Some help with setting up SLI with dual GTX 1070 ti cards

[MGSPhilly]

Greetings....first post!

Have a gaming 5 MSI motherboard, 3 potential slots for the two cards.  Where would be optimal to place them?  Somewhat concerned about using the uppermost slot as it would vent right up into the coolermaster heat sink.

The lower slot of three is just above the EVGA Gold+ 650 PSU which faces down with a special vent filter (nice extra from Antec case).  Any suggestions?  And was also wondering what bridge I would need, like the Nvidia HD bridge..which is theoretically producing smoother frames and less stuttering with the SLI setup.  Or can I use the Intel bridge....they're pushing (Nvidia is) the HD for obvious reasons, don't really know the reality of it!

Many thanks for reading, best of luck all

 

MGSPhilly

[knightslugger]

If you're doing this for next-gen gaming... i got some bad news for you...

 

space them out as far as you can while remaining on the CPU's PCIe lanes and get good airflow to the front of the card. Not all of the PCIe x16 slots are wired directly to the CPU. 

[Shanhara]

3 minutes ago, MGSPhilly said:

Greetings....first post!

Have a gaming 5 MSI motherboard, 3 potential slots for the two cards.  Where would be optimal to place them?  Somewhat concerned about using the uppermost slot as it would vent right up into the coolermaster heat sink.

The lower slot of three is just above the EVGA Gold+ 650 PSU which faces down with a special vent filter (nice extra from Antec case).  Any suggestions?  And was also wondering what bridge I would need, like the Nvidia HD bridge..which is theoretically producing smoother frames and less stuttering with the SLI setup.  Or can I use the Intel bridge....they're pushing (Nvidia is) the HD for obvious reasons, don't really know the reality of it!

Many thanks for reading, best of luck all

 

MGSPhilly

you should take a look at the MoBo slot specs in your MoBo manual. for my Motherboard which is a Rampage Vi Extreme from ASUS, the first and third slots are preferred so thermals aren't all that matter.

 

I would generally go with the Nvidia bridge.

[Zando_]

Just now, knightslugger said:

If you're going this for next-gen gaming... i got some bad news for you...

 

space them out as far as you can while remaining on the CPU's PCIe lanes and get good airflow to the front of the card. Not all of the PCIe x16 slots are wired directly to the CPU. 

^^^ More spacing is better, though as long as there is one slot between them you should be fine. I have SLI EVGA 1080 SCs with one slot spacing on a Crosshair VII. It's inside an Enthoo Evolv with 3x 120mm fans in the front, and my bottom GPU stays around 66C (the normal max for an EVGA SC in my experience), and the top one hits 74C or so, haven't seen them break the 80C barrier yet so you should be fine (even in games like Mass Effect Andromeda and Battleforont 2015 which do 98% scaling or so). 

[Zando_]

2 minutes ago, Shanhara said:

you should take a look at the MoBo slot specs in your MoBo manual. for my Motherboard which is a Rampage Vi Extreme from ASUS, the first and third slots are preferred so thermals aren't all that matter.

 

I would generally go with the Nvidia bridge.

Defo get a high bandwidth bridge, though the Nvidia ones seem to be overpriced. I have an EVGA one, and the ASUS and MSI ones get good reviews as well. Some mobos even include a basic HB bridge, my Crosshair VII did. 

[Shanhara]

1 minute ago, knightslugger said:

If you're going this for next-gen gaming... i got some bad news for you...

 

space them out as far as you can while remaining on the CPU's PCIe lanes and get good airflow to the front of the card. Not all of the PCIe x16 slots are wired directly to the CPU. 

Depends on the cooler style for your card. If you're using a blower style, it's fine if they are close but if you're using anything else, keep them as far away from each other for bettert airflow. If the 1070ti s you're using are the founders' cards, you can keep them together.

[knightslugger]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

Defo get a high bandwidth bridge, though the Nvidia ones seem to be overpriced. I have an EVGA one, and the ASUS and MSI ones get good reviews as well. Some mobos even include a basic HB bridge, my Crosshair VII did. 

hell i got a HB bridge from Asus with my X370 Prime board... used it once on a pair of 1070 FTWs. i got single 1070 performance from a 2016 title.

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, knightslugger said:

hell i got a HB bridge from Asus with my X370 Prime board... used it once on a pair of 1070 FTWs. i got single 1070 performance from a 2016 title.

Which title? I get worse performance in Destiny 2 and Rise of the Tomb Raider than with a single card, and both boast SLI support (with tweaks ROTTR *should* do 98-99% scaling). Then in two other titles that support SLI, ME:Andromeda and Battlefront 2015, it runs without a hitch. SLI seems to be pretty quirky in my limited experience so far. 

[Mick Naughty]

Prolly be limited on options for the placement. As wide as you can go, with blowers you’ll be much better and save the rest of the components form suffering. 

Just look at the manual and go from there. 

[Cris23]

On 10/23/2018 at 4:56 PM, MGSPhilly said:

Greetings....first post!

Have a gaming 5 MSI motherboard, 3 potential slots for the two cards.  Where would be optimal to place them?  Somewhat concerned about using the uppermost slot as it would vent right up into the coolermaster heat sink.

The lower slot of three is just above the EVGA Gold+ 650 PSU which faces down with a special vent filter (nice extra from Antec case).  Any suggestions?  And was also wondering what bridge I would need, like the Nvidia HD bridge..which is theoretically producing smoother frames and less stuttering with the SLI setup.  Or can I use the Intel bridge....they're pushing (Nvidia is) the HD for obvious reasons, don't really know the reality of it!

Many thanks for reading, best of luck all

 

MGSPhilly

Many years back workstation 2 dual core xeons one 2 gb card 6-7 hundred question how it will work in sli k .. some site said these cards support sli and u can sli them with this code some nr and leters 20-30 codes every for 2- 3 not consecutive cards.. now im looking with what card i can sli 1070ti all i found are EMPTY FREAKING WORDS. And i never slied the card back then it was working amazing anyway where is the net that u can use? We need it u know?