SLI upgrade and compatibility

[DallenRex]

     I'm thinking about upgrading my rig to allow for SLI. This was pre-built by a local Mom&Pop PC store, and I would like to do the upgrades myself. I was going to have an online service build it, but my father wanted local service opportunities. I've been really looking into PC building but still know next to nothing. I'm shooting for stable 1440p high quality gaming. Opinions?

 

-Rig:

       - ASUS Z87 Plus MB

         - Will fit two PCIe 16x cards but only will support them by 8x

         - Needs to be upgraded

 

       - Intel i5-4670k 

         - Compatible with two way SLI as I understand

         - Can probably stay

         - I don't think this will bottleneck, will it?

 

       - MSI Twin Frozr Gaming GTX 770 4GB oc

         - Really like this card and will probably look into getting another for the SLI

         - Not sure if you can or should mismatch same series cards in SLI

 

       - 2x8GB Ballistix Sport 1600MHz DDR3 RAM

         - Not much to say. I think it's fine.

 

       - 240GB SSD, 1TB HDD, 500GB HDD

         -500GB HDD is from an old PC, just threw it in to make data transfer easy.

 

       - Corsair RM650 80 plus gold

         - Not enough for SLI

         - Haven't looked into what I would need for SLI yet

 

       - ASUS VN247 and an old LG Flatron W2361V

         - LG was a hand-me-down

         - Both 1080p 60Hz

         - I would have to buy a 1440p monitor, maybe a higher refresh rate. I don't know what kind of FPS I'd be getting with SLI. (I'd rather crank graphics at 60 than boost up to 120 or 144, but If I can do both...)

 

       - My case is a full tower and will be fine with a few upgrades inside.

 

       I haven't looked into the replacements for the MB, PSU, or Monitor yet. Is that all I would have to change? And would SLI 770s get high enough frame rates at 1440p to make buying a high refresh rate monitor worth it? I also don't currently have a cooling unit in my PC, just the stock case fans and the fans installed in the components. Am I right in assuming that I would need more cooling for the SLI build? I'm basically just looking for tips on the whole upgrade process. I figured that if I'm looking for someone to point out mistakes, the internet is the best place. I've never done any real work on a PC and don't know much about trouble shooting or setup either, but I guess I can come back here for that. The Youtube Build Guides @LinusTechTips seem to do a decent job of explaining the precautions necessary to safely build a PC, but I think I'd go to forums for help regardless. I'd be interested in hearing about others' first experiences working on a PC. Also, I love console gaming too and am very excited for Destiny. Therefore the PC remodel could be put on hold, while I play Destiny, in case there are some big things coming out or price drops that I should wait for. Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

[scaryjam823]

Watch Carey Holzman on youtube. He is very thorough and will cure all your worries. He has several 1-3 hour videos of building machines and is hands down the best guy to watch to learn to build a pc.

[MegaDave91]

8x 8x mode is fine and won't cause any bottlenecking

[TheSLSAMG]

I personally don't see high refresh rate monitors as worth it due to having to go with a TN panel. The viewing angles and color accuracy are not very good TBH.

 

As for the 770 SLI, it will perform a bit better than a GTX 690, so there's that. You shouldn't have an issue pushing 50+ FPS on most games at 1440p from what I have seen.

 

You will not need a new motherboard. Your current board already supports SLI. You will only really have to change the PSU. Something 750W 80+ Gold or higher should do fine.

[loccilucas]

 

1.Your CPU will not bottleneck its, fine

2.You can mismatch the manufacturer of cards in SLI but they have to have the same GPU, for example you CAN sli a msi 770 and a evga 770, but can't sli a 770 and 760. (basically if the number is the same you can SLI it)

3.650watts might be enough, but it would be a stretch, get an 850w PSU that is defo enough. (more than enough but its always nice to have some wiggle room)

4. as for performance, look at 780ti performance then add on about 10-20fps I reckon.

5. more cooling is always good, just a couple more fans would be ok.

[DallenRex]

Scaryjam, I'll be sure to check out that channel. Thanks.

 

 

MegaDave, I feel as though only supporting SLI cards with 8x has to be a con somehow. What does it do exactly? But that's good news!

 

 

SLSAMG, I heard that they are making progress with 1440p monitor quality, so maybe that could be something I wait for while I play Destiny. Thanks for an FPS estimate. Will the 100W increase be enough? Or perhaps should I install something like 850W so I don't have to touch it for a long time?

 

Side-note: My MB does have a mini display port. That's fine, correct?

[DallenRex]

@loccilucas

     1. Awesome

     2. Alright, I will probably just get an identical card for looks then...

     3. Okay, that's what I was thinking.

     4. I'm going to go look that up right now, thanks!

     5. I haven't looked into changing any panels on my case, but there is already a 120mm fan in the front, back, and left side panel, what looks like a 160mm fan on the top which I have never seen kick on except when I forced it, and, now that I look at it, there is a small fan on a small heatsink over the processor. Point is: I'm not entirely sure where I could put another fan...

[MegaDave91]

MegaDave, I feel as though only supporting SLI cards with 8x has to be a con somehow. What does it do exactly? But that's good news!

Nope, it's not a con. Instead of each pcie 16x slot having 16 lanes, they will be divided between two lanes with each getting 8 lanes. You're looking at a couple fps lost, at most.

[loccilucas]

@loccilucas

     1. Awesome

     2. Alright, I will probably just get an identical card for looks then...

     3. Okay, that's what I was thinking.

     4. I'm going to go look that up right now, thanks!

     5. I haven't looked into changing any panels on my case, but there is already a 120mm fan in the front, back, and left side panel, what looks like a 160mm fan on the top which I have never seen kick on except when I forced it, and, now that I look at it, there is a small fan on a small heatsink over the processor. Point is: I'm not entirely sure where I could put another fan...

Is there no space for another 120 in the front and top? most cases would offer that at least

[DallenRex]

MegaDave, alright. That's good to know, thanks.

 

 

Loccilucas, I just pulled out the user's manual for my case. Stock, it has 2x120mm, 1x140mm, and 1x230mm fans. The four external drive bays take up a good deal of space on the front, plus there is an easy swap bay at the very bottom of the front. So there isn't room on the front. If I removed the massive fan on the top, I could fit two smaller fans, but that doesn't make much sense. There does seem like there is room for an average size fan at the bottom, but I'd have to raise the case a bit higher off the ground. I don't know much about alternate cooling solutions. I haven't checked my MB for power for 5+ fans...

[DallenRex]

Also, what benefits from more memory in the graphics cards? I've noticed that 4GB seems to be relatively high. Just curious about the effects.

[MegaDave91]

Also, what benefits from more memory in the graphics cards? I've noticed that 4GB seems to be relatively high. Just curious about the effects.

More vram is beneficial for high res displays like 4k. 2gb is fine for 1080p and 3gb is fine for 1440p. 4-6gb is beneficial for 4k.

[DallenRex]

Thank you, MegaDave! If you had to start scaling back the graphics settings, which settings would you touch first? Which settings would you leave alone?

[MegaDave91]

Thank you, MegaDave! If you had to start scaling back the graphics settings, which settings would you touch first? Which settings would you leave alone?

AA would be the one I scale back first.