SLI.. It seems to be great. Why the complaints?

ibex333

Diamond Member
Mar 26, 2005
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Recently made myself a present. 2x MSI GTX 760's. So far, the experience has been nothing but absolutely stellar.

I only have a OCZ 600W PSU (in sig) and many warned me against it, but the rig seems to have enough power for what it is and everything works great. This SLI setup has been decimating everything I throw at it, and there is no stuttering or tearing people talk about. The frames are often in the hundreds.

Now, I have to admit that I only game at 1080p and mostly games which are not the newest. Stuff like Borderlands 2, STALKER, Elderscrolls: Oblivion, Deus Ex, Sleeping Dogs, Need for Speed, Dead Space, The Witcher, and Crysis Warhead. Even one 760 would be perfect for these games...

Still I wanted to future proof myself for one full year from now, and I think I definitely accomplished that, especially since I never play newest games and wait till they fall from $40 to $10. This allows me to always play games when they are fully patched against any sort of issues they may have had with SLI when they just came out.


How are your experiences with SLI? Are you happy with it? Can you describe some cases when SLI gave you problems? What was the scenario?
 

lavaheadache

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2005
6,893
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now the issues are further and fewer between but....


Try creating a scenario where your fps is under say 50.... try that with both single gpu and multi gpu configs. Report your findings.

Usually screen tearing is worse with Sli too.

Sometimes there is a wait when new games come out before there is a profile to even use multi gpu. Nvidia is usually on top of new releases though.
 

Hauk

Platinum Member
Nov 22, 2001
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Great. Like Lava said though, a noticeable "smoothness" variance from single to multi when games/settings dip under 50fps.
 

moonbogg

Lifer
Jan 8, 2011
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Great. Like Lava said though, a noticeable "smoothness" variance from single to multi when games/settings dip under 50fps.

When BF4 goes to 75fps, it feels like 30 to me. Its disgusting and I don't know whats going on there. All in all though, SLI does work great in my experience
 

bystander36

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2013
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Most the time SLI is great, but there are some rare occasions that it isn't, and if it happens to be the game you are playing, then it is very frustrating. I don't recall this happening, but it all depends on the game.
 

Teizo

Golden Member
Oct 28, 2010
1,271
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When BF4 goes to 75fps, it feels like 30 to me. Its disgusting and I don't know whats going on there. All in all though, SLI does work great in my experience

Yeah, I've noticed similar. I started thinking to myself how god awful the game must be on a single gpu...then when they had that SLI/CF patch glitch I had to play it with a single 760 and it was very smooth with frames from 50-65fps with the same settings. So it was definitely an SLI FP issue with the 331.93 driver.

Good thing BF4 hardly ever drops below 75fps for me though, but I imagine with future driver updates that will get better.

Since I only play AAA titles...I don't have any complaints about SLI except for the extra heat inside the case.
 

BrightCandle

Diamond Member
Mar 15, 2007
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Generally SLI works great. I have had a pair of 680's in SLI for about 15 months and I have one persistent bug (a performance problem with 2 monitors on the desktop) and have seen a couple of games that had poor performance at launch (BF4!), but all of those are fixed now. This is how it works, SLI is dependent on profiles and driver tweaks and sometimes a game at release will not use SLI or even worse negatively scale. It happens relatively rarely, usually only on AMD partner games. Once the driver fix is out then its usually great but depending on the game that can take up to about a month, although more normally its a day or two or maybe a week before a beta driver comes out to fix the problem.

So long as what you do is only marginally increase your graphics settings compared to a single card then you basically end up with 2x the frame rate and a little better graphics. If you consume all the spare performance with extra graphics settings then in a few games you can perceive stutter. Its nothing like what crossfire was for the first 1.5 years after the 7000 series release and the generations before that but still its definitely there. Most games its unnoticeable but you will occasionally come across a game where its not nice.

Far Cry 3 is one of those stuttery games. The engine is really poor and the game stutters badly anyway. The extra increase from SLI here seems to be more noticeable then any other game I have played. I also find I run BF4 in multiplayer at 110-170 fps instead of around 60 ish. Its a competitive game so I tend to prefer using 120hz with lightboost hack but its also not great at 60hz for whatever reason. I noticed the <60 fps slow downs during the single player campaign quite a lot more than I should have.

Tearing should not be affected in any appreciable way but SLI.
 

desprado

Golden Member
Jul 16, 2013
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Generally SLI works great. I have had a pair of 680's in SLI for about 15 months and I have one persistent bug (a performance problem with 2 monitors on the desktop) and have seen a couple of games that had poor performance at launch (BF4!), but all of those are fixed now. This is how it works, SLI is dependent on profiles and driver tweaks and sometimes a game at release will not use SLI or even worse negatively scale. It happens relatively rarely, usually only on AMD partner games. Once the driver fix is out then its usually great but depending on the game that can take up to about a month, although more normally its a day or two or maybe a week before a beta driver comes out to fix the problem.

So long as what you do is only marginally increase your graphics settings compared to a single card then you basically end up with 2x the frame rate and a little better graphics. If you consume all the spare performance with extra graphics settings then in a few games you can perceive stutter. Its nothing like what crossfire was for the first 1.5 years after the 7000 series release and the generations before that but still its definitely there. Most games its unnoticeable but you will occasionally come across a game where its not nice.

Far Cry 3 is one of those stuttery games. The engine is really poor and the game stutters badly anyway. The extra increase from SLI here seems to be more noticeable then any other game I have played. I also find I run BF4 in multiplayer at 110-170 fps instead of around 60 ish. Its a competitive game so I tend to prefer using 120hz with lightboost hack but its also not great at 60hz for whatever reason. I noticed the <60 fps slow downs during the single player campaign quite a lot more than I should have.

Tearing should not be affected in any appreciable way but SLI.
Most of the time UBI and EA games really sucks at SLI and CF.
 

BrightCandle

Diamond Member
Mar 15, 2007
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Most of the time UBI and EA games really sucks at SLI and CF.

There is no such general trend that I have experienced. Far Cry is special but generally I don't have issues with Ubi games any more so than others. EA sometimes has problematic games but most again are just fine. Call of Jarez Gunslinger just worked, medal of honour warfighter just worked, Rome 2 had some issues very early on but the game was pretty broken anyway, F1 2013 just worked (the first in the series to do so, all the others hand crossfire/SLI issues at launch), Crysis 3 just worked, Sleeping dogs just worked.

I don't want anyone thinking that I have a bad experience on SLI, I rarely do and its been almost perfect. Compared to crossfire its incredible, I had issues daily and with almost every game, but presumably at least some of that has now been fixed. I am really happy with SLI, its been good to me.
 

Draygonn

Member
Dec 25, 2013
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I had a great time with 480 SLI and 780 SLI setups. Except for games that don't work well with SLI, those could be a hassle.
 

n0x1ous

Platinum Member
Sep 9, 2010
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I have had an SLI setup of every nvidia generation starting with G80 and I just don't have any problems with it. Reliable, consistent, and great driver/profile support in the games I play. Having my first crossfire setup ever with 7970's now - in my experience CF is much worse. Stuttering, inconsitent mess......Turned it off and decided to mine with one and game on the other. After a reboot CF magically re-enables itself.....So yeah SLI>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CF
 

desprado

Golden Member
Jul 16, 2013
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I have had an SLI setup of every nvidia generation starting with G80 and I just don't have any problems with it. Reliable, consistent, and great driver/profile support in the games I play. Having my first crossfire setup ever with 7970's now - in my experience CF is much worse. Stuttering, inconsitent mess......Turned it off and decided to mine with one and game on the other. After a reboot CF magically re-enables itself.....So yeah SLI>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>CF
Beware fanboys are coming to flame.
Yup SLI>CF always for ever.

Infraction issued for thread crapping.
-- stahlhart
 
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jj109

Senior member
Dec 17, 2013
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I used to think that SLI or CF was worth it since the games that didn't work with them wouldn't need them anyways. After Rome 2 and BF4, though, I've decided that I'd rather forgo performance/price to have something that works on every game.
 

stahlhart

Super Moderator Graphics Cards
Dec 21, 2010
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This thread was intended to be a discussion about SLI, not about SLI versus Crossfire. Let's keep it that way.
-- stahlhart
 

Grooveriding

Diamond Member
Dec 25, 2008
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For the most part it has always worked well for me and caused no problems. You still get new games that release where it plain does not work; Company of Heroes 2 and Rome 2 etc. But most games support it and it generally works well.

My only current complaint with it is how it is not smooth at all in Battlefield 4. SLI just is not pleasant in the game and a single card even with the FPS drops I get from using one instead of two feels better overall. Framerates are higher with SLI in BF4 of course, but it feels choppy and uneven a lot of the time.
 

lavaheadache

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2005
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For the most part it has always worked well for me and caused no problems. You still get new games that release where it plain does not work; Company of Heroes 2 and Rome 2 etc. But most games support it and it generally works well.

My only current complaint with it is how it is not smooth at all in Battlefield 4. SLI just is not pleasant in the game and a single card even with the FPS drops I get from using one instead of two feels better overall. Framerates are higher with SLI in BF4 of course, but it feels choppy and uneven a lot of the time.

BF 4 wasn't smooth until I enabled v sync.
 

Grooveriding

Diamond Member
Dec 25, 2008
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I use a framerate cap, but it still feels 'off'. I can't use vsync, too much lag for multiplayer. BF3 never had this problem. I think it might go away in future drivers once the game stops being benchmarked because it feels like whatever framepacing is used in the drivers for SLI is not working in BF4.
 

Carfax83

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2010
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I've had positive experiences with SLI since I first started using it years ago. NVidia is usually anywhere from good to excellent when it comes to making SLI profiles for new games; especially for TWIMTBP games, so you never really have to wait.

One thing too is that NVidia is continually optimizing and refining the drivers and SLI profiles, so even if a game doesn't play smooth the first time, the issue will eventually be resolved. A good example is BF4. BF4 release driver was the 331.65, which didn't play too well from my experience. The following 331.82 driver made the game a LOT smoother for me though, but with room for improvement.

I expect the next branch of drivers and SLI profiles to have even better performance for BF4. :cool:
 

bystander36

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2013
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Due to some of the experiences mentioned above, I do recommend you only SLI when a single card won't work. I do not recommend trying to save money by opting for lower end cards in SLI to get performance like a high end card for less money.

If you are using high end cards in SLI, in the moments SLI doesn't work right, you have good performance still, with a single card. You'll be able to get intended performance that the dev's expected you to get. Most the time it'll work great.
 

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
27,224
37
91
Never had a multi-GPU problem that was SLI specific.
 
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imaheadcase

Diamond Member
May 9, 2005
3,850
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SLI is fine, most don't see/feel any issues with it. Most of its subjective to the person. SLI makes sense for lots people though. The only issue I ever had with sli was related to specific games, but usually resolved itself after a few driver updates.

But performance was fine, still rocked 80-100fps in BF4 with SLI 580s. The only reason I gave up SLI was the tech that game with newer gpu.
 

loafbred

Senior member
May 7, 2000
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>>How are your experiences with SLI? Are you happy with it? Can you describe some cases when SLI gave you problems? What was the scenario?<<

From my own experience with both SLI and Crossfire, as well as reading about others' experiences in forums, I've learned the following:

1. Many problems with stuttering are caused by loading the cards to their limits. Each game has different limits. Nicely optimized games will probably run splendidly with vsync off, IF you don't use too much AA and texture detail. The amount of RAM on the card can make a big difference.

2. If you're not using 64-bit Windows 7 or 8, don't expect to have the best experience possible.

3. Multi-gpu drivers, and their game profiles, have evolved slowly, IMO. I'm sure it requires a lot of work by driver developers to make dozens of cards, with differing features, run smoothly. In addition to the many different cards, they also have to deal with different cpu's and motherboard chipsets, as well. You MUST play with driver settings to make some games run well.

4. Be prepared for the possibility of a serious issue with one or two games. If your favorite game runs worse with multi-gpu than with single, you may have to sell your cards and get a better single card to be happy. If doing this is more than you can stand, don't go multi to begin with. One of my favorite old games would run better on a new single NVidia card than it does on my Crossfire HD 6950's, but it runs very well as it is. That's the worst problem I have, so I'm very happy for now.