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Is SLI / Xfire really needed?

paradigm said:
So, given that I have 4GB of RAM, an IP35-PRO, and a 24" samsung screen, I didn't waste my time and money going xfire?

Doesn't your post contradict itself?
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No because I'm saying that only at that resolution you would see a benefit, but you shouldn't need dual graphics in the first place. I'm not saying that SLi doesn't boost performance, of course it does, but its a stupidly expensive, abhorrent way of achieving just a better framerate. I'd feel like a mug if I'd spent £600 on 2x GTX's only three months before the GT came out.
 
Naa ya dont need SLI, ya just need 4x 8800 cards, which may manage crysis at 60fps v-high.

I was accidently playing crysis at 2.13ghz rather than 3.55ghz the other day & never noticed lol.
 
I don't think anyone credible would say that a multicard set-up is universally a waste, but it is certainly fair to say that it's not universally worth it. And obviously unless you are seriously into your gaming, then this isn't a option for you at all.

A traditional school of thought is that only a very high end set-up makes sense, because if money is no object, why settle for 1 great card, when you can have two that work better?

And there is also a school of thought that argues that buying 1 card now, and a second card at a later date as a cheap boost, is also a sensible option for some people.

Personally I think the first school is unequivocally true, while the second is true in a handful of cases only and never with a Flagship card. Ex-Flagships cards almost never become cheap to buy, they just fade away. It works out much better with a the number 2 or 3 card of the day, and often in the refresh rather than the first wave.

Finally, only in very rare circumstances will a pair of mid or low end cards ever be worth putting in Sli/Crossfire. The 7300gt DDR3 is the only lower range card I can think of that was, at any time, arguebly worth SLIing.
 
man_from_uncle said:
I don't think anyone credible would say that a multicard set-up is universally a waste.
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Just because someone in Nvidia's marketing department decided that they could make double the money buy selling two cards instead of one doesn't mean everyone should rush out and buy it. It's marketed as mainstream tech, its enthusiast equipment, not server level. If people want to be financially raped, then fine. But don't argue that its "worth it". You don't need two cpu's, you don't need 8GB of RAM and you don't need two PSU's, so why would you empty your wallet for two GPU's, when one should be doing the job on its own.
 
Whoa...didn't expect this thread to kick off like it did but certainly has given me a lot of info to take in and digest. I posted more out of curiosity than a necessity question, when i upgrade my system in the next few weeks i'll only be getting a 19" monitor and I can't imagine that there is a game out there that would require dual cards for a 1280x resolution as i'll be getting a decent mobo, ram, cpu and of course, graphics card ;)
 
Sounds to me like someone is overly bitter that buying a crossfire/SLi rig is beyond their means.

You don't need a 24-32" monitor, you don't need to play games AT ALL. However people do buy the tech and the products because they either WANT TO, or they NEED TO.

I went crossfire mainly because I wanted something new to play with, I've done the SLi thing, I've done the single top end card thing (many many times), hell I've even topped the overall ORB rankings on 3Dmark2000 back in the day.

Its my hobby, I enjoy it, and therefore NOTHING and NO-ONE will convince me that it was a waste of my money, I'f im getting enjoyment and use out of it, it would NEVER be a waste of money.

Then there is the point that the two cards were only £316.
 
paradigm said:
Sounds to me like someone is overly bitter that buying a crossfire/SLi rig is beyond their means.

You don't need a 24-32" monitor, you don't need to play games AT ALL. However people do buy the tech and the products because they either WANT TO, or they NEED TO.

I went crossfire mainly because I wanted something new to play with, I've done the SLi thing, I've done the single top end card thing (many many times), hell I've even topped the overall ORB rankings on 3Dmark2000 back in the day.

Its my hobby, I enjoy it, and therefore NOTHING and NO-ONE will convince me that it was a waste of my money, I'f im getting enjoyment and use out of it, it would NEVER be a waste of money.

Then there is the point that the two cards were only £316.
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It's not beyond my means, I've got plenty of money thankyou.

Yeah, and no-one needs a £50,000 BMW 5-series. No-one needs anything, but just because it's people's hobbies doesn't mean they deserve to be ****** over for all their worth. Don't tell me not to point out the fallibility of Nvidia's latest money making scheme. Most people on this forum are happy to buy £80 motherboards because it does the job. Just because its your hobby, doesn't mean you have to pay an arm and leg for everything. If people didn't just sit there hitting the buy button on some stupid Ultra all the time, then Nvidia wouldn't make the poxy things. They'd concentrate on producing better mid-range parts.

I don't mean to cause offense, but I can't see why everyone is defending SLi. People complain about football tickets costing too much, so why can't anyone complain about graphics cards being too expensive?
 
Hey Paradigm, whats RAID5 like? I'm currently using RAID0 with 128kb blocks.

Just to keep in the theme of the thread I would run SLI if my dumb P35 mobo could do it properly & I had the dosh. I used to run 2x7800GTX until the 7900GTX came out, which was quicker by itself in most things compared to 2x7800GTX.
 
Again, I'll point you to the "two cards were only £316" part of my post. Its not like its a new idea anyway, I first used SLi with 3dfx back in the voodoo2 12MB days, it was awesome then too!

You're just coming across as a bitter person, especially with comments like "stupid Ultra". Take a step back, appreciate that its not all about cost, and that some people just want to utilise the technology because they CAN. You aren't being shafted on price if you WANT to pay it. Like the old addage says, "something is only worth what people are willing to pay for it".

There are some AMAZING mid-range parts available, the 8800GT is just sublime for the cost.

@ Juno. My RAID5 setup is very quick indeed, one drive died last night and I'm currently praising the redundancy as well as the speed :p Ok, so its taken a good 10+ hours for it to rebuild the array, but I've lost no data :)
 
Chimerical said:
So let me get this straight. If your £450 GeForce Ultra is performing up to scratch, people seek a solution by buying another one? Right, yeah, doesn't smack of a rip-off much. It's a goddamn con, one card should be good enough for nearly half a grand, you aren't expected to stump up more money just to get Crysis running properly.
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stop always thinking that people will only SLI the top of the range cards. Look at the 8800GT, on its own it is outperformed by the ultra, but run 2 GTs in SLI, and itll be cheaper then an ultra, and can perform better.
 
So, basically, all everyone wants to do is justify their status as consumer drones. I'm not bitter, I'm only 18 years old for Christ sake's, I think I've got a while to go yet before I'm bitter about everything. The Ultra is stupid, its a stupid product that no-one needs. People complained about the price of PS3 and, oh look, suprise suprise, it got lowered. Do enthusiasts do the same? No, they just get down on their knees and hand over their money in fistfuls.
 
Dist said:
stop always thinking that people will only SLI the top of the range cards. Look at the 8800GT, on its own it is outperformed by the ultra, but run 2 GTs in SLI, and itll be cheaper then an ultra, and can perform better.
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I'm only talking about SLi'ing top of the range cards, if people want to SLi mid-range fine, its the same price. But that's only become apparent since the 8800GT was released. Before that, you were better off buying the next card up rather than SLi'ing your current GPU.
 
You're 100% right, you aren't bitter at all, and are blatently looking at the argument from all sides :rolleyes:

I'm leaving this thread alone now as you aren't debating, you are just moaning.
 
You saying the ultra is a stupid product that no-one needs and then saying your only talking about sliing the top of the range cards, Well before the GT, the Ultra was top of the range, and if you wanted all the bells and whistles in a game you needed a high end card like the ultra, so its hardly useless.

Now that its showing its age, if you want to increase performance you have 3 options, wait for new/better single cards, sell the ultra and get 2 GTs, or get another ultra. So if you want all the bells and whistles in current/future games, RIGHT NOW, then there is little choice but to use SLI.
 
People dont always use top of the range cards, the 6800 256MB 7900gs 256MB and the 8800GT make good cards and overclock really well too.

I suspect that 2 8800GT 256MB cards would out perform the 8800 GTX & Ultra untill its limited by the memory.

If you point is that the Ultra is a rip-off(price for performance wise) your about 6 months too late since the GTX has been great till the GTX
 
Chimerical said:
Just because someone in Nvidia's marketing department decided that they could make double the money buy selling two cards instead of one doesn't mean everyone should rush out and buy it. It's marketed as mainstream tech, its enthusiast equipment, not server level. If people want to be financially raped, then fine. But don't argue that its "worth it". You don't need two cpu's, you don't need 8GB of RAM and you don't need two PSU's, so why would you empty your wallet for two GPU's, when one should be doing the job on its own.
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Huh? Are we.....
....what are you talking about? Was that a rebuttle or just a generally negative, angry collection of words?
 
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