more than 1 video card?

D

DoubleZedRed

Gawd
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
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this might have been asked before but here it goes.

what's the need for quad sli?
i mean, i realize there's a certain point where you need the extra power, if you have a massive screen that you're running some absurd resolution on.

but for anything 1080 and lower do you really need 2000$ worth of video card to run your games (excluding crysis, because that seems to be the most common answer to "why do you have quad sli?")

or is there a serious performance advantage something like that provides that i'm just missing because i've never used it myself?
 
Who's running $2000 worth of video cards on 1680x1050 and lower?
Quad-SLi (Dual 295's) is only $1000 or cheaper, so i don't know where you got that figure.

Or who we're talking about specifically.
 
UtopiA said:
Who's running $2000 worth of video cards on 1680x1050 and lower?
Quad-SLi (Dual 295's) is only $1000 or cheaper, so i don't know where you got that figure.

Or who we're talking about specifically.
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sorry, my mistake on the $2000, needless to say, i know a few people running sli on 1680x1050 monitors, but that's besides the point, my question was:

is there any performance advantage that quad sli provides?


edit: besides being able to run your dx10 game at 800 fps (exaggeration)
 
Man those Fear2 graphs are tough to read with all the drops to 0fps.
 
Mavvok said:
interesting little read, which pretty much answers my question, people just like pissing away money on useless shit.

i'm fairly content with my 9600gt, however if they develop a game just for the 295 that has some insane visual effects, i may dive into it, but it just seems like unnecessary money spending.
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Says quite a lot. I would cringe playing games at 1680x1050 with a 9600gt.

And no, its not so users can play their DX10 games at 800fps. Its usually so they can play them at 45+ with high resolutions instead of below 30...
 
i'm not sure about quad sli and all that, but...

for me, i like to play games with most if not all graphics options as high as possible. I figure why spend money on a computer to play games on it if i'm not getting the most out of it? I also like to play with vsync on. My tv has noticeable tearing sometimes, usually when quick movement occurs. i've been doing some reading on vsync, and apparently it limits your games to 30fps (or 60fps if your hardware can handle it). right now my gaming rig is what is in my sig, and i can play fear2 with max settings on 1920x1080 no problem under xp pro x64. whether i'm at 30 or 60fps i don't know, and don't really care to use fraps or whatever else to find out...it runs and looks great to me.

BUT some people might want that 60fps, which apparently is noticeably better than 30fps. That might take some horsepower. or say you had a sli motherboard, and its several months to a year down the road. your rig isnt what it used to be because games are more demanding. it might be cheaper to buy a second video card than a brand new card.

The 9600gt is a nice card, i had one for a year before the gtx 260 i have now. If you're happy with it at your resolution thats great, but different people have different preferences about things.

So there are reasons for these things most of the time...but yeah you're right, some people just like to piss money away :p
 
racinGSRstyle said:
i'm not sure about quad sli and all that, but...

for me, i like to play games with most if not all graphics options as high as possible. I figure why spend money on a computer to play games on it if i'm not getting the most out of it? I also like to play with vsync on. My tv has noticeable tearing sometimes, usually when quick movement occurs. i've been doing some reading on vsync, and apparently it limits your games to 30fps (or 60fps if your hardware can handle it). right now my gaming rig is what is in my sig, and i can play fear2 with max settings on 1920x1080 no problem under xp pro x64. whether i'm at 30 or 60fps i don't know, and don't really care to use fraps or whatever else to find out...it runs and looks great to me.

BUT some people might want that 60fps, which apparently is noticeably better than 30fps. That might take some horsepower. or say you had a sli motherboard, and its several months to a year down the road. your rig isnt what it used to be because games are more demanding. it might be cheaper to buy a second video card than a brand new card.

The 9600gt is a nice card, i had one for a year before the gtx 260 i have now. If you're happy with it at your resolution thats great, but different people have different preferences about things.

So there are reasons for these things most of the time...but yeah you're right, some people just like to piss money away :p
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i mean, don't get me wrong, i wouldn't mind having a 500$ video card, but it just seems a bit too hard to justify especially in times like these. again, my thing is what game requires 4 gpus.
 
Mavvok said:
i mean, don't get me wrong, i wouldn't mind having a 500$ video card, but it just seems a bit too hard to justify especially in times like these. again, my thing is what game requires 4 gpus.
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very few games scale well with 2 GPUs, Its an even smaller list that could handle 3 or 4 i'm sure.
 
Dunno, but i'm REALLY enjoying my new rig. I just put 3 285s in my system over the weekend and it just tears through everything. And actually, tri-sli scales quite well on x58.
 
veedubfreak said:
Dunno, but i'm REALLY enjoying my new rig. I just put 3 285s in my system over the weekend and it just tears through everything. And actually, tri-sli scales quite well on x58.
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THREE 285's?
Damn.. that's a ridiculously powerful system. To me, that's probably the stupidest purchase ever.. but to each their own.
 
khanis said:
THREE 285's?
Damn.. that's a ridiculously powerful system. To me, that's probably the stupidest purchase ever.. but to each their own.
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I'm stimulating the economy. Personally i'd say spending 3 months salary on an engagement ring is far more stupid :) At least i get a use out of my 3 video cards.
 
Pretty much what I expected. SLI/Crossfire does very little (in terms of price/performance). I wonder if it'll ever be worth the money.
 
I use SLI at 1920x1200, I'm very happy with it. Below 1080p, it isn't worth it. If your an AA whore and you want to play on a 30" screen, you can't do it without SLI or crossfire.
 
vengence said:
I use SLI at 1920x1200, I'm very happy with it. Below 1080p, it isn't worth it. If your an AA whore and you want to play on a 30" screen, you can't do it without SLI or crossfire.
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more like, if you want to play on a 30" screen PERIOD, you cant do it withouth sli or crossfire
 
MurderCityDevil said:
more like, if you want to play on a 30" screen PERIOD, you cant do it withouth sli or crossfire
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Well... you can do a lot with a single GTX 285 OC'ed if you turn off AA. but yeah, reality is SLI is going to be your best bet.

Most people who bash SLI are just pissed because they can't or choose not to buy a 30" screen, and don't understand that it's 4 times the pixels as a 1280x800 screen.
 
vengence said:
Well... you can do a lot with a single GTX 285 OC'ed if you turn off AA. but yeah, reality is SLI is going to be your best bet.

Most people who bash SLI are just pissed because they can't or choose not to buy a 30" screen, and don't understand that it's 4 times the pixels as a 1280x800 screen.
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I think most people fail to realize that a 30" monitor is twice the pixels as a 24". Thats 2 times, double the load. So if 2 285s are struggling at 1920x1200, they really cry at 2580x1600. My SLI 260 was perfectly fine until i bought my 30", then my frame rates went to crap, so i bought 3 285s :)
 
veedubfreak said:
I think most people fail to realize that a 30" monitor is twice the pixels as a 24". Thats 2 times, double the load. So if 2 285s are struggling at 1920x1200, they really cry at 2580x1600. My SLI 260 was perfectly fine until i bought my 30", then my frame rates went to crap, so i bought 3 285s :)
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Yeah, I'm still on a 24" Monitor. And while I'd love to go to a 30", I'd have to pay almost as much for the monitor as I did for the graphics cards. :D
 
I'm on a 24" as well and my 8800GT is doing just fine with it. I think if I get a 30" I will slap 2 video cards in there.
 
khanis said:
THREE 285's?
Damn.. that's a ridiculously powerful system. To me, that's probably the stupidest purchase ever.. but to each their own.
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If 3x285 is stupid then what the hell is 2x295? Only benchwhores going that route the bad way quadGPU is used in games. But hey, we all need to help the economy to start rolling as usual again.
 
vengence said:
Yeah, I'm still on a 24" Monitor. And while I'd love to go to a 30", I'd have to pay almost as much for the monitor as I did for the graphics cards. :D
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I got in on the dell refurbished 30" for 690 shipped :) Thats the only reason i made the jump from 24 to 30. I love it.
 
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