Duel 780Ti SC Sli Woes

Hardware Hub GPU
1

Heya Tek Guys, Once again I come to you in need of guidance.

Well recently I got a nice 4k monitor (Ty DS) and I was thinking well my ol 780Ti SC is having a little issue pushing that rez ... sooo I went and grabbed another 780Ti SC for Sli'ing.

Well my experiences has been less then thrilling lol.

First off I have:
Windows 10 Pro 64Bit
16GB of Ram
I7 4790k OC'ed to 4.7 cooled by a water
Sabertooth z97 Mark I MB
1000W PSU (going on 5+yrs old)

So I get the card today .. plug all power cords that are required into both .. plug in the little Asus Ribbon for Sli, open Nvidia control panel enable Sli. I am ready to rock and roll!
1st I find out that Nvidia doesn't have a proper Sli Profile for fallout 4 .. (Bummer)
So I go and play a little CS:GO .. just to see what kinda crazy frames I get :D

Game loads .. I walk forwards 2 steps ... whole system restarts.. okie dokie.
lets try another game ..
7 days to die .. I get about 5 steps .. whole system restarts. Hmmmm
Gta 5 same thing.

At this time I am thinking ok ..the CPU OC is taking to much power .. so I go back to the default 4000Mhz everything is default.

Same thing.
Mind you everything plays fine with Sli disabled.

So going to google I look around and between people bitching about Sli and Nvidia doing a piss poor job with there profile support. I did find a few things ranging from some guy talking about his assist fans, and Asus armor on his MB not giving enough air flow bla bla bla.

Now I do have Thermal Radar 2 from Asus .. and with Sli on .. all temps are perfect.. CPU is like 45C Vcore is like 45C.

You get the idea.

Only thing event manager tells is is kernel power .. your PC has shut down unexpectedly ect. ect.

So I went onto Asus and grabbed an up-to-date bios file .. updated my bios .. which changed all my fans to DC .. ty Asus .. and Cha4 fan silent is turbo .. but anyway that's another issue lol.

Anyway .. that's pretty much where I'm at .. I honestly don't think its a heat issue .. I am leaning more towards my PSU unfortunately .. it is getting up there in age so .. maybe its lost some of its oomf. Still your telling me duel 780Ti and an I7 need more then 1000W PSU??

But I come to you guys becasue before I package this card up and sell it on ebay or cregslist ..mabey I am missing somthing?
I have read maybe its a bad Sli ribbon? I don't have an extra unfortunately .. and don't want to spend 30 bucks on one just to have it do the same issue .. lol

So unless there is a light at the end of this tunnel .. I think I may just stick to a single card setup.. the things I have read online about sli .. where not good lol
stuttering, micro stutter, worse frames then with single card ect ect.
maybe it's just the old 780Ti series I dunno.

Thank you for any help guys

P.S.
I did have a good experience with Sli back in the gtx 200 series days lol .. So its kinda depressing that this time it has been lack luster...

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If your system is restarting when you start to play a game, it's almost always the power supply.

With a mild OC on those 780 Ti, you're pulling about 600-700W and although that is bellow the rating of your PSU, it triggers the OCP and restarts the system.

Long story short, you have a faulty PSU.

2 Likes
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especially one that is 5 years old. don't get me wrong, plenty of PSUs last for ages, but 5 years is about the time most of us start recommend moving the old PSU to being a backup

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Try testing some heavy power drawing benchmark like furmark, it should draw much more power than a game does.

I really don't see CS:GO having a huge power draw, it barely touches your CPU and it can run on a potato graphics card.

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Dual*

(just testing the waters at how petty one can be)

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@MrFlyte
Ugh way dos thar hav to be won of u in evray foram lol (that reply is just for you ;))

@everyone else
Ya I figured it was the PSU, thank you guys for the replies back.
Unfortunately though after the monitor and the video card. I don't think I'm going to drop another 250+ on a new PSU lol
Not for the kind of performance gains that I have seen and heard about with Sli ...
My single 780Ti will do for now.

7

250? Try 130:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438018

That thing will be more than enough for your setup. I'm using a 750W version of that PSU for a pair of maxed out 780s and a 4670K at 4K for my work PC. They are all OC'd to the limit.

PS: 75 bucks for a lower efficiency model:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438028

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Ya that one isn't to bad .. its kinda weird that a 850 will run my things where an old 1000 wont ..
O fun fact I did buy my PSU in 2010 haha .. time goes by.

If I was going to get another PSU .. this is the one I would want ;)
The reason being is I want something that's semi future proof .. I don't want to go a yr and have to replace a PSU because I upgraded my MB or CPU .. if i'm gonna go .. i'm going deep :P lol

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G28N0888

My question is .. is Sli worth the cost?

The kinda games I play:
Fallout 4
CS:GO
Portal II
Cities Skyline
TSW
Tera
Wurm
ect.

Mind you I would like to run them all maxed out at 4k Resolution (3840 x 2160) and try and push 60fps+

I think I might just wait a few more yrs and see what single card options there are out there.
Might even try ATI.. since Nvidia doesn't want to support freesync :/

9

Sorry but "future proofing" isn't a real thing. You'd be wasting money on a 1200W unit. GPUs and CPUs are getting more efficient each generation, meaning you won't need as much power. Unless you're planning on 4 way SLI, which let's face it, you won't, that 850 will last you forever. 7 year warranty too.

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Ya I suppose that is true .. everything is getting more efficient power wise ..
I just like to dream about future proofing sometime haha

Well let em ask you this..
Do you think Sli'ing two 780Ti's is worth it? or is it more wise.... to wait a few more yrs and get a single card that can do 4k with ease?

11

Nvidia has been pretty pathetic when it comes to last gen product support. I have SLI 780 Ti's at home on a 1080P 144Hz panel. They work alright, but Nvidia driver support pisses me off.

I just saw Guru 3D's graphic performance of the new Cod and....:

untitled-2.png683x757 13.9 KB

When you see a GTX 780 Ti beaten by an R9 290, you realize how much Nvidia cares about their last gen (Kepler) GPU performance. A 780 Ti is superior to an R9 290X let alone a 290, yet lackluster driver performance turn that advantage on its head. Meanwhile AMD is still updating drivers for Pitcairn (R9 370, R9 270X, HD7870 which launched back in 2012), a card far inferior (performance wise) to a GTX 770 yet beating it in the latest titles.

I don't know, maybe Nvidia will fix them in a later update, maybe they won't. They are just becoming more like Apple every day, cold, clinical, and focusing on exclusive features like Gameworks and other crap.

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Not to derail but this is known. They care not for older generations and in some cases have been called out for downgrading the performance of older cards while upgrading newer cards. Take that for what it is.

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I think that has more to do with GCN drivers for the 290x are really good now compared to at release, 780ti should be somewhere between the 290 and 290x.

1 Like
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No, and no. At any rate, it's not just 780 Ti vs 290X. A GTX 770 is significantly faster than an R9 370 and look at the results.

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Ya I have notice that with there crappy nvidia exspirence that likes to hang and crash and set settings for my games where they can be alot higher ...

That program would be nice if you could set your resolution then based on that and your system it would set the other grfx settings ...

But anyway ty for the reply .. When I need another PSU I'll be sure to pick up the one you reccomended ..
And as far as sli goes.. I think I'll just stick to single card use for now ..
I may even keep an eye on ATI and see what they come up with .. At least then I can get freesync working.

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remember when AMD's 290's came out they were beating nvida's 780's in loads of benches. then the TI came and edged the 290's out by a slim margin. now that drivers are more mature the 290s are killing the 780Ti in benches because nvida loves to gimp older cards. long story short buy AMD graphics where the performance does not get gimped every driver update.

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I run 2 780 non ti in sli and i do just fine. running a ocz 850 watt gold psu. same cpu at 4.9 and a gigabyte gaming 5 z97.