building a new rig with " NVIDIA-SLI"

[aQi]

Hi Folks,

i hope everyone is doing great

Need some advise regarding SLI. A month back i got these babies for free (2x Evga 560TI) in great condition.
So i am gona built a cheap but reliable desktop once again

My only question is towards those motherboards having the potential to run both cards in SLI @16x
Did some googling and found out the 8x SLI vs the true 16x gives jump over 4 to 8 frames max.

So? what should i go for in running a smooth SLI ??

P.S.

BUT

having to chose which setup remains the hick up.

What i have?

128GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD

apart from that nothing else.

What i need?

x58 or x79 or x99 motherboard (real cheap deal needed)
PSU,
RAM
PRO

 

[Toothless]

Nothing cheap will get you x16 on both cards, Just run the normal x8/x8 since the cost isn't worth going for x16/x16.

Also it's better going for a single card over SLI since SLI isn't always smooth. I would know.

 

[newtekie1]

It definitely isn't worth it to get x16/x16. You won't notice the difference, especially not with those older cards.

And while it is nice that the cards are free, and they'll get you started, they are only going to get maybe GTX750Ti performance. Honestly, you can take what you'd save from by in Z97/Z170 setup instead of an X79/X99 and just buy a GTX950/R7 370 and have better performance or if you can stretch it an R9 380 would give way better performance.

 

[Aquinus]

Also it's better going for a single card over SLI since SLI isn't always smooth. I would know.

I would argue that SLI/CFX tends to be a cheaper way of getting more performance in a lot of cases however, you're right. Don't expect to play new games and have them run flawlessly in multi-GPU setups. When I was running one 6870 my option was either a 7950/70 or a second 6870 for almost the same amount of compute power. Getting the second 6870 costed half as much and it lasted me an additional 3 years. Although, with how old 500-series GPUs are and how I'm pretty sure nVidia has dropped support for them, I wouldn't bother.

Also as newtekie said:

And while it is nice that the cards are free, and they'll get you started, they are only going to get maybe GTX750Ti performance.

Plus all the woes that come with multi-GPU configurations. Simply put, I doubt it will be worth it.

 

[newtekie1]

Although, with how old 500-series GPUs are and how I'm pretty sure nVidia has dropped support for them, I wouldn't bother.

NVidia still releases the latest drivers for the 400 and 500 series.

 

[Aquinus]

NVidia still releases the latest drivers for the 400 and 500 series.

I stand corrected. I thought I remember reading something a few months ago about nVidia dropping more cards from regular support but clearly I remember incorrectly if they're still pushing updates for them.

 

[newtekie1]

I stand corrected. I thought I remember reading something a few months ago about nVidia dropping more cards from regular support but clearly I remember incorrectly if they're still pushing updates for them.

They dropped the 200 series and below. Though I wouldn't be surprised if the 400 and 500 series get moved to the legacy support cycle when Pascal hits.

 

[Aquinus]

They dropped the 200 series and below. Though I wouldn't be surprised if the 400 and 500 series get moved to the legacy support cycle when Pascal hits.

That was back in 2014, wasn't it? I thought I read something more recent that that. Oh well. Either way, it might be supported but the length of that support could be questionable then.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

And while it is nice that the cards are free, and they'll get you started, they are only going to get maybe GTX750Ti performance.

Huh? From the reviews I read, GTX 560ti SLI is about equal to the GTX 680, which is about equal to the GTX 770.

In this pic taken from TPU's 560ti SLI review, we see the 560ti SLI getting 36 fps more than the GTX 580.

Then in this pic, we see the GTX 770 getting about 25 FPS more than the GTX 580

Granted, this are two different games, even though they are from the same series, but they do show the 560ti SLI and GTX 770 both giving about 67-68% more performance than the GTX 580, making the two set-ups about equal in performance.

Now the 1Gb VRAM limit of the 560ti cards something that should be considered here.

 

[silentbogo]

Those are some truly power hungry cards. If I was in your place (actually I was recently with a pair of GTX460s) I would sell them towards a purchase of a newer card.

Your pair of 560s will get you approximately ~120-150 if you sell them on eBay(given that they work properly). Additionally you'll save another $15-20 on PSU, since you no longer need a 650W+ to run SLI.
Also you can save money on motherboard, because you no longer need two PCI-Ex16 or x8 slots.

All together it adds up to over $200, depending on how much you can save by going Haswell or Skylake instead of real cheap x58, x79 or x99. This is a good budget for a new GTX 960 4GB, which performs almost as good as a duo of 560Ti's, and only needs 70% of power of a single GTX 560 Ti (or 57% of a GTX 560Ti Limited Edition).

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Your pair of 560s will get you approximately ~120-150 if you sell them on eBay(given that they work properly). Additionally you'll save another $15-20 on PSU, since you no longer need a 650W+ to run SLI.
Also you can save money on motherboard, because you no longer need two PCI-Ex16 or x8 slots.

All together it adds up to over $200, depending on how much you can save by going Haswell or Skylake instead of real cheap x58, x79 or x99. This is a good budget for a new GTX 960 4GB, which performs almost as good as a duo of 560Ti's, and only needs 70% of power of a single GTX 560 Ti (or 57% of a GTX 560Ti Limited Edition).

and also wouldn't have to worry about the 1Gb VRAM limit of the 560ti cards

 

[aQi]

Huh? From the reviews I read, GTX 560ti SLI is about equal to the GTX 680, which is about equal to the GTX 770.

In this pic taken from TPU's 560ti SLI review, we see the 560ti SLI getting 36 fps more than the GTX 580.

Then in this pic, we see the GTX 770 getting about 25 FPS more than the GTX 580

Granted, this are two different games, even though they are from the same series, but they do show the 560ti SLI and GTX 770 both giving about 67-68% more performance than the GTX 580, making the two set-ups about equal in performance.

Now the 1Gb VRAM limit of the 560ti cards something that should be considered here.

Those are some truly power hungry cards. If I was in your place (actually I was recently with a pair of GTX460s) I would sell them towards a purchase of a newer card.

Your pair of 560s will get you approximately ~120-150 if you sell them on eBay(given that they work properly). Additionally you'll save another $15-20 on PSU, since you no longer need a 650W+ to run SLI.
Also you can save money on motherboard, because you no longer need two PCI-Ex16 or x8 slots.

All together it adds up to over $200, depending on how much you can save by going Haswell or Skylake instead of real cheap x58, x79 or x99. This is a good budget for a new GTX 960 4GB, which performs almost as good as a duo of 560Ti's, and only needs 70% of power of a single GTX 560 Ti (or 57% of a GTX 560Ti Limited Edition).

i was going to bring this up here, thanks to post the SLI Benchmark here. Now the bar has raised itself towards the vram issue. And apart from the i can only get true both cards running at 16x SLI on an x79 or x99 where the cpu lanes are 40 otherwise i cant.

i just contacted a friend and he called me back with a news of a guy selling his alienware x79 motherboard on a cost of 80$ lying around since he has replaced it with some asus rog mobo. i lost some great deals back at techpowerup RIV BE for 130$ shipped, and now there is this GB Z170XP-SLI @60$ with one PCIe slot missing (which i can actually re solder myself) and get an i7 Skylake ES chip for 145$

these 560TI would take time to sale off.

There is one more prob im not in the US so iv to lookover limitations as well. These are the options im getting x79 or Z170 or just wait for another cheap x99 ????

i too want to try that M.2 PCI Express SSD

The reason i dont want to lose more money on items, is iv to invest money on other things as well so my budget remains tight though minor faulty boards are always welcome as i can repair them myself.

P.S that 1GB VRAM has locked my mind...

 

[thebluebumblebee]

(MOD, this thread should really be in System's builders advice)
(I've owned 5 of them...)

they are only going to get maybe GTX750Ti performance

(1)GTX 560 Ti ~= GTX 750 Ti. (and yes, the 750 does it with twice the VRAM for 1/3 the watts)

Those are some truly power hungry cards.

That's funny. In their day, they were considered very efficient. The other thing that affects this view of them is that Nvidia has pulled a fast one on everyone. The true replacement for the 560 Ti was the 680/770 which was replaced by the 980. Same power usage. Still, to run 2 of them, a good PSU is needed.

OP, these cards will generate a lot of heat, so you will need a well ventilated case. I'd suggest at least 2 120mm intake fans. I would look for a lower end i5 or a FX83xx CPU/motherboard. You have to be make sure that the motherboard supports x8/x8. As others have said, x16/x16 is fool's gold.

We really need a budget and what region you're in before we can really suggest anything.
There are (new) things that the 560 Ti's won't do, but they're better than nothing, especially when free. But, I do think that SLI is over rated and is mostly for "eye candy".

 

[newtekie1]

Huh? From the reviews I read, GTX 560ti SLI is about equal to the GTX 680, which is about equal to the GTX 770.

In this pic taken from TPU's 560ti SLI review, we see the 560ti SLI getting 36 fps more than the GTX 580.

Then in this pic, we see the GTX 770 getting about 25 FPS more than the GTX 580

Granted, this are two different games, even though they are from the same series, but they do show the 560ti SLI and GTX 770 both giving about 67-68% more performance than the GTX 580, making the two set-ups about equal in performance.

Now the 1Gb VRAM limit of the 560ti cards something that should be considered here.

560Ti SLI Overall = ~11% Better than a 580.
680 Overall = ~19% Better than a 580.

So they aren't equal to a 680.

But, yeah, they probably are more along the lines of a 950, but I still wouldn't waste time with them. Not when you can pick up a R7 370 for $110. Like I said, just by looking at Z77/Z97/Z170 instead of x79/x99 he's likely to save close to that anyway.

That's funny. In their day, they were considered very efficient.

That is always the odd thing I find. People still say Fermi were power hungry cards. And, yeah, at the time they did use more power than we've seen in the past. But the 560Ti only used ~150w, and the 480 was ~250w, and the 580 was ~225w. The Fury X uses ~280w, the 980Ti uses ~240w, the 290X uses ~300w! Sure, these card are all more powerful than Fermi cards, but the Fermi flagship cards were the fastest on the market at the time, and when you compare them to the "efficient" flagship cards we have today, Fermi's power consumption isn't outrageous.

 

[BiggieShady]

People still say Fermi were power hungry cards. And, yeah, at the time they did use more power than we've seen in the past. But the 560Ti only used ~150w, and the 480 was ~250w, and the 580 was ~225w. The Fury X uses ~280w, the 980Ti uses ~240w, the 290X uses ~300w! Sure, these card are all more powerful than Fermi cards, but the Fermi flagship cards were the fastest on the market at the time, and when you compare them to the "efficient" flagship cards we have today, Fermi's power consumption isn't outrageous.

I always thought the biggest disadvantage was how much they consume in idle.

 

[silentbogo]

That is always the odd thing I find. People still say Fermi were power hungry cards. And, yeah, at the time they did use more power than we've seen in the past. But the 560Ti only used ~150w, and the 480 was ~250w, and the 580 was ~225w. The Fury X uses ~280w, the 980Ti uses ~240w, the 290X uses ~300w! Sure, these card are all more powerful than Fermi cards, but the Fermi flagship cards were the fastest on the market at the time, and when you compare them to the "efficient" flagship cards we have today, Fermi's power consumption isn't outrageous.

With flagship cards, manufacturers are simply trying to stay within the same TDP range, so the max power consumption will less likely change from generation to generation.
I used to be a proud owner of such cards as HD2900XT, 8800GTX, GTX275 and a few others, but now I remember those days as a nightmare! The worst one was a CF with 2xHD3870s and an overclocked Phenom X4 9500. I was always afraid that my PC will either explode, burn the house down, or cause enough vibrations to shake the roof down on my head.

GTX 560 Ti was a mid-range video card with an adequate power consumption. Most generations, starting from GTX260 up to GTX760 had a tdp of 160-180W. But ever since GTX 650 Ti hit the market - those 560's became obsolete.
I just don't want the OP to be disappointed when his SLI rig will be less powerful than a sinlgle entry-level Pascal card (GT X40 or whatever it's gonna be called). GTX 950 is already outperforming 560Ti by 50% or so, and that's a low-power low-cost card with SLI and DX12 support!

He must sell those while they still have some value, otherwise they'll sit somewhere on the shelve for eternity, like my collection of GTX 260s and 460s.

 

[aQi]

you guys are serious geeeeks

i'll try to sell these babies then.

still to be advised for this:

"i just contacted a friend and he called me back with a news of a guy selling his alienware x79 motherboard on a cost of 80$ lying around since he has replaced it with some asus rog mobo. i lost some great deals back at techpowerup RIV BE for 130$ shipped, and now there is this GB Z170XP-SLI @60$ with one PCIe slot missing (which i can actually re solder myself) and get an i7 Skylake ES chip for 145$"

P.S now thinking over GTX770 or GTX780 or GTX780 TI

 

[thebluebumblebee]

I always thought the biggest disadvantage was how much they consume in idle.

Yeah, 14 watts is just atrocious! (GTS 250 was 40 watts)

 

[NdMk2o1o]

With flagship cards, manufacturers are simply trying to stay within the same TDP range, so the max power consumption will less likely change from generation to generation.
I used to be a proud owner of such cards as HD2900XT, 8800GTX, GTX275 and a few others, but now I remember those days as a nightmare! The worst one was a CF with 2xHD3870s and an overclocked Phenom X4 9500. I was always afraid that my PC will either explode, burn the house down, or cause enough vibrations to shake the roof down on my head.

GTX 560 Ti was a mid-range video card with an adequate power consumption. Most generations, starting from GTX260 up to GTX760 had a tdp of 160-180W. But ever since GTX 650 Ti hit the market - those 560's became obsolete.
I just don't want the OP to be disappointed when his SLI rig will be less powerful than a sinlgle entry-level Pascal card (GT X40 or whatever it's gonna be called). GTX 950 is already outperforming 560Ti by 50% or so, and that's a low-power low-cost card with SLI and DX12 support!

He must sell those while they still have some value, otherwise they'll sit somewhere on the shelve for eternity, like my collection of GTX 260s and 460s.

View attachment 71379

I think the OP is fully aware of the performance the cards will yield, he has an adequate PSU and got the cards for free and wants to put them to use, no harm in doing that... I might prefer to sell them as others have suggested and buy a more recent single mid-range card but even if he doesn't them 560's in SLI will still run games at respectable settings up to 1080p... so where's the issue?

 

[aQi]

I think the OP is fully aware of the performance the cards will yield, he has an adequate PSU and got the cards for free and wants to put them to use, no harm in doing that... I might prefer to sell them as others have suggested and buy a more recent single mid-range card but even if he doesn't them 560's in SLI will still run games at respectable settings up to 1080p... so where's the issue?

The OP needs advise for which setup to use these cards in SLI configuration.

and just got another deal on X-FI Titanium Champion Fatality edition sound card. Is it worth buying ???? getting it just for 40$

 

[BiggieShady]

Yeah, 14 watts is just atrocious! (GTS 250 was 40 watts)

Don't know what you are getting at, but I'm talking about amd 5000 series evergreens and first 400 series fermis ... the difference in idle consumption was almost 30 W ... point being, no one would care about that difference at load, but at idle it was a problem - it made gtx 480 seem generally loud and hot because it was louder and hotter while browsing the web.

 

[Ruru]

The 1GB VRAM is the worst problem IMO, I had HD5870 Crossfire some time ago and it was clear that the low amount of VRAM was the bottleneck, not the GPU performance. I don't see any reason to use a multi-GPU setup with old cards if it's not about a retro-PC for older benchmarks or something similar.

 

[silentbogo]

"i just contacted a friend and he called me back with a news of a guy selling his alienware x79 motherboard on a cost of 80$ lying around since he has replaced it with some asus rog mobo. i lost some great deals back at techpowerup RIV BE for 130$ shipped, and now there is this GB Z170XP-SLI @60$ with one PCIe slot missing (which i can actually re solder myself) and get an i7 Skylake ES chip for 145$"

P.S now thinking over GTX770 or GTX780 or GTX780 TI

Z170 would be my choice. You'll get DDR4 support, maybe an M.2 slot and some other new features, which x79 cannot offer. x99 is definitely better in terms of performance/expandability, but it is much-much more expensive overall.

I'm kinda in the same boat right now: trying to build a cheap, but long-lasting Skylake rig before retiring my x58 setup. Going x79 or x99 would've killed my wallet, which brings me to a part where I'm looking at brand new and still under warranty from seller and manufacturer MSI Z170-A PRO (bought for $80) and a pair of 4GB DDR4-2666 sticks (traded for a 2x4 DDR3-2133 with $10 overpay). All I have left is a CPU, M.2 SSD and a new videocard, though my GTX 750Ti would probably do until Pascal arrives.

Regarding GTX 700 series: it is still quite expensive, but if you find a good deal and you are not planning on goind Win10/DX12 route, then you should buy it. And since you are willing to stretch your budget to GTX 780 Ti, then you may want to consider GTX 970 as an option. In most gaming benchmarks it falls somewhere in-between GTX 780 and 780Ti (+/- 10%) with approximately the same price on used market (at least where I'm from).

 

[Toothless]

I got my pair of 780's for $445 total. Used cards are still good cards.

 

[GhostRyder]

I stand corrected. I thought I remember reading something a few months ago about nVidia dropping more cards from regular support but clearly I remember incorrectly if they're still pushing updates for them.

They drop normally support/optimizations for anything below the newest series/architecture. However they still release SLI profiles and if needed extreme bug fixes for cards Fermi+ still as I recall.

you guys are serious geeeeks

i'll try to sell these babies then.

still to be advised for this:

"i just contacted a friend and he called me back with a news of a guy selling his alienware x79 motherboard on a cost of 80$ lying around since he has replaced it with some asus rog mobo. i lost some great deals back at techpowerup RIV BE for 130$ shipped, and now there is this GB Z170XP-SLI @60$ with one PCIe slot missing (which i can actually re solder myself) and get an i7 Skylake ES chip for 145$"

P.S now thinking over GTX770 or GTX780 or GTX780 TI

Well, if its an X79 board you could probably get an i7 3820 for a reasonable price. I still see those floating around for decent and they perform very well.

If your running 1080p, nothing beyond a 780 will really make a difference (Or enough to be seen) of the choices listed.

The OP needs advise for which setup to use these cards in SLI configuration.

and just got another deal on X-FI Titanium Champion Fatality edition sound card. Is it worth buying ???? getting it just for 40$

Eh, personally I am not a crazy about sound cards as most boards in this day and age have good enough on board sound cards. Most of the time they are purchased when they need some extra ports/features that the normal on boards don't support as the quality is normally just fine. I would say no but its going to depend on the board you buy.