1920x1200 is SLI worth the trouble?

V

vengence

Level capped
Joined
Nov 7, 2007
Messages
18,469
At 1920x1200 is SLI worth the trouble/price? I am planning to build a new system in mid feb, possibly with the release of the 9800. (I know no one has a price on it yet.) Should I look more towards that or towards 2 8800 GTS or GTs in SLI? Or even just a single GTX?
 
Would depend on the game a lot but at that resolution you are in the resolution territory where SLI can make a significant difference in performace. I will leave it there and let the people currently using SLI make more detailed comments.
 
Just wait for the new high end cards to come out, Its allways best to get 1 latest high end card instead of getting 2 old cards.

It also depends on what levels of aa ect you play at, as you will run into trouble trying to play with 32xAA on a single card.
 
at that res you will see/feel a difference with SLI, especially when you enable AA and other IQ enhancements. Yes the new cards are around the corner.. but then again, two 8800GTXs or GTs should out perform a single 9800.. unless you're thinking about two 9800s.. anyways.. I think for the price, performance, and power efficiency factors, two 8800GTs would be best if you want to go SLI now.. for GT / GTS cards make sure you have a decent 600W to 650W or higher PSU also..
 
I've got a GREAT 620 PSU. Not one of the "fake" PSUs. (This one won't melt then burst into flames when I try to get 620W out of it :D) I bought the monitor before I bought the rest of the gaming rig. Should have all the money lined up by mid/late Febuary. Dont feel like waiting till 2020 for a new card either. I didn't experiance any of the 1950/7950 cards. Am I going to be constantly beating my head against a wall if I try to use one of them? What about if I use two of them?
 
right on. I would go the 8800GT route with a 620W psu... if you want to go SLI that is. Are you thinking about the new dual gpu 9800GX2 when you say beating your head on a wall? Your system should be able to handle one of them, but not two without a PSU upgrade..

what motherboard do you have??
 
Don't have the mobo yet. I've got a AGP rig on DDR1 and "old" AMD 64 3800 on it. I want somethign that is scaleable. And yeah I'm talking about the 9800GX2. I hear from some people that the 7950 or 1950s had driver issues or at least they thing they did. If that was true, and by the ever dangerous extropolation I could expect the same problems on a 9800GX2. Maybe I'll get a 9800GX2 on an EVGA so i can constantly post about how my stepup is running out soon.
 
yeah - after reading about it I am not sold on the 9800GX2 yet... I bet it will be more of a success than it's 2gpu predacessor, the 7950.. which was in essence a flop! I guess we'll have to wait and see though.. just seems like Nvidia is tossing more of the same tech as us rather than updating the architecture.. maybe we'll see a dual core gpu next?? hard to say.. they kick off a lot of heat as is.. might not be doable at current fab size and speed.. anyways..

as for an upgrade path, you can pick up a 680i "LT" SLI mobo for cheap and they work very well from all I have read about them.. OC quads well, handle SLI well, etc.. if you want to save a few bucks for other components (cpu, system mem, video subsystem, etc..) that might be a good mobo option for you.
 
Honestly, I'm not in the mode to try to save money. I'm out of school now, have things paid off. It's time for me to be having fun! :D But I'm not going to spend 10,000$ just so I can go from 59 fps to 60 fps.:rolleyes: I'm willing to pay probably up to a 25% maybe even 50% premium on preformance. And I've had the "ECS" motherboards. Nothing is worse than an intermitent problem you can't track down.
 
well, if funds are ample, then maybe consider a non reference design 780i chipset motherboard.. (the reference design 680i boards were a nightmare at release but the non-ref boards were pretty solid).. if you're still gung-ho on SLI... Like the new Asus Striker II Formula.. I think it's been released, but I don't think you can get one anywhere yet... give it a couple weeks to a month... I have a feeling it will be one of the most solid 780i offerings.. at any rate, I agree you should not overspend unnecessarily, but at 1920x1200 you will for sure benefit from going SLI, especially with IQ enhancers enabled.

PS: I would steer clear of the 9800GX2 card and wait for the 9800GTX if you want to go with next gen video hardware. I am just not sold that these dual gpu solutions are the best way to go.. I am personally camping on my 8800GTXs for a while still.. I'll add a 3rd one if I need more pixel pushing power. :)

EDIT: looks like the 780i Asus P5N-T Deluxe fairly available.. not the Striker, but still probably better than a reference 780i board..
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=ASUS+P5N-T+DELUXE&um=1&ie=UTF-8
 
Ok, heres the next question then, If I'm planning on waiting till the 9800GTX comes out, should I buy 2 GTs or 2 GTS?
 
I would at least wait until the new high end stuff arrives,and is professionally tested by Brent here,and Anand,and a,maybe a few other sites.Then and only then would I make a decision.

I will grab whatever 'single' card is the fastest come March 1st,or whenever the 8900GX2 arrives at retail.
 
Well, I think this was the last time that [H] went in depth on SLI performance.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzQ3LDgsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0

March 23, 2005. Maybe it is time for another update that also includes Vista SLI performance.

Edit......Figures I did not search enough, there was SLI benches for the 8800 Ultra review, but I think that [H] needs to revisit the "is it worth it or not aspect" of SLI again.

Edit once again................ I really was not to enthusiastic about the announcement of the Nvidia Hybrid SLI Tech simply because that SLI performance and support was so lackluster in the first place that creating something new before fixing the original does not make sense to me.
 
vengence said:
Ok, heres the next question then, If I'm planning on waiting till the 9800GTX comes out, should I buy 2 GTs or 2 GTS?
Click to expand...

Well I thought I'd chip in since after all I have experienced the following SLI setups:
8800GTX, 8800Ultra, and 8800GT

As of now I am using two 8800GT's, I sold my Ultras in early November under the impression that the next best thing was comming in January. So far I am not too happy about it. Though with the money I made I bought 4 GT's and a new sound system so I guess I can't complain. Anyway the bottom line is, is at 1920x1200 you WILL have to drop AA settings quite a bit. I went from 16xAA Supersampling in most my games (BF2, Source Engine games, COD4) to 8xAA MultiSampling, actually I have it at only 4xAA now because I can't keep a CONSTANT 60+ fps in COD4 since I have v-sync on due to "stuttering" in COD4

Though I am still getting very good fps no doubt, its not what I was getting before. Obviously I knew that I would be getting less fps going from Ultras to GT's but this is just to tie me over until a Ultra Killer comes about.. If you could I would suggest you get two GTX's from the Sell/Trade section they are going for around 370-380 last I saw

OR

You could just get two GTS models
 
I get so sick of this.


SLI IS NOT TROUBLE!

I have been using SLI since the 6800Ultra days and I've never had problems with it. I've been able to make it work in every game I've ever played either by creating my own profiles or waiting for a game patch or new driver. SLI has never caused me image quality problems or compatibility issues with games. It has been more of a bennefit to my enjoyment of games than any other hardware upgrades I've made save for the 30" monitor itself. SLI is expensive. SLI isn't worth it for everyone. SLI doesn't always give the greatest gains in all games but as the resolution, eye candy, AA and AF climb so do the bennefits of SLI. SLI has one flaw. It usually requires an NVIDIA chipset based motherboard. That can sometimes be problematic but there are ways to minimize your potential risks and issues there too.

The ONLY time SLI has been trouble is in regard to 7950GX2 and Quad SLI. This problem was compounded when Vista was released and the drivers were absolute shit. SLI wouldn't work for the 8800 series cards either in Vista at first. The solution was simple. Don't run Vista. I didn't until the SLI issues were solved for the 8800 series cards.
 
SLI IS BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY IN THE FUCKING WORLD unless your running 16xaf/aa and everything on max. your better off buying 1 high end card when it comes out the day its released. then 2 generations after that card buy another high end saves money and you can play everything max. but sli 8800gts and 8800gt both loose to a 8800gtx. sli= different performance on games. and usaly they only utalize a certain percent of both gpus which makes it suck ass. which is the reason why r700 will loose to 9800gtx in most games unless drivers get better. and hardware slows down sli is a waste of money. only idiots with no life would buy sli. or people who render and do it for a living.
 
brian666 said:
SLI IS BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY IN THE FUCKING WORLD unless your running 16xaf/aa and everything on max. your better off buying 1 high end card when it comes out the day its released. then 2 generations after that card buy another high end saves money and you can play everything max. but sli 8800gts and 8800gt both loose to a 8800gtx. sli= different performance on games. and usaly they only utalize a certain percent of both gpus which makes it suck ass. which is the reason why r700 will loose to 9800gtx in most games unless drivers get better. and hardware slows down sli is a waste of money. only idiots with no life would buy sli. or people who render and do it for a living.
Click to expand...

Did he just call me an idiot with no life? Correct me if I'm wrong but I could swear that I saw a [H] article about this and I think that 8800GT SLI performed better than a single 8800GTX? I dont think it was a huge performance gain, but it kinda puts what this says to bed. Also, the price difference between a GTX and 2 GT's is huge, like $30 or something close.
 
SLI IS BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY IN THE FUCKING WORLD unless your running 16xaf/aa and everything on max. your better off buying 1 high end card when it comes out the day its released. then 2 generations after that card buy another high end saves money and you can play everything max. but sli 8800gts and 8800gt both loose to a 8800gtx. sli= different performance on games. and usaly they only utalize a certain percent of both gpus which makes it suck ass. which is the reason why r700 will loose to 9800gtx in most games unless drivers get better. and hardware slows down sli is a waste of money. only idiots with no life would buy sli. or people who render and do it for a living.
Click to expand...

maybe if I was running 1280x1024.... Did you even read the resolution I'm at? 1920x1200. :rolleyes:Let me save us all some time....
/flame
/flame
/random comment about your mother
/specific comment about your sexuality towards llamas, sheeps, and your ass :eek:
/random comment about penguins
/random flame
/flame that makes no sense
/flame
:D:D:D
Back on topic now.

SLI IS NOT TROUBLE!
Click to expand...

This was more the question I was asking. I hear about problems with it, and I hear from people who try to run it on 640x400 resolutions and dont see preformance increases (see idiot above), but I was wondering if it was just an issue you hear about only 1% of the cases where people have problems, not the 99% that work just fine. Like you never hear someone say my 1920x1200 monitor has 2303999 working pixels!!!! it's always it's got one dead one :(.
 
brokenarrow03 said:
Did he just call me an idiot with no life? Correct me if I'm wrong but I could swear that I saw a [H] article about this and I think that 8800GT SLI performed better than a single 8800GTX? I dont think it was a huge performance gain, but it kinda puts what this says to bed. Also, the price difference between a GTX and 2 GT's is huge, like $30 or something close.
Click to expand...

I think he did. He also doesn't know what he is talking about and I have to tell you that SLI isn't a waste of money for everyone. I've said it all along. If you've got a really high end monitor then it certainly can be a big help and be the difference between enjoying your gaming experience or hating it. One card won't run UT3 at max settings with V-Sync on at 2560x1600 smoothly. So SLI came in handy there. Call of Duty 4 scales well with SLI and 3-Way SLI so I don't know what he is talking about there either. I've noticed nice gains in that game and I play it the most and usually online. So certainly not a waste of money there.

You can argue this point all day but some people will say that a PC over $600 is a waste of money but most of us would say that's bullshit. Then again it depends on how you use your PC and what you are doing with it. At some point you'll see diminishing returns on the performance vs. cost in some configurations (Skulltrail/Extreme Edition CPUs for example.) However what is a waste of money and what is expensive is also a manner of perspecitve. I don't consider $1500 worth of video cards to be a big issue. There are tons of people that struggle to purchase a $200 mid-range card. We don't all make the same amount of money and we don't all have the same priorities.

brian666 said:
SLI IS BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY IN THE FUCKING WORLD unless your running 16xaf/aa and everything on max. your better off buying 1 high end card when it comes out the day its released. then 2 generations after that card buy another high end saves money and you can play everything max. but sli 8800gts and 8800gt both loose to a 8800gtx. sli= different performance on games. and usaly they only utalize a certain percent of both gpus which makes it suck ass. which is the reason why r700 will loose to 9800gtx in most games unless drivers get better. and hardware slows down sli is a waste of money. only idiots with no life would buy sli. or people who render and do it for a living.
Click to expand...

You are so wrong I don't know where to begin. As I've already stated 1,000 times on this forum SLI is not a waste of money. It might not be a big deal for you but some of us want high levels of AA and AF at 2560x1600. If that's not you then that's your issue. Don't project your financial views onto me or anyone else. Additionally you are wrong about performance. 8800GTS 640MB SLI outruns a single 8800GTX or 8800Ultra. This is a fact. Now I agree that a single card setup is probably the better way to go for most people for various reasons. Heat, power draw, diminishing returns and so fourth. As far as how SLI rendering works in games, you are way off base. Ever heard of Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR)? Well look it up. Basically it creates EQUAL workload between two GPUs to bring performance levels up by making each card not have to do as much. Some games bennefit more than others but virtually every game made since the GeForce 6 series days bennefits some from SLI. Some games get nearly twice the performance when SLI is used. For those people wanting maximum performance who can afford it, two of the highest end GPUs neing purchased near release will always yield more performance than a single high end GPU. So again what you have said is a complete fallacy.

Also what you have said about R700 and the so called "9800GTX" has nothing to do with anything and isn't accurate anyway. We know virtually nothing official about either GPU or video card. As for R700 I think you are thinking of the 3870 X2 and not R700. The 3870 X2 is a Crossfire solution and we don't know much about R700.
 
Can someone recommend a link with a comparison between 2 65nm 8800GT and 2 65 nm GTS in SLI?
 
Vengence the 8800gts would be the faster card, as it is faster on its own at stock, but with the price diffrence between the 2 cards (over $80 in the uk) i would just go with the sli gt's so you would be saving quite a bit overall for only a slight loss in performance.
 
brian666 said:
SLI IS BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY IN THE FUCKING WORLD...only idiots with no life would buy sli. or people who render and do it for a living.
Click to expand...

Excuse me hitler, but 2x8800gt's in sli wont help anyone that renders for a living.
 
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1138099
Click to expand...

I had never planned on looking at a 7950. I think everyone has agreed that card was a flop.

Vengence the 8800gts would be the faster card, as it is faster on its own at stock, but with the price diffrence between the 2 cards (over $80 in the uk) i would just go with the sli gt's so you would be saving quite a bit overall for only a slight loss in performance.
Click to expand...

I know the GTS is faster than the GT. The question was how much faster in an SLI setup. Thanks for the input though ^^
 
I've looked at places like tomshardware and found that on at least a few games SLI seems to be the way to go (COD4 max at that res was 57 on a single GTX vs 100 on a pair of G92 GTs.) They don't have anything on G92 GT vs G92 GTS though.
 
Hmm i wouldnt trust toms hardware, see if the [H] have any reviews on this?
 
I probably wouldn't go the SLI route again unless I wanted/could afford 2 of the most recent flagship cards. I would rather just get one flagship card. Despite what people say, SLI has been a real pain for me. It does help tremendously in the games that support it though. Nvidia's drivers often suck though.

A good recent example would be Call of Duty 4. It took them forever to fix the sli problems for 7 series cards. I'm not sure if they've even fixed since I haven't played sp with the latest drivers. Team Fortress 2 and source games had problems with some of the more recent WHQL drivers as well.


I'd pass on SLI unless I had the money to burn on two flagship cards otherwise I would not bother with it because you're stuck with the performance of only one card in games where SLI is acting wonky.

Price performance ratio for SLI is crap since you only get around a 30% boost in games and often your lowest FPS levels will stay about the same as with just one card. (If you goto an area where you get like 10 fps for example sli will raise that to like 15-20. If you goto an area where you get 100 fps then sli will raise it to like 130-140) so it increases performance but not in the same way upgrading to a single, more powerful card does.

Only go SLI if you have the extra money to spend on two flagship cards.

That said, games like bioshock would be unplayable at 1920x1200 with high settings without using SLI with the two cards I have. I'm surprised they've lasted me as long as they have but like I've said so often I bought two of the flagship cards because I could afford it at the time. Going to a 8800gtx from what I have now just wouldn't be worth it unless I could afford two of them. I wouldn't bother and will hold off to see what the 9 series is like.
 
ring.of.steel said:
Hmm i wouldnt trust toms hardware, see if the [H] have any reviews on this?
Click to expand...

What is the question here? I don't guess I understand.

Everything from an 8800GTS 640MB on up in SLI should be faster than a single 8800Ultra.

Performance breaks down like this:

8800GTS 320MB
8800GTS 640MB
8800GT 512MB
8800GTS 512MB
8800GTX 768MB
8800Ultra 768MB

In SLI:

8800GTS 320MB SLI < 8800Ultra (Probably at high resolutions and or with high AA and AF are used.)
8800GTS 640MB SLI > 8800Ultra
8800GT 512MB SLI > 8800Ultra
8800GTS 512MB SLI > 8800Ultra
8800GTX 768MB SLI > 8800Ultra
8800Ultra 768MB SLI > 8800Ultra
8800GTX 768MB 3-Way SLI > 8800Ultra
8800Ultra 768MB 3-Way SLI > 8800Ultra

Unless someone has reliable benchmarks that show different this is pretty much how it is. It's probably fairly close between the 8800GTS 320MB/640MB SLI scores and the 8800Ultra by itself but I'd give the edge to the SLI setups.
 
peacetilence said:
I probably wouldn't go the SLI route again unless I wanted/could afford 2 of the most recent flagship cards. I would rather just get one flagship card. Despite what people say, SLI has been a real pain for me. It does help tremendously in the games that support it though. Nvidia's drivers often suck though.

A good recent example would be Call of Duty 4. It took them forever to fix the sli problems for 7 series cards. I'm not sure if they've even fixed since I haven't played sp with the latest drivers. Team Fortress 2 and source games had problems with some of the more recent WHQL drivers as well.


I'd pass on SLI unless I had the money to burn on two flagship cards otherwise I would not bother with it because you're stuck with the performance of only one card in games where SLI is acting wonky.

Price performance ratio for SLI is crap since you only get around a 30% boost in games and often your lowest FPS levels will stay about the same as with just one card. (If you goto an area where you get like 10 fps for example sli will raise that to like 15-20. If you goto an area where you get 100 fps then sli will raise it to like 130-140) so it increases performance but not in the same way upgrading to a single, more powerful card does.

Only go SLI if you have the extra money to spend on two flagship cards.

That said, games like bioshock would be unplayable at 1920x1200 with high settings without using SLI with the two cards I have. I'm surprised they've lasted me as long as they have but like I've said so often I bought two of the flagship cards because I could afford it at the time. Going to a 8800gtx from what I have now just wouldn't be worth it unless I could afford two of them. I wouldn't bother and will hold off to see what the 9 series is like.
Click to expand...

Again I can't agree with this. I've had almost no trouble over the last few years with the 6 series, 7 series and 8 series. The 7950GX2 I skipped for several reasons, but aside from that card's obvious problems SLI has always been pretty solid for me. Again it takes some tweaking sometimes but I've always received worthwhile bennifits in games.

BTW SLI has indeed been improved in the new Crysis patch. It made all the difference in the world. I'm now playing with most settings on very high at 1920x1200.
 
Dan_D said:
What is the question here? I don't guess I understand.

Everything from an 8800GTS 640MB on up in SLI should be faster than a single 8800Ultra.

Performance breaks down like this:

8800GTS 320MB
8800GTS 640MB
8800GT 512MB
8800GTS 512MB
8800GTX 768MB
8800Ultra 768MB

In SLI:

8800GTS 320MB SLI < 8800Ultra (Probably at high resolutions and or with high AA and AF are used.)
8800GTS 640MB SLI > 8800Ultra
8800GT 512MB SLI > 8800Ultra
8800GTX 768MB SLI > 8800Ultra
8800Ultra 768MB SLI > 8800Ultra
8800GTX 768MB 3-Way SLI > 8800Ultra
8800Ultra 768MB 3-Way SLI > 8800Ultra

Unless someone has reliable benchmarks that show different this is pretty much how it is.
Click to expand...

*Prints*
 
brian666 said:
SLI IS BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY IN THE FUCKING WORLD unless your running 16xaf/aa and everything on max. your better off buying 1 high end card when it comes out the day its released. then 2 generations after that card buy another high end saves money and you can play everything max. but sli 8800gts and 8800gt both loose to a 8800gtx. sli= different performance on games. and usaly they only utalize a certain percent of both gpus which makes it suck ass. which is the reason why r700 will loose to 9800gtx in most games unless drivers get better. and hardware slows down sli is a waste of money. only idiots with no life would buy sli. or people who render and do it for a living.
Click to expand...

Your word vs. Dan D. I know who I believe.
 
I'd like to tell you the difference between running GT512's in sli vs GTS512's in SLI, but the same night i ordered my GTS512's my SLI board took a shit. Thanks nvidia....Anyway, there is definately a nice difference between the GT and GTS. For the 80-100 or so that you will pay, you get a better cooler, an extra bank of shaders, much higher overclockability and a copy of crysis.

Also, to the douchebag flamer up there. Please for the love of god. Learn to spell the word "LOSE". Nothing makes you look more like a jackass than calling someone/something that fails to win, not tight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top