POLL: SLI upgrade path

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Creig
The ironic part is that the results of this poll could potentially be applied to those who are considering a Crossfire system when they become available.

The REALLY ironic part is that nobody would really WANT a Crapfire set now, would they?

For all the reasons I spoke of in my various threads about Missfire.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: munky
Did I ask you about 7800 SLI? What do you have to say about your trolling Crossfire thread?

I say you should apologize to me for questioning the validity of my information now that the shame of Missfire is known to the world.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Plus BFG, um an X800XL would die on 1920x1440 with 16xAF and 4xAA games such as doom3 (would be a slideshow), HL2 etc

Of course which is why I don't run games like Doom 3 at such settings; however for games older than 18-24 months or so the card flies at such settings.

Hmmm. I was gaming two years ago, so I don't go back and replay two year old games.

If you had the money, would you go for a SLi setup?

Nope. I have the money but I don't want SLI, mainly because of noise and because I prefer to upgrade single cards more often. Also it's harder to dump two old cards than it is to dump one.

I have SLI and I upgrade it pretty often, I imagine you could too? The store will take your money. The FSFT will also let you sell two cards instead of one.

In addition because I have so many games I don't like relying on driver profiles so a non-SLI setup is more robust for me because I can run everything through the global driver profile.

You don't even know how sli works.

The profiles you're referring to mainly just specify which version of SLI nVidia has found works best with that game- AFR, AFR2, or SFR.
The driver has a default setting that you can set to Single Card, AFR, AFR2, SFR, SLI AA.
When games that don't have profiles are run, it uses the version of SLI set as the default. It's up to you whether you want to test the games with each version, see which provides the most benefit, and set up a profile for that game. (or just leave the default on that version)
Every game on the planet benefits from SLI, either with enhanced speed, or with 16XAA.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: munky
Did I ask you about 7800 SLI? What do you have to say about your trolling Crossfire thread?

I say you should apologize to me for questioning the validity of my information now that the shame of Missfire is known to the world.

You sure did a nice job of ignoring this question yesterday, didn't you?

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: munky

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: munky
Did I ask you about 7800 SLI? What do you have to say about your trolling Crossfire thread?

I say you should apologize to me for questioning the validity of my information now that the shame of Missfire is known to the world.

You sure did a nice job of ignoring this question yesterday, didn't you?

I saw the reviews were going to be out today, thought I would wait.

Munky, I am a big enough man to put the past behind us and try to move forward from here in a spirit of "we're probably going to disagree on many things, but we can do so politely" for the sake of harmony on the board.

Can you do the same?

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: munky

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: munky
Did I ask you about 7800 SLI? What do you have to say about your trolling Crossfire thread?

I say you should apologize to me for questioning the validity of my information now that the shame of Missfire is known to the world.

You sure did a nice job of ignoring this question yesterday, didn't you?

I saw the reviews were going to be out today, thought I would wait.

Munky, I am a big enough man to put the past behind us and try to move forward from here in a spirit of "we're probably going to disagree on many things, but we can do so politely" for the sake of harmony on the board.

Can you do the same?

Fair enough.

 

[nRollo]

Great- sorry about my part in the war we've been having.

 

[Munky]

Ok, you have my apology also.

 

[Creig]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2541&p=7

We have a hard time recommending all but the absolute top end NVIDIA 7800 GTX SLI as a viable solution. As an upgrade path, it makes generally much more sense to buy the next single card solution that comes out instead of spending money on older technology that won't scale as well, takes up a lot of space, eats up a lot of power, and likely incorporates fewer features. The only way we truly say that multi-GPU technology is a better solution than a similarly classed single card solution (even when upgrading from one card to two) is at the absolute highest end where there is no competition from a single card.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Creig
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2541&p=7

We have a hard time recommending all but the absolute top end NVIDIA 7800 GTX SLI as a viable solution. As an upgrade path, it makes generally much more sense to buy the next single card solution that comes out instead of spending money on older technology that won't scale as well, takes up a lot of space, eats up a lot of power, and likely incorporates fewer features. The only way we truly say that multi-GPU technology is a better solution than a similarly classed single card solution (even when upgrading from one card to two) is at the absolute highest end where there is no competition from a single card.

Yep, that's one opinion. I could see going that way, I could see going the other way for the performance reasons I noted/linked to.

Overall the 7800GTX is probably the better choice, but at least the 6800GTs have some reasons to pick them.

And back when 6800GT SLI was the only game in town, it did give you 7800GTX level performance long before 7800GTXs, and IMO will be a killer gaming rig through next year. Definitely not a waste of money.

 

[Creig]

I agree. If you can pick up a 2nd 6800GT for a low price these days then an SLI setup makes sense. But if you would have to pay retail price, then the price/performance ratio drops considerably and it would make more sense to sell the 6800GT and pick up a 7800 series card IMO.

 

[BFG10K]

I think that people who have SLI boards and currently utilizing a single 6800GT or 6800 Ultra and are struggling with low fps in some games at 1280x1024 and/or 1600x1200 with everything maxxed (HQ, max AA, max AF, Shadows max, etc. etc.) might do well to get a second 6800gt or 6800Ultra.

I think they'd be better suited with the likes of a single 7800 GT/GTX. Also if they can't get good performance on single 6800GT/U cards they're probably running soft shadows and/or HDR which means they aren't going to get good performance on anything. Without those two you can run pretty much any game at 1600x1200 (or certainly 1280x960) on the former single cards which means the main benefit of SLI is a better resolution. If your monitor tops out at a middling resolution like 1600x1200 it's pretty foolish to get SLI.

You could sell them separately just as easily as you can sell one.

Like I said before, selling two cards is harder than selling one especially since it's unlikely anyone would want second-hand SLI when faster and cheaper single cards are available.

 

[Hacp]

If prices drop to around 200 dollars for PCI-E 6800GT, I would get another GT for SLI.If prices are still above that, I'll wait heh.,

 

[KeepItRed]

Originally posted by: Rollo
For all the reasons I spoke of in my various threads about Missfire.

lol Rumored sources say Nvidia calls it Missfire. I have a feeling Crossfire will outperform SLI is some games, then you should call it bullseye.

 

[BFG10K]

Hmmm. I was gaming two years ago, so I don't go back and replay two year old games.

Too bad for you. Still, from the sounds of things you don't really play new games either (have you managed to finish four titles yet or are you still stuck at three?)

It seems you like spend all your days indoctrinating the forums about nVidia's messiah status rather than actually playing games on the hardware you so constantly preach.

I have SLI and I upgrade it pretty often, I imagine you could too?

Great. I could but I won't.

You don't even know how sli works.

Actually I do which is why I can see how much you gloss things over.

It's up to you whether you want to test the games with each version

Yes, it is up to me since the default isn't always the best option. That's my whole point.

Every game on the planet benefits from SLI, either with enhanced speed, or with 16XAA.

That's just nonsense and you know it as some games show no performance gain or even degrade performance when SLI is enabled. As for 16xAA, I'm not sure why you keep pimping it given you seem to be stuck at 4xAA, not to mention that 16xAA has been available on single NV4x cards and I don't recall you ever mentioning you used it.

I say you should apologize to me for questioning the validity of my information now that the shame of Missfire is known to the world.

For that matter, 12X10 with 16X SLI AA is pretty nice as well.

Another blatant double standard. "Missfire" because it tops out at 1600x1200 but SLI is "nice" at 1280x1024. Like I said before, if you're going to preach a Porsche is good because it has a third gear you're going to look pretty foolish to the person who can actually drive and uses a VW Beetle in fourth gear.

 

[KeepItRed]

Originally posted by: Rollo
You don't even know how sli works.

The profiles you're referring to mainly just specify which version of SLI nVidia has found works best with that game- AFR, AFR2, or SFR.
The driver has a default setting that you can set to Single Card, AFR, AFR2, SFR, SLI AA.
When games that don't have profiles are run, it uses the version of SLI set as the default. It's up to you whether you want to test the games with each version, see which provides the most benefit, and set up a profile for that game. (or just leave the default on that version)
Every game on the planet benefits from SLI, either with enhanced speed, or with 16XAA.

Hmm I find profiles to be a neusense.

That's just nonsense and you know it as some games show no performance gain or even degrade performance when SLI is enabled. As for 16xAA, I'm not sure why you keep pimping it given you seem to be stuck at 4xAA, not to mention that 16xAA has been available on single NV4x cards and I don't recall you ever mentioning you used it.

LOL WELL SAID! In some cases I've seen some benchmarks where 1 7800GTX can do better than 2 in SLI. And erm..everygame benefits? Wasn't there something going on here about Nvidia not having enough profiles for every game, so therefore SLI was useless?

 

[Darnok]

Just a quick thought/question.
Do 2 6800gt's @ 1600x1200 with all the visual stuff turned on max perform better/equal then 1 7800gt?
So ive read that the higher the resolution the better the improvment when using SLi, how does the 7800gt stand against 2x6880gt's with that kind of situation.

Any of you guys play the new Call of duty 2 demo? In the graf settings theres an option for dual video cards, any chance that this kind of thing can have a big advantagde using 2x6800 gt's over a 7800gt?

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: KeepItRed
Wasn't there something going on here about Nvidia not having enough profiles for every game, so therefore SLI was useless?

You can view nV's listing of "optimized games". I say that in quotes because those are games where nV has input something in particular into the profile itself to have it run with certain settings for optimal performance. There are, however, hundreds of profiles built into the drivers. The user is then able to change any setting in those profiles to have SLI run on any game. They just wouldn't be "nvidia certified optimized" or whatever. It's quite simple. And, really, just about every new game that has come out takes advantage of SLI.

Originally posted by: Darnok
Do 2 6800gt's @ 1600x1200 with all the visual stuff turned on max perform better/equal then 1 7800gt?

At 16x12 with 4xAA and 8xAF, all details on high, 2 6800GT/U have the same performance as a GTX. So, yes, it will beat a 7800GT.

 

[Darnok]

Thanks Deadseasquirrel , that all i needed to know .