Hey, SLI users, does SLI still have issues?

[darXoul]

Since it looks like my hard work is paying off, I may be able to build a top rig very soon. I'm back to my thoughts about SLI, more specifically 7900 GTX SLI (faster and quieter than 7900 GT SLI, although much more expensive). What can I say, I love smooth gaming in high settings, and it looks like e.g. Oblivion is a hardware hog... I'm getting either the ViewSonic P227fB CRT or NEC 2090UXi LCD monitor. I'll be able to play in high res (probably 1600*1200) on both. My questions:

1. Does SLI still have issues (vsync, profile problems, tearing, lockups, whatever)?

2. Does anyone here have ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe along with two dual slot cards in SLI (e.g. 7800 GTX 512 or 7900 GTX)? Does an X-Fi fit between them without problems? I know the layout is pretty tight.

3. I've recently read the (pretty good) "CPUs & Real-World Gameplay Scaling" article on HardOCP, and the guys claim they had some issues with dual core CPUs, like unexpected frame rate drops. There are countless X2 users here. Do you experience problems like this?

4. People with CRT monitors (I know there are quite a few) and DVI video cards - is the IQ good in high resolutions despite digital => analog conversion? Should be fine with decent cards...

Feedback appreciated

 

[CP5670]

1: Yes it does, but it depends a lot on what games you play. Vsync works in most modern games (things from the last two years) with a few notable exceptions (FEAR comes to mind), so if you stick with those you won't have too many problems. However, almost no game older than that supports it and the tearing is extremely bad for some reason, much worse than anything I've seen on a single card, which makes SLI essentially unusable for older games. This may or may not be important to you.

As for stability, I haven't run into any problems except for possibly one thing. I have been regularly getting BSODs if I alt-tab out of certain games and maximize them again, games that I used to have no trouble with. I haven't tried disabling SLI completely though so I'm not sure if this is related to it, and it only happens with a couple of older games. (although ones that I play a lot)

The profile system generally works well as long as you use nHancer rather than the nvidia control panel. You rarely need to mess with profiles for newer games though.

2: Don't have any experience with this, but I've seen quite a few people in the mobo forum say that it doesn't fit with two 512 7800 GTXs, so I would guess it won't work with the 7900 GTXs either. You may want to look at the DFI Expert or MSI Diamond Plus instead, which should allow everything to fit.

3: I don't have a dual core, but it seems a lot of those problems can be fixed if the X2 drivers and hotfix are set up just right.

4: I guess you're asking whether the DVI-VGA adapter causes any degradation (all cards do a digital-analog conversion internally ). It looks fine to me, and I regularly play at the limits of what VGA supports. Although if you want to be certain there is no quality loss, you can get cables that have a DVI connector at one end and a VGA one at the other end for very cheap.

 

[TheRyuu]

1. See above post

2. Yes, I have that mobo, any dual slot cooler will fit as their are 2 slots in between the PCIe slots. And Yes, I have an X-fi between them which currently have 2 vf700's on them (dual slot cooler), but it'll be a snug fit, but it'll fit.

3. Dual Core is probably better for SLI because of the driver overhead it creates. Plus the Hotfix and AMD Driver virtualy fix all known issues.

4. It'll be fine. (or see above post)

 

[BFG10K]

nVidia's drivers have known issues with dual-core systems and nVidia themselves ask users to disable their dual-core optimizations.

I'd imagine SLI will simply make things worse.

In addition there are lot of glitches across a wide range of games that many dual-core users experience and the only solution is to disable one of the CPUs.

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
nVidia's drivers have known issues with dual-core systems and nVidia themselves ask users to disable their dual-core optimizations.

I'd imagine SLI will simply make things worse.

In addition there are lot of glitches across a wide range of games that many dual-core users experience and the only solution is to disable one of the CPUs.

You probably couldn't be more wrong (with the second part). I've never heard of or have experience problems with my dual core system and my nvidia driver.

And for the glitch thing, thats what the hotfix and AMD drivers are for. Taking the 10 minutes to install them (which is a pain for the hotfix) saves loads of time in the future.

 

[FalllenAngell]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
nVidia's drivers have known issues with dual-core systems and nVidia themselves ask users to disable their dual-core optimizations.

I'd imagine SLI will simply make things worse.

In addition there are lot of glitches across a wide range of games that many dual-core users experience and the only solution is to disable one of the CPUs.

I'm guessing you don't have SLI and dual core.

I do, and Serious Sam2 is the only game I ever had a problem in. (and I've played many)

 

[darXoul]

Thanks for your feedback.

CP5670, if one of those older games doesn't support SLI+vsync, you can just disable the SLI mode and play with only one card and vsync on without any problems, right? If so, it doesn't seem too bad, since older games will run just fine on one 7900 GTX in all settings maxed anyway.

Also, what is the problem in F.E.A.R.? I read about it some time ago, is it related to tearing/vsync as well? This is a bit more of a concern, because F.E.A.R. is obviously one of these demanding hardware hogs that you really want your SLI to work fine with.

BFG10K, I see your rig is based on the single core 2.4 GHz A64. Have you actually tried games on a dual core CPU? When I did a web search a few months ago, I could clearly see that the community was divided into 3 camps: (1) people who claimed X2 had serious issues with games, (2) people who claimed that (1) were morons who didn't bother/manage to install the appropriate fixes properly, (3) people who have never tried X2 gaming but kept on spreading second hand info without actually having verified it.

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: darXoul
Thanks for your feedback.

CP5670, if one of those older games doesn't support SLI+vsync, you can just disable the SLI mode and play with only one card and vsync on without any problems, right? If so, it doesn't seem too bad, since older games will run just fine on one 7900 GTX in all settings maxed anyway.

Also, what is the problem in F.E.A.R.? I read about it some time ago, is it related to tearing/vsync as well? This is a bit more of a concern, because F.E.A.R. is obviously one of these demanding hardware hogs that you really want your SLI to work fine with.

BFG10K, I see your rig is based on the single core 2.4 GHz A64. Have you actually tried games on a dual core CPU? When I did a web search a few months ago, I could clearly see that the community was divided into 3 camps: (1) people who claimed X2 had serious issues with games, (2) people who claimed that (1) were morons who didn't bother/manage to install the appropriate fixes properly, (3) people who have never tried X2 gaming but kept on spreading second hand info without actually having verified it.

Guess I'm #2
It takes like 10 minutes to install the drivers. Well worth it IMO.

And I agree with the first and second part too.

Edit: BTW, darXoul your rig link in your sig is bad.
Fixed Link: http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.aspx?rigid=28843

 

[darXoul]

Thanks. Link corrected, rig updated slightly. Soon to be changed dramatically

 

[Tig Ol Bitties]

Well, I know in the beginning of setting up my SLi rig I had problems with the dvi connection on my LCD...picture came out stuttering with these video bands across the screen and lots of color disfigurations. I changed the cable to analog vga--->dvi connector and those problems went away, but I was disappointed not having dvi soooo....yesterday, I did some hard research and found that some people simply used different dvi ports to test while other claimed that installing coolbits made that problem go away...so I just did both and guess what, my dvi connection works now...hoorah!! Just something to keep in mind if you happen to come across this problem, though I doubt crt monitors will develop this problem anyways.

Definitely get the AMD dual core drivers and the microsoft hotfix, saves a lot of trouble and hassle, especially with that affinity settings in non-dual core supported games.

 

[BFG10K]

You probably couldn't be more wrong (with the second part). I've never heard of or have experience problems with my dual core system and my nvidia driver.

Then why don't you download nVidia's driver documentation and read the list of known SLI issues and known dual-core issues?

And for the glitch thing, thats what the hotfix and AMD drivers are for.

They don't always fix things. In many cases the only solution is to set the processor affinity to zero for one of the cores.

I'm guessing you don't have SLI and dual core.

You don't need to guess Rollo, given you've been here since 2001.

Have you actually tried games on a dual core CPU?

No because I refuse to be a beta tester for platform issues.

people who have never tried X2 gaming but kept on spreading second hand info without actually having verified it.

You don't need to purchase a dual-core system to do research such as reading nVidia driver documentation to see there are known issues. If you want to go ahead and purchase such a system despite such evidence then you're more than welcome to do so.

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

My 7900GTX SLI worked fine with my X2 in my games COD2 and Unreal Tournament so far.

 

[Munky]

With dual cores the AMD driver fixes some of the problems, but some games still have pauses/hitches. The original Unreal is one of them, and you have to set the app to run only on one core, but so far I havent gotten any dual core problems with other games.

 

[martman]

please forgive me.. I dont mean to hijack this thread but would some one please tell me the name of the AMD dual core patch you are talking about?.. I have, in the last couple of days gone dual core myself and have been wondering if there were any" patches or fixes" I may need for gaming. thanks

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: darXoul
Thanks for your feedback.

CP5670, if one of those older games doesn't support SLI+vsync, you can just disable the SLI mode and play with only one card and vsync on without any problems, right? If so, it doesn't seem too bad, since older games will run just fine on one 7900 GTX in all settings maxed anyway.

Also, what is the problem in F.E.A.R.? I read about it some time ago, is it related to tearing/vsync as well? This is a bit more of a concern, because F.E.A.R. is obviously one of these demanding hardware hogs that you really want your SLI to work fine with.

Yeah, you should be okay in most cases with a 7900 GTX, aside from maybe one or two exceptions. I have the slower 7800 GTs and find that one card is almost never good enough to play old games at the settings I originally planned to use when I bought the cards (2048x1536, 8xS AA, 16x AF), while both cards together often run great but exhibit insane amounts of tearing.

FEAR is one of the few modern games where vsync and SLI don't cooperate, similar to all the old games. You can try switching it to SFR instead (the default is AFR) and vsync will then work, but the game has some rendering bugs in that mode. The tearing is somewhat annoying but I never found it to be nearly as much of a problem as in the old games, with the generally crappy framerates in that game anyway. Although there are some people who say they find the tearing bad enough in FEAR to prefer single card mode.

Originally posted by: munky
With dual cores the AMD driver fixes some of the problems, but some games still have pauses/hitches. The original Unreal is one of them, and you have to set the app to run only on one core, but so far I havent gotten any dual core problems with other games.

Do you have to do that every time you open the program or just once? I'm thinking of picking up a 165 soon with all the discounts Monarch is running, but I play the Unreal-based Deus Ex fairly often and could definitely do without any further compatibility hassles in that.

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: martman
please forgive me.. I dont mean to hijack this thread but would some one please tell me the name of the AMD dual core patch you are talking about?.. I have, in the last couple of days gone dual core myself and have been wondering if there were any" patches or fixes" I may need for gaming. thanks

Here ya go (How to install the AMD Drivers/hotfix the correct way)

You probably couldn't be more wrong (with the second part). I've never heard of or have experience problems with my dual core system and my nvidia driver.

Then why don't you download nVidia's driver documentation and read the list of known SLI issues and known dual-core issues?

Documentation don't mean crap, it's how it actually performs in real games.

And for the glitch thing, thats what the hotfix and AMD drivers are for.

They don't always fix things. In many cases the only solution is to set the processor affinity to zero for one of the cores.

Never had that problem. And the hotfix should take care of the affinity to zero problem, anything else I guess is just another bug.

Have you actually tried games on a dual core CPU?

No because I refuse to be a beta tester for platform issues.

A dual core CPU is actually a great thing to have. It's not beta testing, I think software and divers have matured enough for dual core.

I'VE never had any issues with my dual core SLI rig. Maby I'm lucky, but I think the majority of people who have a dual core CPU (i.e. Opty 165) are very happy with it. Like I said, documentation doesn't mean crap, but I'm sure you'll probably confront me with some more information about how a dual core CPU and SLI just suck.

Look, I really don't want to get into some arument about computers right now.

Lets leave it at this:
-Dual Core CPU's have SOME ISSUES, but MOST can be fixed by hotfix and drivers.
-SLI does cause increased tearing and some vsync problems, but you really only need one card for older games, and FEAR is the only modern game that it really has problems with.
- Been fun arguing.

Edit: And yes, I'm admitting that AMD and SLI still have issues. So I guess you win (sort of) since it's not nearly as bad as you say, but their still there.

 

[martman]

thanks wizboy

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
nVidia's drivers have known issues with dual-core systems and nVidia themselves ask users to disable their dual-core optimizations.

I downloaded the 81.94 release notes, and did a search for 'dual', 'dual-core', 'disable' and 'X2', and no where in the release notes does NVIDIA recommend users disable any dual core optimizations, nor do thet specify any known issues with dual-core CPU's. About the only mention of dual-core in their release notes is where they mention their support for them.

 

[Tig Ol Bitties]

Dual core and SLi user here myself...no problems whatsoever after those fixes and updated nVidia drivers, and my cards are mixed brands too.

 

[Elfear]

I had two 7800GTs for a few months and while they worked well 80% of the time, the other 20% really made me anxious to switch back to a single card. The tearing got annoying in some games like HL2/CS:Source and it drove me up the wall thinking my monitor's reponse time was too slow. I came dang close to sending my 2405fpw back before I figured out it was the 7800GTs causing the hitching. I also spent more time than I would have liked trying to get the profiles to work correctly. When FEAR came out you had to mess around with the profile to make it perform like it should. Issue is fixed now but, again, just one more thing I had to worry about over a single card.

SLI has come a long way since last year this time but it still has some issues to work out.

 

[BFG10K]

Documentation don't mean crap, it's how it actually performs in real games.

I generally tend to believe vendors listing problems rather than personal anecdotes from people that claim to have no issues.

And the hotfix should take care of the affinity to zero problem, anything else I guess is just another bug.

It should but it often doesn't. The software forum for example has a dual-core issue just about every other day that can't be fixed except to disable one of the cores.

A dual core CPU is actually a great thing to have. It's not beta testing, I think software and divers have matured enough for dual core.

I agree dual-core performance is nice but the systems are still not compatible enough for my tastes I'm afraid. I'll stick to single core just a little longer thanks.

 

[BFG10K]

I downloaded the 81.94 release notes, and did a search for 'dual', 'dual-core', 'disable' and 'X2', and no where in the release notes does NVIDIA recommend users disable any dual core optimizations, nor do thet specify any known issues with dual-core CPU's.

This is a joke, right?

http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/84.21/84.21_Forceware_Release_Notes.pdf

There may be intermittent application compatibility issues with dual core CPUs.

If you experience this issue, you can work around it by toggling off multithread optimizations using the following instructions:
1 Launch regedit and determine the current primary display card by looking in HKey_Local_Machine\Hardware\DeviceMap\Video and note the GUID (global unique identifier assigned by Windows), which is the long string in brackets { } at the end of the entry "\device\video0".
2 Look in HKey_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{GUID}\0000 where {GUID} is the number derived from the previous step.
3 Open the "0000" directory and create a new DWORD called OGL_ThreadControl and give it a value of 2. This will disable multithreading in the driver for all OpenGL applications.
4 If you want to disable driver multithreading for all Direct3D applications?In the same "0000" directory, create a new DWORD called WTD_EXECMODEL and give it a value of 0.

As for SLI issues:

NVIDIA Issues?SLI

GeForce 7 Series

? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, SLI: The load balancing line is corrupted when
playing Civilizations 4 at 2560x1600.
? GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB, SLI: Blue-screen crash occurs or black
screen appears when toggling the DOS window while playing M2P
files using Windows Media Player 10.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, SLI: Stuttering occurs in NHL2006 with SLI
AA enabled.
? Windows XP, GeForce 7800 GTX, SLI: F.E.A.R. may not run on the
AMD FX-60 with Asus A8MSLI32.
? GeForce 7800 GTX, SLI: There is graphics corruption when playing
IL2: Forgotten battles.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, SLI: Counter-Strike: Source performance
decreases in SLI multi-GPU mode compared to single-GPU mode.
? GeForce 7800 GT/GTX, SLI: The display attached to GPU1/DVI2 is
not restored after disabling SLI.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, GeForce 6 Series: Shadows do not render
correctly in Far Cry patch 1.33.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, GeForce 6800/6800 Ultra/GT: When selecting
Detect Optimal Frequencies in the control panel, the desktop refresh
rate switches to 60Hz.
? GeForce 7800 GTX, SLI, Windows XP Professional x64: Half-Life 2
Day of Defeat does not run.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, SLI: Non-active displays may be activated
after disabling SLI or rebooting the system.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, SLI: Display does not respond appropriately
when using Pan-and-scan under SLI mode.
? GeForce 7800 GTX, SLI: Attempts to enable SLI dynamically
occasionally fails, requiring a system reboot.
? GeForce 7800 GTX, SLI, Windows XP: The computer crashes
intermittently when changing the desktop resolution to 1920x1080 on
a Viewsonic VP231wb.

GeForce 6 Series

? GeForce 6800 Ultra, SLI: The system hangs when looping 3DMark05
1.1.
? GeForce 6800, SLI: The audio is corrupt during the intro videos in Flat
Out when SLI is enabled.
? GeForce 6800, SLI: Stuttered rendering occurs during test 3 in
3DMark05 at 1600x1200 4xAA with SLI enabled.
? GeForce 6800, SLI: SLI split line indicates no scaling is occurring for
Age of Empires when run in windowed mode.
? GeForce 6800, SLI: The character portrait in Dungeon Siege 2 is
corrupted.
? GeForce 6800 Ultra, SLI: There are intermittent application failures
when using nForce4 SLI/SLI X16 motherboards.
? GeForce 6800 Ultra, SLI: Apple 30 inch display does not run with 512
MB graphics boards in SLI mode. You must switch to single GPU
mode to work.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: Double image of the scene appears
when running Star Wars Republic Commando.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: Corruption occurs along the SLI
split line when playing Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: With antialiazing enabled from the
NVIDIA panel, car textures are corrupted in Need for Speed Most
Wanted, and ghosting occurs in FIFA 2006.
? GeForce 6600, SLI: The Select display output option is not available
for NVIDIA SLI without the SLI connector.
This is a known limitation of NVIDIA SLI when the SLI connector is not used.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: Gameplay and menu performance
drops when running Kohan 2: Kings of War in SLI mode with 4x
antialiasing enabled.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: Lock On: Modern Air Combat has
lower than expected performance at high resolutions with antialiasing
enabled.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: Corruption occurs in the game
Painkiller when setting the resolution to wide screen formats.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: The entire display blacks out briefly
when attempting to bring up the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Yup, definitely no issues with SLI there. :roll:

Years after its introduction SLI still has critical problems affecting major release titles and even system stability.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

I downloaded the 81.94 release notes, and did a search for 'dual', 'dual-core', 'disable' and 'X2', and no where in the release notes does NVIDIA recommend users disable any dual core optimizations, nor do thet specify any known issues with dual-core CPU's.

This is a joke, right?

http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/84.21/84.21_Forceware_Release_Notes.pdf

There may be intermittent application compatibility issues with dual core CPUs.

If you experience this issue, you can work around it by toggling off multithread optimizations using the following instructions:
1 Launch regedit and determine the current primary display card by looking in HKey_Local_Machine\Hardware\DeviceMap\Video and note the GUID (global unique identifier assigned by Windows), which is the long string in brackets { } at the end of the entry "\device\video0".
2 Look in HKey_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{GUID}\0000 where {GUID} is the number derived from the previous step.
3 Open the "0000" directory and create a new DWORD called OGL_ThreadControl and give it a value of 2. This will disable multithreading in the driver for all OpenGL applications.
4 If you want to disable driver multithreading for all Direct3D applications?In the same "0000" directory, create a new DWORD called WTD_EXECMODEL and give it a value of 0.

As for SLI issues:

NVIDIA Issues?SLI

GeForce 7 Series

? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, SLI: The load balancing line is corrupted when
playing Civilizations 4 at 2560x1600.
? GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB, SLI: Blue-screen crash occurs or black
screen appears when toggling the DOS window while playing M2P
files using Windows Media Player 10.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, SLI: Stuttering occurs in NHL2006 with SLI
AA enabled.
? Windows XP, GeForce 7800 GTX, SLI: F.E.A.R. may not run on the
AMD FX-60 with Asus A8MSLI32.
? GeForce 7800 GTX, SLI: There is graphics corruption when playing
IL2: Forgotten battles.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, SLI: Counter-Strike: Source performance
decreases in SLI multi-GPU mode compared to single-GPU mode.
? GeForce 7800 GT/GTX, SLI: The display attached to GPU1/DVI2 is
not restored after disabling SLI.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, GeForce 6 Series: Shadows do not render
correctly in Far Cry patch 1.33.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, GeForce 6800/6800 Ultra/GT: When selecting
Detect Optimal Frequencies in the control panel, the desktop refresh
rate switches to 60Hz.
? GeForce 7800 GTX, SLI, Windows XP Professional x64: Half-Life 2
Day of Defeat does not run.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, SLI: Non-active displays may be activated
after disabling SLI or rebooting the system.
? GeForce 7800 GTX/GT, SLI: Display does not respond appropriately
when using Pan-and-scan under SLI mode.
? GeForce 7800 GTX, SLI: Attempts to enable SLI dynamically
occasionally fails, requiring a system reboot.
? GeForce 7800 GTX, SLI, Windows XP: The computer crashes
intermittently when changing the desktop resolution to 1920x1080 on
a Viewsonic VP231wb.

GeForce 6 Series

? GeForce 6800 Ultra, SLI: The system hangs when looping 3DMark05
1.1.
? GeForce 6800, SLI: The audio is corrupt during the intro videos in Flat
Out when SLI is enabled.
? GeForce 6800, SLI: Stuttered rendering occurs during test 3 in
3DMark05 at 1600x1200 4xAA with SLI enabled.
? GeForce 6800, SLI: SLI split line indicates no scaling is occurring for
Age of Empires when run in windowed mode.
? GeForce 6800, SLI: The character portrait in Dungeon Siege 2 is
corrupted.
? GeForce 6800 Ultra, SLI: There are intermittent application failures
when using nForce4 SLI/SLI X16 motherboards.
? GeForce 6800 Ultra, SLI: Apple 30 inch display does not run with 512
MB graphics boards in SLI mode. You must switch to single GPU
mode to work.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: Double image of the scene appears
when running Star Wars Republic Commando.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: Corruption occurs along the SLI
split line when playing Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: With antialiazing enabled from the
NVIDIA panel, car textures are corrupted in Need for Speed Most
Wanted, and ghosting occurs in FIFA 2006.
? GeForce 6600, SLI: The Select display output option is not available
for NVIDIA SLI without the SLI connector.
This is a known limitation of NVIDIA SLI when the SLI connector is not used.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: Gameplay and menu performance
drops when running Kohan 2: Kings of War in SLI mode with 4x
antialiasing enabled.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: Lock On: Modern Air Combat has
lower than expected performance at high resolutions with antialiasing
enabled.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: Corruption occurs in the game
Painkiller when setting the resolution to wide screen formats.
? GeForce 6600, SLI, Windows XP: The entire display blacks out briefly
when attempting to bring up the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Yup, definitely no issues with SLI there. :roll:

Years after its introduction SLI still has critical problems affecting major release titles and even system stability.

Yeah, and ati doesnt have any :roll:

most of those issues arent even real issues.

However, i am in the same boat as you BFG, im not going SLI or Dual core until most of the problems are resolved, im guessing both of those things wont happen until vista.

I agree with you in principle, but your lack of tact kinda sucked imho.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Yeah, and ati doesnt have any :roll:

most of those issues arent even real issues.

However, i am in the same boat as you BFG, im not going SLI or Dual core until most of the problems are resolved, im guessing both of those things wont happen until vista.

I agree with you in principle, but your lack of tact kinda sucked imho.

ATI has their share of issues regarding CrossFire (you can't even begin to compare those with SLIs'), but NV-ATI isn't an issue here. So let's not bring ATI in. Also, the original poster (the poster you're quoting) is very conveniently ignoring the fact that there are many times the longer list of bug/fixes on single card-configuration on Forceware Leleast Note. Compare to those, the issues SLI users are having today is near zero, I'd dare to say.

Said that, my SLI experience has been nothing but pleasant. Too much worry at the beginning might have had me one-eyed, but I thought I will have to go through constant reboot and OS installation, and bug fixes and of course, not-so-accurately-rendered graphics... etc. But oh well. Seeing is believing, a saying says? That's got a reason.

Everything was breeze and there were hardly any *issue*. Installation is straight forward, you just have to stick the second card in then boot up. Then the driver picks up the card and takes care of the rest.

For 6 months of gaminig with X2 4800+ and 7800GTX SLI spoiled my eyes alot, but I'm glad the technology is even more advanced now. Out of 10+ games I've played, only issues I've experienced regarding dual-core CPU is WarCraft3. The AMD patch fixed it. And the only problem (If I should call that - well as I'm spoiled now, I guess I should) I've experienced with SLI is the dual-monitor support. According to NV, I shouldn't have to reboot to change my display setting, but every now and then, I had to reboot my system to change to each mode. Nothing extreme though.

I suggest people don't get too worked up by some of the conservative members. We all know SLI (and Crossfire) is here to stay. Although I don't have a SLI system right now, but if you can afford and are curious about it, go for it. Hey, that's actually the biggest thing that got me into SLI. The "Geek" factor. I just had to see what it is. And I wasn't disappointed.

 

[darXoul]

Originally posted by: lopri

ATI has their share of issues regarding CrossFire (you can't even begin to compare those with SLIs'), but NV-ATI isn't an issue here. So let's not bring ATI in.

Precisely. I really don't want this thread to become a bait for another nVidia vs. ATi war.

Right now, the only two video card setups I'm interested in are:

- a single 7900 GTX and
- 7900 GTX SLI.

ATi and Crossfire are completely irrelevant here.

Thanks for all the opinions.

As for game settings, I'm only interested in 1280*960/1024 and 1600*1200 with 4*AA and 16*AF. I'm not really interested in extreme resolutions or SLI AA modes. If I do get SLI, I guess I'll be able to play all games with the above settings, if not, I can use 160*1200 in less demanding games and easily go down to 1280*960 in most demanding ones, or games where I consider "2D elements" too small in 16*12 (text, icons, etc.).

SLI is appealing because of the simple fact that no single card can play F.E.A.R., CoD2 or Oblivion comfortably in the aforementioned settings (16*12/4/16).

Dual core is appealing because of more comfortable desktop work and multitasking. However, gaming benefits are very limited at the moment. If I get the single core 4000+, it will be faster than X2 4400+ in most games due to higher frequency, and cheaper, too. Everyone says dual core is the future though.