SLI or no for Mini ITX?

JustKitten

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
May 19, 2018
10
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As the title says I've been thinking about configuring 2 1080 TIs in SLI within a Mini ITX case using PCIe bifurcation. How plausible would this be? It would definitely be rocking a custom loop with at most 2 dual-120mm radiators. Would I get decent thermals with this? Will the bump in performance be worth it?
 

jmarin

Airflow Optimizer
Mar 8, 2018
258
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You would need to provide a lot more information as there are roughly one bajillion variables that have not been defined, such as case, layout, fans on radiators, clearance, etc. etc. etc. so it would be difficult to tell you anything specific without a more thoroughly presented layout and parts list.
 

loader963

King of Cable Management
Jan 21, 2017
660
568
If you have to ask, I’d say go a step larger and use a matx for your setup. By the time you add the rads and space for dual gpus, I’d think it would save a lot of headaches. Not to mention it appears much harder to do actual sli versus a dual GPU (different beast than sli) with bifurcation.
 

loader963

King of Cable Management
Jan 21, 2017
660
568

And if I had waited 3 more minutes, I wouldn’t be eating my post!!! How aggravating was it to get sli to work with bifurcation? I remember reading someone elses log and it appeared to be a headache. Btw, sweet build.
 
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JustKitten

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
May 19, 2018
10
3
You would need to provide a lot more information as there are roughly one bajillion variables that have not been defined, such as case, layout, fans on radiators, clearance, etc. etc. etc. so it would be difficult to tell you anything specific without a more thoroughly presented layout and parts list.
The case would be custom if I were to go the SLI route. I'm trying to maximize performance per liter here. I'd be going with two EKWB Coolstream SE 240 radiators and four Vardar F3-120 @ 1850 RPM fans. Clearance will be specifically designed for these components.


If you plan on watercooling too, you'd probably better off with a small case and two small 1080 Ti's like Zotacs.

If you want to go small, you could do it in a Cooler Master Q300L, but it's not really SFF, nor is it mITX.

You might be better off with a custom case TBH.

https://www.eteknix.com/custom-pc-squeezes-gtx-1080-sli-into-xbox-one-sized-case/
Yea, custom case is what I was thinking. It'd be sized to fit all the components I choose perfectly.

If you have to ask, I’d say go a step larger and use a matx for your setup. By the time you add the rads and space for dual gpus, I’d think it would save a lot of headaches. Not to mention it appears much harder to do actual sli versus a dual GPU (different beast than sli) with bifurcation.
That'd save me some trouble indeed. But I'm okay with a few migraines here and there to get it setup. Custom case is what it's looking like.

Possible indeed is it? So if I design my own case I was thinking of creating my own PCB for the bifurcation (preferably PCIe Gen 4 compatible). What resources could I reference for doing this? Do you know of any?
 

JustKitten

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Original poster
May 19, 2018
10
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By compatible with Gen 4., do you mean one single PCIe connection, no daisy-chained risers ?
I think I mean when PCIe Gen 4 is fully implemented I'd like to take advantage of the higher bandwidth (perhaps, splitting it more than two ways for other expansion cards). Sorry if I'm missing something, bifurcation and PCIe are new stuff for me!
 

loader963

King of Cable Management
Jan 21, 2017
660
568
I remember on [h] someone did it but had to do a bios hack and stay on old drivers. But dual GPU (for folding and etc) was pretty easy comparatively speaking.
 

JustKitten

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Original poster
May 19, 2018
10
3
You can always do m.2 to x4/x16 riser, if the m.2 slot supports PCIE NVME drives.
That sounds like a reasonable possibility. I do want to have a nice snappy NVMe SSD though...

Honestly though ya'll. Is SLI even worth the investment? Additional space, heat, power, and cost. Not to mention hacking everything to get it all nice and happy. I gather it's definitely possible and been done before. But should I do it? I aim to play 4K highest settings at at least 60hz in most games. Could I achieve this with a single Titan or something that's overclocked?
 
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rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
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That sounds like a reasonable possibility. I do want to have a nice snappy NVMe SSD though...

Honestly though ya'll. Is SLI even worth the investment? Additional space, heat, power, and cost. Not to mention hacking everything to get it all nice and happy. I gather it's definitely possible and been done before. But should I do it? I aim to play 4K highest settings at at least 60hz in most games. Could I achieve this with a single Titan or something that's overclocked?

First thing I would do is look up SLI support in the games you play, if it is not even supported you are better off waiting for the Volta/Tesla 1180 Ti/2080 Ti or what ever they end up calling it.
 

tinyitx

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 25, 2018
2,279
2,338
Honestly though ya'll. Is SLI even worth the investment? Additional space, heat, power, and cost. Not to mention hacking everything to get it all nice and happy. I gather it's definitely possible and been done before. But should I do it? I aim to play 4K highest settings at at least 60hz in most games. Could I achieve this with a single Titan or something that's overclocked?

I think it depends much on whether or not you enjoy doing any or all the hardwork related to making SLI works. There are people who actually do not see hacking drivers, managing heat..etc as hassles but fun times. If you do enjoy the process as much as the result, maybe you should.

You could achieve close to what you have described (4K highest settings at 60Hz in most games) with a single Titan V.
Reference:- https://www.hardocp.com/article/2018/03/20/nvidia_titan_v_video_card_gaming_review/1
Unless your last name is Gates or have won a lottery, we mortals usually cannot go down this route.

As said above, I think the 1180 Ti might give performance close to Titan V but 'relatively (only)' cheaper. 1170/1180 might come out, say, in August and then the 1180 Ti might come out 9-10 months later. So, optimistically speaking, this 1180Ti will come out around June, 2019.
 

Biowarejak

Maker of Awesome | User 1615
Platinum Supporter
Mar 6, 2017
1,744
2,262
Is SLI still a viable and well supported thing ? From what I read, recent games do not seem to scale very well.
I suspect part of the problem is that many of them use previous-frame information for things like motion blur and bloom, which makes them incompatible with SLI. At some point, I'll have to test that.
 

JustKitten

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
May 19, 2018
10
3
I think it depends much on whether or not you enjoy doing any or all the hardwork related to making SLI works. There are people who actually do not see hacking drivers, managing heat..etc as hassles but fun times. If you do enjoy the process as much as the result, maybe you should.

You could achieve close to what you have described (4K highest settings at 60Hz in most games) with a single Titan V.
Reference:- https://www.hardocp.com/article/2018/03/20/nvidia_titan_v_video_card_gaming_review/1
Unless your last name is Gates or have won a lottery, we mortals usually cannot go down this route.

As said above, I think the 1180 Ti might give performance close to Titan V but 'relatively (only)' cheaper. 1170/1180 might come out, say, in August and then the 1180 Ti might come out 9-10 months later. So, optimistically speaking, this 1180Ti will come out around June, 2019.
I don't mind waiting till July or maybe August. But next year would be a bit insane XD. Most of the games I'd be playing don't even support SLI, so it might not be worth it for me :\
 
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tinyitx

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 25, 2018
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I don't mind waiting till July or maybe August. But next year would be a bit insane XD. Most of the games I'd be playing don't even support SLI, so it might not be worth it for me :\

No SLI, just a single card. A single Titan V (now, $$$$$) or a single 1180Ti (June 2019, $$).
 
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