fps 19, max fps 60, score 899
I'm not really sure how to analyze this outcome.
looks like the minimum fps is better but the overall score is lower...

When I ran "the secret world" to see the FPS, with the 670 only I got about 47 fps with ultra settings, and along with the 460 I got about 50 fps.
So there was about 8% of increase when using both cards.

what I wanted to ask is, do you think it's worth while to stay with this configuration for only 8%? (taking into consideration the electricity usage and heat in the case)
Can someone explain to me the "Heaven" results? I'm not sure what it means..

Thanks for your help!
 

MxPhenom 216

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Hello all,

So, I finally bought the Gigabyte GTX 670 last week (the model is GIGABYTE GV-N670OC-2GD GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card) and it's amazing!
I really love this card.

I was wondering if I could use my old Asus GTX 460 along with the 670 in sli.
It looks like it's actually possible technically. you connect the 2 like a normal sli and in the settings you use the 460 as dedicated for physx.
I did some tests and ran "Heaven" benchmark and got the following results:
GTX 670 only - min fps 17, max fps 60, score 905
GTX 670 with GTX 460 for physx - min fps 19, max fps 60, score 899
I'm not really sure how to analyze this outcome.
looks like the minimum fps is better but the overall score is lower...

When I ran "the secret world" to see the FPS, with the 670 only I got about 47 fps with ultra settings, and along with the 460 I got about 50 fps.
So there was about 8% of increase when using both cards.

what I wanted to ask is, do you think it's worth while to stay with this configuration for only 8%? (taking into consideration the electricity usage and heat in the case)
Can someone explain to me the "Heaven" results? I'm not sure what it means..

Thanks for your help!

you can use the 460. But it cannot be in SLI with the 670s. It can be used as a physx card or wahtever.
 
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You do not need to connect an SLI connector to the cards it simply does nothing.
All you can do is use the GTX 460 as a physx card, no connector required because there is no SLI going on.
 

UbErN00b

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You got that boost in FPS because the physx is being processed by the 460 freeing up some resources on the 670 for the extra FPS, you will only see this in games that use Physx, not many. You can't SLI the 670 with any other series of cards and vice versa. They have to be a matched card. Also have you got Vsync on with heaven?
 
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You do not need to connect an SLI connector to the cards it simply does nothing.
All you can do is use the GTX 460 as a physx card, no connector required because there is no SLI going on.

Really? I didn't know I can do it without the sli connector. I thought that using the connector, it's what enabling the use of the 460 as physx. I'll remove it then, thanks
:)

You got that boost in FPS because the physx is being processed by the 460 freeing up some resources on the 670 for the extra FPS, you will only see this in games that use Physx, not many. You can't SLI the 670 with any other series of cards and vice versa. They have to be a matched card. Also have you got Vsync on with heaven?

In heaven I setup everything to the max - Vsync, AA, tessellation etc.
 

UbErN00b

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Really? I didn't know I can do it without the sli connector. I thought that using the connector, it's what enabling the use of the 460 as physx. I'll remove it then, thanks
:)



In heaven I setup everything to the max - Vsync, AA, tessellation etc.

Go into NV control panel and set the 460 to do Physx, also disable vsync in heaven if you are benching cause it caps you at 60fps.
 
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Go into NV control panel and set the 460 to do Physx, also disable vsync in heaven if you are benching cause it caps you at 60fps.

Ah... That's why the max fps was 60. I didn't understand why I couldn't get more than that.
I'll try that out.
Thanks!

I already set the 460 as dedicated for physx.
 
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Hello all,

I was just wondering how will the system behave if I got another Gigabyte GTX 670 and connected all 3 cards together.
I would connect 2 GTX 670 in sli and use GTX 460 for physx only.
In this case, will the bandwidth of the PCIE be x8 x8 x16 ? is there a way to make the system use x16 x16 for the GTX 670 in sli and x8 for the GTX 460 for physx?
Is there even any benefit in using the GTX 460 for physx?

Thanks for your answers!
 
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That would depend on your motherboard... which you have not told us about.

You should enter in your computer's system specs. It'd save a lot of time in the future.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
You do not need the ribbon for PhysX, however there is a minor performance hit with actual SLI/CrossfireX when you dont use the ribbon.
 
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That would depend on your motherboard... which you have not told us about.

You should enter in your computer's system specs. It'd save a lot of time in the future.

I thought I did in a previous post, but I guess I didn't... :-s
Anyway, the motherboard is Asrock z77 extreme9.
I also updated my specs.
Thanks for mentioning it and for the link!
:)
 
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Hello all,

I was just wondering how will the system behave if I got another Gigabyte GTX 670 and connected all 3 cards together.
I would connect 2 GTX 670 in sli and use GTX 460 for physx only.
In this case, will the bandwidth of the PCIE be x8 x8 x16 ? is there a way to make the system use x16 x16 for the GTX 670 in sli and x8 for the GTX 460 for physx?
Is there even any benefit in using the GTX 460 for physx?

Thanks for your answers!

I don't think the 460 will be worth the power it uses for the few games that can take advantage of a dedicated PPU.
 
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Thanks guys for your answers!
Still, I would like to know how the system would behave if I connected all 3 cards.
I guess I would connect them on PCIE1 - GTX 670, PCIE3 - GTX 460 and PCIE5 - GTX 670, and connect only the 2 GTX 670 with SLI ribbon.
In this scenario, will the GTX 460 occupy all x8 and thus PCIE1 will use only x8 ?
when using a card dedicated to physx, it occupies all the x8 length?
Is there a way to configure the system such that both GTX 670 will run x16 while using all 3 cards together?

Thanks!
 
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there is no adavantage from 16x to 8x do not worry. Just plug em in and use em
 
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Is there a way to configure the system such that both GTX 670 will run x16 while using all 3 cards together?

The only way to achieve this is to plug the GTX670s into slots 1 and 5, and the 460 into slot 4.

This would require a single slot cooler for the 460, or a riser cable.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
You would want the PhysX card in lowest lane slot as PhysX doesnt need more than 4x really. You need to see how that board breaks down its PCIe lanes with multiple configurations.

Id imagine 1/5 for the 670's and 7 for the 460.
 
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16x vs. 8x. I did the test yesterday using 2 Radeon 7970's.



 
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Id imagine 1/5 for the 670's and 7 for the 460.

This would result in 8/8/8/8 on this particular board. Like I said above, the only way to keep the 670s both at 16x is to use the PCI-E 2 slot for the 460.
 
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what I wanted to ask is, do you think it's worth while to stay with this configuration for only 8%?

No. Not at all. The 670's in SLi with PhysX set to automatic is more than enough for what you need. The 460 will just take up space, add heat, power consumption and eat up bandwith.
 
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This would result in 8/8/8/8 on this particular board. Like I said above, the only way to keep the 670s both at 16x is to use the PCI-E 2 slot for the 460.



Still will not make any difference in performance.
 
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Thank you all for your answers!
I really appreciate your help!

Thanks
 
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