Dual Slot Or Triple Slot 680 /SLI

[Phinix]

Hi all,

I plan on buying a new GPU, single card for now, but possibly a second for SLI, or at a later date. So please keep that in mind.

I have two cards (brands) in mind but one is a dual slot card, the other a triple slot.

My current system is:

Maximus IV Extreme

Cosmos 2

HD6970

(i figured those are the only really important things you need to know about my system when picking a new GPU.)

The Dual slot card is: MSI N680GTX Lightning

The Triple slot card is: GTX680-DC2T-2GD5

The reason I’m looking at them, is because they are the same price.

In SLI the MSI card will have a space between the cards if I use a long SLI bridge which will allow for better cooling.

The ASUS will have no room between the cards, but might suffer from cooling since there is no gap between the cards.

Now as far as I know and read its difficult to say how much hotter the top triple slot card would get, some say 7C others say 15C.

So I just thought I’d get everyone’s opinion about these two card as a single solution and as a SLI solution.

Which would be better?

Any feedback is welcome.

[Money]

The Lightning is all around an awesome card. I would go with that. It will also save you space vs. the ASUS card.

[XiaoPigs]

Hmm considering you have the Cosmos 2 and a Maximus IV Extreme, I'm sure you have a power supply that's adequate for running 3 way SLI.

I would definitely go with the MSI cards if you're gonna go 3 way SLI due to the fact that the ASUS cards might have temps and spacing issues. But if you're sticking with two way SLI(which by the way is more feasible and I don't why anyone would go for three way except for bragging rights in my opinion) definitely go with them ASUS ones. Plus triple slot cards look much more cooler in my opinion haha.

As for the cards individually I'd say both a pretty much even. The ASUS one has a slightly higher factory overclock but hey I'm guessing you're gonna be overclocking your new cards anyways. I'd say the Asus one individually will have slightly better temps than the MSI one due to it's bigger cooler which yield better temps. Either way you're gonna get great cards out of the box.

[thegamezbeplayed]

You dont wanna take up more slots then you have too. You may someday want a sound card, or perhaps SLI even. Go with the MSI

[Scia]

I'd go with the MSI ones. Better airflow means better cooling, and MSI > ASUS =P

[Helltech]

I wouldn't say ASUS > MSI, however the Lightning is an amazing card. But do you really need to spend that much money? I'm not sure where you are located or how much it costs but you can get a 670 for a lot cheaper than a 680 and the difference between (reference cards at least) is about ten percent. So let’s be generous and say 15 percent.

You can get a GTX 670 for 300 on NCIX, and a GTX 680 for 465. I think those are the cheapest of each, at least from NCIX. That is a huge price difference for “15†percent performance difference.

However if you don't care about price (it seems like you might not) then I wouldn't bother with either honestly, go with a 4GB card. I'd get one of these;

ASUS GTX680-DC2 GTX 680 4GB

Gigabyte GTX 680 4GB

MSI Twin Frozr GTX 680 4GB

[Phinix]

Ooh, so many helpful people! =)

Well in terms of price, I converted my currency into USD just to make it easier, and the Asus is 767 USD while the MSI is 793 USD.

So you can see the price isn't to far off from each other.

Unfortunately no 4GB versions of any cards are available here yet. So I'm stuck with 2GB.

But i dont really plan to go triple display or HD+ resolutions, at least not for a while.

I mainly want the horse power because I'm tired of having to turn down AA or lowering texture quality.

What I might do is just buy one card and see how it performs, and if its not 60FPS+ constant in games I'll get another one.

One thing I do like about the ASUS is that it is quieter then the MSI. (although I've lived with a high pitched fan sequel 24/7 from my MSI 6970 reference since it came out.)

So silence would be nice.

I see I could actually run the triple slot cards in SLI with a pci slot free between them, I'd just have to make sure that i can squish the usb and front panel connections.

Hmm still unsure about either. Just so many valid points to each.

[Helltech]

If you are planning on possibly getting two cards, and are not running extremely high resolutions, then I don't see two GTX 670s not performing completely nuts for you. I have no problem at 1920x1200 with a single GTX 670. You can save yourself a lot of money and just SLI 670s which should destroy everything at 1080p, as i know from personal experience one is enough, and yes i'm using maxed out AA. I'd grab one, which will already save you at least ~150 USD, and then if it doesn't perform well enough grab enough, save yourself a lot of money.

[killerx525]

@Helltech, do note that the graph is a old graph and does not represent the new 12.11 drivers.

[Art Vandelay]

Go dual slot; triple slot is a waste of space.

[Helltech]

@Helltech' date=' do note that the graph is a old graph and does not represent the new 12.11 drivers.[/quote']

It also doesn't show Nvidia's latest drivers which closed the gap from 12.11's performance increase.

[ArcticWhitefur]

I know its not one of your listed cards but the Gigabyte 680 SOC 2GB is a tripple slot and if space is an issue with the fans on the side of the card can fit where a tri slot of traditional cooler layout wouldnt.

[Phinix]

Gigabyte 680 SOC 2GB

I know about that card, but in gets very loud due to the small fans. so that's a no.

How overcloackable are the 680's in general?

Becuase my reference 6970 you cant really change the clocks at all.

[Dr3nz4r]

I would also admit you to go with some 3+GB cards from MSI in SLI. espacialy when you're planning to go with 3 or even more displays later it's very important go have a decent amount of VRAM. As my predecessors already said go with a 2 slot card, so you can leave a few slots between each of those and you'll get much better temps which results in lower noise.

[Phinix]

Just a small Update.

After a lot more research and price comparisons, i have decided to go with the ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 in SLI.

The card is faster then a reference 680 but about 160USD cheaper. And in SLI it beats the 690.

So that's what I'm going for.

(and its super silent)

[star102]

Consider a triple slot 7970 :)