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[Alo81]

Finally...I have the perfect BF3 rig. I have been searching for this since the games launch. 2-way SLI 580s, tri-SLI 680s, 4-way SLI 680s (reference, FTW+, Classified), 2-way SLI 680s (Lightning, 690) with varying CPUs (2500k, 3820, 3930k, 3960x) all clocked over 4.5 GHz...all it took was 3-way SLI TITANS to do it, lol.

1080p/120hz - flawless, butter smooth, no dips below 110...usually around 180-190 fps. 3930k @ 4.7GHz for the CPU. It's unbelievable. So happy right now. I don't even know if I am going to try NV Surround (3x 1080p/120hz aka 5760x1080/120hz) since it will be unlikely that I can achieve this nirvana at that resolution...I guess in another gen or two.

They should set up arcades where you can pay to play on super computers like this.

That sounds like it would be really, really impressive to experience.

 

[sk3tch]

They should set up arcades where you can play to pay on super computers like this.

That sounds like it would be really, really impressive to experience.

Exactly! If anyone is in MN, send me a PM and you can come on by! This is one reason I had 4 fully configured machines previously - I could hold LAN parties with my friends that didn't have a gaming PC. My living room is basically 4 tables with computers on them, haha.

 

[mkenyon]

They should set up arcades where you can play to pay on super computers like this.

That sounds like it would be really, really impressive to experience.

PDXLAN generally has about 5+ monster demo rigs setup for testing. These are from a few years ago, when the 6870 was the top dog card. They actually launched the 5xx series there, it was pretty awesome.

They'll now have a full racing setup, tons of laptops from MSI/ASUS, all sorts of goodies to play around with.

Last year I was able to try out a 4320x2560 (three 1440p monitors in portrait) setup, was pretty rad. They even had the bezels removed.

 

[Kame]

PDXLAN generally has about 5+ monster demo rigs setup for testing. These are from a few years ago, when the 6870 was the top dog card. They actually launched the 5xx series there, it was pretty awesome.



They'll now have a full racing setup, tons of laptops from MSI/ASUS, all sorts of goodies to play around with.

Last year I was able to try out a 4320x2560 (three 1440p monitors in portrait) setup, was pretty rad. They even had the bezels removed.

Holy shit..

 

[mkenyon]

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

Those aren't even some of the best builds either. For whatever reason, the modding community that goes to PDXLAN is some of the most impressive in the world. There's a guy there, DarthBeavis, who is the stuff of legends.

I can safely say that if it weren't for PDXLAN, I probably would have never become a tech enthusiast. I'd be happy just having a good gaming system.

This is like a run of the mill type system you'd see there. So cool.

 

[sk3tch]

Man, Crysis 3 is a beast. It ran like ass at 1080p/120hz with my GTX 690/3820 @ 4.5GHz and it still kinda has a bit of jank to it with 3x Titan/3930k @ 4.7GHz at the same resolution. Incredible looking game...but wow.

 

[Alo81]

Man, Crysis 3 is a beast. It ran like ass at 1080p/120hz with my GTX 690/3820 @ 4.5GHz and it still kinda has a bit of jank to it with 3x Titan/3930k @ 4.7GHz at the same resolution. Incredible looking game...but wow.

I wonder how much of that is just poor optimization.

 

[sk3tch]

I wonder how much of that is just poor optimization.

That's a common refrain - but it is the best looking game out there. So I doubt it's that unoptimized.

 

[Izcarielo]

That's a common refrain - but it is the best looking game out there. So I doubt it's that unoptimized.

Whats the relation between being the best looking game out there and it being optimized?

 

[CrashPrime]

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

Those aren't even some of the best builds either. For whatever reason, the modding community that goes to PDXLAN is some of the most impressive in the world. There's a guy there, DarthBeavis, who is the stuff of legends.

I can safely say that if it weren't for PDXLAN, I probably would have never become a tech enthusiast. I'd be happy just having a good gaming system.



This is like a run of the mill type system you'd see there. So cool.

I seem to remember a clone trooper case he did back in the early 2000's that I used to sit and stare at for hours. He's still around?

 

[tn2007]

Finally...I have the perfect BF3 rig. I have been searching for this since the games launch. 2-way SLI 580s, tri-SLI 680s, 4-way SLI 680s (reference, FTW+, Classified), 2-way SLI 680s (Lightning, 690) with varying CPUs (2500k, 3820, 3930k, 3960x) all clocked over 4.5 GHz...all it took was 3-way SLI TITANS to do it, lol.

1080p/120hz - flawless, butter smooth, no dips below 110...usually around 180-190 fps. 3930k @ 4.7GHz for the CPU. It's unbelievable. So happy right now. I don't even know if I am going to try NV Surround (3x 1080p/120hz aka 5760x1080/120hz) since it will be unlikely that I can achieve this nirvana at that resolution...I guess in another gen or two.

What settings do you use in BF3? Do you use lightboost? I play at 1080p everything on low except mesh quality and msaa4x and get 100-200fps on a single titan and 3930k @ 4.3GHz. I play on a 144hz monitor at 120hz with lightboost.

 

[SapientWolf]

I wonder how much of that is just poor optimization.

It's hard to believe it, but Cry3 seems CPU limited.

For example:
http://media.bestofmicro.com/O/M/375430/original/Crysis3-CPU.png

 

[RibbedHero]

Whats the relation between being the best looking game out there and it being optimized?

You can't claim its unoptimised purely based on how it performs because it's the best looking game out there and is thus expected to be very taxing. That's the link.

 

[sk3tch]

Whats the relation between being the best looking game out there and it being optimized?

Good point.

You can't claim its unoptimised purely based on how it performs because it's the best looking game out there and is thus expected to be very taxing. That's the link.

This is what I was getting at. Thank you.

 

[Alo81]

That's a common refrain - but it is the best looking game out there. So I doubt it's that unoptimized.

I recognize that, buy I wonder how well it would run if they optimized it beyond what they have (if it's possible).

I guess a question of, if they spent another month trying to improve it, would it run 20% better on systems or something like that?

 

[mkenyon]

I seem to remember a clone trooper case he did back in the early 2000's that I used to sit and stare at for hours. He's still around?

Yep, his current project, "Queen of Blades":

 

[antitrop]

Yep, his current project, "Queen of Blades":

I'm a huge StarCraft fanboy, can't wait to see that when it's done.

 

[sk3tch]

What settings do you use in BF3? Do you use lightboost? I play at 1080p everything on low except mesh quality and msaa4x and get 100-200fps on a single titan and 3930k @ 4.3GHz. I play on a 144hz monitor at 120hz with lightboost.

Here are my settings:
http://1pcent.com/images/NeoGAF/bf3_settings_sk3tchcom.png

I don't use lightboost. I am on an Acer GD235hz monitor. I also have 2x BenQ XL2420T and 1x BenQ XL2420TX and another Acer GD235hz.

 

[tn2007]

Here are my settings:
http://1pcent.com/images/NeoGAF/bf3_settings_sk3tchcom.png

I don't use lightboost. I am on an Acer GD235hz monitor. I also have 2x BenQ XL2420T and 1x BenQ XL2420TX and another Acer GD235hz.

Yeah I figured you have everything on max settings with tri-sli. Your BenQ monitors can use lightboost. Do you prefer you Acer over them?

Anyone here have Arma 3? I'm getting only 40-50fps average with everything on high to very high. I'm running with the 314.09 drivers.

 

[Alo81]

Whats the deal with lightboost?

I've got an XL2420TX, and I hear it's sort of a great thing, but I don't know why or how to use it.

 

[sk3tch]

Yeah I figured you have everything on max settings with tri-sli. Your BenQ monitors can use lightboost. Do you prefer you Acer over them?

Anyone here have Arma 3? I'm getting only 40-50fps average with everything on high to very high. I'm running with the 314.09 drivers.

I thought lightboost was just some kind of 3D thing? I'll test it out with a BenQ. Yeah, I prefer the Acers for some reason. Although I've never used a BenQ solo...I have 3x lined up. I'll part them out this weekend and give them a shot individually.

 

[kinggroin]

Finally...I have the perfect BF3 rig. I have been searching for this since the games launch. 2-way SLI 580s, tri-SLI 680s, 4-way SLI 680s (reference, FTW+, Classified), 2-way SLI 680s (Lightning, 690) with varying CPUs (2500k, 3820, 3930k, 3960x) all clocked over 4.5 GHz...all it took was 3-way SLI TITANS to do it, lol.

1080p/120hz - flawless, butter smooth, no dips below 110...usually around 180-190 fps. 3930k @ 4.7GHz for the CPU. It's unbelievable. So happy right now. I don't even know if I am going to try NV Surround (3x 1080p/120hz aka 5760x1080/120hz) since it will be unlikely that I can achieve this nirvana at that resolution...I guess in another gen or two.

Pics of your living room? Ha!

Also, I'm definitely hitting you up next time in in MN

 

[tn2007]

Whats the deal with lightboost?

I've got an XL2420TX, and I hear it's sort of a great thing, but I don't know why or how to use it.

I thought lightboost was just some kind of 3D thing? I'll test it out with a BenQ. Yeah, I prefer the Acers for some reason. Although I've never used a BenQ solo...I have 3x lined up. I'll part them out this weekend and give them a shot individually.

It is a 3D thing, but with it on it allows less motion blur like a CRT monitor.

Here is a good guide.
http://www.blurbusters.com/zero-motion-blur/lightboost/

 

[sk3tch]

It is a 3D thing, but with it on it allows less motion blur like a CRT monitor.

Here is a good guide.
http://www.blurbusters.com/zero-motion-blur/lightboost/

Very interesting! Thank you. I will check this out this weekend.

Pics of your living room? Ha!

Also, I'm definitely hitting you up next time in in MN

Ha, it's really not that impressive. I'm a bachelor and I have a young son. So it's basically electronics, dinosaurs, cars, and tables.

 

[kinggroin]

Very interesting! Thank you. I will check this out this weekend.



Ha, it's really not that impressive. I'm a bachelor and I have a young son. So it's basically electronics, dinosaurs, cars, and tables.

Sweet! Who has more fun, you or your son?

 

[mkenyon]

Clearly the dinosaurs are for Sk3tch while his son plays on the BenQ setup.

 

[Hawk269]

Finally...I have the perfect BF3 rig. I have been searching for this since the games launch. 2-way SLI 580s, tri-SLI 680s, 4-way SLI 680s (reference, FTW+, Classified), 2-way SLI 680s (Lightning, 690) with varying CPUs (2500k, 3820, 3930k, 3960x) all clocked over 4.5 GHz...all it took was 3-way SLI TITANS to do it, lol.

1080p/120hz - flawless, butter smooth, no dips below 110...usually around 180-190 fps. 3930k @ 4.7GHz for the CPU. It's unbelievable. So happy right now. I don't even know if I am going to try NV Surround (3x 1080p/120hz aka 5760x1080/120hz) since it will be unlikely that I can achieve this nirvana at that resolution...I guess in another gen or two.

Hey Sk3tch what Motherboard do you have? I have the Asus Rampage IV Extreme and the same processor that you do and am having a horrible time overclocking it. I lost my OC that I originally spent a ton of time working on many months ago, but when I updated the Bios on the Motherboard, I lost the file and I don't remember what I did, but I also had a 4.7ghz on the processor.

If you have the same mobo, do you mind posting or pm'ng me your settings to achieve your overclock?

Thanks!

And I agree about the Titans. I have been looking for a way to max out Witcher 2 in uber mode on my 1080p HDTV but even my 690's would dip to around 32fps in some spots, but 2 SLI Titans and it has been butter smooth. Also able to max out Crysis 3 with every setting set to the max and still get 60fps...maybe a few dips to 57fps or so. And this is all with pretty much very early drivers.

 

[mkenyon]

Every proc is different, you'll need to work through it.

 

[Hawk269]

Every proc is different, you'll need to work through it.

It is not that I am failing at a overclock, it is more that i forgot what stuff to change. I had a awesome 4.8 overclock and when the processor was not used it would wind down. I know I need to use an offset to do this, but when I try, I cannot enter the amount +/- to offset...or I just dont rememeber where. Was just looking for some baseline oc settings to help jog my memory on how to do it again.

 

[Smokey]

It's crazy how much trouble I'm having with my SLI Titans and drivers.

-Installed the new beta drivers 314.14
-Changed bridge to a black evga that I ordered
-The USB ports that my G710+ were plugged in decide to stop working. wat. Could be sheer coincidence, but I dunno...
-Restart. Now I don't have a Nvidia Control Panel, but SLI is still working.
-Change the bridge around every which way still nothing in the NVCP.
-Log back in reinstall previous Titan drivers
-Try BF3 with SLI disabled. Sweet. Maxed out and still getting 60+ on a single Titan. Precision X is activated as well.
-Enable SLI. Takes longer than usual for the screen to come back up. Play some Crysis 3. After awhile I happen to look up at the Precision X overlay. My cards are running at 545mhz. wat.
-Restart machine. Run Heaven to see if cards are boosting properly. They are. Try BF3. Tries to launch. Game crashes. Mind you I just played it with a single Titan just fine.
-Close out Precision X. Try BF3 again. I get in but don't have an overlay of any kind.

Fun stuff

 

[catabarez]

SLI is messy business.

 

[ss_lemonade]

PDXLAN generally has about 5+ monster demo rigs setup for testing. These are from a few years ago, when the 6870 was the top dog card. They actually launched the 5xx series there, it was pretty awesome.



They'll now have a full racing setup, tons of laptops from MSI/ASUS, all sorts of goodies to play around with.

Last year I was able to try out a 4320x2560 (three 1440p monitors in portrait) setup, was pretty rad. They even had the bezels removed.

Now that looks fun.

To attend (are there still any available slots?), is it required to bring a rig? I'm not even sure I'll have one properly setup by then

 

[UrSuLeTZuL]

My poor i7 920(4gzh) and 560 GTX TI SLI setup is looking pretty pathetic now...

 

[NEO0MJ]

Finally...I have the perfect BF3 rig. I have been searching for this since the games launch. 2-way SLI 580s, tri-SLI 680s, 4-way SLI 680s (reference, FTW+, Classified), 2-way SLI 680s (Lightning, 690) with varying CPUs (2500k, 3820, 3930k, 3960x) all clocked over 4.5 GHz...all it took was 3-way SLI TITANS to do it, lol.

Damn. Pics?

 

[Sethos]

It's crazy how much trouble I'm having with my SLI Titans and drivers.

-Installed the new beta drivers 314.14
-Changed bridge to a black evga that I ordered
-The USB ports that my G710+ were plugged in decide to stop working. wat. Could be sheer coincidence, but I dunno...
-Restart. Now I don't have a Nvidia Control Panel, but SLI is still working.
-Change the bridge around every which way still nothing in the NVCP.
-Log back in reinstall previous Titan drivers
-Try BF3 with SLI disabled. Sweet. Maxed out and still getting 60+ on a single Titan. Precision X is activated as well.
-Enable SLI. Takes longer than usual for the screen to come back up. Play some Crysis 3. After awhile I happen to look up at the Precision X overlay. My cards are running at 545mhz. wat.
-Restart machine. Run Heaven to see if cards are boosting properly. They are. Try BF3. Tries to launch. Game crashes. Mind you I just played it with a single Titan just fine.
-Close out Precision X. Try BF3 again. I get in but don't have an overlay of any kind.

Fun stuff

I'm sorry man, but with the amount of problems you've had going since you got these, it sounds like you have a defective part somewhere in your machine.

 

[grendelrt]

I'm sorry man, but with the amount of problems you've had going since you got these, it sounds like you have a defective part somewhere in your machine.

Agreed, first thing I would also do if I was having those issues is format and start fresh. I have run 2 SLI setups and 1 Xfire setup and never had those kinds of issues on either. I just swapped from Xfire to SLI this month and even going from AMD to Nvidia it was issue free without a reformat.

 

[Demon Ice]

It's crazy how much trouble I'm having with my SLI Titans and drivers.

-Installed the new beta drivers 314.14
-Changed bridge to a black evga that I ordered
-The USB ports that my G710+ were plugged in decide to stop working. wat. Could be sheer coincidence, but I dunno...
-Restart. Now I don't have a Nvidia Control Panel, but SLI is still working.
-Change the bridge around every which way still nothing in the NVCP.
-Log back in reinstall previous Titan drivers
-Try BF3 with SLI disabled. Sweet. Maxed out and still getting 60+ on a single Titan. Precision X is activated as well.
-Enable SLI. Takes longer than usual for the screen to come back up. Play some Crysis 3. After awhile I happen to look up at the Precision X overlay. My cards are running at 545mhz. wat.
-Restart machine. Run Heaven to see if cards are boosting properly. They are. Try BF3. Tries to launch. Game crashes. Mind you I just played it with a single Titan just fine.
-Close out Precision X. Try BF3 again. I get in but don't have an overlay of any kind.

Fun stuff

Try each Titan one at a time? Might just have to RMA one of them, based off the fact that BF3 worked fine with SLI disabled.

 

[Smokey]

I'm sorry man, but with the amount of problems you've had going since you got these, it sounds like you have a defective part somewhere in your machine.

Agreed, first thing I would also do if I was having those issues is format and start fresh. I have run 2 SLI setups and 1 Xfire setup and never had those kinds of issues on either. I just swapped from Xfire to SLI this month and even going from AMD to Nvidia it was issue free without a reformat.

I did a re-format to W8 Pro last week. I've never had these issues with SLI before either. And it seems to be BF3 that's giving me the most trouble. Aside from the weird Crysis 3 incident, no other game has given me trouble. And it's always the "display driver" that crashes and stops working. Once I boot the machine up and go to BF3, I can get in with SLI fine. When I exit and decide to come back later is where the problems start.

 

[grendelrt]

I did a re-format to W8 Pro last week. I've never had these issues with SLI before either. And it seems to be BF3 that's giving me the most trouble. Aside from the weird Crysis 3 incident, no other game has given me trouble. And it's always the "display driver" that crashes and stops working. Once I boot the machine up and go to BF3, I can get in with SLI fine. When I exit and decide to come back later is where the problems start.

Its a pita but I would try taking one card out, testing the one left, take that card out put the other card in, test it. You may have a bad card. Then the usual suspects, memtest and prime.

 

[Mystery]

Waterblocks installed, hooray! But not without some trouble:

The good - 25C idle, 36C under full load, no more throttling, and able to OC to +100 on the GPU clock (already using EVGA SC cards)

The bad - My MCP655 wasn't able to handle 3 Black Ice GTX 360 rads, my CPU, chipset, and 2 GPUs. The flow was awful, so I had to throw in an old MCP 355 after the third radiator, and now it's fucking cluttered and ugly as hell. The thing is just sitting outside the case ATM.

The ugly - I tried using 2 Bitspower extenders in parallel, but the water just flowed right through them, and didn't even circulate in the card. I had to tear down my loop again just to fix it. And then when I put it back in serial with only one extender, it was leaking like a motherfucker. I think I've got it controlled; been leak testing for 2 hours, and haven't seen a drop. Also, I had fucking butterfingers, and accidentally dropped one card from about 3 inches onto my table. No real damage done, just cosmetic - the plastic surrounding the 4+2pin power connector cracked off.

 

[mkenyon]

FYI, it doesn't matter where you put a pump in your loop. It is one continuous loop that is all all connected.

Just get a second D5 and a dual top like the EK one.

 

[Smokey]

Its a pita but I would try taking one card out, testing the one left, take that card out put the other card in, test it. You may have a bad card. Then the usual suspects, memtest and prime.

Will probably try that today. I just played BF3 for a hour or so...with no Precision enabled, but there were no configuration options in NVCP like last night lol. So I used Inspector to try and monitor temps, usage etc. That worked with no issue during the BF3 play through.

Probably going to do the teardown of the system and try them one by one here in a bit..

 

[Mystery]

FYI, it doesn't matter where you put a pump in your loop. It is one continuous loop that is all all connected.

Just get a second D5 and a dual top like the EK one.

Yeah, I just ran out of space on the backside, and the easiest spot for me to insert something was in the front. I'm definitely going to change some things around, but at least it's working for now.

 

[Sethos]

Finally I found my 3-Way SLI Bridge! That will tide my over until that sexy one is released. The copper MSI cable was doing my head in.

 

[Celcius]

I did a re-format to W8 Pro last week. I've never had these issues with SLI before either. And it seems to be BF3 that's giving me the most trouble. Aside from the weird Crysis 3 incident, no other game has given me trouble. And it's always the "display driver" that crashes and stops working. Once I boot the machine up and go to BF3, I can get in with SLI fine. When I exit and decide to come back later is where the problems start.

Sorry if I missed it, but have you tried using Win 7 since getting the Titans?

 

[Glassboy]

Exactly! If anyone is in MN, send me a PM and you can come on by! This is one reason I had 4 fully configured machines previously - I could hold LAN parties with my friends that didn't have a gaming PC. My living room is basically 4 tables with computers on them, haha.

I'm down. I live in Anoka, MN. I'd be tempted to see your setup but I have a feeling that whenever I would get back to my computer I would be depressed lol

 

[EternalTruth]

Hopefully the gtx780 gets announced this month. My gtx480 isn't doing too well on the latest games. Titan sounds great and all, but at $1000 no thanks.

 

[michaelius]

Hopefully the gtx780 gets announced this month. My gtx480 isn't doing too well on the latest games. Titan sounds great and all, but at $1000 no thanks.

That's extremly unlikely - rumors suggest Q3 this year for next gen video cards at the earliest

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

Hopefully the gtx780 gets announced this month. My gtx480 isn't doing too well on the latest games. Titan sounds great and all, but at $1000 no thanks.

Its not just the price tag, the increase in power compared to a 680 its pretty slim. For that money I would be expecting 80%+ not what its giving. To be fair, the Titan is not doing very well either on the newest games. Crysis 3 and 2500x1600 is killing it as well. We need a new generation now!

 

[EternalTruth]

That's extremly unlikely - rumors suggest Q3 this year for next gen video cards at the earliest

If that's the case Ill probably just pass on the 780 by then, with the next gen consoles coming out, satisfying my need for great visuals! Q3 would be more than a year and a half past the 680 launch, isn't that unusual? Ill probably end up skipping the 780 and get an 880 and a new PC (Haswell) in 2014. That way Ill be set for Star Citizen, The Witcher 3 and hopefully a commercial version of the Oculus Rift!