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Where is my bottleneck? AKA 980 2-way SLI sucks?

VioDuskar
By VioDuskar
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So, i'd like than thank everyone who replied to this topic, sorry to necro this thread.

I DID pull out the GTX560-TI, i'm short a monitor for now until i can find converters, but no big deal

 

eventually i ended up getting an fx-9590 CPU. i'm hoping to hold on to this rig (mobo/CPU) for at least 3 maybe 4 more years untill DDR4 gets cheaper.

i've put my final system specs on my profile. might upgrade my PSU before then, because my estimated power draw is 741 on PCPartpicker.

 

with the new CPU i've been able to get a heaven bench of nearly 2800 score.

i need to retest my valley scores. i'll post them in my profile as well.

 

again, thanks everyone for helping me come up to a solution that works with what i have now and will hold firm for a while until DDR4 becomes cheaper. (can't wait to get my first e-ATX board to go with the DDR4 standard, and i will be swapping to intel when that happens.)

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so first here's what i have:

ASUS ROG crosshair V formula Z MoBo
1090T x6 @ 3.8GHz OC on water.
32GB tracer RAM DDR3
120SSD for OS 3TB HDD for storage.
4 monitors of various size. my main being HDMI cabled and at 1920x1080 (i run games/benchmarks on that one)

i'm running a GTX560 Ti sandwhich with GTX980 poseidon bread. AKA two gtx980s in SLI

when i run valley benchmarks my 980s run at about 45-57ish% and no higher, and my CPU runs at only 60-80% so i dont think i have a bottleneck at all.

can anyone think of a reason that my GPUs might not be untilized even by a sythetic benchmark?

someone on a different forum suggested tossing out by GTX560Ti because that might slow down the 980s. I tossed these out and my valley bench score went from ~2100 to ~2100 no difference.

 

i run my 1080p monitor and a OLD VGA monitor on my top 980 and two DVI monitors on my gtx560ti. no monitors are plugged into my bottom 980 because i run it in SLI.

 

basically what is the problem here? my valley score should be MUCH higher. like 2900 on a single card and about 5400 on dual cards. whats the deal?

the 980s overclock to 1500Mhz core easy as pie on air (adding liquid later) but whats the point if i can't even get them to take a full load?

can anyone suggest another benchmark that might stress my GPUs to 100%? or am i stuck using less then 60% of it's power all the time?

BTW a single non-SLI 980 still only runs the valley at 70% load with a score of 2050ish.

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

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Erm, why do you have a 560ti in there? Try pulling it out, wiping the drivers and installing them again. Also, that CPU is fairly old by now and probably should be upgraded for a freaking 980 SLI system. It's really unbalanced right now and it's totally possible that you'll see bottlenecking in various games.

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Erm, why do you have a 560ti in there? Try pulling it out, wiping the drivers and installing them again. Also, that CPU is fairly old by now and probably should be upgraded for a freaking 980 SLI system. It's really unbalanced right now and it's totally possible that you'll see bottlenecking in various games.

he doesnt actually, he's saying the second 980 is only really being used as if it were a 560ti. 

i'm running a GTX560 Ti sandwhich with GTX980 poseidon bread. AKA two gtx980s in SLI

 

 

SLI scaling bro. thats why.

Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger, forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart. 
-Jim Hensen

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he doesnt actually, he's saying the second 980 is only really being used as if it were a 560ti. 

i'm running a GTX560 Ti sandwhich with GTX980 poseidon bread. AKA two gtx980s in SLI

 

 

SLI scaling bro. thats why.

 

No, he doesn't:

 

someone on a different forum suggested tossing out by GTX560Ti because that might slow down the 980s. I tossed these out and my valley bench score went from ~2100 to ~2100 no difference.

 

As I said, try wiping the drivers after that. If that doesn't help, well that CPU is fairly old by now and the system as a whole is really unbalanced. I don't know about SLI scaling with their new GPUs, but my R9 290s are pinned at 100% usage in synthetic benchmarks and basically every single GPU bound game I've tested so far.

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The problem is your cpu is way to weak to even handle one 980.To remove the bottleneck get a 4690k

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If your not getting full gpu utilization then your cpu is hurting it.. That is a pretty old cpu and although not a bad chip its probably bottle necking the living crap out of those cards

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No, he doesn't:

 

 

As I said, try wiping the drivers after that. If that doesn't help, well that CPU is fairly old by now and the system as a whole is really unbalanced. I don't know about SLI scaling with their new GPUs, but my R9 290s are pinned at 100% usage in synthetic benchmarks and basically every single GPU bound game I've tested so far.

then why the fuck not just say two 980's and a single 560ti??? >_> T^T 

putting ''AKA two 980's in SLI'' sounds like he's saying the second 980 isnt preforming better than the afformentioned gpu.

Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger, forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart. 
-Jim Hensen

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The problem is your cpu is way to weak to even handle one 980.To remove the bottleneck get a 4690k

i wouldnt say thats the minimum for the cpu but its  great balance! :D

Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger, forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart. 
-Jim Hensen

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okay, anyone else have a good AM3+ socket CPU to help pull it's wieght between my 3 GPUs?

 

i have two GTX980s

and a GTX560ti in between those. i thought i covered that at the bottom.

 

my CPU isnt even maxed ay 100% usage during synthetic benches, it's only at 70-80%

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

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Not sure, seems like the CPU is holding back, even if it says it isn't at 100%.

 

I've seen people saying 8350's are bottlenecking 980 SLI, I'd imagine a 1090t would for sure.

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okay, anyone else have a good AM3+ socket CPU to help pull it's wieght between my 3 GPUs?

 

i have two GTX980s

and a GTX560ti in between those. i thought i covered that at the bottom.

 

my CPU isnt even maxed ay 100% usage during synthetic benches, it's only at 70-80%

 

Why are you so adamant about sticking with AM3+? You literally spent more than 1000USD on graphics cards alone, usually people just go intel at that point. Also, why stick with the 560ti? Why exactly is it in your system? Get rid of the 560ti, reinstall drivers, if that doesn't help you'll need a new CPU + mobo.

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Why do you have a 560 ti in there?  For the other 2 monitors?  You can use 3 monitors with SLI at the same time without needing the 560 ti in there.

 

so my monitors dont have display port plugs.... and i want 4, not 3.

 

 

Why are you so adamant about sticking with AM3+? You literally spent more than 1000USD on graphics cards alone, usually people just go intel at that point. Also, why stick with the 560ti? Why exactly is it in your system? Get rid of the 560ti, reinstall drivers, if that doesn't help you'll need a new CPU + mobo.

 

yeah. so i also just invested in 32GB of DDR3, and i'm not ready to also swap to a x99 board and i7 AND new ram for another 1200$ so. suggestions?

 

about the 560ti, see above.

 

also, i can't seem to find a x99 that can run x16x16 instead of x8x8. pci-e rails of course.

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

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so my monitors dont have display port plugs.... and i want 4, not 3.

 

 

 

yeah. so i also just invested in 32GB of DDR3, and i'm not ready to also swap to a x99 board and i7 AND new ram for another 1200$ so. suggestions?

 

about the 560ti, see above.

 

also, i can't seem to find a x99 that can run x16x16 instead of x8x8. pci-e rails of course.

 

You can get really cheap displayport to DVI or displayport to HDMI adapters. That's one of the main benefits of DP, it's really easy to adapt. i7 4790k or i5 4690k? You could still use DDR3 with that and you'd be good to go. Also, just to make this clear, the monitor that is running the games is not plugged into the 560ti, right?

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You can get really cheap displayport to DVI or displayport to HDMI adapters. That's one of the main benefits of DP, it's really easy to adapt. i7 4790k or i5 4690k? You could still use DDR3 with that and you'd be good to go. Also, just to make this clear, the monitor that is running the games is not plugged into the 560ti, right?

no, the HDMI monitor is running off of the 980 SLI....

 

well i need to stock up on DP adapters because all i have is a million other types.  fuck the core, i need a motherboard that will even run SLI in dual x16 instead of dual x8 

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

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no, the HDMI monitor is running off of the 980 SLI....

 

well i need to stock up on DP adapters because all i have is a million other types.  fuck the core, i need a motherboard that will even run SLI in dual x16 instead of dual x8 

 

dual 16x is not possible on Haswell, you would have to step up to Haswell-E and buy DDR4 ram. But why would you want to run them it dual 16x? It doesn't make any difference performance wise.

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dual 16x is not possible on Haswell, you would have to step up to Haswell-E and buy DDR4 ram. But why would you want to run them it dual 16x? It doesn't make any difference performance wise.

 

 I DONT HAVE AN INTEL SETUP!

 

my mobo runs dualx16 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131876

 

so back to my original question,  suggest a AM3+ socket that can keep up with the 980s? even though my thuban @ 3.8 doesnt work at 100% under graphical load?

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

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If you were planning on going to X99 anyways, Just get a Z97 board and an i7 4790K.

The bottleneck is in your CPU. 

And I assume the 560ti is there for physx, no?

 

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Laptop: 2015 Macbook Pro 13, 8GB of RAM, 2.7Ghz i5, 240GB Apple SSD. 

 

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If you were planning on going to X99 anyways, Just get a Z97 board and an i7 4790K.

The bottleneck is in your CPU. 

And I assume the 560ti is there for physx, no?

yes, physX and driving 2 more monitors for a total of 4.

 

could you suggest a z97 board? and estimated cost? 

 

while i find ways to get nice parts, i'm also not a money bank, thats why i'm holding off on DDR4 boards.

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

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 I DONT HAVE AN INTEL SETUP!

 

my mobo runs dualx16 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131876

 

so back to my original question,  suggest a AM3+ socket that can keep up with the 980s? even though my thuban @ 3.8 doesnt work at 100% under graphical load?

 

Calm the fuck down if you want someone to help you. Dual 16x doesn't matter, 8x is still plenty of bandwidth even for a 980. The best AM3+ CPU you're going to get is an FX 9590, but it's only compatible with very specific boards due its power consumption. You'd have to check whether your board is even compatible. Besides that, probably an 8350 or 8370. My original point still stands though, you're putting 1000+$ of graphics horsepower behind a 200$ CPU with a very dated architecture, if you upgrade to haswell you're going to run both cards at 8x, but the bottleneck will be gone. If you're still sure that your CPU is not bottlenecking the cards then get rid of the 560ti first, it might be the problem here.

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 I DONT HAVE AN INTEL SETUP!

 

my mobo runs dualx16 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131876

 

so back to my original question,  suggest a AM3+ socket that can keep up with the 980s? even though my thuban @ 3.8 doesnt work at 100% under graphical load?

"3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (dual x16 or x16/x8/x8) "

You cannot run 16x/16x.

http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULAZ/specifications/

As for an AM3+ CPU that will not bottleneck, you will be looking for a LONG time because there won't be one. 

 

Spoiler

I7 4790K @4.5 Ghz 1.294V

VALIDATION, MSI Z97 Gaming 7, 24GB DDR3 1600, Asus Strix 1070 8GB OC@ 2.2Ghz, Corsair graphite series 760T (Black), Cooler master V850, NH-D15 w/LNA ,1TB Samsung 850 Evo,  480GB Sandisk Ultra II SSD, 3TB Seagate Barracuda x 3, 1 TB WD Passport (Backup drive), 2 TB WD Passport (Backup Drive 2),  Windows 10 Pro x64 (uhg), Logitech G900 Chaos (Main), Steelseries Rival (FADE) (Courtesy of Edzel Yago, Thanks Ed), Steelsieres Rival 300 Hyperbeast Special Edition, Coolermaster Quickfire TKL (MX Blue), Razer Blackwidow Tournament edition (Greens).  Audio: Sennheiser HD598 SE, Edifier S1000DB, AudioEngine D1 DAC; Yamaha MG06X Mixer & AudioTechnica AT2020.

 

Phones; Daily drivers: Nexus 6P 64GB/iPhone 6 (Music), Apple Watch, Apple AirPods.

Laptop: 2015 Macbook Pro 13, 8GB of RAM, 2.7Ghz i5, 240GB Apple SSD. 

 

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I also do Youtube, check me out!

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 I DONT HAVE AN INTEL SETUP!

 

my mobo runs dualx16 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131876

 

so back to my original question,  suggest a AM3+ socket that can keep up with the 980s? even though my thuban @ 3.8 doesnt work at 100% under graphical load?

What people have been trying to tell you is that there isn't one. I suggest just giving up the dual 16x because it doesn't matter. 

My personal rig - 4790k 4.8Ghz, Asus Z97 Pro (wi-fi ac), Corsair Dominator Plat 4x8GB, SLI GTX 1080 TI FE, Samsung 850 Evo 1TB, Crucial MX100 512GB, EVGA G3 1000W, and cooled by a hardline liquid cooling loop. 

 

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Calm the fuck down if you want someone to help you. Dual 16x doesn't matter, 8x is still plenty of bandwidth even for a 980. The best AM3+ CPU you're going to get is an FX 9590, but it's only compatible with very specific boards due its power consumption. You'd have to check whether your board is even compatible. Besides that, probably an 8350 or 8370. My original point still stands though, you're putting 1000+$ of graphics horsepower behind a 200$ CPU with a very dated architecture, if you upgrade to haswell you're going to run both cards at 8x, but the bottleneck will be gone. If you're still sure that your CPU is not bottlenecking the cards then get rid of the 560ti first, it might be the problem here.

 

 

"3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (dual x16 or x16/x8/x8) "

You cannot run 16x/16x.

http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/CROSSHAIR_V_FORMULAZ/specifications/

As for an AM3+ CPU that will not bottleneck, you will be looking for a LONG time because there won't be one. 

 

thank you both, if you both believe that dual x16 isnt going to be obtainable then i'll have to hold off and get a z97 and swap to intel based CPUs.

i dont have any biases, but i really dont want to go out and revamp the entire system again if all i needed was a core instead of a core and MB and maybe RAM

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

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yes, physX and driving 2 more monitors for a total of 4.

 

could you suggest a z97 board? and estimated cost? 

 

while i find ways to get nice parts, i'm also not a money bank, thats why i'm holding off on DDR4 boards.

Picking a Z97 motherboard really gets down to SLI Support, Colour scheme, and size. 

Super super easy.

This one can run the dual 980s in the PCIe 3.0 slots and the 560ti in the one PCIe 2.0 slot, but it gets down to features/colour. 

Typically, you want to spend $175-$275 if you're going to be running 3 cards. 

Honestly though, find a way to ditch the 560Ti because all you're doing is heating that case up more. 

 

Spoiler

I7 4790K @4.5 Ghz 1.294V

VALIDATION, MSI Z97 Gaming 7, 24GB DDR3 1600, Asus Strix 1070 8GB OC@ 2.2Ghz, Corsair graphite series 760T (Black), Cooler master V850, NH-D15 w/LNA ,1TB Samsung 850 Evo,  480GB Sandisk Ultra II SSD, 3TB Seagate Barracuda x 3, 1 TB WD Passport (Backup drive), 2 TB WD Passport (Backup Drive 2),  Windows 10 Pro x64 (uhg), Logitech G900 Chaos (Main), Steelseries Rival (FADE) (Courtesy of Edzel Yago, Thanks Ed), Steelsieres Rival 300 Hyperbeast Special Edition, Coolermaster Quickfire TKL (MX Blue), Razer Blackwidow Tournament edition (Greens).  Audio: Sennheiser HD598 SE, Edifier S1000DB, AudioEngine D1 DAC; Yamaha MG06X Mixer & AudioTechnica AT2020.

 

Phones; Daily drivers: Nexus 6P 64GB/iPhone 6 (Music), Apple Watch, Apple AirPods.

Laptop: 2015 Macbook Pro 13, 8GB of RAM, 2.7Ghz i5, 240GB Apple SSD. 

 

Spoiler

Plex Server: i7 3770, Gigabyte Board, 16GB DDR3 1600, Asus Strix GTX 1050ti 4GB, 120GB SSD Boot Drive, 8 x 3TB Seagate Barracuda, Rosewill RSV-R4000 With 2 Rosewill Hot Swap 4x Backplane Bays, 1050 Watt Corsair HX Series PSU,Hyper T2, Windows 10 Pro 

 

I also do Youtube, check me out!

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Picking a Z97 motherboard really gets down to SLI Support, Colour scheme, and size. 

Super super easy.

This one can run the dual 980s in the PCIe 3.0 slots and the 560ti in the one PCIe 2.0 slot, but it gets down to features/colour. 

Typically, you want to spend $175-$275 if you're going to be running 3 cards. 

Honestly though, find a way to ditch the 560Ti because all you're doing is heating that case up more. 

i know sandwhiching is a heat issue, but i'm running poseidons, and they are going to be liquid cooled soon.

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

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i know sandwhiching is a heat issue, but i'm running poseidons, and they are going to be liquid cooled soon.

The 980s will be able to handle physx just fine, and you can get fairly cheap hubs and adapters to go from DP to HDMI, DVI, Or even VGA.

And then you can throw the 560 in an HTPC or something later on. 

As for the Gen/Speed of PCIe, even modern graphics card don't max out even the OLD gen of PCIe, so you have nothing to worry about there. 

 

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