SLI GT Reviews and questions

[Margo1]

Can somebody supply me with some review links to the new GT's in SLI mode. And without getting too hostile, can you tell me why you dislike SLI? Thanks.

 

[JAG87]

I'll try to sum it up for you.

SLI is only useful when you are running extremely high resolutions, such as 1920x1200 with 8xAA or 2560x1600 with 4xAA.
When using these high resolutions, frame buffer and memory bandwith become a major concern to the performance of the card.

Hence 8800GTs in SLI are fairly useless, because below 1920x1200 the improvement is negligible, since you are CPU bound, and at 1920x1200 and above, the card starts choking because the frame buffer and the memory bandwith are insufficient. That is why you see the GTX SLI and Ultra SLI destroy the GT SLI at very high resolutions.

Unless you have at least a 24 inch and plan to use high levels of AA, stick to one card. And remember this advice comes from a proud SLI owner, so it's not biased.

 

[Margo1]

Thanks for the excellent response. I am researching parts for my first self-built gaming computer. I will be using a used 24" Dell with the highest resolution of 1920x1200. So, then SLI would be worth to me.

 

[JAG87]

mmm, maybe I wasn't clear. 8800 GT SLI is a plain contradiction. I guarantee you that one GTX or one Ultra will perform even better than 2 GTs in future games and especially in DX10. Just look at Crysis benchmarks. You need to understand that with SLI you are only adding together GPU power, not memory or bus bandwith.

EDIT
if by "SLI is worth it to me" you meant GTX SLI or Ultra SLI, never mind.

 

[JPB]

Originally posted by: Margo1
Thanks for the excellent response. I am researching parts for my first self-built gaming computer. I will be using a used 24" Dell with the highest resolution of 1920x1200. So, then SLI would be worth to me.

8800GT SLI Review

 

[thejez]

Originally posted by: JPB

Originally posted by: Margo1
Thanks for the excellent response. I am researching parts for my first self-built gaming computer. I will be using a used 24" Dell with the highest resolution of 1920x1200. So, then SLI would be worth to me.

8800GT SLI Review

Not bad.. so it looks like 8800GT in SLI is a pretty good setup then... I've never really been a big fan of SLI but it's nice to see some soon-to-be cheapish cards showing some amazing benchmarks!

 

[tno]

Yeah, if GTX's don't drop in price significantly then GT's in SLI might really be worth the money. Problem is that driver support is still flaky and so set-up can still be a bit of a chore. Enjoy your build though, let us know how it goes.

tno

 

[Burpy]

I have a SLi MB and have always been on the fence about going with 2 cards. I have to admit, with this 8800GT priced so low, I might seriously consider going Sli for the first time.

I am currently scouting prices for my first 8800GT, but the wait might be a bit longer since the rumored G92 GTS is on the horizon. I might wait and see how that pans out before making my decision & that will also let enough time pass so the current price of the GT's will come back down to Earth.

 

[Margo1]

Originally posted by: BubblyGump
I have a SLi MB and have always been on the fence about going with 2 cards. I have to admit, with this 8800GT priced so low, I might seriously consider going Sli for the first time.

I am currently scouting prices for my first 8800GT, but the wait might be a bit longer since the rumored G92 GTS is on the horizon. I might wait and see how that pans out before making my decision & that will also let enough time pass so the current price of the GT's will come back down to Earth.

HMM. Interesting how this forum works. Very well done. Anyways, what can anybody tell me about the new G92 GTS? Is there a release schedule for this like CPU's (roadmap)? Thanks again.

 

[thejez]

Originally posted by: Margo1

Originally posted by: BubblyGump
I have a SLi MB and have always been on the fence about going with 2 cards. I have to admit, with this 8800GT priced so low, I might seriously consider going Sli for the first time.

I am currently scouting prices for my first 8800GT, but the wait might be a bit longer since the rumored G92 GTS is on the horizon. I might wait and see how that pans out before making my decision & that will also let enough time pass so the current price of the GT's will come back down to Earth.

HMM. Interesting how this forum works. Very well done. Anyways, what can anybody tell me about the new G92 GTS? Is there a release schedule for this like CPU's (roadmap)? Thanks again.

you can just follow this thread since it's all about that very question..
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2113978&enterthread=y

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: JAG87
mmm, maybe I wasn't clear. 8800 GT SLI is a plain contradiction. I guarantee you that one GTX or one Ultra will perform even better than 2 GTs in future games and especially in DX10. Just look at Crysis benchmarks. You need to understand that with SLI you are only adding together GPU power, not memory or bus bandwith.

EDIT
if by "SLI is worth it to me" you meant GTX SLI or Ultra SLI, never mind.

That's only true if you are running at one of the higher resolutions where the extra bandwidth and video RAM is useful. At "medium" resolutions, shader performance is going to make a bigger impact and something like GT SLI could make sense. Especially as all of the new games seem to heavily shader-bound.

 

[woolfe9999]

IMO, SLI is a lot more viable for mid and upper mid range cards than some people seem to think. Even the AT staff writers tend to buy into the idea that SLI is only for 2 top end flagship cards but I can't agree with that universally.

With SLI, it really comes down to price/performance versus other upgrade options. What complicates it is that the performance gain is highly variable, depending on resolution/AA options, and most especially, depending on the game. Some games aren't threaded for it all (i.e. WoW); others are threaded but poorly optimized; still others are well optimized. In general, SLI gains range from 0 to about 90%. You might say that a 50% gain, or thereabouts, is the most typical result, but really there is no typical result.

I somewhat disagree with statements made earlier in the thread about SLI performance gains being negligible below 1920 rez. I've not seen benchmarks over the years that bear that out. What I've seen are numbers that suggest gains close to 50% at 1600 rez, and closer to 80-90% at 1920 and beyond. I think those FS benchmarks linked in the thread pretty much bear that out.

Anyway, whether SLI is worth it depends on a lot of variables. Right now I have an 8800 GTS 320 that I bought back in July. I'm betting that by Christmas, a second one could be had for a little under $200, perhaps as low of $175. The 8800GT 512 will probably be available at $210 by that time. A second GTS will yield significantly higher performance than a single GT, I'm sure. But the price/performance comparison would depend on how much I could sell the GTS for used if I wanted to swap it out for a GT.

A little over a year ago, I did very well getting 2 7600 GT's for a total of $230. It performed comparably to single card options that cost $275-$300 at the time.

So yea, SLI can at times and under certain market conditions be a price/performance benefit at mid and upper mid range, in addition to being a price-is-no-object option for the top-end money-to-burn crowd.

- woolfe

 

[Margo1]

Excellent responses! Thanks to all. I believe I will wait for the new GTS's before I make any decisions for my video cards.

 

[MichaelD]

Assuming those benchmark #'s are genuine (I've never had a reason to doubt Firingsquad before...maybe others have a different opinion), that's a pretty convincing argument for 8800GT's in SLI!

Going by the benchies, 8800GT/SLI stomps a single 8800GTX very convinciningly in multiple benchmarks.

Assuming that the new 8800GTS beats the 8800GT (safe bet) but is still $150 more (another safe bet) it STILL is a convincing argument for 8800GTs in SLI.

Kickass SLI for under $600? Sounds good to me. Too bad my MB isn't SLI-capable. Oh, I see a big upgrade in my future.

 

[Acanthus]

Jag is just plain wrong in this case.

GT SLI slaughters a single GTX across the board.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Bit-tech 8800GT SLi review numbers

Hardwarezone's 8800GTSLi review

From the numbers above, a 8800GT SLi is a MUCH better value than a single 8800ultra/GTX which costs as much as the SLi setup.

 

[taltamir]

Wait two weeks, the new AMD and new nvidia cards are literally comming up in a week or two... this will drop prices across the board and give you more options to choose from...

GT in sli should rip a single GTX or Ultra to shreds... IF they work... but there is compatibility and driver issues...
Plus you need to worry about power and cooling and an SLI mobo and what have you nots.

 

[JAG87]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Jag is just plain wrong in this case.

GT SLI slaughters a single GTX across the board.

Bit-tech 8800GT SLi review numbers

In this review generously pointed out by Cookie Monster, if we look at the high res w/AA graphs we can see how GT SLI gets killed in WIC and COH, barely manages to surpass a single GTX in Lost Planet, and is slightly faster in Bioshock and Quake Wars, where GT SLI show a minimal improvement over a single GTX, if you consider that a single GT should be almost as fast as a GTX! Take a look at Crysis and watch the GT scream and die agains the GTX. Even GT SLI wouldnt perform as good as a single GTX in Crysis.

Going forwards, I would suggest that memory bandwidth might be more of an issue, but that doesn't prevent this card from being fantastic. You just have to know its strengths and weaknesses.

Many sites have said that the GeForce 8800 GT is a GeForce 8800 GTX killer, but if you go through our results, there are scenarios where the GeForce 8800 GTX is significantly faster than the GeForce 8800 GT. It's the same case in point that I've just made about how this card compares to the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. If you are selective with the benchmark data, you can make the card look better than it actually is.

And things are only going to get worse once we get into future games and DX10. Dont make me prove you wrong, really I'm not in the mood tonight.

 

[JCGhz]

Originally posted by: JAG87

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Jag is just plain wrong in this case.

GT SLI slaughters a single GTX across the board.

Bit-tech 8800GT SLi review numbers

In this review generously pointed out by Cookie Monster, if we look at the high res w/AA graphs we can see how GT SLI gets killed in WIC and COH, barely manages to surpass a single GTX in Lost Planet, and is slightly faster in Bioshock and Quake Wars, where GT SLI show a minimal improvement over a single GTX, if you consider that a single GT should be almost as fast as a GTX! Take a look at Crysis and watch the GT scream and die agains the GTX. Even GT SLI wouldnt perform as good as a single GTX in Crysis.

Going forwards, I would suggest that memory bandwidth might be more of an issue, but that doesn't prevent this card from being fantastic. You just have to know its strengths and weaknesses.

Many sites have said that the GeForce 8800 GT is a GeForce 8800 GTX killer, but if you go through our results, there are scenarios where the GeForce 8800 GTX is significantly faster than the GeForce 8800 GT. It's the same case in point that I've just made about how this card compares to the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. If you are selective with the benchmark data, you can make the card look better than it actually is.

And things are only going to get worse once we get into future games and DX10. Dont make me prove you wrong, really I'm not in the mood tonight.

Yeah save it for tomorrow... or let us know when your in the mood.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: JAG87

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Jag is just plain wrong in this case.

GT SLI slaughters a single GTX across the board.

Bit-tech 8800GT SLi review numbers

In this review generously pointed out by Cookie Monster, if we look at the high res w/AA graphs we can see how GT SLI gets killed in WIC and COH, barely manages to surpass a single GTX in Lost Planet, and is slightly faster in Bioshock and Quake Wars, where GT SLI show a minimal improvement over a single GTX, if you consider that a single GT should be almost as fast as a GTX! Take a look at Crysis and watch the GT scream and die agains the GTX. Even GT SLI wouldnt perform as good as a single GTX in Crysis.

Going forwards, I would suggest that memory bandwidth might be more of an issue, but that doesn't prevent this card from being fantastic. You just have to know its strengths and weaknesses.

Many sites have said that the GeForce 8800 GT is a GeForce 8800 GTX killer, but if you go through our results, there are scenarios where the GeForce 8800 GTX is significantly faster than the GeForce 8800 GT. It's the same case in point that I've just made about how this card compares to the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. If you are selective with the benchmark data, you can make the card look better than it actually is.

And things are only going to get worse once we get into future games and DX10. Dont make me prove you wrong, really I'm not in the mood tonight.

You seem to be selectively using benchmarks to go against the GT, as does that link. Every other bench I've read has the GT SLI beating a single GTX in nearly every bench there is. The usual review sites aren't trying to skew results in favor of the GT...they simply run it through their typical tests and it wins. Looks like that site set out to prove the GT SLI isn't as good, but IMO although they made it look worse than other sites, they still failed to prove it wasn't better.
Not to mention they had problems with their system during the tests, so that alone renders them irrelevant until they get that sorted out.
I mean, come on....they had the SLI GT losing to a single GT....you KNOW that isn't right. Firing Squad did that same test and the GT SLI absolutely raped a single GTX, much less a single GT.
So that throws all the rest of that site's conclusions in much doubt.

 

[aka1nas]

That Bit-tech review is pretty suspect, they weren't getting much if any SLI scaling and they were unable to get SLI working at all with the Crysis Demo. Most of the other reviews were able to do so, and I would probably trust their results more.

Edit: The GT SLI setup was still beating everything but GTX SLI pretty soundly in most of their other tests on top of that. Not bad when a pair of GTs will cost about as much as a single GTX.

 

[thejez]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb

Originally posted by: JAG87

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Jag is just plain wrong in this case.

GT SLI slaughters a single GTX across the board.

Bit-tech 8800GT SLi review numbers

In this review generously pointed out by Cookie Monster, if we look at the high res w/AA graphs we can see how GT SLI gets killed in WIC and COH, barely manages to surpass a single GTX in Lost Planet, and is slightly faster in Bioshock and Quake Wars, where GT SLI show a minimal improvement over a single GTX, if you consider that a single GT should be almost as fast as a GTX! Take a look at Crysis and watch the GT scream and die agains the GTX. Even GT SLI wouldnt perform as good as a single GTX in Crysis.

Going forwards, I would suggest that memory bandwidth might be more of an issue, but that doesn't prevent this card from being fantastic. You just have to know its strengths and weaknesses.

Many sites have said that the GeForce 8800 GT is a GeForce 8800 GTX killer, but if you go through our results, there are scenarios where the GeForce 8800 GTX is significantly faster than the GeForce 8800 GT. It's the same case in point that I've just made about how this card compares to the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. If you are selective with the benchmark data, you can make the card look better than it actually is.

And things are only going to get worse once we get into future games and DX10. Dont make me prove you wrong, really I'm not in the mood tonight.

You seem to be selectively using benchmarks to go against the GT, as does that link. Every other bench I've read has the GT SLI beating a single GTX in nearly every bench there is. The usual review sites aren't trying to skew results in favor of the GT...they simply run it through their typical tests and it wins. Looks like that site set out to prove the GT SLI isn't as good, but IMO although they made it look worse than other sites, they still failed to prove it wasn't better.
Not to mention they had problems with their system during the tests, so that alone renders them irrelevant until they get that sorted out.
I mean, come on....they had the SLI GT losing to a single GT....you KNOW that isn't right. Firing Squad did that same test and the GT SLI absolutely raped a single GTX, much less a single GT.
So that throws all the rest of that site's conclusions in much doubt.

look dude he's not in the mood to prove you wrong tonight so just stop posting and assume whatever he says is biblical...

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: thejez

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb

Originally posted by: JAG87

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Jag is just plain wrong in this case.

GT SLI slaughters a single GTX across the board.

Bit-tech 8800GT SLi review numbers

In this review generously pointed out by Cookie Monster, if we look at the high res w/AA graphs we can see how GT SLI gets killed in WIC and COH, barely manages to surpass a single GTX in Lost Planet, and is slightly faster in Bioshock and Quake Wars, where GT SLI show a minimal improvement over a single GTX, if you consider that a single GT should be almost as fast as a GTX! Take a look at Crysis and watch the GT scream and die agains the GTX. Even GT SLI wouldnt perform as good as a single GTX in Crysis.

Going forwards, I would suggest that memory bandwidth might be more of an issue, but that doesn't prevent this card from being fantastic. You just have to know its strengths and weaknesses.

Many sites have said that the GeForce 8800 GT is a GeForce 8800 GTX killer, but if you go through our results, there are scenarios where the GeForce 8800 GTX is significantly faster than the GeForce 8800 GT. It's the same case in point that I've just made about how this card compares to the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. If you are selective with the benchmark data, you can make the card look better than it actually is.

And things are only going to get worse once we get into future games and DX10. Dont make me prove you wrong, really I'm not in the mood tonight.

You seem to be selectively using benchmarks to go against the GT, as does that link. Every other bench I've read has the GT SLI beating a single GTX in nearly every bench there is. The usual review sites aren't trying to skew results in favor of the GT...they simply run it through their typical tests and it wins. Looks like that site set out to prove the GT SLI isn't as good, but IMO although they made it look worse than other sites, they still failed to prove it wasn't better.
Not to mention they had problems with their system during the tests, so that alone renders them irrelevant until they get that sorted out.
I mean, come on....they had the SLI GT losing to a single GT....you KNOW that isn't right. Firing Squad did that same test and the GT SLI absolutely raped a single GTX, much less a single GT.
So that throws all the rest of that site's conclusions in much doubt.

look dude he's not in the mood to prove you wrong tonight so just stop posting and assume whatever he says is biblical...

Okay.

 

[JAG87]

Originally posted by: thejez

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb

Originally posted by: JAG87

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Jag is just plain wrong in this case.

GT SLI slaughters a single GTX across the board.

Bit-tech 8800GT SLi review numbers

In this review generously pointed out by Cookie Monster, if we look at the high res w/AA graphs we can see how GT SLI gets killed in WIC and COH, barely manages to surpass a single GTX in Lost Planet, and is slightly faster in Bioshock and Quake Wars, where GT SLI show a minimal improvement over a single GTX, if you consider that a single GT should be almost as fast as a GTX! Take a look at Crysis and watch the GT scream and die agains the GTX. Even GT SLI wouldnt perform as good as a single GTX in Crysis.

Going forwards, I would suggest that memory bandwidth might be more of an issue, but that doesn't prevent this card from being fantastic. You just have to know its strengths and weaknesses.

Many sites have said that the GeForce 8800 GT is a GeForce 8800 GTX killer, but if you go through our results, there are scenarios where the GeForce 8800 GTX is significantly faster than the GeForce 8800 GT. It's the same case in point that I've just made about how this card compares to the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB. If you are selective with the benchmark data, you can make the card look better than it actually is.

And things are only going to get worse once we get into future games and DX10. Dont make me prove you wrong, really I'm not in the mood tonight.

You seem to be selectively using benchmarks to go against the GT, as does that link. Every other bench I've read has the GT SLI beating a single GTX in nearly every bench there is. The usual review sites aren't trying to skew results in favor of the GT...they simply run it through their typical tests and it wins. Looks like that site set out to prove the GT SLI isn't as good, but IMO although they made it look worse than other sites, they still failed to prove it wasn't better.
Not to mention they had problems with their system during the tests, so that alone renders them irrelevant until they get that sorted out.
I mean, come on....they had the SLI GT losing to a single GT....you KNOW that isn't right. Firing Squad did that same test and the GT SLI absolutely raped a single GTX, much less a single GT.
So that throws all the rest of that site's conclusions in much doubt.

look dude he's not in the mood to prove you wrong tonight so just stop posting and assume whatever he says is biblical...

haha omg thats fantastically worded. props to you brother.

Im just trying to say, once DX10 is upon us dont come crying in the forums making threads "omg i got 8800GT SLI and alan wake or hell gate london or crysis or whatever other DX10 mumbo jumbo runs slow".

its not like Ill be sailing with my GTXs, they are pretty terrible at DX10 as well, but I guarantee you that I'll get double the FPS, and suddenly the your GT isn't a single slot GTX anymore...

 

[aka1nas]

All of the new DX10 games are going to be increasingly shader bound, so a pair of GTs is probably only going to look better and better against a single GTX. That said, neither setup will be desirable in 2-3 years, but when isn't that true?