Hey guys, I've been going back and forth for weeks on the final part list for my new i7 core setup. I had been focusing my attention on the GTX 280 and the 4870X2. After looking at the recent i7 graphics review, I noticed that the 260+ in SLI performed rather well at the 1920x1200 resolution. Right now, newegg is running some pretty wicked combo deals with the EVGA X58 motherboard and the GTX 260+. If you buy 2 260+'s and the X58, they take $70 off, but if you buy 3 260+'s they take $170 off. Getting a third card for basically $100 off seems like a pretty sweet deal even if there isn't a ton of performance gain. I was wondering if anyone knew of any benchmark scores for the 260+ in triple SLI out there. I have looked but haven't had any luck finding anything.
EVGA really know how to attract customers. my guess would be that tripple Sli gets you about 2x the performance of 1 graphics card if the game supports it.
I would say the same. Most games don't scare perfectly, so 3xSLI would have about the effect of two times performance of a single card. Also, you'll only see the difference in seriously graphic intensive games (e.g., Crysis) otherwise I'd say it's not worth it.
From just the price of the graphics card, I'd say its very worth it. Getting that third card for $150? My biggest worry is getting a beefed up power supply that could handle all three with an overclocked i7 920. Also, this motherboard would be running triple SLI in 16x,8x,8x, so I'm not sure of the effects that would have on the setup.
Buy all three if you can, run some test with twin SLI, and triple SLI - if the performance isn't much better, sell the third! Win-win.
that's not a bad deal.. more about the extra aa you'd have free.. if your a nvidia fan you might want to hold off for the 295 extra power savings, it should beat that guzzler unless it has the same old issues if your a bencher or just rich.. forget I said anything that's a killer rig.. cap, physx has to be written into the app, funny to me how physx was so unpopular before nvidia took them over.. and now all of a sudden it's any different- havoc seems to be a much better solution- physx is the same old gimmick (your gpu still has to render the extra particles) + the whole deal with an older nvidia card running just physx is obviously a nub trap
Well, basically any good brand 600+W PSU could handle that... But it's all about connectors! You're going to need 6x 6pin PCI-E connectors and only very few PSUs have so many of them! The Corsair PSU Finder only suggests the HX1000, and I think that'd be your best bet as lower wattage units don't have such silly amounts of connectors.
These are the only power supplies that I could find that have the cables to run 3 GTX 260. They are all plenty powerful to run the computer you have in mind. Corsair HX1000 Modular, super quiet Silverstone OP1000-E Not modular Silverstone DA1000 Fully Modular Silverstone ST1200 Fully Modular Silvertone ZU1200M Overkill PC Power & Cooling T12W Way overkill PC Power & Cooling PPCT1200ESA Not worth the money
Of those, the 1200W ones are extreme overkill, even the 1kW ones are, but for cable's sake you'll just have to buy one.
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html The lowest rated psu on their list to support tripple 260 SLI is the Tagan 800W... but I'd be skeptical with that after I had power supply related stability issues using two 9800GTXs and a Coolermaster 650W Real Power Pro psu. I think if you have to resort to the adapters to get power to all the cards, your psu is probably not strong enough to handle it. Now I have the HX1000 and a single GTX 260 216. On topic, I think Tripple 260 SLI would be over kill for real world games (not for benchmarking, but playing the games). However, if you can make the initial investment, I'd buy the third card and sell it new and recoup some of the costs of the initial investment.
ATL, how have you liked the HX1000 so far? That is the direction I am leaning currently. It got good reviews from bit-tech and also seems to have been received well by consumers as well. Thanks to those who have given input, and a special thanks to Asulc for going so indepth with his post. I'm still a few weeks out from ordering, so I am hopeful this deal will still be going... I believe I am going to buy all three and then try to pry one anyway from my deathgrip and sell it as new...
I said "any good brand PSU". AFAIK, CoolerMaster PSUs aren't the best out there. They have high ripple and that will cause instability. And same goes with Tagan.
