To SLi, or not to SLi, that is the question

[Rhaos]

Well, stuck over the past month or so on what kind of upgrade to do. I've been playing with the idea of getting an SLi system.

Why you may ask? Well, I managed to get hold of a 30" screen and would like to make full use out of native resolution 2560x1600. My current setup is a AMD 3800 x2, DFI lanparty SLI-D, 2GB RAM and a 8800GTX 768mb and although I can play games on it at native rez, the performance is 'okish* but not as good as it could be. Hence the upgrade. I've been looking at the ABIT IP35 Pro, the EVGA 790i and the MSI 750i. Although DDR3 is more expensive I hear there is as much as 20% performance increase in SLi on 790i board, would that warrant paying the extra considering the rez I run? Processor wise I think I've decided on the Q6600.


What would you do in my situation?

 

[Natima]

Abit IP35 doesn't support SLI as it is an Intel Chipset board.
Either way, I wouldnt go SLI.
I'd go Crossfire if I was 'reeeaaalllyyy' intent on having more than one graphics card.
Otherwise I'd just go with the Abit IP35 Pro, and the best graphics card money can buy.

...Saying that....
I 'do' run everything at 1280x1024, So I wouldnt really know what performance is like on these crazy-future-resolutions.

 

[ozzyDe]

No, done it wast of money could have got a single card for less the price of 2 and that single card will still have better performance. now saving to get a
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1024MB GDDR3 £227.94 now try and find 2 cards that are new and costs know more than £227.94 in total and will out perform the 3870.
I'm not saying it never made a difference to the graphic it did COD4 had a new lease of life but just not worth the money and to be honest I wounder how long it will last for may be we might have dual core graphic cards or even 2 cards that connect together but only need 1 slot on the motherboard.

 

[Tooks]

SLI worked for me with 2 x 8800GT's, and was still cheaper than an equivalent single card. Crysis definately benefited from the extra horsepower, but other games there was no noticeable difference at 1680 x 1050. With your bigger resolution monitor, then it could be worthwhile though.

The pro's and con's of SLI are well worn on here to be honest, so I won't go over those again!

Current thinking seems to be that 2 x 9600GT's are a nice setup, but whether it's worth changing your motherboard and buying 2 new cards for only you can decide.

I would only bother with it if you already had an SLI board, and one suitable card and PSU. Or, you enjoy fiddling with PC's!

Otherwise, I think the sensible thing to do is to spend the money on the latest GPU. I don't know why though, but there is something attractive to the inner geek within me about having two graphics cards!!

 

[Bonjour]

No, done it wast of money could have got a single card for less the price of 2 and that single card will still have better performance. now saving to get a
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1024MB GDDR3 £227.94 now try and find 2 cards that are new and costs know more than £227.94 in total and will out perform the 3870.
...

Two 8800GT's, at under £100 each, would outperform a 3870X2.

 

[Gamershack]

If you get CustomPC magazine at all, in the July edition (out now), they have just done a massive test on just this thread "SLi or no SLi" and "Crossfire or no Crossfire". I have spent a few hours going through it over and over again and to be honest, for the price you pay for 2 cards you could buy a better single card. Also, some cards dont work any better when in SLI/Crossfire as they seem to suck each others performance trying to do the work. CustomPC even went to the extremes of testing 4X GPU's I think and in most cases, it didnt help at all. In fact having SLi/Crossfire often hinders the performance of a gfx card.

Overall, I would say read the CustomPC arcticle on it, not sure if it is on their webby yet but the magazine definitely goes into detail about it.

 

[Greebo]

Two 8800GT's, at under £100 each, would outperform a 3870X2.

Nope. A 3870x2 will give same performance as 2 x 8800gt or better in some games and is the same price. If you start quoting gt's at under £100 when they aren't on ocuk, I'll start quoting other prices for the 3870x2. on ocuk, 2 x 8800GT's cost about the same as one 3870x2.

Throw in the extra cost of buying a SLI board, more powerful power supply, 2 lots of aftermarket coolers/waterblocks if going down that route, configarations problems making SLI work in some games and the fact it is easier and more likely to be able to overclock a single gfx card higher than 2 in SLI and it doesn't add up.

If you have an SLI board and a 8800GT and get offered a cheap GT then that works and is a major boost for little outlay.

Building from new, you gain nothing over buying a single card except more cost and hassle getting it to work.

EDIT: And to answer the OP, if you want to run decent framerates/eye candy at that res, then buy a crossfire board with two 16x pci-e slots and run 2 3870x2 IMO. But you need to have the money to spend have that kind of performance which you need. But same thing might apply in a months time, the 280GTX single card for £450 may well outperform 2 3870x2 in crossfire so you may as well buy one single card scenario again

 

[izzy eckerslike]

You can go SLI on Intel boards but you have to use a GX2 card, then your mobo will support both SLI & Crossfire should you want to go ATI at any time

 

[Bonjour]

Nope. A 3870x2 will give same performance as 2 x 8800gt or better in some games and is the same price. If you start quoting gt's at under £100 when they aren't on ocuk, I'll start quoting other prices for the 3870x2. on ocuk, 2 x 8800GT's cost about the same as one 3870x2.
...

OK..

So we've gone from them both costing the same to them both 'about the same'.

Cheapest 3870X2 on OcUK - £223.24, and not in stock.
Cheapest 8800GT £105.74 (x2 = £211.48)

You're quite simply incorrect in stating 3870X2 gives similar performance as SLI'd 8800GTs. Can you show me any benchmarks that back this up? As I can show you plenty that show 8800GT(SLI) well in the lead at 1920x1200.

Your other points are fair, but aren't / weren't relevant to me at the time of purchase.

 

[Greebo]

Yeah when I looked earlier I could only find the cheapest gt to be £111.62 and the 3870x2 was £223.24 so hence the same.

I missed the card at £105.74 so hence my change to "almost the same"

You got me there but it is less than £12 difference which if buying new is more than wiped out by the extra cost of buying an SLI board so lets all agree that if starting from scratch the SLI 2 x 8800GT is the more expensive option?


Yeah, it's a good deal like you must have had if you have a 8800GT and a SLI mobo and suitable psu, it makes perfect sense compared to selling your gt and buying a 3870x2 especially if you buy a 2nd hand GT. However, the op is building a new system so all my points which don't apply to you are valid.

I'm at work atm and haven't got the time to hunt out the reviews comparing sli and 3870x2 but I will do tomorrow (going to see Indiana Jones tonight so no time).

I know that sounds lame but I will back up my statement later.

 

[Bonjour]

Yeah when I looked earlier I could only find the cheapest gt to be £111.62 and the 3870x2 was £223.24 so hence the same.

I missed the card at £105.74 so hence my change to "almost the same"

You got me there but it is less than £12 difference which if buying new is more than wiped out by the extra cost of buying an SLI board so lets all agree that if starting from scratch the SLI 2 x 8800GT is the more expensive option?


Yeah, it's a good deal like you must have had if you have a 8800GT and a SLI mobo and suitable psu, it makes perfect sense compared to selling your gt and buying a 3870x2 especially if you buy a 2nd hand GT. However, the op is building a new system so all my points which don't apply to you are valid.

I'm at work atm and haven't got the time to hunt out the reviews comparing sli and 3870x2 but I will do tomorrow (going to see Indiana Jones tonight so no time).

I know that sounds lame but I will back up my statement later.

No worries mate. Like I said, I don't like to argue.

I did quite a bit of research before plumping for the 8800GT's and all reviews showed SLI'd 8800GTs convincingly in front at 1920x1200, which is why I went for them.

Anywho. Enjoy Indy.