Do all games take advantage of SLI or only SLI enabled games?

[Pez D Spencer]

I was reading the SLI FAQ on the nVidia site and it seemed to me that only SLI enabled games can take advantage of SLI. If only SLI enabled games take advantage of SLI then do non-SLI enabled games just utilize one of the video cards when they run?

If only SLI enabled games take advantage of both cards then wouldnt the 7800GTX 512MB pretty much smoke any SLI setup in a non SLI enabled game?

Thanks.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Pez D Spencer
I was reading the SLI FAQ on the nVidia site and it seemed to me that only SLI enabled games can take advantage of SLI. If only SLI enabled games take advantage of SLI then do non-SLI enabled games just utilize one of the video cards when they run?

If only SLI enabled games take advantage of both cards then wouldnt the 7800GTX 512MB pretty much smoke any SLI setup in a non SLI enabled game?

Thanks.

Almost all 3d games get benefit of some sort from SLI.

Games are not "SLI enabled" they are SLI driver profiled, not, or have SLI profiles built in.

SLI profiles are settings that nVidia has tested and found work best with that game, so they put default settings for that game in the nvapps.xml file. There were over 100 game profiles last I checked.

The nVidia drivers allow you to set what method of SLI to use with non profiled games, but it's up to you to test which works best with a particular game. In general, the Alternate Frame Rendering SLI settings deliver most performance benefit.
Once you've determined which works best, you can add your own profile, or just set with the drop down menu for that game.

Older games are largely CPU bound, not GPU bound. For these, SLI offers the benefit of SLI antialiasing at 8X and 16X AA.

As you can see, SLI provides benefit to almost ANY game.

The 512 GTX is an excellent card, but 2X256 7800GTX will beat it at any game GPU horsepower is the limiting factor.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: Pez D Spencer
I was reading the SLI FAQ on the nVidia site and it seemed to me that only SLI enabled games can take advantage of SLI. If only SLI enabled games take advantage of SLI then do non-SLI enabled games just utilize one of the video cards when they run?

If only SLI enabled games take advantage of both cards then wouldnt the 7800GTX 512MB pretty much smoke any SLI setup in a non SLI enabled game?

Thanks.

Almost all 3d games get benefit of some sort from SLI.

Games are not "SLI enabled" they are SLI driver profiled, not, or have SLI profiles built in.

SLI profiles are settings that nVidia has tested and found work best with that game, so they put default settings for that game in the nvapps.xml file. There were over 100 game profiles last I checked.

The nVidia drivers allow you to set what method of SLI to use with non profiled games, but it's up to you to test which works best with a particular game. In general, the Alternate Frame Rendering SLI settings deliver most performance benefit.
Once you've determined which works best, you can add your own profile, or just set with the drop down menu for that game.

Older games are largely CPU bound, not GPU bound. For these, SLI offers the benefit of SLI antialiasing at 8X and 16X AA.

As you can see, SLI provides benefit to almost ANY game.

The 512 GTX is an excellent card, but 2X256 7800GTX will beat it at any game GPU horsepower is the limiting factor.

theres AFR and AFR 2......which is best? ive got AFR2 set at the moment, seems alright, but then again most of the games i have probably have profiles.

 

[johnnqq]

not many games don't benefit from sli, and some benefit more than others.

 

[nRollo]

Otis
I've heard AFR2 is the better of the two, but can't remember where.

 

[nitromullet]

I think the point is that there is not one single setting that is the "best". For games that have SLI profiles, trust nvidia, and use what they give you. For those that don't, it isn't difficult to create your own, but you might have to experiment to find the best setting for SLI by trying them all. Either it will be obvious which one you should use, or you won't be able to tell a difference (in which case it doesn't matter).