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Shall I SLI?

alex350r

alex350r

alex350r

Associate
Joined
1 Apr 2007
Posts
97
Hi all,

Currently ive got the system in my sig. Ive got a 9800 GTX BFG OC version. I can run Farcry 2, crysis etc all fine but have noticed GTA IV seems to be a bit of a sore point for a lot of users. I want to future proof my system but can't justify £300 or more for a GTX 280 or 4870x2. So the question is shall I get another 9800 GTX and SLI them?

If I understand correctly the GPU's that I am SLI'ing must be the same model but dont neccessarily have to be the same ram or speed. Overclockers are out of stock of the BFG 9800 gtx so would have to get another brand, can anyone suggest one from this page:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1009

Also I need to make sure ive got enough power for the SLI, currently ive got a:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...name=Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU

Would I gain a lot from SLI'ing?

How many games out there take advantage of it?

If responses are good I will go any buy after work!! :D

Thanks!

Alex
 
Ok thanks. What gpu do you think would be a reasonable future proof upgrade from a 9800 gtx? or is worth upgrading yet. Ive got a copy of GTA IV here at work and having read on here loads of people are having problems - although that does seem to be cpu related and I have a quad core not dual core.
Cheers
 
Well try GTA, personally it sounds like its badly optimized at the moment.

Wait for the bugs to be ironed out and see what its like. If you can play Crysis fine then your ok at the moment.

There is no point buying a card yet if your only playing at 1680 x 1050.

In my opinion your better saving your cash and in the 2009 January sales get a 24" 1920 x 1280 monitor and either buy a GTX280 or SLI your GTX then.

But at the moment dont waste your cash.

If you can run Crysis then your system is already future proof.
 
Ok mate thanks for the info. Think ill keep the 9800 gtx where it is for now and like you say try and pick up some bargains in january :D.

Mostly play at 1680x1050 because thats the highest my 32' LCD tv will go to. Maybe an excuse to get a HD TV ;-).

Keeping my fingers crossed I can play GTA, even if the graphics do have to get turned down a notch or two.

Cheers.
 
GTA shouldn't be very taxing if I remember correctly.

Like someone said above, sounds like its badly written or something.

Crysis uses a far more advanced game engine afaik
 
None of the GTA series of games have supported SLI at all/properly so I doubt 4 will be any different in that regard.
 
Sylver123 said:
I take it there`s no point going SLI unless you have a screen that can do 2560 x 1600???
Click to expand...

Complete BS.

Look at reviews of any SLi or crossfire, it starts taking advantage of the 2nd card just after 1024 x 768 and upwards. Go too high and the framerate will still be higher than a single card, but too slow to be playable anyway

have a look and you will see what i mean.
 
I see you have your E6600 overclocked already, see if you could possibly squeeze a few more mhz out of it, even 3.3/3.4ghz should see a nice improvement if it will oc that far!

Maybe overclock your current 9800 aswell by a few mhz, I think they are 600/1800 stock, yours should do 700/2200 or so fairly easily if you have decent case cooling?

Combined you will get a nice boost and will defiantly futureproof yourself for a good while or until you get a bigger monitor etc, oh and its free!
 
SLI gives decent gains even at 1280x1024* - if your the sort of person who likes 100+fps solid while playing the latest games online then theres a perfectly good reason to have SLI even at lower resolutions.

* This depends on the cards your SLIing - i.e. 2x 8600GT at 1280x would show gains close to 100% whereas 2x 260GTX would probably be close to 40-60% gains.
 
Well I have experience with 7950GX2, 8500GT SLI, 8800GT SLI, 200 series SLI and dabbled a little with the old 6 series in SLI but they weren't upto much... and aside from forcing an SLI mode that was wrong for the game or trying to force SLI in a game that didn't support it I've never seen SLI reduce FPS in games that support SLI with the proper profile running at any res...

SLI works very well overall tho its not the most newbie friendly of technologies.
 
Ive had SLI probably a dozen times or more, currently running 8800GTX SLI.

Its dead easy to set up assuming you have a SLI mobo, install cards, bridge then driver and enable SLI. Job done.

I play at 1680x1050 and can maxx out pretty much everything i throw at it, not sure about crysis as i havent got it installed since i finished it.
 
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