Are there any drawbacks to using SLI?

[StormRider]

Like with ATI's crossfire, I heard you have to disable it for play DVDs....

I'm thinking of getting another 7900GS to maybe SLI with my current one and I'm wondering if there are any drawbacks.

I can think of some possible items:

1) More power required -- beefier PSU needed.

What about any benefits?

1) Faster framerates.

Can you use one of them for Physics?

 

[ibex333]

Originally posted by: StormRider
Are there any drawbacks to using SLI?

Yes. The price. 😉

 

[aka1nas]

You can't run dual displays in SLI mode, though they might have fixed that for G80.

 

[CP5670]

The vsync issues. Those haven't been fixed yet as far as I can tell.

 

[wanderer27]

Power.

Heat.

Cost.

<100% performance increase (quite a bit less).


That being said, it's the fastest you're going to get until the new cards come out . . . .

 

[nitromullet]

Seeing as how there a number of single cards out there faster then dual 7900GSes, I would pick up one of those instead. SLI is cool, but it has all the issues that you might run into with a single card, plus all of the drawbacks already mentioned. The only time to get SLI is if you get two of the fastest cards out IMO.

 

[BFG10K]

There are also sometimes application issues with SLI not present on single cards.

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
There are also sometimes application issues with SLI not present on single cards.

true but this point is generally null since sli usually works fine in newer games. old incompatible games run fine on one card anyway.