Is SLi worth it?

[evo4ever]

Hi guys!

I've just received my brand spanking new 512MB Leadtek 7950GT today and its runs a hell of alot faster than my old 256MB XFX GeForce 7800GS.

I have an ASUS A8N32 SLi Deluxe mobo, is it worth taking advantage of SLi with buying another 7950GT next month? will I notice big percentage increases on performance with having 2 rather than 1? Will my games run literally twice as fast judging my FPS? Input appreciated! thanks

 

[JPB]

What resolution ?

 

[Kromis]

HELL NO! Well, maybe not right now...

 

[Zebo]

Yes big time. Video cards and more of them is the best bang for the buck you can make.

CPU, meh.. high end mem, don't make me laugh.. Video is where it's at.

But I wouldnt screw around with those fanned models when silent XFX is out there.

Two of those spells 16x12 everything maxed and silent.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: x80064
What resolution ?

The key question.

I personally have major issues with recommending SLI unless you are running an insanely high resolution display, with games at maxed settings.

Generally, you will never see more than an 80% improvement in games, & in some, especially older titles, you'll see far less than that.

You also lose capabilities such as dual displays, unless you switch into "Multi-monitor Mode" aka non-SLI, or you buy a third video card.

There are IQ settings benefits to SLI, which is one nice bonus.

 

[Maximilian]

Yea, the general concensus is that a single new gen card will stomp two old gen cards, as i think is the case with 6800 ultra SLI systems and is definately the case with 6600GT SLI systems.

 

[nitromullet]

It's tough to say at this point. G80 and R600 are very much a mystery right now and Vista/DX10 may or may not play into your decision. It is possible that next gen meets or exceeds a 7950GT SLI rig, but it's also possible that it doesn't and that it will require you to buy a new power supply. It's very much up in the air. The main thing going against SLI in particular is that is probably has the muscle, but not the ability to run HDR+AA.

Resolution definitely should factor into your decision, but I don't think it is the deciding factor that some are making it out to be. IMO, that outlook shows that some people put too much stock in benchmarks. Yes, runnning an SLI set at 1600x1200 with the standard 4xAA/16xAF is probably a waste, but what they aren't considering is HL2:EP1 at 8xSSAA/16xHQAF or WoW at 16xSSAA/16xHQAF, which make the respective games look a lot better than the run of the mill settings used in most benchmarks. It just depends on how much these niceties are worth to you.

 

[BFG10K]

With G80 so close I'd say to wait until it hits. I really wanted to pick up another 7900 GTX but I'll wait too.

 

[Gstanfor]

Originally posted by: n7
I personally have major issues with recommending SLI unless you are running an insanely high resolution display, with games at maxed settings.

There are IQ settings benefits to SLI, which is one nice bonus.

Indeed. IMHO, the potential to increase IQ is the only reason to consider SLi. Those with LCD's limited to a max of 1280x1024, don't bother considering it. A single card is far better for you.

 

[moonboy403]

2 semi high end nvidia gpu in sli would usually be similar to the performance of a next generation card if this pattern holds

 

[moonboy403]

Originally posted by: Gstanfor

Originally posted by: n7
I personally have major issues with recommending SLI unless you are running an insanely high resolution display, with games at maxed settings.

There are IQ settings benefits to SLI, which is one nice bonus.

Indeed. IMHO, the potential to increase IQ is the only reason to consider SLi. Those with LCD's limited to a max of 1280x1024, don't bother considering it. A single card is far better for you.

i disagree, sli = high minimum framerates which makes the game much smoother than before....sli would mean a VERY smooth gaming experience at 1280x1024 w/ 4aa/16af and all in game features at max

i had 7800 gt sli back when my lcd only is 1280x1024 and i never regreted sli...everything was just SO smooth

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: moonboy403
2 semi high end nvidia gpu in sli would usually be similar to the performance of a next generation card if this pattern holds

I guess that is the big question right... I'm sure that in the longrun the pattern will hold, but there is a lot of change in the next gen gpu's aside from just making them faster. Don't get me wrong, I think they will be faster, but the question is by how much and at what cost.

 

[moonboy403]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: moonboy403
2 semi high end nvidia gpu in sli would usually be similar to the performance of a next generation card if this pattern holds

I guess that is the big question right... I'm sure that in the longrun the pattern will hold, but there is a lot of change in the next gen gpu's aside from just making them faster. Don't get me wrong, I think they will be faster, but the question is by how much and at what cost.

surely i hope the rumoured price of G80 is plain wrong...at over $600, it's just unacceptable

 

[lopri]

Yeah. Looks like the next gen cards will command much higher prices (and power bills) for the performance improvement in DX9 games. The thing is, current gen cards are mostly rehash of 1~3 years old architectures, so they are very mature and cheap to produce. There are no information that's remotely concrete regarding next-gen cards' performance yet. I've heard no gains to x3 performance in DX9.

As far as SLI goes, I should probably say it's worth more than most other upgrades if what you want is more eye candies and smoother game play. I also think the extra framebuffer (512MB vs 256MB) tend to be better utilized under dual-GPU setup.

 

[nitromullet]

surely i hope the rumoured price of G80 is plain wrong...at over $600, it's just unacceptable

...but it's not unimaginable. The 7800GTX 256MB and the X1800XT both sold for over $600 at the time of their release. Although, I wasn't just referring to the actual cash cost of the cards, but the overall cost in terms of heat, power, and money, not to mention the growing pains of a totally new OS and version of Direct3D....

As far as SLI goes, I should probably say it's worth more than most other upgrades if what you want is more eye candies and smoother game play.

Absolutely, I notice a bigger difference from going SLI than I did from Athlon64 X2 to Core 2 Duo...

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: moonboy403

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: moonboy403
2 semi high end nvidia gpu in sli would usually be similar to the performance of a next generation card if this pattern holds

I guess that is the big question right... I'm sure that in the longrun the pattern will hold, but there is a lot of change in the next gen gpu's aside from just making them faster. Don't get me wrong, I think they will be faster, but the question is by how much and at what cost.

surely i hope the rumoured price of G80 is plain wrong...at over $600, it's just unacceptable

I think he meant cost(s) In addition to price you have watts, new PSU's required and noises.

 

[josh6079]

surely i hope the rumoured price of G80 is plain wrong...at over $600, it's just unacceptable

Agreed. However, inflation happens. Gas is also unacceptable--not because of the price but because we're still heavily dependant on it.

 

[evo4ever]

Im runnning my games at 1280x1024, i only have a 17" CRT monitor. According to sliZone my PSU supports Quad SLi so there no issues when its comes to power supply.

 

[Zebo]

Yeah I wonder how far 500 Bil pissed away in ME wars would go to making us independant. I bet we could build a 100 nuke power plants and set up the whole infrastructure of electric car recharge stations where fork lifts just swap out a standardized battery in cars charge them overnight and give to a new consumer the next day. I bet all the batteries could be paid for too within that same 500 billion soon to be a trillion pipedream of hearts and minds. What a waste.

 

[evo4ever]

Another thing, I have a choice to swap my 512MB Leadtek 7950GT for a 512MB BFG 7950GT OC, which one would you prefer considering overclockability, stability, and performance.

 

[Zebo]

They all use the nvidia reference design so should be identical except for HS, default clock speeds (some come overclocked) and warranty period. I've always used BFG and XFX because I like thier blue and black PCB's over the standard green and both have 'lifetime' warranty.

 

[BFG10K]

i disagree, sli = high minimum framerates which makes the game much smoother than before

Your minimum will only improve if you aren't bottlenecked by the CPU/platform.

 

[Dribble]

What benefit would you see from buying a second card right now? Is your 7950GT holding you back? Is the benefit from the extra card really worth the cost?
If it is buy one, if it's not don't.

 

[MrToilet]

I am waffling on whether I want to buy a 2nd 7900 GT KO - they are $199 after rebate, definitely manageable... but my system right now is an A64 Venice OC'ed to 2.6 gHz, and 1 GB RAM... will I really see that much performance increase going from a single 7900 GT to SLI?