Oh Hai! Finally got it. After headache after headache (rma's mostly), I did it. Triple SLi is now enable on my machine. I want to give everyone a run down on what I've learned from this, and what Ive gotten from it, considering I know not many have tried it. First off, the heat is absolutely ridiculous (as Im sure anyone could have guessed). I was expecting this, and I overcompensated on the water loop I configured for this. Best pump, great radiator (dual), and plenty of (quiet) airflow over the rad. Wasnt enough. I had to insert a triple radiator into the loop WITH the dual, and its STILL warming up on me (its manageable though,,, until I can think of something to do about it). Second, despite the best of my efforts, I cannot get 3dmark06 to finish a test with it. Its not overheating, and it appears to be a driver issue which is weird considering games work just dandy. Thirdly, it IS possible to do this without water cooling. I tested the system beforehand with air cooling to make sure everything was ok, and the temps were actually pretty acceptable (about 70c at the most under load), but that was with lots of air being rushed through the case. And last the not least,,, performance (minus 3dmark of course :wanker I was expecting a performance increase, of course, why would I have even tried this otherwise? What I got was a mind blowing increase in framerate. From what I see in the first couple tests in 3dmark06 before it stops, is a 150% increase from a single gtx, literally. With one card I get about 80fps on the first part of the first test (the dudes helmets in the transport with the red glow), with two I got 100fps, and with three i get 130fps. The part where the soldiers are shooting at each other I would get about 25fps with a single card, 45fps with 2 cards, and 60fps with three. Crysis now runs at 40fps with everything max and AA at 2x. Before I could max about half the settings and no AA at 35-40fps. Thats the only game worth mentioning considering COD4 and others are easily maxed out with even one gtx. I hope this is helpful to someone, or at least interesting. I wasnt expecting what I have now as far as performance, but now I need to address this heat issue, case looks hilarious with this triple rad stickin out the side of it.
Update: The computer has already maxed out my 1200w UPS, and shut down. I cant use the UPS, haha crazy
bLinkZor: Its the UPS that konked, it holds a charge and keeps things going if theres a power outage. Also levels out the voltage coming into the PSU, for power surges and whatnot. The psu itself is working it for me. It just happens to be on nvidias short list of triple sli approved psu's, which I wasnt planning for when I got it. FireKnight: lol, i know. Its good timing though, 6-6-6-18. Not bad for 1600mhz ddr3, heck, thats ddr2 timing. Plus I have two more coming, to make 4. Nonetheless I'm impressed with even the two as of yet. I think Im seeing the full potential of the cards, which nvidia states is a 150% increase compared to a single card, and thats exactly what Im seeing at all times, sometimes more. So it seems even the two is doing the trick for now.
Do you have all your CPU and 3xGPU's all in one continuous water loop? Really, just explain the water setup a little more than what you have - if you can/have time that is lol...
He should have a loop for CPU and north bridge (maybe throw in one GTX) and one for teh remaining 2 GTX (specially the middle one) considering he is running on 6 radiators if I am not mistaken. Just get one more pump and you are good to go.
THREE 8800GTX's....christ. Here I was thinking I was fine with just one ;p Props on your FPS domination!
Man that's going to be a mind-blowing 3D '06 score when you get that little snag worked out. Love seein' radical stuff like this! :thumbup:
Wow, thanks everyone for your comments. To explain the water loop a little, as of now, there are two loops. One loop is MCP655-B pump> MagiCool quad xtream rad> MC-TDX block The other is MCP655-B pump> Swiftech Black Ice GTX240 rad> DD GTX block> DD GTX block> Swiftech Stealth GTX block (the swiftech block was already in the house, so I figured I would just use that, worked out well too. I tried using the "tri sli G1/4 fittings" with horrible results, I wont go into those details, lo) I think Im going to put the main GTX on the processor loop. I also have this memory thats ready to be water cooled, but I dont know which one to add it to yet. I will be watercooling the northbridge and southbridge soon, so I might as well wait for that, then make another loop for those and the memory. About the UPS dying when the computers in-game now, I bet it has something to do with the way they rate these things. More than likely its a bit lower, plus the 24" samsung is plugged into it as well. I sure do hope I eventually get a 3dmark06 score out of this though. I was playing with settings and got a score of 20,022 in 3dmark06 with just the two cards (two cards=50% improvement over one,,, three=150%)
looking at your specs you couldn't spare some cash and get a sound card, or is it that you can't fit one?
well, honestly Im pretty happy with the onboard. It gives me decent optical quality, plus the coaxial for the tv to connect to. I could fit one if I got a single slot bracket for one of the cards to fit a sound card though. I have several cards here, but they only give me problems (xfi's mostly)
I seriously think its a waste of money because the next line of cards are coming and wil be close to that performance for a single card, but hey if you got the money why not Looks good
Well, I think that even tho the "next generation" is coming, it was great he did this. I don't like how people point out these things, there will always be a new generation coming in a few months or so, and I think he didn't want to change his setup completely and wanted to try something brand new, I would personally be very excited at the idea of doing a Tri-Sli myself. I might be alone tho... NOT. †Fire
Lol, I mean he would be right, had I not already had the two cards (i did not pay for the third, due to an RMA snafoo, WOOT) therefore, it was free to go from dual to triple sli. Update: So even though the performance is off the hook, leave it to nvidia to make something so good be so not good. Im having driver issues, only with call of duty 4 though. Im still happy overall with the tri-sli. But I have to switch to single card mode when playing cod4 (which I play the most). Unfortunately Im considering going back to dual cards for the time being. Tri sli has the potential of being VERY worth it (if you already have 2 that is), because I saw a much larger improvement using three than I do with two cards. Im currently going back and forth with nvidia about the issue (lol, they really listen to you when you have 3 gtx's and a 790i, haha) but so far they havent found anything for me. It seems that not many have done this, so Im treading new water. More to come soon im sure
