Ninjawithagun
Solid State Member
- Messages
- 10
- Location
- Colorado
Wafflehammer, your response is confusing. NO, one GPU is not disabled. Yes, quad-SLI scaling is not as good as either regular SLI or Crossfire. It is better than running two 4870X2s in Crossfire though (except for one game - FEAR). Not bad for a card that's been out for one month. Unlike you guys, I actually am running two GTX295s and they easily beat any other configuration today running any game at 1920x1200 resolutions with all settings maxed - PERIOD. I don't have to speculate, because I KNOW. I own the hardware and have witnessed first hand what they can do. Are either of you running two GTX295s in quad-SLI? NO. I am not trying to be mean, but I am so tired of folks posting responses based on no hard evidence or first hand experience. So, apologies if I vent a little
And talking about first hand experience, I had been running two GTX280s in SLI on my primary rig before replacing them with the GTX295s. I can definitely say for a fact that just one GTX295 beat the GTX280s SLI'ed in about 80% of the benchmarks that I ran at 1920x1200 resolutions (Far Cry 2, Crysis, and 3DMark Vantage). I was actually a bit shocked about the whole thing. Also, another point to make is that some folks aren't willing to fork out the extra dough to upgrade their power supply (again) - which is exactly what they may have to do when running three GTX280s versus two GTX295s. Remember, the GTX295 is running the new 55nm GTX260s which use less voltage and actually run cooler. The average temps I've seen the GTX295s running are around 70C under full load! That's just amazing. Point to be made: My GTX280s run around the mid to high 90s Celsius under full load.
Finally, running three GTX280s pretty much eliminates any possibility of using any other slots on your mobo. There are a few X58 mobos that have an extra PCI-E 1x slot above the first PCI-E X16 slot, but only a few (Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI). If you have an older PCI X-Fi card, you will be out of luck and will have to use the onboard audio instead - YUK! No thanks. I LOVE my 24-bit audio
And talking about first hand experience, I had been running two GTX280s in SLI on my primary rig before replacing them with the GTX295s. I can definitely say for a fact that just one GTX295 beat the GTX280s SLI'ed in about 80% of the benchmarks that I ran at 1920x1200 resolutions (Far Cry 2, Crysis, and 3DMark Vantage). I was actually a bit shocked about the whole thing. Also, another point to make is that some folks aren't willing to fork out the extra dough to upgrade their power supply (again) - which is exactly what they may have to do when running three GTX280s versus two GTX295s. Remember, the GTX295 is running the new 55nm GTX260s which use less voltage and actually run cooler. The average temps I've seen the GTX295s running are around 70C under full load! That's just amazing. Point to be made: My GTX280s run around the mid to high 90s Celsius under full load.
Finally, running three GTX280s pretty much eliminates any possibility of using any other slots on your mobo. There are a few X58 mobos that have an extra PCI-E 1x slot above the first PCI-E X16 slot, but only a few (Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI). If you have an older PCI X-Fi card, you will be out of luck and will have to use the onboard audio instead - YUK! No thanks. I LOVE my 24-bit audio