780ti sli bottleneck?

[azzazel_99]

Hello everyone. Let me start off by saying thanks in advance for any answers and I have been searching around and havent found a for sure answer yet. Obviously im new here on the forums as I mainly am on another mainstream forum on the web but always watch linus vids on youtube so figured I should join. Ok on to the juicy stuff.......I currently ru. A i5 2500k overclocked to 4.4ghz with 8gb ram on a msi p67a-gd65[b3]and a evga 780ti classified gpu. I run a 144hz monitor 27 inch and of course from time to time I get fps drops elow the 120fps+ threshold I try to keep. Namely on bf4, metro ll and im sure of course on crysis 3 when I finally buy it one day. I really am interested in getting another 780ti and this would also be my first ever sli system. I run a corsair hx850 powersupply so I know I got the power for it but im wondering if my i5 would bottleneck it. I have seen countless reviews on cpu vs cpu and the 2500k is still a great cpu from what I have found around the web. I figured this was more a gpu question so I hope I put it in the correct section. Thank you all in advance for any help.

[Wtalk2]

The i5 2500K still has plenty of power. It shouldn't bottleneck those 780Ti's at all.

[azzazel_99]

Fantastic! Another question I see is the front panel pins on my mobo kinda get in the way of the card when its in the 2nd pcie slot......the card hits the plugs/wires........can I just cut those case front panel connectors a little shorter?

[Wtalk2]

Fantastic! Another question I see is the front panel pins on my mobo kinda get in the way of the card when its in the 2nd pcie slot......the card hits the plugs/wires........can I just cut those case front panel connectors a little shorter?

I wouldn't recommend cutting them. Just try using cable ties to route them around your 2nd graphics card

[azzazel_99]

Well the end of the gpu literally sits ontop of them....they were poorly placed on this motherboard.

[Wtalk2]

Well the end of the gpu literally sits ontop of them....they were poorly placed on this motherboard.

Oh I see what you mean. I don't see how you would cut them without damaging them, please explain.

[Guest]

It's kind of moot because there isn't anything significantly better.

[azzazel_99]

The plastic black "housing" the metal pin sits in. Cut it shorter to remove what looks to be excess.

[azzazel_99]

On the wires themselves not the mobo. Just shorten the physical female end on the reset,power,led and hdd plugs to create a little extra room for the gpu to sit into the pcie slot all the way.

[Wtalk2]

On the wires themselves not the mobo. Just shorten the physical female end on the reset,power,led and hdd plugs to create a little extra room for the gpu to sit into the pcie slot all the way.

You could try that but be very careful you don't accidentally cut the wire also.

[squid4fl]

To the bottlenecking question.. I would check Task manager during Battlefield 4 and look how high the CPU usage is (especially when the framerate dips). If it is not maxed out and there is still enough headroom then you know that your 2500k is not bottlenecking and you can go for your sli setup

[azzazel_99]

Well on 64man maps in bf4 during hardcore stuff its anywhere from 80-93%. A new mobo cpu will be comming soon as haswell-e or devils canyon drops.

[azzazel_99]

But gpu is also normally 90-100% in game in 64man maps with a full roster. It ranges from 60-100% depending on whats going on in the immediate area. I thought about a better cpu cooler and taking the cpu higher like 4.6 or 4.7ghz but if im gonna be replacing it in a few months it kinda seems wasteful to buy like a h100i and only use it a short time.

[Imabigmac]

I would bet there is a good chance of a bottleneck there. but if your getting 90% gpu usage thats good, when it drops to 60% you definitely hit a heavy cpu usage area.

[azzazel_99]

Well when the gpu drops in usage so does the cpu. Its normally if im off in a area where there isnt alot going on.

[azzazel_99]

I wanna pull the trigger as I really wanna sli this beast of a card and the mobo/cpu is next so. Just gotta figure out this front panel pin issue then I will pull the trigger on it.

[Sonefiler]

I wanna pull the trigger as I really wanna sli this beast of a card and the mobo/cpu is next so. Just gotta figure out this front panel pin issue then I will pull the trigger on it.

In your situtation, I would upgrade the CPU instead of the GPU.

[azzazel_99]

Not upgrading to current haswell stuff. In waiting for haswell e or devils canyon so I have time for that

[Faa]

You will see bottlenecks. In nearly all mmo games, BF3, BF4 (not that major), BL2, PS2 etc. I haven't really seen that many games that could keep both of my 780's at 99% except BF4/Crysis 3 and some singleplayer games. Most of the time a 2nd 780ti is a complete waste for 1080p and even a single 780ti.

[azzazel_99]

Well normally I'd agree but I run the asus 27 inch 144hz and I want to keep 144fps or higher at all times for smoothest games play. If I wasnt gamming at 144hz I would completely agree my 1 780ti is plenty but playing on ultra it does drop below 90 time to time and thats what I dont want anymore. I dont play mmo's so I couldn't care about mmo performance.

[azzazel_99]

Also now that im thinking about it I might need a bigger psu..........I just picked up in december a corsair hx850.....should that be ok for 2 of these gpu's?

[azzazel_99]

Nope psu is plenty even with these cards overclocked. They run awesome so far and I couldn't be happier.