5870 cards too close when Crossfire mode

[WarezNimph]

hey guys

i had a 5870 die last week, already had it replaced, but not keen in putting in back in my machine.

As you see from specs of games machine below, the asus boards slots are very close, and the fan in the first slot cannot cool itself sufficiently, reasons for the failure.

So the job is now to find a X58 board 2 x pice 16x lanes to support crossfire
where the 2 cards are further appart?

i was thinking of going water cooling again, but dont seem to overclock these days and would be a waste????

[Bertross]

What kind of cash are you looking at spending?

I can see what you mean about the PCI-E on the P6.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=14175

is that sort of the spacing your after? Pretty exp though.

[Frontl1ne]

Originally Posted by Bertross

What kind of cash are you looking at spending?

I can see what you mean about the PCI-E on the P6.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=14175

is that sort of the spacing your after? Pretty exp though.

That board looks sexy! Unfortunately it's price is much much less attractive

Also, OP you will need to consider longer crossfire cables as well. My motherboard supports 16x/16x/8x crossfire however when I tried to use the 16x and 8x lanes for crossfire, the ribbon wouldn't reach. Not too sure if most crossfire motherboards are supposed to come with extra long ribbons but mine didn't.

[WarezNimph]

Originally Posted by Bertross

What kind of cash are you looking at spending?

I can see what you mean about the PCI-E on the P6.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=14175

is that sort of the spacing your after? Pretty exp though.

i build a machine for a customer last weekend with that board and a 5970, but didnt get a chance to place both my cards in it, as my 5870 was away RMA...

Originally Posted by Frontl1ne

That board looks sexy! Unfortunately it's price is much much less attractive

Also, OP you will need to consider longer crossfire cables as well. My motherboard supports 16x/16x/8x crossfire however when I tried to use the 16x and 8x lanes for crossfire, the ribbon wouldn't reach. Not too sure if most crossfire motherboards are supposed to come with extra long ribbons but mine didn't.

depends on how much bandwidth you lose when using the 16x and a 8x

im sure the cards are not capable of maximising the bandwidth, but would be keen to keep an eye out for a longer crossfire cable.

[Bertross]

It seems werid though that it causes heat issue like that, im sure they are designed to work that close without an issue like that.

Can we get some extra cooling at the end of the GPU or on the side? Im using a CM Cosmos S and i got a 200MM fan blowing over my GPU/Chipset etc...

What i was thinking was to sort of mount a 120mm fan blowing the air from between the GPUs out the back of the case so the heats cannot pocket to much, the antec 900 and some other cases have this fan bracket that can be attached to the HDD bay and be mounted mid drift.

see my old 900 with the noctua in their.

[Frontl1ne]

Originally Posted by Bertross

It seems werid though that it causes heat issue like that, im sure they are designed to work that close without an issue like that.

Coming from a 4870X2 and a 4870 crossfired with about 2mm of space between the two, I can tell you that they reach temps they're not designed to reach! I saw VRM temperatures exceed 120 degrees

[WarezNimph]

Originally Posted by Bertross

It seems werid though that it causes heat issue like that, im sure they are designed to work that close without an issue like that.

Can we get some extra cooling at the end of the GPU or on the side? Im using a CM Cosmos S and i got a 200MM fan blowing over my GPU/Chipset etc...

What i was thinking was to sort of mount a 120mm fan blowing the air from between the GPUs out the back of the case so the heats cannot pocket to much, the antec 900 and some other cases have this fan bracket that can be attached to the HDD bay and be mounted mid drift.

see my old 900 with the noctua in their.

image

yeah massive amount of space between those 2 slots....

i use a Corsair 800D and the cooling is great. Im sure when they design the cards, they shoul dhave left the fans towards the back of the card, instead of the centre position on my cards

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=12716

[Bertross]

luckily amd has a limit of 125 lol, more then NV

this system overclocked?

also using 16x8 should be fine since its PCI-E 2 double bandwidth, sort of like using P55 mate.

[Shamrock]

I am having the exact same issue in my case (fractal design R2) using an x58-UD3R, my only option was to put the side by side, I was getting temps over of 100+ degrees on the top card (this is for 2* GB GTX 460) the bottom card (getting air from the PSU) was much better and would not go over 70ish

I simply installed a 120mm case fan blowing in fresh air from the side, and then I zip tied an old CPU 80mm fan I had onto the side of the card, blowing air into it.

temps haven't gone over 74 degrees on the top card since doing this, its loud but have some new noctua fans to replace them tomorrow

[Bertross]

i was using SLI 460s as well, although my temps max was 74 to without added cooling. Not sure if the UD5 has wider spacing?

[WarezNimph]

Originally Posted by Bertross

luckily amd has a limit of 125 lol, more then NV

this system overclocked?

also using 16x8 should be fine since its PCI-E 2 double bandwidth, sort of like using P55 mate.

not overclocked.....

need to get a longer ribbon then to try the 3rd pcie slot