SLI thoughts with a POLL

[Killrose]

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles

But that's precisely the beauty of SLI, last year people with 9800 Pros were enjoying top notch performance, this year they could throw in another 9800 Pro and have $400+ performance for $200 or less. People who have money and want it all at once can go ahead and buy two cards at once.

I guess my point was that a $380 6800GT today, is not going to be under $200 next year (remember, that is a 1 whole year from now), so you will have spend a minimum of $580 for your SLI purchase which you will not realise the advantages of till next year when you buy your second card.

You need to factor in the cost of the new tech card, followed by a devauluation of the same card a year later or months later, depending on how much mula you care to spend 🙂

I realise we are really jumping the gun here, because NONE of this is available today, and along with that no real information other then PR. We cannot count on any current PCI-e video cards being SLI capable, even if they are nvidia PCI-e 6800Ultra's. I would also suspect that any card that is SLI capable will hold it's value longer, hence making SLI even more expensive then people think.

 

[Killrose]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman

Originally posted by: Killrose
However, would'nt a mutiple chip solution on one PCB with a large amount of ram accomplish the same thing?

Do you realise how big the 6800 PCBs already are?

Who said anything about having to use a 6800 PCB? 🙂 and why not a dual-core GPU solution maybe?

 

[Gagabiji]

Originally posted by: shady06
too much $$$ for me

I'm with the shady one. 😛

 

[Drayvn]

How about new technology?

What if SLI was out a few years ago, u had lets say a 9800Pro, u bought another one now...

the 6800U has SM3 already, so in fact factoring in that performance gain... it would be faster as newer games are using it now, albiet only partially.

IF i was a hardcore enthusiast, which i am, sorta... i would go for the new tech over pure raw power, as thats what i want for my new games...

In the end, the new tech will give performance advantages to the SLI configuration. Just like SM3.

Or perhaps a more up to date example. u buy a 6800U, then u buy another 6800U over a year away, UE3 is out, using SM3, but even with both ur cards running, it would barely play it, maybe twice as many frame rates than the UE3 demo with a highly overclocked 6800. But the new cards out on the block CAN run UE3 easily, with all the added extra features that its ladened with.

IMO i would go always for the newest and best card, but i wouldnt have SLI as down the line i would still have to cater for the lowest common denominator, which happens to be the card already in the PCI-E slot, so there is no updating of your GPU config, all ur doing is overclocking it by buying another card.

But my speculation and opinions are early as there are no benchmarks nor are there any news on it, so i will keep all my other judgements back until then, when we can test it out, on older and newer cards.

But i have seen that SLI will be coming in October this year, is this true?

 

[klah]

Originally posted by: Killrose

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles

But that's precisely the beauty of SLI, last year people with 9800 Pros were enjoying top notch performance, this year they could throw in another 9800 Pro and have $400+ performance for $200 or less. People who have money and want it all at once can go ahead and buy two cards at once.

I guess my point was that a $380 6800GT today, is not going to be under $200 next year (remember, that is a 1 whole year from now)

Why not? Here is the historical price of the BBY-ATI 9800Pro: http://www.pricescan.com/graph...ters&itemno=148022

It has dropped from $400 to $200 in the last 12 months.

 

[darXoul]

I'm not really interested in SLI at the moment. My comp runs games great and it's supposed to be a good rig for 2 years. My card is an AGP GF 6800 GT. I don't feel the need for SLI right now. In two years however, who knows... If SLI is still an option then, I might - and probably will - go for it.

 

[Killrose]

Originally posted by: klah

Originally posted by: Killrose

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles

But that's precisely the beauty of SLI, last year people with 9800 Pros were enjoying top notch performance, this year they could throw in another 9800 Pro and have $400+ performance for $200 or less. People who have money and want it all at once can go ahead and buy two cards at once.

I guess my point was that a $380 6800GT today, is not going to be under $200 next year (remember, that is a 1 whole year from now)

Why not? Here is the historical price of the BBY-ATI 9800Pro: http://www.pricescan.com/graph...ters&itemno=148022

It has dropped from $400 to $200 in the last 12 months.

If SLI causes prices to remain high because of a slow-down in product cycles, and/or keeps prices high for a particular SLI capable product because it holds its value longer, you will need a different graph 🙂

The 9800pro became lower in price only due to it's no longer the high end card it once was. Besides, you proved my point, that if you had bought it last year at $400 and again this year at $200, you just spent $600. Far, far more than anyone wishes to spend on OLD TECHNOLOGY. And would two of them perform as well as (1) 6800Ultra with-out all the hassle? Maybe.