Titan Toaster - $342

Why This Build

Just playing around with dual-GPU lossless scaling on a shoestring budget. My wife had an unused GTX 1050 Ti in her old PC, and I’ve been wanting to upgrade my GTX 1070 but haven’t had the funds, so figured I’d experiment with lossless scaling instead. Mainly playing Factorio, which runs great, though I’ve been testing other games like Oblivion Remaster to see how far I can push this setup. This is mostly a proof-of-concept to see if dual-GPU scaling is worth investing in more seriously later.

Component Choices

CPU & Motherboard: The i7-2600K is ancient but still holds up for lighter games and Factorio. The ASUS motherboard works but has a major issue - the PCIe slots are too close together. The GTX 1050 Ti sits right below the 1070 and chokes its airflow, causing the 1070 to run at 82-83°C under load. Without the second card suffocating it, the 1070 normally runs 72-74°C. If I was serious about keeping this dual-GPU setup long-term, I’d upgrade to a B450 board with more space between slots, or go B550/X570 for PCIe Gen 4.

GPUs: GTX 1070 handles rendering, and the GTX 1050 Ti does frame generation. Both are older budget cards grabbed used - the 1070 was already in my system, and the 1050 Ti came from my wife’s unused PC. They work fine for testing but the thermals are rough due to poor slot spacing.

RAM & Storage: 16GB DDR3 is the minimum for modern gaming but manages Factorio fine. 1TB SSD keeps load times reasonable.

Cooling & Case: Stock AMD cooler on an Intel chip is… not ideal but functional. The case airflow isn’t great - I’ve wanted a fan down there for a while. Cables don’t really interfere since the front case fan is at the bottom, but the GPU spacing is the real problem.

PSU: 550W is enough for these older, lower-power GPUs, but there’s not much headroom.

Performance Notes

Factorio runs perfectly with this setup - the game isn’t demanding and scales great. Been testing Oblivion Remaster and hitting thermal issues with the 1070 sitting at 82-83°C because the cards are too close together. Haven’t thermal throttled yet, but it’s close. The 1050 Ti does its job for frame gen, though it’s definitely the bare minimum for 2x scaling.

Upgrade Path

The biggest upgrade would be a better motherboard with proper PCIe slot spacing - something like a B450/B550 board with at least one empty slot between the two GPUs would dramatically improve thermals. If you’re sticking with this older platform, adding a case fan between the GPUs would help temperatures a lot.

For GPU upgrades, swapping the 1070 for an RX 6600 or RTX 3050 would give way better performance, and upgrading the 1050 Ti to a 1650 or RX 650.

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