How Is SLI For Game Smoothness

[DasFox]

I bought a SLI system for my GameRig, but ever since I've owned it, I've never had a big LCD to play with it to really take advantage of the SLI with something like at 1900x1200

Well I'm using the NEC 20WMGX2 and that uses a resolution of 1680x1050, and after having issues with one of my 7900 cards, that I now need to RMA back to Evga for artifacts and lockups I'm considering not running SLI anymore.

With just one 7900GT card in the box graphically speaking with F.E.A.R. on MAX eye candy I can't see any difference with one or two cards.

The ONLY thing I wonder is if game play might be smoother is all with SLI instead of one card, because with the one card in I swear I'm getting a little laggy feeling at times moving around the map, but then again it might just be in my mind this idea because I'm only running the one card, and maybe this occassional stickiness, lag would happen just the same as if I was running SLI.

So would running SLI with my LCD and resolution at least make game play more smooth?

Also I'm wondering until I'm ready to get a 8800, and that might not be for another 6 months, if possibly any newer generation games will be better off with both cards to help game play run smoother?

ALOHA

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: DasFox

The ONLY thing I wonder is if game play might be smoother is all with SLI instead of one card, because with the one card in I swear I'm getting a little laggy feeling at times moving around the map, but then again it might just be in my mind this idea because I'm only running the one card, and maybe this occassional stickiness, lag would happen just the same as if I was running SLI.

the framerate is probably getting a little low (less than 30 fps). running FEAR at that resolution on a single 7900gt is pushing it.

So would running SLI with my LCD and resolution at least make game play more smooth?

yup, in most games at that resolution having two 7900gt's instead of one will help framerates a lot.

 

[DasFox]

Yeah that's right I forgot about just saying the Framerate, yeah I thought SLI should improve that.

Guess I'll RMA that bad one back and keep SLI

THANKS & ALOHA

 

[josh6079]

With just one 7900GT card in the box graphically speaking with F.E.A.R. on MAX eye candy I can't see any difference with one or two cards.

SLI must not have been enabled then, because FEAR scales very well with SLI and you would see a big improvement.

So would running SLI with my LCD and resolution at least make game play more smooth?

It would give you a higher frame rate, although you may run into Vsync issues so "smoothness" might end up being your preference for frame rate over screen-uniformity.

One advantage 7 series users have right now that--for the time being--even G80 users don't have is Super-Sampling AA. Running your rig in HQ with 8xS would be a practical as well as ideal setting since it could do so rather easily. (Perhaps not for FEAR of course but 99% of every game on the market).

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: josh6079

With just one 7900GT card in the box graphically speaking with F.E.A.R. on MAX eye candy I can't see any difference with one or two cards.

SLI must not have been enabled then, because FEAR scales very well with SLI and you would see a big improvement.

So would running SLI with my LCD and resolution at least make game play more smooth?

It would give you a higher frame rate, although you may run into Vsync issues so "smoothness" might end up being your preference for frame rate over screen-uniformity.

One advantage 7 series users have right now that--for the time being--even G80 users don't have is Super-Sampling AA. Running your rig in HQ with 8xS would be a practical as well as ideal setting since it could do so rather easily. (Perhaps not for FEAR of course but 99% of every game on the market).

Yep. Fear often gains near 100% improvement with SLI.

I got it and love it. Asides from the differences in clock speeds, and the fact I have a dual core processor, our rigs are pretty similar.

My monitors is 1680x1050 too.
Now, running 99% of games at 8xS is unrealistic (at least to me). I mean, yea may be in older games (like Call of Duty) but still, I can't do it with CS:S, CoD2, etc.... May be it's something I'm doing wrong but my rig really dips down with the frame rates with 8xS. (seriously, if you can do it, tell me how.)

Anyway, I'd try to keep the SLI setup. I mean, if you can get 2 working cards (and you have evga ones, so RMA shouldn't be a problem, just make sure to get one of the newer ones with infineon (sp?) memory. (the 56x models I think)

When you enable SLI, make sure that the SLI rendering mode is set to "Auto-Select". I don't care what the fsck'n default is (it's Single GPU Rendering). NOW, nvidia's smart ass CP is suppose to default to the profile if there is one, otherwise run in Single-GPU setup. Well, I ran into a problem with that were it didn't do it and ran all my games (tested with 3dmark) with ONE gpu. So, make sure to do that if you already don't.

And make sure vsync is disabled. Not very good with SLI anyway (and you can only use it with SFR right?).

Good luck, and lol@josh's sig

Edit: and were SLI helps most is the minimum frame rate. Which is VERY IMPORTANT. Avg frame rate is good and all but the minimum frame rate will basically tell you how smooth the game will run. I've found that having SLI will improve the minimum frame rate.

 

[DasFox]

Ahh I've always used Vsync with SLI, I thought you'd get tearing if you didn't. Where are 8xS settings in the Advanced options of the drivers? Not sure if I remember seeing these before, hmm :roll:

wizboy11 I've got 7900 GT KO Superclocks when they came out, these where replacements for the first 7900 CO Superclocks when they came out like all the other 7900s having issues.

How would I know if I have these newer mem chips?

I always use SLI in Auto detect mode.

ALOHA

 

[40sTheme]

Hint: never use VSync. It's pretty much totally worthless. RMA and stick with SLi.

 

[ArchAngel777]

I have no experience with SLI, which is why I am asking this question. But why is Vsync a problem with SLI? I always run VSync + Tripple Buffering in all my games. So does SLI have "issues" with such a setup?

 

[CP5670]

To put it simply, it doesn't work in many games. You either get tearing even with it on or performance down to the level of a single card, and the tearing is for some reason much more severe than on a single card. Depending on what games you play though, you may or may not see it.

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: DasFox
Where are 8xS settings in the Advanced options of the drivers?

under the anti-aliasing section

or you can just enable it by right clicking on the little nvidia icon in the taskbar thing