42 replies to this topic

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

Changed my mind, going for a single new card either 780 or whatever AMD shows up with under a closed loop water cooling.

Thought about it and I don't want to replace my PSU as well and deal with the increase in power specially seeing I soon have my own apartment and thus my own power bills to pay

[Catamount]

If you're up for waiting a bit, you might as well hold out for Volcanic Islands, get a 9950 or 9970. Reports are hinting at October being the most likely launch date for the first parts.

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

Well You will not believe it

Second 7970 ****** up and again it is vram just like the first one.

I seriously don't get it, I just don't I never OC the vram, the card itself ran at 1100Mhz (which it does when you hit the nice button to switch the bios) and only been above that for a few benchmarks. Highest temp ever recorded: 78C, normal operations: sub 60C shoot me.

Sorry, but I have no more faith in the 7970, it is an amazing piece of tech, but I can't have them breaking down on me.

Guess I am switching sides

[Catamount]

Do you have one the models that's physically insufficiently braced to hold up its cooler? It's not a common issue, but Sapphire cards in particular suffer it, because Sappire didn't provide a back brace for the PCB to hold up the enormous Dual-X and Vapor-X coolers, so their cards break if you don't brace them.

Anyways, as I said before, just get a pair of 770s if you want to go Nvidia. Don't waste time with the 780; it's two thirds more expensive for like 15% more performance.

Edited by Catamount, 04 July 2013 - 01:31 PM.

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

Nope didn't support it, I mean sorry, but if I need to support it they should give me something to do it or put a back plate on it. Not a good point there for them, but I guess like IKEA they are like the amount of failures is to low to care and it costs more to improve the product than it costs to fix the issues that show up.

As for the 770 not sure, would have to get at least those with 4 gigs on vram, not feeling comfy with just 2

Say if I go with dual 770 which ones to go, I recently been looking at this company Ino3d they have some interesting stuff, but I also heard that the 770 with the titan coolers are very good.

Edited by Chiyeko Kuramochi, 04 July 2013 - 03:05 PM.

[Rykiel]

Since the 770s are more or less equivalent to the 680 (same Kepler GPU), you might as well get a good deal on some used 4GB 680s, or see if there's any on sale @ Amazon. Buddy of mine was able to score 2x EVGA GTX 680 Classifieds (the 4GB ones) for $600 total, they were in near-new condition.

Keep in mind that Crossfire/SLI is not particularly high on PGI's radar (since multi-gpu represents a very small segment of the gaming population in any game); in other words, don't even expect a fix this year. The extra ram really becomes of use once you go multi-monitor for gaming; at 1440p or 1600p, the power of the 7xxx/GTX 6xx GPUs isn't really strong enough to take advantage of the extra RAM, unless you use Crossfire/SLI ...

Edited by Rykiel, 04 July 2013 - 05:26 PM.

[Catamount]

It is true that the 680, iirc, is more power efficient, and you might be able to get a couple cheap.

As for Sapphire GPUs, if getting the the best GPU cooler on the market, bar none, and an extra power phase for overclocking, means I have to spend five minutes digging up a plastic brace, it's a small price to pay for me to have the best 7970 on the market. That's the DYIer in my talking, though, so compared to cards with a little better structural stability, I suppose Sapphire's cards are not for people who just want to plug and play

Edited by Catamount, 04 July 2013 - 06:34 PM.

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

Seems the issue was related to under volting the card, now running at the normal volts it comes with (which I must say are high at 1256mv) and it seems stable, still not feeling to save.

Therefore I think I am just going to break the bank and get this done once and for all until end 2014 when I expect to start looking are a full replacement rig with water cooling. So Am going for 2 EVGA ACX super clocked 780, that should cover me more than nicely for upcoming resource hogs and it will allow me to test the green team as that been a long time ago.

[Catamount]

Hey, if it makes you happy

Just make sure you get 6GB versions if you're getting that much GPU power; anything that will actually require it will probably benefit enormously from the extra memory vs the 3GB versions. I assume you're going for a triple monitor or 1600p/1440p setup, yes?

Edited by Catamount, 06 July 2013 - 10:08 AM.

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

Going 1600 single monitor and oculus rift in the future

Also there are no 6gb versions of the 780, NVidea will not allow it as it would render the already out of date titan totally useless , but 3Gb should do for what I want

[Catamount]

I'm fairly certain I heard rumor of a 6GB version. It seems silly that you can buy 4GB 770s, but only 3GB 780s, but somehow I wouldn't be surprised. It's definitely Nvidia logic

If you're going to use the rift, that will render at a resolution of 1080p at most, from the looks of it (the dev kit renders at 720p), so 3GB will be more than ample for that. Even 1600P shouldn't be a problem (good man on the 16:10 ). It's just when you get into triple 1080P monitor type stuff that 1GB/monitor starts to run a little short, not critically from what I've seen, but enough to reduce performance. I'll probably go the Rift direction myself for most non photo-editing stuff.

Oculus Rift + Star Citizen?

Edited by Catamount, 06 July 2013 - 07:18 PM.

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

You got it and I am not planning on dual or tripple monitor, can't stand a non continious screen, just me, but hell if it aint working no need for it and just means less stuff to worry about

However I did learn that once more I need to upgrade my PSU reference 780 alone demand 800-850W PSU and non reference cards ask more

[Catamount]

The 780 has a TDP of 250

Is Nvidia playing the "TDP is more like a suggestion" game again?

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

Well gotta keep OCing in mind on both the cards and CPU, under load on two 780 a system will draw max around 530-550w, add to that a CPU under load with OC and OC on the cards and 850W is cutting it close, though I might try it out at first, it is known that these corsair psus at times can handle a bit extra

[Catamount]

Yes. Every good PSU is designed to put out more than its rated wattage. That said, you are right that you're running a big close with an OCed CPU, even with stock 780s. I guess you're getting that kilowatt PSU after all; might I suggest the Rosewill Lightning 1000W if you can get one where you are?

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817182239

Of course, if you're planning on OCing the 780s as well, you need to figure maybe 350W/card, so that's 700, plus another 250 at least for the rest of the system, so truth be told, massively OCing two 780s and a CPU will require more than 1000W. I'd say 1200 at least. This is going to be quite the power hungry system

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

I know right and Q1 next year I be moving into my own apartment, I already fear the energy bill

Hell I might have the cops show up wondering if I am growing the green stuff plants

As for rosewill can't find that one here, plenty of other brands though, guess I will go with a seasonic though might as well bet save Still going to prop run a little while on my current one, if it fries well so be it, was going to be replaced anyway

[DEMAX51]

I can't really see where you would have any need to OC a dual 780 system - plus, don't those EVGA 780s have a higher clock than the reference cards already? Unless you're a serious benchmarker I'll bet the stock clock will be just fine for 60 FPS in just about anything.

I'm jealous though, man. Your rig is gonna be pretty effin sweet. (I don't envy your electric bill though!)

[Catamount]

Normally I'd say do ALL the overclocks, but in this case I agree with Demax. You're running into severe heat and power problems just running two 780s; might as well keep them stock and not be pumping a kilowatt of heat energy into your room. Between the computer and the air condition, you're going to be paying the price of this computer in power bills every year

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

No AC where I live this is the Netherlands the few hot days we have are not worth it

And really with these cards all you do is give them extra juice and as long as the temps hold it will clock itself higher on its own

I am however thinking to see if I can mod (or buy) a corsair 800D side pannel to hold a large 240 fan should helps on the temps and with 4 120 ans in push pull config taking out out of the case through the h100 and 1 140mm fan doing the same I I should be fine. (fun thing is this sapphire card also blows quite some air out of the case as I have the metal pci-e strips removed from the case. even turned my 140fan on the back around to supply more air for the h100 fans, that worked quite well.

As for power bills meh part of the hobby costs

[Chiyeko Kuramochi]

Well it took some time, but in the end it was neither of these options as I managed to get myself hold of a titan at 650 which was 50 bucks cheaper than the 780s I was thinking about and well cheaper to than adding 2 7970 and a new PSU and when looking at the results I am more than happy.



Now time to save up and get a second one