Question about SLi

[agegsg]

So I have been reading the forums and trying to find whether SLi is worth the trouble for a casual gamer like myself. So what does exactly SLi do for gamers? I heard it allowed the players to get better resolution and that was it. Also, these cards might sound outdated, I have 2 Geforce 6800 Extreme that I am SLi-ing right now. I was thinking about either getting 2 of the Geforce 7950 or one Geforce 8800. I use XP but I think I'll get Vista as soon as service pack 1 comes out. I'll appreciate any help.

 

[PCTC2]

It would probably be better for a casual gamer to use a single 8800GTS 640 over SLI.

SLI allows better frame-rates at the same resolutions as compared to a single card by using both cards to either 1) alternate rendering frames or 2) render half of the frame.
It is really only good for high-end cards such as the 8800, and not older generation cards. It is a good upgrade path if you already have a SLI ready card, but since you are buying new cards, a single 8800 will be better. I had a single 7950GT so I bought a second one for SLI and have been running that since.

 

[Stumps]

go with the single 8800, it's still faster than 2 7950's