I ran GTX 480`s in SLI and had thermal shut down , even with an aggressive fan profile - the only way to stop it was to run the fans at 90% all the time and even then temps crept upwards.
I will certainly give your Kraken/Kuhler option some thought.But first I will see what sort of temps I am getting after switch mobos. I have Heaven benchmark and 3D mark anything else to push the cards to see what sort of temps I am getting? Maybe Metro Last light benchmark? By the way where does the Asus get rid of its hot air? I can feel the Evga shoving it out the back but not so the Asus. You look after yourself Andy.
The Asus card dumps the hot air on to the case. Those cards should be fine as they are though but what temps are you getting on them Water Cooling the cards will help and make it look a bit better but it will cost around during £300 if you go with, a full custom loop or around £200 if you use the NZXT stuff but be careful as I have seen them, fry cards when not installed properly.
As I have not moved across to the V Gene I cannot give you the temps yet. I am not sure I want to spend 300 quid to water-cool or even the 120 quid on the Kraken/Kuhler set up. So I think I will wait till I have run a few benches after I move over to the V Gene and then decide. I know this was perhaps a waste of money as the Sniper is more than adequate but I have always wanted one of these mobos. Dependant on temps I may well just stick with the Sniper and resell the V Gene. When you say it dumps it into the case from where on the Asus GPU does this happen?
The EVGA cooler takes air in and blows it along the card and exhausts it out of the back of the case. The Asus cooler just blows air onto the heatsink with no regard for where it goes afterwards - this tends to keep that card cooler than the EVGA design but at the expense of having the hot air staying in the case rather than being pushed out the back. Edit: Are these going in your Air 540? It's a good case for keeping GPUs cool - I'd just see how you get on - maybe try running both cards one at a time (with the other outside of the case) and records max temps and then try SLI to see what the difference is...
That sounds a useful idea George, The Heaven benchmark good enough for this with GPU-Z to record temps and one or two other bits of software I have, unless you have a better suggestion?
You should have no problems with a Carbide Series Air 540 assuming it has a decent profile of fans. I have a Fractal myself that isn't exactly renowned for it's cooling capacity. Saying that I've setup a decent surround of fans. Scythe Gentle Typhon 1850RPM as a rear exhaust that is the main workhorse for extracting hot air. Then a couple of Silverstone Air Penetrators up front. Never experienced high temperatures in any of my SLI configurations. The problem with those rigs posted above is achieving good airflow or lack of in those cases leading to thermal shutdown. The GTX 670 coolers for the cards you specified do an excellent job and require no modifications!
This is the one thing that has always stopped me from Crossfiring my GFX cards. I am almost OCD about temps in my main rig (as well as ram usage for some reason) I don't even like installing a soundcard next to the gfx card. I try choose my motherboards so I don't have to (It's about 3rd on the priority list when buying new) Watercooling is the only way to go IMHO but that adds a considerable amount to the build unless you buy from the marketplace here but that then raises other reliability questions. It's a tricky one this. Andy has pretty much covered it though.
I have three intake fans, at the moment I cannot specify model, as I am in bed with a hot water bottle would you believe,. These are at the front 120mm, I have two exhaust in the roof 140mm and one rear exhaust 120. I will try George's suggestion then post back with the temp readings and hopefully you good folk will be able to give an opinion as to my next moves, if any. Thanks all.
Just my 2 cents over and above the detailed advice Andy and everyone else has offered. I am currently running 2GTX 760s in SLI in a Sniper board (Other specs in sig) Been playing Crysis 3 a fair bit since I finalised the build a few weeks ago and Metro Last Light;two more demanding titles you couldn't wish to meet. So far, no crashes and decent temps. I have an AIO CPU Cooler. I can run GPUZ tomorrow if you want some exact deets.
Thanks mate but I have temps for my current Sniper set up it is when I move to the V-Gene that my question arose.
I honestly don't think you will have a problem with temps in either mobo thanks to your case, fans and gpu setup in terms of the EVGA card being on top. When I had my corsair 900 it had practically no airflow for the gpus but the 2 780ti's still barely hot over 80c.
I had no issues runnning my 3x Zotac GTX 580s with the ref cooler, and that was in a TJ07 with no fans blowing cold air at the GPUs. So you will be fine, as the GTX 670's run cooler than the previous Gen. And with the aid of your case and the fans directly blowing at your cards, you will be fine
Hence why I said: I should add that I don't count dual GPU card reference coolers such as the 295 as 'blowers'. Dual GPU cards are another beast entirely and I think if you're going to have more than one in a case you need watercooling. You must have been playing in a sauna or something! The default fan profile was more than ample for me (even in summer in a small room with the hot water boiler next door), though I will freely admit 480s have been the noisiest set up I've had to date.
Temps with one of my GTX 760s following a busy Crysis 3 session with all settings maxed @ 1080p. No OC, no fan profiles set, all on auto.
Now add another 15c to that for summer and what do you get? 97c. Exactly what I was getting last summer with my Jetstream 670s. 97c for Kepler is unacceptable.
Here's a pic of my SLI sandwich that DOES work, In fact I was playing Metro last light yesterday and I play Crysis a lot I never get heat problems the fans don't even ramp up in game even with Heaven the gpu's sit at around 70c. It's all about air flow. I've been running SLI a very long time and I believe most of the problems people get is because they don't set it up right
I shall try and remember to post back under the same test conditions when (hopefully) it warms up in the 'summer' The outside temp of course, not the cards!
