8800GTX - going SLI - any tips?

[KutterMax]

I've been looking carefully at the 9800GX2 and 8800GTX SLI benchmarks and for the most part they are pretty close. I therefore decided to add a second 8800GTX card to my rig and go SLI.

There are some pretty good deals on 8800GTX's right now, and I was able to get a eVGA 8800GTX for $350 plus there is another $50 rebate - so $300 isn't bad for the upgrade.

I'm running dual 24" Dell monitors, have a eVGA 680i MB and a PC Power&Cooling SLI capable power supply. Other than installing the card, the SLI bridge and updating my video drivers to the latest from nVidia - any other tips regarding the initial setup would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jax Omen]

You can't run dual monitors in SLI mode. Period. You'd have to disable SLI and reboot whenever you want to use your second monitor for productivity.

 

[KutterMax]

I did know that dual monitors are not supported in SLI mode - but wasn't aware of needing to reboot, so good to know.

I usually end up rebooting before a gaming session anyways, as usually this helps smooth things out a bit. I used to like alt-tabbing out of WoW when I was playing to check for quest tips in a browser but I guess this could still be accomplished with one monitor.

 

[Cuular]

With the 10 or 20 mods out there to help with quests in WoW, Alt-tabbing out shouldn't be necessary.

I just picked up a second 8800GTX to SLI to play games at 1920X1200 with all eye candy on. And so far it's been all good. However with WoW I'm not sure you're going to see much improvement with SLI. A single 8800GTX can drive that game at it's max settings just fine. WoW relies on the CPU to do a lot more of the work, so that it can run on older graphics cards and still be decent.

 

[Woofmeister]

Unless you are watercooling, make sure you have very good airflow over your GFX cards. The cards are going to block significant airflow to each others' fans and the card on the bottom is going to cook up very high. Don't be surprised if you see temps in the high 70s. It's worth considering a cooling solution that exhausts hot air from over the cards rather than intaking room temperature air.

 

[KutterMax]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
Unless you are watercooling, make sure you have very good airflow over your GFX cards. The cards are going to block significant airflow to each others' fans and the card on the bottom is going to cook up very high. Don't be surprised if you see temps in the high 70s. It's worth considering a cooling solution that exhausts hot air from over the cards rather than intaking room temperature air.

I have a large Silverstone case with some extra case fans. Hopefully it will be ok - if not I'll have to look at some additional cooling options.

Right now I'm taking a break from WoW. I agree that the single 8800GTX was plenty, but likely I'll go back to it once the next expansion is released.

I was hoping to give Age of Conan a go when it is released, but so far the feedback is a little mixed. I picked of Gears of War cheap recently, so I'll play through that and perhaps go through CoD4 again. Grid looks pretty promising and may pick this up once its out.

 

[Harmattan]

After running four different SLI configurations (6800 GT, 7800 GT, 7900 GTO, 8800 GTX)over the past couple years, here are the points I can offer:

- Keep your drivers up-to-date. nVidia constantly adds SLI tweaks to drivers. Without them you'll get little to no improvement over a single card.

- Keep Windows up-to-date.

- Maintain good airflow. This means make sure there is no blockage in front of your cards, clear any cables from the back of your case, and keep your case at least 10" from the wall.

- Some games (mostly downloads from Direct2Drive or Steam) have audio stuttering with SLI unless vsync is enable. Portal, HL2, and Assassin's creed for example.

- Some games don't offer any improvements for SLI, and one that I know crashes (the Witcher). In this case you just need to disable SLI in nTune.

- Make sure you have a good PSU with good Amps on the rails (20A+). nVidia's site has a good list of SLI-certified PSU's, but these aren't the only ones that are good.

- If you have another PCI card (e.g., Sound card), you'll likely need to sandwich it in between the cards which will increase the temps of your lower GPU.

Despite these caveats, SLI is not hard to set up and maintain. Contrary to what others will tell you, it is very much worth it if you have the money and want the best performance. You will not be disappointed with two 8800 GTX's. I've been running mine since Nov. 07 and it was the best two cards I've ever had. I'm moving to Crossfire on my current build, but that's only because I want to try it and my current mobo doesn't support SLI.

 

[betasub]

Nice post, Harmattan - things that not everyone considers when going for SLI.

Interesting that you are planning to try out Crossfire for yourself and have a personal comparison of the different multi-GPU platforms.

 

[ajaidevsingh]

Use crossfire for multi-display as for SLI i did a 8800 GT SLi found out his stupid ram and cpu was a bottleneck had to replace it all...

But in the end Doom 3 at 1080 was great almost no lags...

 

[KutterMax]

My second card is supposed to arrive today. I'll post once I have it up and running and let you guys know how it turns out.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Tempered81]

nice thread, kuttermax. Did you find a good deal on the 2nd 8800gtx? woofmiester and harmattan made some great points. make sure the cards stay clean, dust free, cool and in great airflow. Max out the case fans, as the gtx fans will likely drown every other fan out with the noise they will create when in gaming mode.

good airflow and the newest drivers you can find!!!!

Good luck, and let us know what kind of improvements you see in gears & cod!

 

[KutterMax]

Alright - rushed home but card wasn't there. Happily about 10 minutes after I got home the UPS man showed up!

The card is an EVGA 8800GTX and with using the Google checkout on Buy.com was about $350 (no tax or shipping) and then there is an additional $50 mail in rebate.

I went and installed the card. I'm really appreciating my big Silverstone case now (the same one that MaximumPC using in their Dream Machine rig a few years back. My power supply is at the bottom of the case and the PCI-E slot above it is where I put the second card. I was already using my PCI-E slot higher up. There is lots of room for airflow for the second card.

I had to pull out my ATI HD tuner card, b/c I was out of room. No big deal b/c I usually watch TV using my Slingbox software and don't use the tuner card much anymore.

It was very easy to hook up my power supply to the card, as the Quad Silencer has enough connections.

Luckily I put my SLI bridge connector in a safe spot when I first built this rig a little of a year ago. I grabbed it and hooked it up. I then rebooted.

Initially the computer booted, but nothing much came up on the monitor. I shut down, rechecked all connections and rebooted. This time things worked. I did a driver update (non-beta - might try beta drivers later) and everything was fine with dual monitors. I then enabled SLI and something went wrong during the procedure. The screen went black, but the hard drives were still going. I gave it a while but then rebooted. Now SLI was working fine. My main monitor was active and second one off.

I loaded up Gears of War. It played fine at 1920x1200 but still has the stuttering problem that a lot of people have complained about. I turned off "Audio effects" and even tried V-sync on, but still some intermittent stuttering. Its very playable and very smooth except for the stuttering.

Haven't tried anything else yet but will play around some more. Overall pretty smooth upgrade. Looking forward to CoD4.

 

[KutterMax]

I tried "Dirt" and it runs fantastic under SLI. 1920x1200 - all options maxed - no slowdown at all.

It ran well with one 8800GTX but had occasional hiccup, but under SLI its butter.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
You can't run dual monitors in SLI mode. Period. You'd have to disable SLI and reboot whenever you want to use your second monitor for productivity.

You don't need to reboot to flip in and out of SLi- haven't had to for a long time. Just de-select
in the CP, and go.

Not as good as not having to de-select like CF, but a small trade to make for the level of performance and driver flexibility the OP will be enjoying.

 

[KutterMax]

NRollo - how long does it take for your system to switch from non-SLI to SLI mode when you select it in the control panel? (ie. does it happen more or less instantaneously or does it take a bit).


Also - installed Race07 - runs well in SLI but not the best looking title (especialy after having played GT5: Prologue the past few weeks on PS3).

Next up - Grid demo...

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: KutterMax
NRollo - how long does it take for your system to switch from non-SLI to SLI mode when you select it in the control panel? (ie. does it happen more or less instantaneously or does it take a bit).


Also - installed Race07 - runs well in SLI but not the best looking title (especialy after having played GT5: Prologue the past few weeks on PS3).

Next up - Grid demo...

It takes a little bit- in Vista it has to "Shut down apps" which I'd guess means Aero.

 

[KutterMax]

Originally posted by: nRollo

Originally posted by: KutterMax
NRollo - how long does it take for your system to switch from non-SLI to SLI mode when you select it in the control panel? (ie. does it happen more or less instantaneously or does it take a bit).


Also - installed Race07 - runs well in SLI but not the best looking title (especialy after having played GT5: Prologue the past few weeks on PS3).

Next up - Grid demo...

It takes a little bit- in Vista it has to "Shut down apps" which I'd guess means Aero.

Ok - maybe I have to be more patient...


I installed the Grid demo and tried it this morning. It also runs great. It seems to be running the same game engine as Dirt but you get a lot more vehicles on the screen in Grid.

For fun, I also tried the demo on the PS3 and it looked and ran well too. However given the choice, I will go with the retail PC version.