Asus GTX280 Tri-Sli setup arrived

Justifire said:
Will try this weekend, first got to sort out what's wrong with my SLI setup in Crysis.
I got an idea, system peaks @ 940W, than drops back to 760W
Seems like the powersupply cant handle my system.
It can draw 900W peak at the 12v lines.
This weekend i'm gonna try to run my 2 Liang D5 pumps from another PSU and see if that fix the problem.
And maybe it's just a driver issue, i dont know.
Will check this weekend.
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Not enough power -- you load up Crysis and all three cards start to pull, you get up to ~1000 or more watts load, the PSU says "hell with this" and the 12v rail/rails start to bounce, the cards detect this and drop in to 2D clocks to reduce power draw. I'm surprised you aren't getting the little "reduced functionality 2D mode" popup bubble, really. Should be.

Moving the D5s isn't going to be enough -- certainly not long-term, anyway. You might get in to proper 3D mode in Crysis, but even that's unlikely given how you're describing the situation, and you'd be killing the PSU quick like that.
 
silent-circuit said:
Not enough power -- you load up Crysis and all three cards start to pull, you get up to ~1000 or more watts load, the PSU says "hell with this" and the 12v rail/rails start to bounce, the cards detect this and drop in to 2D clocks to reduce power draw. I'm surprised you aren't getting the little "reduced functionality 2D mode" popup bubble, really. Should be.

Moving the D5s isn't going to be enough -- certainly not long-term, anyway. You might get in to proper 3D mode in Crysis, but even that's unlikely given how you're describing the situation, and you'd be killing the PSU quick like that.
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How come Heatlesun and Wadec both have 1000W PSU and tri-sli without problems?
Hilbert @ guru3d used the Enermax Galaxy 1000W for his tri-sli review without a single problem.
Think 1000W is enough, problem is the max of 900W on the 12V rail (and another 200 W on the 3.3 and 5 V rail)
If the systems pull 940W - 50 Watt of the 2 pumps, it might be just enough to keep the system running.
Anyway, will report back later this weekend.
Might get a Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W if i have to.

edit: Seems you're right m8 :D
Powered the pumps with an 2nd PSU and power draw still reach 960W
At 960 Watt the SLI indicators are full, when i move the mouse it jumps back to 740 watt and indicators jump back to half :(
So....time for a new PSU, who had tought about that 3 years ago?
1000 Watt just isn't enough :p
 
Justifire said:
How come Heatlesun and Wadec both have 1000W PSU and tri-sli without problems?
Hilbert @ guru3d used the Enermax Galaxy 1000W for his tri-sli review without a single problem.
Think 1000W is enough, problem is the max of 900W on the 12V rail (and another 200 W on the 3.3 and 5 V rail)
If the systems pull 940W - 50 Watt of the 2 pumps, it might be just enough to keep the system running.
Anyway, will report back later this weekend.
Might get a Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W if i have to.
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Well on two Geforce GTX 280 cards and a 4 Raptors I'm not pulling anywhere near enough power to exceed the power supplies 80% max output. (Assuming a quality supply.)
 
Going to pick up a Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W tomorrow.
Here in the Netherlands the Thermaltake W0158RU 650 w VGA PSU isn't available yet, that would be a good option too.
Report back when i'm up and running again :D
 
Swapped my Enermax 1000W with the Thermaltake 1500W
Still no working tri-sli support in Crysis :(
Altough this may not be a bad purchase, pulling around 950 W under load is quite stressfull for a 1000W PSU
But is it needed? NO !!
Now gotta check out what's causing this strange behaviour in Crysis.
 
So do you have 3x SLI working in other games? What settings are you running Crysis at?
 
It seems to be the resolution !!
I couldn't select 2560x1600 in game so i modded the inf to that resolution.
I tried 1920x1200 (checked your sig) and tri-sli did indeed work very good with full indicator bars.
So it has to do something with either the drivers, or Crysis don´t support 2560x1600 properly.
Other games run perfect :)
Setting in crysis are all very high DX10
 
Don't think it'd be playable (at least not with much if any AA) at 2560x1600 very high DX10, anyway.
 
silent-circuit said:
Don't think it'd be playable (at least not with much if any AA) at 2560x1600 very high DX10, anyway.
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With 2560x1600 very high and 0xAA should be quite playable according Guru3D. I've found 1920x1200 very high and 4xAA to be silky smooth.
 
Justifire said:
It seems to be the resolution !!
I couldn't select 2560x1600 in game so i modded the inf to that resolution.
I tried 1920x1200 (checked your sig) and tri-sli did indeed work very good with full indicator bars.
So it has to do something with either the drivers, or Crysis don´t support 2560x1600 properly.
Other games run perfect :)
Setting in crysis are all very high DX10
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ComeOn 2560x1600 :)
 
?? What about the 2560x1600 ??
It's not that the framerate won't be good, it's that the 3rd card isn't used properly on this resolution.
The moments i have a full sli indicator, the frames are around 55-60.
Aint those 30" screens the reason to go tri-sli?
Think i throw Crysis out of the window and wait for FarCry 2.
 
heatlesssun said:
There are some quirks to the configuration for sure, but as far as stability Crysis has been fine for me (as he knocks on wood).
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I too have had very few problems with Crysis or Farcry for that matter.
 
Dan_D said:
I too have had very few problems with Crysis or Farcry for that matter.
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The perception of Crysis by some sometimes baffles me. Unstable, crappy code, etc. I guess you can't make everyone happy. Crysis is just an old school high tech shooter. To me its the epitome of what's cool about PC gaming. Its a shame that titles like this are going to rare to non-existent any more.
 
Heatlessssun, are you planning on going to 30" 2560x1600?
I need some more experienced users with tri-sli that could check crysis at that resolution :D
But as I said, 1920x1200 works flawless with 60+ fps all very high.
 
heatlesssun said:
The perception of Crysis by some sometimes baffles me. Unstable, crappy code, etc. I guess you can't make everyone happy. Crysis is just an old school high tech shooter. To me its the epitome of what's cool about PC gaming. Its a shame that titles like this are going to rare to non-existent any more.
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I totally agree with you. I love that game that pushes all hardware to the max. Now that I have a working GTX again, I've been playing 1920x1200 high, very high shaders and it looks INCREDIBLE. This is why I game on my pc.
 
that's a sweet pic of the top 3 cards from each generation. wish i had a real job and could afford to enjoy my habit to the fullest.
 
So is there really a noticeable boost with 3 way 280s ? Sites on the web seem to conflict with each other as the one from guru is the only one that shows actual scaling . But then again they did run 2 way sli at stock speed on a x6800, while 3 way was with a quad at 4.2.
 
Darkatom said:
So is there really a noticeable boost with 3 way 280s ? Sites on the web seem to conflict with each other as the one from guru is the only one that shows actual scaling . But then again they did run 2 way sli at stock speed on a x6800, while 3 way was with a quad at 4.2.
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Don't know if you saw may take: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1322333

I didn't formally compare 2 and 3 way SLI, but I do know that Crysis runs smoother with 4xAA turned on in 3 way vs 2 way. 3 way is very CPU bound at my resolution of 1920x1200, but I could turn up settings to near max in games that scale well like Lost Planet, GRID demo and get fantastic frame rates.

It does scale better than most realize I think. But you need a very fast CPU, games and maximum settings and in most cases a 30" monitor to really get a lot from it.

But its so cool to run Crysis at very high at 4xAA at 1920x1200 and getting great game play!
 
Is your enermax able to cope well with 3-280s ? I've got a silverstone strider 1000 (dual rail, 70amps) that I know will power 2-280s with no problems, but im not sure about three of them. I was thinking of maybe getting a hx1000 psu now then a third gtx 280 next month to avoid rewiring my system but only if its needed. Ive already got my trusty dell 30in hc, so im looking to be set for a year or so graphic wise which is why the idea of 3-gtx 280s keeps poking at me.
 
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