OTOY Forums

Anyone have a setup and can can share some tips?

Ill probably get a motherboard with at least 3 slots, so I can get to a third card if I need to. If I were to run 2 590s, would I need a special cooling system?

When running multiple cards, do you need to do anyhting special, or just plug them both in and get 2 Octane licensees?

No matter how many cards you use, you need only one license. We had one user with 8 GTX 480.
If the cards are not close together a special cooling system is not necessary.
You need a good case, this for example:
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=92
Another example:
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... 40&t=10042

Cheers, mib.

Wait, I thought you need one license per card???

No, per system.

Cheers, mib.

Sweet

Ok, if anyone has 2 or more of these cards and can give me an idea of how big of a power supply I will need, that would be great.

I was already looking at the TJ11 as the case to get. Will any motherboard I get fit in this case or are there certain specifications to follow?

According to Nvidia the card itself can use upto 365W and they say for a single 590 system you need a 700W power supply (although this really would depend on what else you have in your system).
So it would make sense that you would need at least 700+365 = 1065W for 2 590's.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ifications

You can probably google up some real world power consumption figures too - i found this one for a single GTX 590 system:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1576/15/

They suggest that NVidia's 700W requirement for a single 590 is probably playing it safe, but i think that NVidia is aware of the fact that not all power packs are equal and there are losses - a 700W rated power pack may not actually be able to deliver 700W of power, at least not "good" power. Things may start to suffer as you push it's load - voltages drop, things get hot etc.

For the motherboard fitting i'm 99% sure anything you want will fit - check the "Form Factor" of the motherboard against the specs of the case here: http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.p ... 92&area=en

Looks like it can take SSI-CEB, XL-ATX, ATX (maximum 13.6” x 11”) and Micro-ATX
(The most common is ATX)

Cheers.
Chris.

Thanks for the PSU tip, I wasnt expecting it to be so high, but I guess the 590 is 2 cards in one. Ill have to keep that in mind. Planning for 3 cards will need a beast of a PSU, but I think the TJ11 has space for two supplies, so I might be able to just buy a second one when and if we go for a third card.
Oh, I am also getting another cheaper card for my main display, so I gotta factor that in too.

Also should be noted, the system is for Octane only, so I wont be overdoing the non video card parts. For instance, the CPU will probably be an AMD at 3 ghz, not overclocked and only running 8 gigs of RAM (want to make sure Blender and Photoshop run smoothly while I'm rendering. I think most of the "real world examples" take into account gaming machines, which can get over the top in a lot of areas.

Yeah, the gaming test will have the CPU running full bore along with the GPU. But I guess it's good to know what the max load is.
The twin power supply idea makes a lot of sense. I have seen/used/assembled servers with multiple power packs (usually for redundancy just in case one fails). But never a desktop - i'm not sure how the 2nd power supply would be connected for signaling (ie: power on, restart etc from the motherboard), usually they only have one connector to the PSU.
If you end up doing that i would love to hear how it goes.

Cheers
Chris.

Good point, I looked at their website and read: "Dual ATX/PS2 PSU compartment, also compatible with redundant PS2"
but maybe I misunderstood it.