Is SLI worth it?

[nRollo]

HappyNic:

Wow, you buy a new motherboard every year? good for you, but I'm sure most can't do the same. So you're just gonna upgrad the motherboard? What about the CPU and RAM?

Yes, I always buy a sweet spot performance/price setup. Last December, K8T/A64 3000+. The one before P4 2.5/P4PE. The one before, 8KHA/1600+. Etc. If I upgrade this year, I'll keep my RAM, 1GB Corsair PC3200, and replace my cpu.

So your advise is to get 2 top end cards ($900) to get a couple of more frame rates on a game they can already play?

It's a LOT more frames, and sometimes the difference between pplayable and not.
http://graphics.tomshardware.c...li-performance-16.html
Could I play Doom3 at a 38fps average with my one GT? No. Could I play at 68fps with two. Yes.

http://graphics.tomshardware.c...li-performance-18.html
Could I play Far Cry at 30fps with one GT? No. Could I play at 53fps with two? Yes.

what I gave here is a example of your choices after you got a SLI mobo and 1 videocard and is thinking of getting the 2nd card to complete your SLI or a newer Videocard.

This makes no sense. You're not out the money for the video card, because you've got the use of that in the interim and it's lost no more or less value. So you have more options: you can add a new card and sell your old one like you would have, or you can add a second card like the first. The additional cost of the motherboard will be small for the additional choice. (and if you normally buy good motherboards that cost $125>, not ECS junkers.

Oh my old 8500 can still play Half-Life2 very well.

If by "very well" you mean the game doesn't crash, OK. I've played HL on a 6800NU and a 6800GT, I never want to see it on less than a NU, too slow.

more support is alway better, improvement on SLI hardware will happen. That will mean another new motherboard you'll have to get.,

Again, nonsense. ATs review of the new Gigabyte SLI board said it ran everything great, one card or two. There is no "have to upgrade motherboard".

I'm talking about what newer Directx would the new videocard support. If they can support higher would it not be better?

It depends. For the longest time TRAOD was the only DX9 PS2 game. Reviewers said it was a horrible joke, so there was no real reason to care if you had a good DX9 PS2 card. When do you think DX10 will be upon us and have games that use it's features?

But most of the other videocard around the same price range as the FX5900 when it was released seems to do just fine with DX9 Even some lower cost one still do better

The nV40 has no DX issues like the nV30 did.

just like a motherboard their are other stuffs too, but the 2 main ones are CORE and RAM. Why is it not possible? Besides this is what I would like to see in the future, is it wrong to tell people this?

Yes it's wrong. Pinouts of processors change, memory types and interfaces change, bus slots change, etc etc etc.. You won't see a card with a socket for the RAM and GPU, because it's a bad idea.

You don't have to worry about support or compabilty of softwares/games that's 1 and a half years aways because you would of upgraded to all new videocard, motherboard, cpu and ram already..
It would work if everyone is as Rich as you,

I am not rich, although it would be nice.

 

[DTBH]

does this mean we won't be seeing a new GPU from nvidia soon?

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Rollo
HappyNic:

Wow, you buy a new motherboard every year? good for you, but I'm sure most can't do the same. So you're just gonna upgrad the motherboard? What about the CPU and RAM?

Yes, I always buy a sweet spot performance/price setup. Last December, K8T/A64 3000+. The one before P4 2.5/P4PE. The one before, 8KHA/1600+. Etc. If I upgrade this year, I'll keep my RAM, 1GB Corsair PC3200, and replace my cpu.

So your advise is to get 2 top end cards ($900) to get a couple of more frame rates on a game they can already play?

It's a LOT more frames, and sometimes the difference between pplayable and not.
http://graphics.tomshardware.c...li-performance-16.html
Could I play Doom3 at a 38fps average with my one GT? No. Could I play at 68fps with two. Yes.

http://graphics.tomshardware.c...li-performance-18.html
Could I play Far Cry at 30fps with one GT? No. Could I play at 53fps with two? Yes.

what I gave here is a example of your choices after you got a SLI mobo and 1 videocard and is thinking of getting the 2nd card to complete your SLI or a newer Videocard.

This makes no sense. You're not out the money for the video card, because you've got the use of that in the interim and it's lost no more or less value. So you have more options: you can add a new card and sell your old one like you would have, or you can add a second card like the first. The additional cost of the motherboard will be small for the additional choice. (and if you normally buy good motherboards that cost $125>, not ECS junkers.

Oh my old 8500 can still play Half-Life2 very well.

If by "very well" you mean the game doesn't crash, OK. I've played HL on a 6800NU and a 6800GT, I never want to see it on less than a NU, too slow.

more support is alway better, improvement on SLI hardware will happen. That will mean another new motherboard you'll have to get.,

Again, nonsense. ATs review of the new Gigabyte SLI board said it ran everything great, one card or two. There is no "have to upgrade motherboard".

I'm talking about what newer Directx would the new videocard support. If they can support higher would it not be better?

It depends. For the longest time TRAOD was the only DX9 PS2 game. Reviewers said it was a horrible joke, so there was no real reason to care if you had a good DX9 PS2 card. When do you think DX10 will be upon us and have games that use it's features?

But most of the other videocard around the same price range as the FX5900 when it was released seems to do just fine with DX9 Even some lower cost one still do better

The nV40 has no DX issues like the nV30 did.

just like a motherboard their are other stuffs too, but the 2 main ones are CORE and RAM. Why is it not possible? Besides this is what I would like to see in the future, is it wrong to tell people this?

Yes it's wrong. Pinouts of processors change, memory types and interfaces change, bus slots change, etc etc etc.. You won't see a card with a socket for the RAM and GPU, because it's a bad idea.

You don't have to worry about support or compabilty of softwares/games that's 1 and a half years aways because you would of upgraded to all new videocard, motherboard, cpu and ram already..
It would work if everyone is as Rich as you,

I am not rich, although it would be nice.

My Nephew has been playing HL2 on a Radeon 8500LE and it plays fine. It doesn't look as good as on my 9800Pro, but it plays perfectly smooth.

 

[will889]

It's not just about how expensive SLI is, but how much a premium CPU will also cost you these days that you need to get to make getting an SLI setup even worth it. Not long ago $400.00 to $500.00 would get you there for a top CPU. To think that now to be at the top you need that $800.00 CPU and the expensive mobo and GFX cards to match @ $500.00 a click. We are talking serious money here. Not for me. I'll just make an effort to get the best single card money can buy and continuously do that if I can.

 

[Gunnman]

IT Rocks!!

Goto www.3dchipset.com and download the new nforce and video drivers . Also you can download the SLI profiler and custom set all of your games.