SLI and the benifits?

Tom01793 · 21 Nov 2011 at 10:12

hi all,
I have a 560ti twin razor atm and dont have any problems playin current games, but as xmas is coming up and dont need anything if i was to sli this card with another one would i see masive gains it it like haveing double the power or is it worth just getting a better spec card than sli'in the one i have?

R088ieS86 · 21 Nov 2011 at 10:32

Most people add a 2nd card because its cheaper to add a second card rather than replace it with a better single card.
2x 560Ti's are a very decent setup: 560Ti SLi Review
What resolution do you game at?

Tom01793 · 21 Nov 2011 at 12:23

yea i game at 1920-1080 on 42inch,

So is sli in cards like haveing the power of 2 over them or does it not work like that ?

kristmace · 21 Nov 2011 at 12:36

It's never quite double the performance, but you should expect an 80-90% increase in FPS.

To be totally honest, SLI 560Ti is probably overkill at 1920x1080. I'd say it's only necessary for multi-monitor, extreme resolutions or 3d.

rjk · 21 Nov 2011 at 13:05

SLI stands for scalable link interface

it scales rather than doubles performance
in well coded, sli supported games you will see around 60-80% scaling

think of it like having a car engine, its not like putting two engines in it, more like turbocharging what you already have.

as mentioned, sli is overkill at your res. you may be best keeping what you have then upgrading to the next gen of cards later.

you get much more consistant performance getting the single fastest gpu you can afford

sli is only worth it when you have a huge resolution.
a 42" tv is only the same as a 23" monitor, so it requires no additional gpu horsepower

unless you are struggling to play games then its not worth it. plus the stretching of 1080p at 42" would mean that the benefits would be negligible anyway

Tom01793 · 21 Nov 2011 at 13:29

but haveing this card in sli wont harm in any way i take it it could only make things better for future gameing thats all i am think ie 6-9momnths down the line when a new fancy game comes out i will all rdy have double power

kristmace said:
It's never quite double the performance, but you should expect an 80-90% increase in FPS.

To be totally honest, SLI 560Ti is probably overkill at 1920x1080. I'd say it's only necessary for multi-monitor, extreme resolutions or 3d.

dalehitchy1 · 21 Nov 2011 at 13:42

im hoping to get another 6950 as im playing at 5790 x 1080 or something like that... hope i see good gains in FPS..

Tom01793 · 21 Nov 2011 at 15:16

so what would the next gen card be i was under the impresion that the 560ti was one of the better ones

BluSky · 21 Nov 2011 at 15:21

The 560ti is a good card. I think by next gen rjk means the nvidia 600 series / AMD 7000 series (or whatever they will be called) when they come out.

setter · 21 Nov 2011 at 17:36

Tom01793 said:
but haveing this card in sli wont harm in any way i take it it could only make things better for future gameing thats all i am think ie 6-9momnths down the line when a new fancy game comes out i will all rdy have double power

Sli is good when you cant afford a single high end card, when prices fall you can add one the same as what you already have to give games a boost, ive often went the secondhand route for sli. The main cons are, increased power usage and temps.

thebeagle · 21 Nov 2011 at 17:41

Do it! Sounds like you have alrady made your mind up OP!

Tom01793 · 22 Nov 2011 at 08:11

Yea i think i might just do that anyone else got an sli config ?

Buchanan0204 · 22 Nov 2011 at 09:13

Buy another two 42" tellys. Stick them all together. Then get your second 560TI

Post pics!

P.S. It's "benefits"

Tom01793 · 22 Nov 2011 at 14:19

Buchanan0204 said:
Buy another two 42" tellys. Stick them all together. Then get your second 560TI

Post pics!

P.S. It's "benefits"

lol yea would be nice 3x42" led's

Howling · 22 Nov 2011 at 14:28

Worth waiting to January imho and see what the Jan sales bring ^_^

3t3P · 22 Nov 2011 at 14:42

I went 470 sli recently as second card could be had for cheap.

It stabilises games like crysis and metro 2033 no-end, makes it all really smooth.

And now I am actually using my 3D vision setup more as it smooths out games a heck of a lot.
It's also fun and cool to look at, if you are bored this xmas I say go for it

Howling · 22 Nov 2011 at 17:29

3t3P said:
And now I am actually using my 3D vision setup more as it smooths out games a heck of a lot.
It's also fun and cool to look at, if you are bored this xmas I say go for it

The 3d actually worth looking into? Or is it a ****** gimmick like at the cinema? lol

Rroff · 22 Nov 2011 at 17:34

There are a small number of games where it basically doubles the performance minus a small overhead. But in general its quite varied.

SLI tends to work best under certain scenarios tho for instance when your almost at 60fps and need that bit extra to keep a silky smooth 60fps it works brilliant, whereas if your struggling to hit 30fps in the first place then SLI/multi GPU will probably result in noticeable microstutter or input lag.

Upper mid-range cards tend to be the sweet spot for SLI as you can often get far better performance than the top end single card, for slightly less or the same money and if you time it right you can often pickup the 2nd card a few months later for a lot less money.

setter · 22 Nov 2011 at 18:38

Almost doubles fps for me in bf3, tried it with a single card and it was a bit choppy, bc2 on the otherhand wasnt that much difference at the settings i normally used, but it did allow me to use a crazy amount of aa if i wanted to. Opted for another sli setup in my 2nd i7 x58 machine, (gtx 460's) just need a decent psu for it now.

mattlovell · 22 Nov 2011 at 19:13

OP what CPU do you have?
Only really worth buying SLI if you are sure none of the rest of your pc will bottleneck it.
I had SLI 8800GTs 'back in the day' but couldn't use a lot of the power for a while as I was stuck on an ancient Core 2 Duo.