sli versus single

[tony4704]

Just wondering in general, which is better if we are talking lets say SLI dual 256mb cards and a single 512mb card? i would assume SLI since you have two gpu's distributing the work evenly vs a single gpu.

 

[moonboy403]

sli's faster...it's been proven in benchmarks

i'm thinking of gt sli now!

 

[Wentelteefje]

Indeed... Two GT's seem like the sweet spot, as they are about as fast as one GTX 512MB when playing on high image qualtiy settings and high resolutions... They cost less too...

The question is always, for how long is this almost the fastest combination...? Refresh cycles are now some 4 months... Nextgen cards will be faster than your SLI setup, for less money probably...

 

[Elfear]

Most of the reviews I've seen place the SLI'd 7800GTs above the 512MB 7800GTX. The GTs were either even with 512MB monster or were approximately 10-15% faster. Since you can find a pair for $550-600 and the 512MB 7800GTX is ~$750 (if you can even find it in stock), I'd say the choice is pretty easy.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje
Indeed... Two GT's seem like the sweet spot, as they are about as fast as one GTX 512MB when playing on high image qualtiy settings and high resolutions... They cost less too...

The question is always, for how long is this almost the fastest combination...? Refresh cycles are now some 4 months... Nextgen cards will be faster than your SLI setup, for less money probably...

4 months? it's been 6 since the GTX came out and the 512 GTX isn't a available and isn't a refresh even if it was.

 

[Soccerman06]

Xfire X1800XTs are faster than two 512 GTXs, what else you need to say, and $300 cheaper.

link
performance

 

[kylebisme]

512mb on a card is good for games that use high res textures and shadowing techniques and such that use a lot of memory, in SLI the cards can't share their memory so if a game is using more than 256mb of ram it will stutter when swapping with system memory. That doesn't mean the SLI setup would get lower benchmarks though as even a lot of stuttering can still average out higher if the framerate is that much higher when it isn't stuttering, so the while the benchmark numbers might look better the gameplay would still be smoother on the card that can fit everything in it's memory. Granted, with settings that don't use more than 256mb or games that never will no matter how high you turn everything up, obviously the two 256mb cards working in SLI will be better than a single one no matter how much ram it has.

That said, SLI vs single comes down to what you can use vsync with for me, so SLI is out until Nvidia decides to support that. And yeah, my next setup with have 512mb cards reguardless of it if one or two, I like high res textures and stuff and more than 256mb is just a must to crank everything in a few games already and surely more to come.

 

[dingetje]

go single....buy another for sli later

 

[Woofmeister]

Originally posted by: Soccerman06
Xfire X1800XTs are faster than two 512 GTXs, what else you need to say, and $300 cheaper.

link
performance

You are using the wrong chart for comparison. That chart shows the comparison for running the NVIDIA and ATI respective SuperAA modes. Here's the chart as shown on the page. The particular test result appears to be an aberration given that running the dual 512 GTXs on the Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard yielded almost three times the performance (and handily beat the CrossFire SuperAA solution). Anand's own test showed nothing like that kind of performance gain for the ASUS A8N32 SLI. Chalk it up to some kind of fluke or bug.

Here's the actual comparison chart for Doom3 in the same article without SAA being enabled. As you can see, not only is the Radeon X1800 XL Crossfire not faster than "two 512 GTXs", the X1800 XL Crossfire also lags behind dual 256MB 7800 GTXs and only nudges past dual 7800 GTs at 2048x1536.

 

[Woofmeister]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
That said, SLI vs single comes down to what you can use vsync with for me, so SLI is out until Nvidia decides to support that.

Snowman you're in luck VSync is supported in SLI.

Personally, I couldn't run without it.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister

Originally posted by: Soccerman06
Xfire X1800XTs are faster than two 512 GTXs, what else you need to say, and $300 cheaper.

link
performance

You are using the wrong chart for comparison. That chart shows the comparison for running the NVIDIA and ATI respective SuperAA modes. Here's the chart as shown on the page. The particular test result appears to be an aberration given that running the dual 512 GTXs on the Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard yielded almost three times the performance (and handily beat the CrossFire SuperAA solution). Anand's own test showed nothing like that kind of performance gain for the ASUS A8N32 SLI. Chalk it up to some kind of fluke or bug.

Here's the actual comparison chart for Doom3 in the same article without SAA being enabled. As you can see, not only is the Radeon X1800 XL Crossfire not faster than "two 512 GTXs", the X1800 XL Crossfire also lags behind dual 256MB 7800 GTXs and only nudges past dual 7800 GTs at 2048x1536.

QFT. The other benchmarks where the 512GTX Sli setup in 20x15 4xAA 16xAF wins against the X1800XT 512mb crossfire setup in all games.

It also seems that the 7800GT Sli setup edges out the X1800XL in alot of benchs.

btw- At i hope your benching this cards using 4x TR SS AA/4x AAA AA etc or even 8xS/6xAA, and Sli AA 8x/16x or Super AA 14xAA, 8xAA.

 

[nitromullet]

For what it's worth, I just went from a dual GTX 256MB SLI rig to a single X1800XT this week. Honestly, the only game that showed any noticable decrease in performance at either the same or better IQ was FEAR at 1680x1050 4xAA/16xAF. SLI/CrossFire definitely outperforms anything out there, but I have changed my opion on SLI a bit as a result of my experiences. Personlly, I would go with a fast single card, and keep the option open for a second one in the future. Most likley, it will make more sense to replace that card with a faster one because a single next generation card will offer better performance than two current generation cards. Either way, you won't lose, but the monetary investment for any high-end dual card setup is quite high.

 

[VERTIGGO]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister

Originally posted by: Soccerman06
Xfire X1800XTs are faster than two 512 GTXs, what else you need to say, and $300 cheaper.

link
performance

You are using the wrong chart for comparison. That chart shows the comparison for running the NVIDIA and ATI respective SuperAA modes. Here's the chart as shown on the page. The particular test result appears to be an aberration given that running the dual 512 GTXs on the Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard yielded almost three times the performance (and handily beat the CrossFire SuperAA solution). Anand's own test showed nothing like that kind of performance gain for the ASUS A8N32 SLI. Chalk it up to some kind of fluke or bug.

Here's the actual comparison chart for Doom3 in the same article without SAA being enabled. As you can see, not only is the Radeon X1800 XL Crossfire not faster than "two 512 GTXs", the X1800 XL Crossfire also lags behind dual 256MB 7800 GTXs and only nudges past dual 7800 GTs at 2048x1536.

dude, your "actual comparison" is the exact same benchmark with the same numbers. you just called that a fluke. the number 119.7 is on every chart you've showed. either none of the benches can be trusted, or it's correct. you can't trust whatever results you like.

 

[Woofmeister]

Originally posted by: VERTIGGO
dude, your "actual comparison" is the exact same benchmark with the same numbers. you just called that a fluke. the number 119.7 is on every chart you've showed. either none of the benches can be trusted, or it's correct. you can't trust whatever results you like.

Holy Crap! You're right. The 119.7 FPS on the Super AA Chart is just the regular 4xAA without SAA. What's the point of that? And where's the 86.3 FPS for the Dual GEForce 7800 GTX at 4xAA as shown on the same benchmark here? What a stupid chart! I knew something was wrong with the result.

All the more reason why Soccerman06's point wasn't right. He snipped out one of only a handful of scenarios where the crossfire was superior. In the overwhelming majority of tests, both the 256MB and 512MB dual 7800 GTX beat the Radeon x1800 XL Crossfire. And dual 7800GTs (retail cost less than $600) nip at the heals of Crossfire throughout.

The Radeon X1800 XL-based CrossFire rig can't catch the dual GeForce 7800 GTs, either. Still, the Radeon X1800 XT CrossFire system cranks out over 85 frames per second at 2048x1536. Like I said, it's a monster. Unfortunately for ATI, the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 is practically otherworldly.

 

[CP5670]

That said, SLI vs single comes down to what you can use vsync with for me, so SLI is out until Nvidia decides to support that.

You can use vsync everywhere with the latest drivers according to Nvidia. My pair of GTs came in today; once I decide on an SLI motherboard I will see if there are any remaining issues with that.

 

[vanvock]

Originally posted by: dingetje
go single....buy another for sli later

That doesn't work out so well. If you want SLI do it from the get go or forget it .

 

[VERTIGGO]

well the point seems to be that ATi's card scales better with the extreme AA settings; so even if it get's beat in most of the benchmarks, the supersampling fiends will prefer the X1800.

 

[iseeyoue]

somes games do better in sli some actually do worse mostly older titles