Another "worth going SLI?" thread!

M

Madalienmonk

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 7, 2006
Messages
163
Is it worth going SLI and getting another GTX 260 with my system:

Q6600 @ 3.2
8gb Corsair DDR2 800
EVGA 680i LT mobo
BFG GTX 260 216

24" monitor at 1920x1200

Games I play: everything (crysis, FO3, FC2, etc. really, everything)

Any bottlenecks? what kind of improvement?

And something that has been bothering me is I look at older games (Assassin's Creed eg) and I see that SLI actually scores lower than other "lesser" cards! wth?

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Assassins-Creed-v1-02,740.html

I mean, I don't play AC anymore, but still....
 
well, usually just one 260 does good for those kinda games, but if you're an AA/AF/super high detail whore then the 2nd one will help you out at that res.
 
Hmm, would there be any bottleneck is my systems (specifically CPU)?

Thanks or the response(s)
 
At your current resolution i assume you would see an increase in FPS and or Settings. Id say go for it.
 
DWade said:
Not worth it new gens coming out soon
Click to expand...

Following your logic it's never worth it to go SLI unless you the performance scales linearly. Since you are paying twice the price and not getting twice the performance. The reason to go SLI is to get bleeding edge performance not possible with single chip at the time of technology progression.
 
I don't know sir, I'm playing Stalker with all settings on high and AAx4 on the same Res as you with a couple of 9600GSO's and its fine. I think logically SLI is good for people with mid-range inexpensive cards to get the same perforance of high range cards. I dont think youre gonna get any major performance increase from adding another 260.


You getting low FPS on older games is a driver support issue. I would consider reverting drivers if possible. Other than that its all tweaking.
 
The cost of two mid-range cards is often more, and the performance does not scale up as well as, just getting one higher end card. And when considering the costs, look at the premium you are going to pay for the motherboard as well... an extra $100, maybe more, for some of these 'premium' boards mostly just so we know they run multi-GPU setups without problems... not just talking the 'raw chip cost' for a 780/790 Sli bridge, or a 790FX or X58, but that these are the boards that tend to cost 2x as much as the rest. When you take it all in... no... its not worth it. Right now, I was hoping to jump to x58 so that I could keep running my SLi 8800GTS 512's... not gonna happen though because the drivers only support 9xxx and 2xx series GPU's. I stuck my neck out again for dual 8800's (I tried 7900GTX 512's before in SLi, ended up selling one card), and I got burned again... I have a very difficult upgrade path now (must ditch 8800's/sell them both all together so I can upgrade that too). Also, with the exception of the x58's, you are often paying more for the SLi boards (already mentioned, yes), and they end up being more buggy anyways. The best chipsets are either the intels for intel, and AMD for AMD... nForce chipsets, IMO, have not been holding any performance crowns.
 
One thing to add about dual card setups... depending on how you upgrade (Im sure many would like to say they just build whole new rigs at a time, as I used to do as well, but it seems upgrading part by part is more common these days rather than total overhauls)... having dual video cards can really be a snag in your upgrade path. If you have x-fire or SLi cards that you want to keep using, you are stuck with having to find another SLi/x-fire board. This may or may not be easy. With a single card, you can pick any mobo. I thought x58 would be great because then I could keep my dual 8800GTS 512's... not so... even though it is SLi, it only supports 9xxx and 2xx series. So my upgrade path with dual 8800GTS 512's is pretty much dead. I can take a small step from my 590 SLi board to a 790i or 780a mobo, but thats going to be a very limited life as well. Right now, Im thinking I should just sell my 8800GTS's, take the loss, and get a GTX280 or 4870x2 and be done with it. Or maybe BFGtech will be nice and allow me to 'trade up' when I send in my 6800U-AGP for PCI-E as well... doubt it though.
 
Thanks for all the advice, I went ahead and ordered the card, should get here next week.

Not too worried about further upgrade paths because its going to be a while before I can justify upgrading...time will tell....
 
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