How Bad are nVidia SLI in First Person Shooters?

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Limp Gawd
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I hear so much about SLI and CF issues with games, so naturally I am curious how many people are having SLI problems with current FPS games? And what those issues are?

Because even tho the 580 is out, the 470 in SLI is kinda hard passing up given the current pricing. I know 470 SLI has to be blowing away a single 580? And I really can't justify the $1000.00 price tag for 580 SLI. I mean the 470 SLI just seems like a lot of bang for the buck. Hell I could even do 3X SLI 470 GTX and still only be spending a little over $600.00. And from what I saw 3X 470 is hard to beat.

So let me hear about some of these SLI issues everyone speaks of
 
Oh dear, probably going to regret this because this subject is so contentious but here it goes.

Personally I LOVE SLI, and I've spent a boat load on it. I've gone from 280 to 480 and by Friday hopefully 580 3x SLI all just this year and the gaming experience is just fucking incredible. Since I'm running 3D Surround SLI isn't an option, it's a requirement. People will bitch about microstutter and yeah that issue exists and not all games work properly out of the box but the ones that do, SLI is a right and day experience even at 1920×1200 or 1080P in newer games at higher settings.

You really have to try it for yourself. If you want power and fun and the money isn't a thing you're going to lose sleep over go for it. Single card single monitor gaming is just no fun for me anymore.
 
Like the above person said, its a pretty simple choice. If you multi-monitor game, you have to, and if you don't, you should be using a single card to avoid the mentioned issues to say nothing of heat, noise, and cost. It is personal preference to whether you like single or multi-monitor gaming, but each has a "correct" choice regarding multiple video cards.
 
As one very specific example where my SLI cards created an issue is with Counter-Strike: Source. Being blinded by a flashbang creates a near epilepsy-inducing flickering on the screen until the blindness wears off. It's because when you are flashed, the game captures a snapshot of the scene to use as a background image. The game only erases that image from one of the cards' memory, and since the cards are both rendering frames alternately, you continue to see that snapshot image flickering between frames until the blindness wears off entirely.

Not really a reason to avoid SLI altogether (CF I believe has this same problem), but just an example of how a developer might overlook a multi-GPU inherent problem.
 
Situations like the one above is why you DON'T SLI/CF lower-end cards. When you SLI/CF high end cards if there are problems you have a fallback, the fastest SINGLE card solution for those game that you want to play when multi-GPU has glitches.

Of course this expensive but then you don't have to debate it, not matter what you've got as fast as you're going to get.
 
As being new to SLI, I'm not sure if the extra expense is worth it, however now I have two cards running I'm not going back, a couple of things, master will always run hotter than slave with 2 monitors. In SLI games both gpu's won't work as hard as one so will not be as hot/noisy as one GPU.

I've not noticed anything but excellent quality with SLI, but my game library is not extensive: ArmA OA, MOH, BBC2, Crysis, Hawx, ME2, Snipe Ghost, COD2, 4, BC, Farcry2.

Would I buy a second card again! really don't know :-(

David
 
No problem with SLI either here,but i only play recent game (2 years old max) except Crysis witch is older and HL2 witch run great..
 
Going on my 3rd SLI setup. Never had an issue. Well other than CPU bottlenecking ;)
 
I just finish my SLI build about 2.5 weeks ago. I play in 3240 x 1920 on 3 Dell U2311h. I have been playing RE5, Borderlands, Aion, TF2, Cryostatis, SF4, Dogfighter steam game, Dirt 2, and I think that's about it for now. Those are the games I played for over hour time frames, and have yet to have any issues. I love my SLI 480's. I was worried with Borderlands specially seeing first hand how much trouble my brother in law had on getting that game to run in CFX. Ran without a glitch, I posted some you tube videos too.
 
If you are competitive player, avoid Multi-GPU as much as you can, the input delay will gets you eventually..

Like someone else mention about CS Source, that problem still exist now.. and not just one game, but to some others..

If you only play FPS and competitive gameplay , don't go for SLI/CF.. simple as that..
 
My pair of GTX460 1GB do very well in the couple of FPS's i've thrown at them (Crysis/Crysis warhead, AVP, Far Cry 2, L4D/2). Granted it is only at 1680x1050 at the moment, but even at 1900x1080 or 1900x1200 (come on 27 inch monitor for Xmas!) i'll be fine for awhile.
 
SLI is great if you can live with some of the glitches.

I'll never forget the first time I fired up the original Unreal on my Dual 3DFX Voodo 2's in SLI. Absolutely beautiful.

I haven't done SLI since then though simply because of the cost.

Ultimately, what others said here is the best advice -- if you want the best gaming experience possible in terms of very few glitches, etc. then go with a really fast single card solution. SLI since the days of 3DFX has always been a hit and miss.
 
Well since I want surround gaming, then I have to go SLI, but everyone talks about all the issues with SLI & CF but it seems most of it is with old games. So maybe its not all to bad now.
 
ArbY said:
As one very specific example where my SLI cards created an issue is with Counter-Strike: Source. Being blinded by a flashbang creates a near epilepsy-inducing flickering on the screen until the blindness wears off. It's because when you are flashed, the game captures a snapshot of the scene to use as a background image. The game only erases that image from one of the cards' memory, and since the cards are both rendering frames alternately, you continue to see that snapshot image flickering between frames until the blindness wears off entirely.

Not really a reason to avoid SLI altogether (CF I believe has this same problem), but just an example of how a developer might overlook a multi-GPU inherent problem.
Click to expand...

lol, I used to get the effects when I played the game on a 4870x2.
 
I play a wide range of games and I don't think I have found one that is incompatible with SLI in recent memory. Most games use alternate frame rendering, so while there are degrees of optimization and scaling, the fundamentals behind SLI are hardware-based and thus not that dependent on game-specific software support. There may be niggling issues on occasion - for instance there's a light source issue in The Witcher that requires tinkering with SLI profile hex code - but nothing prohibitive.

People find reasons to complain and nitpick about anything.

Here's a suspense-breaker: no tech is perfect. Ever. It's all man-made, and it's all going to have some issue or the other sooner or later. Just don't lose perspective and pretend like you're investing your life in an entertainment experience. So just remember to keep things in perspective. Second card is never going to get you 100% performance increase. Even if you get perfect scaling, the nature of multi-GPU means that your FPS can't be directly compared to single-GPU. So if you're getting 100 FPS in a game, the smoothness of that experience is more like getting 80 FPS on a single-GPU setup (more or less, depending on the game, the drivers, your sensitivity, etc.).
 
djmorgan said:
As being new to SLI, I'm not sure if the extra expense is worth it, however now I have two cards running I'm not going back, a couple of things, master will always run hotter than slave with 2 monitors. In SLI games both gpu's won't work as hard as one so will not be as hot/noisy as one GPU.

I've not noticed anything but excellent quality with SLI, but my game library is not extensive: ArmA OA, MOH, BBC2, Crysis, Hawx, ME2, Snipe Ghost, COD2, 4, BC, Farcry2.

Would I buy a second card again! really don't know :-(

David
Click to expand...

If you want the extra performance and since you do play the kind of games that benefit from it , it will be a pretty nice jump in performance. However cost is a big factor and having a strong enough system and PSU to handle it all.

If you are completely on the fence and worried about dealing with driver issues (which is a sound reason) then go for the fastest single card solution.
 
SLI drivers have gotten a lot better in the past couple years. I wouldn't stress over it. I just replaced my GTX295 with 2 GTX460s so that should tell you that it hasn't been a problem for me. About the worst issue I run into anymore with games is having to wait a few weeks sometimes for a particular game to be optimized properly for SLI (Civilization V and Fallout 3: New Vegas come to mind). Mind you, this doesn't happen with every game, and it's not like the game doesn't work at all if it's not optimized when it releases. I haven't had any graphics issues in any of the games I've played for the last few years. The performance improvements from using SLI in modern games is really incredible.

One thing you need to keep in mind though, is if you put 2 or 3 GTX470s in your case, right next to each other, with minimal breathing room, they will get hot and loud. Even my 460s got very hot until I spaced them out more. It can be pretty annoying if you're only used to having 1 card and not worrying about issues like that.

I like how I can specify which card does PhysX processing also.
 
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