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SLi and what you think

johnrs

johnrs

johnrs

Associate
Joined
13 Oct 2004
Posts
194
Morning boys and girls..

After Christmas I plan on a system upgrade.. What I am planning is going SLI. I know that this is going to mean a new MB and PSU and perhaps a new case as well..

I would like to hear from people that have got SLI systems and what they think. Worth the money??? are you getting better game performance and so on..

Games I am playing at the moment..

Eve - Trinity :eek:
QW - ET
URT3 - If Santa bring its for me tomorrow
WoW - Yeah I know....

So if your an SLI owner and want to part with your experience that would be great..

Merry Christmas all and hope Santa bring you what you want....
 
i've been playing with SLI for a while now, but only with 2x8800 GTX's i found that untill i overclocked my processor ther wasn't a huge difference.

using 3dmark and my system below

stock single card = 11k
stock SLI 12.5k

overclocked as it is now

single card 12k
SLI 17.5k
 
I have used SLI twice now, once with 2 x 7800GTX's and then 2 x 8800GTX's on my new PC

I have to say it was the biggest waste of money i have ever spent on a PC. The performance gains were practically non existant, lots of games did not get any performance boost and it was more hassle than it was worth

I took the 2nd one out and put it into my spare pc with an E6600 - SLI was a total waste of time.

Don't waste your money mate, you will be sorely disappointed

Oh, i am gaming on the 30" Dell as well @ 2560 x 1600

NB - The only game that almost doubled my framerate with SLI was F.E.A.R
 
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Ive had SLI a fair few times and to be honest youre better off with a single faster card.

Best example in my own experience is i had a pair of 8600GT cards and then a single 8800GTS 320Mb, they both socred pretty much the same in 3dmark, but in gaming the GTS was miles ahead.

So depending on what card you currently have id either keep it and stay as you are or swap it out for something like an 8800GT/GTS
 
I'm a bit underwhelmed as well to be honest! I've recently added a 2nd 8800GT to my system. Yes, it is quicker at most of the games I play, but to varying degrees. It's not a life changing gaming experience though.

Having said that, Crysis is the game I'm playing a lot at the moment, and 2 cards means I can get playable frame rates with everything on max, something I couldn't do with one card, but then many 8800GTX owners can do that as well!

On balance, and with 20/20 hindsight, I'd just have gone for the fastest single card and CPU I could afford.

I might change my view a bit when I get a higher resolution panel, but for now I could take it or leave it.
 
Thanks for the input there chaps... I have to say I am surprised

My current system is

ASRock MB 775
Intel E6300
2gig Dual Channel Ram
Nvidia 8800GTX
Targan 480 PSU
Dell 30"

So it looks like a new MB and CPU then
 
I was disapointed with SLI. I borrowed my mates 2nd 8800GTX (hes already taken it out of his rig and running with the 1 card on his Dell 30") it didn't show a huge improvement in games. Just gives a lot more heat in your case.
 
As you are getting a 30" display it may be worth it but having just splashed out on 2 8800GTs I would say there is a performance boost but its not massive, havent played crysis yet though so looking forward to that.
If I were were you I would wait to see what the 9 series are like and at what price in February and then decide, and if you cant wait til then just get an 8800GT to tide you over.
 
For some games its worth it at high res, but the games you listed, WoW! etc will not use or benefit from SLi in any way, and its just a waste of money.
 
SLi has been around for a very long. Am I right that in "VooDoo" days people were messing with it? In any case I have never seen anyone make much of a case for it and mostly its damning with faint praise along the lines of "expensive, bit faster but problematic with a lot of games".
 
imo get one card now, and in february/march when the new trech comes out, get 2 of them and SLi them.
 
Another disappointed in SLI here. Throwing money at the problem isn't the answer, NVidia need to hone the platform and drivers first. Then they need to work closer with games developers to ensure that the games work with it properly. Until then, its serves as nothing else than a room warmer IMO. Makes me laugh when they're unveiling triple SLI when dual SLI doesn't work properly with a lot of games - or doesn't yield half the performance increase you would expect for such an expense.

I had two 8800GTS 640mbs, gaming at 1680. Sold the pair of them for a single GTS 512mb, much happier with it. It's quieter, my temps overall are cooler, performance is comparable and I don't feel like I've wasted a stack load of money. :)
 
EffBee said:
SLi has been around for a very long. Am I right that in "VooDoo" days people were messing with it? In any case I have never seen anyone make much of a case for it and mostly its damning with faint praise along the lines of "expensive, bit faster but problematic with a lot of games".
Click to expand...

Yeah, you could SLI Voodoo2's together and it was very effective with Glide games. It was crude by today's standards - one card did the odd lines, the other the even lines. NVidia resurrected the acronym a couple of years ago and made a new description to fit. The algorithms now are much more complex using a variety of methods.

I'm playing around with CrossFire (ATIs version) with a couple of x1950s at the moment. It's mixed - benchmark results are good (+70%) but compatibility with newer games is problematic. Crysis runs at half the speed of a single card with CrossFire enabled!
 
I was running to 7900gs @630 core I have just taken 1 out and there is no loss in performance so the question is was there a gain in the first place and I have to say that I now know how little a gian it actualy was for the price I paid at the time each card was £120 I now intend to sell the 7900gs or use them in the kids pc and I will be investine in 1 card thinking of one of these to tie me over
HIS ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB until I can aford to do a new build.
 
i remember having 2 12meg voodoo 2's in sli and making all my mates jealous with unreal and halflife...good times:),ive got to say though im supprised at the amount of people saying sli is pants:eek:i speek as i find and im loving my setup,hitting 16k in 3dmark06,even performs well on my 40"tv:)only cards i would recommend sli'ing though are the gt's.
 
thanks for your posts chaps. Wont be going the SLI route.. Think I will just go for a CPU upgrade for time being and see what the 9 series offers

Merry Xmas chaps
 
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