# Yesterday - three GTX 295 dual-PCBs on the Silverstone 1500w



## AuDioFreaK39 (Aug 5, 2009)

If there was any single word in the English dictionary to describe yesterday afternoon, it would simply be "awesome."  A friend of mine came over with his EVGA GTX 295 dual-PCB card so we could do some stress testing on this Silverstone Strider 1500w power supply I was sent for reviewing.

I already have two dual-PCB cards, so we decided to slap all three on my Classified and see if miracles really do come true. 

Three EVGA GeForce GTX 295 dual-PCB graphics cards on an EVGA X58 SLI Classified E759 (nForce 200):









We were testing two recently launched power supplies today, the Topower Tiger Series 1200w and the Silverstone Strider 1500w.








Friend #1 "stress testing" Far Cry 2, Crysis Warhead and Mirror's Edge while Friend #2 and I monitor the input wattage from an APC Back-UPS XS 1300VA. At this point, both power supply units were tested with two GTX 295s in Quad-SLI and a Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro sandwiched between them.








Gauss Meter (left) for measuring electromagnetic interference levels from power supplies and various cabling.














After we gathered our watt data, we decided to go for something even bigger on the Silverstone Strider - triple GTX 295s running Folding@home over six 55nm GT200 chips. :lol: MOAR POWERR 

Unfortunately, Windows Vista and Windows 7 require that a monitor be plugged into each active GPU core in order for Folding@home to work, and I'm not the kind of person with five extra monitors laying around at hand. Thankfully, there is a nifty and inexpensive workaround to trick the Windows OS drivers into thinking that there are multiple monitors attached to the system - by creating dummy VGA adapter plugs. 








Trubritar has a great HD video overview on YouTube explaining the mod process, which I highly recommend watching:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtbfXg193do&fmt=22


























After a long afternoon's work, the end result was promising, however very loud.  We cranked up the fan speed on the GTX 295s to 100% and literally recreated the Mojave Desert on my desk.  The heat was ridiculous and the cards were scalding hot to the touch.  After the test run, we quickly shut off the system and grabbed the cards in our hands while literally playing hot potato and ran outside with them on the front porch to let em cool in the breeeze.


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## a_ump (Aug 5, 2009)

dam, wish you'd taken a rivatuner monitor screenie real quick to see what the temps were lol. can't imagine those thigns were getting much air flow cept for the one on the lowest slot. so um, what was the power draw? u showed pics but never any data


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## AuDioFreaK39 (Aug 5, 2009)

Power draw for Folding@home across the three cards was 805w on average.

Power draw for Crysis Warhead in Quad-SLI was around 780w on average.


More comprehensive data will be given in the reviews I publish on Fudzilla in the next day or two.


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## trt740 (Aug 5, 2009)

AuDioFreaK39 said:


> Power draw for Folding@home across the three cards was 805w on average.
> 
> Power draw for Crysis Warhead in Quad-SLI was around 780w on average.
> 
> ...



any idea of the power draw on one card?


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## p_o_s_pc (Aug 5, 2009)

wow thats something.so how would you rate the PSUs?


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## mlee49 (Aug 5, 2009)

Wow, excellent stuff!!! Thanks!


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## AuDioFreaK39 (Aug 5, 2009)

p_o_s_pc said:


> wow thats something.so how would you rate the PSUs?



In all honesty, both PSUs were very solidly built and definitely outperformed my PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750w in terms of efficiency. The Topower 1200w had the better modular cable design and achieved a lower EMI field rating, but the Silverstone definitely takes the crown for best power efficiency.

When we tried Crysis Warhead on peak GPU stress, the Topower managed to keep the input power around the 810w range while the Silverstone kept it around 720w.  Again, significant efficiency difference between the two, and they are both 80 Plus certified.


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## Easo (Aug 7, 2009)

Unlimited POWER!


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