SLI - is it really worth it?

A

akapaulk

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 21, 2002
Messages
1,315
I have been out of the loop on graphic cards so excuse my ignorance.

I am looking at a Intel Duo Core processor with 4GB RAM.

Would you rather:

a) spend more money on an SLI capable board and pay for two graphic cards
+ $210 Asus P5N32-E SLI
+ $129.99 XFX GeForce 7900 GS XXX / 256MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express
+ $129.99 XFX GeForce 7900 GS XXX / 256MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express
= $469.98

or

b) buy a non-SLI board and pay for one top end graphic card?
+ $115 GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965
+ $350-$400 Video Card
= $450-$500

As you can see - this adds up to about the same amount of money. Which option is better?
 
I'd go for a 8800 GTS 640 and a 650i ultra mobo for a little under $450
 
get the 8800GTS/640MB, a DS3 MB (or an Asus P5B deluxe) and the C2D of your choice, SLI is an upgradepath if anything IMO it's not a point of origin.

For C2Ds I would get the E6420 or E6600 depending on budget and some proper cooling.
Also might I ask why you want 4GB of memory? Unless you work with large files it's not needed and assuming that you are a gamer then just go with 2GB good memory and put the rest towards a high quality PSU...
 
do not get the ds3, board stuff about it. get a 650i or a 680i lt. somehting around there would be great. i would go with a msi platinum 650i or the abit fatality one, they can out with a new bios for it, and now it rocks!
 
I just sold my 2x 8800GTS for 1X GTX.

I do not regret it.

Get the best 1 single card you can afford.
 
sli still doesn't do much of anything for most games. Right now it's nothing more then an e-peen thing. I miss the voodoo2 days when it affected every game.
 
Sli is great at the high end for those that can afford it.. It is seldom a cost effective upgrade path for mid range cards.. The best single card you can afford gets my vote.. But if you have$1100 plus to spend on a couple of GTX graphics cards then go for it..
 
I think sli was made for those that have a pretty decent card right now, and have a sli board, but want more out of there system, so you go out and buy a second card and bam! you got some more performance!
 
If ya play WoW, SLI is a total waste of money and actually gives slower performance vs a single VideoCard but I think WoW is the only game that happens too, now for like QuakeWars I am sure SLI will give ya at least 50% increase but I dont think SLI ever gives ya truly 2x or 100% increase ?

Funny thing with SLI, every next generation single card is always equal to the former SLI a single 8800GTX is better than two 7800GTX's, and in 2008 a single 9900GTX (there will not be a 9800 name due to ATI) will beat two 8800GTX's
 
Zorachus said:
Funny thing with SLI, every next generation single card is always equal to the former SLI
Click to expand...


If you look at it that way, is it ever really worth it? I say no even though the idea of 2 video cards is great, I just don't understand why they don't go back to the old way of doing it.
 
butterfliesrpretty said:
If you look at it that way, is it ever really worth it? I say no even though the idea of 2 video cards is great, I just don't understand why they don't go back to the old way of doing it.
Click to expand...


You buy an 8800GTX today and in 6months from now the 9900GTX will be out and can beat two 8800GTX's......I just have one 8800GTX only and play on a 30" Display every game 2560x1600rez and they all play smooth as butter with system in my signature

Never understood SLI because you pay for two cards but only get like 50-75% of the second card, so what is the point ? Now if SLI was really twice the performance in ever game then yes it is worth it, but until then forget about it
 
The point is so you can run high resolutions with high AF and high AA... so the games look insanely good but still run at smooth FPS...

That's the idea behind SLI...
 
Blazestorm said:
The point is so you can run high resolutions with high AF and high AA... so the games look insanely good but still run at smooth FPS...

That's the idea behind SLI...
Click to expand...

Look at my signature, with only one card I play every game at the highest resolution available 2560x1600 and every game I play has 4xAA/16xAF and they all play smooth as butter WoW, Supreme Commander, GuildWars, HalfLife2, Prey......None of these game need a second card in SLI for me......I would rather save my pennies instead of a second 8800GTX I will wait for the 8900GTX which should be like 30-40% faster than mine

Until the day where SLI give's me exactly two times or 100% double the performance of my single card there is no point
 
the point of sli is that u buy the greatest now, and then later a new greatest comes out, so u buy another card the same as urs(yet cheaper than orignaly because its older by that time), to try to catch up to the performance. thats the point of sli.
 
Darth Bobo said:
Also might I ask why you want 4GB of memory?
Click to expand...

I will be running Virtual PC on this computer.

lillimon04 said:
do not get the ds3, board stuff about it. get a 650i or a 680i lt. somehting around there would be great. i would go with a msi platinum 650i or the abit fatality one, they can out with a new bios for it, and now it rocks!
Click to expand...

What is wrong with the DS3? I was leaning towards PB5 until I heard better opinions about the DS3. Please share your thoughts.
 
If your going to go Core 2 Duo I suggest the 680i motherboard's only, and nothing else, except maybe that brand new version from nVidia forgot the name ?

If you already have some nice DDR400 memory then do what I did and get the Athlon FX-60 they are super cheap and the top of the line 939 cpu. And in game's high resolution the cpu dont mean sh!t it is all the VideoCard......benchmark's show even a lowly Athlon3500+ vs a FX-62 and in high rez there is maybe a 2% difference in frames, same with Intel, I saw a E6400 compared with the eXtreme QuadCore and again it is all the VideoCard no difference between the cpu's
 
The whole SLI/Crossfire is a scam tring to brainwash ppl thinking buying 2nd card is better then 1. How is this better for the hardware manufacturers?

1. video card manufacturers are happy because you spent way much more money for 2nd card.
2. motherbaord manufacturers are happy because you spent more on SLI boards
3. power supply manufacturers are happy because they have more reason to sell you bloated 700W+ power supply that most of us does not need at all at premium.

There are benefits, but it's not 100% boost, it's not even 50% boost in most cases. I am not sure what the % is, but my wild guess is around 10-20% ballpark.
 
nVidia and AMD should sell bundle version's of SLI/Crossfire cards at a cheaper price than two retail price

So if a single 8800GTX is $550 two should NOT cost $1100, they should sell a special bundle of the two for like $900 because your not getting 100% increase in performance with the second card just like 75% at most and only in certain game's

Too bad they just cant make it simple, ya buy a second card plug it in and bam you get twice the performance right away in every game no adjusting or anything it should just work perfect and give 100% extra frames, until then SLI can blow me
 
Zorachus said:
nVidia and AMD should sell bundle version's of SLI/Crossfire cards at a cheaper price than two retail price

So if a single 8800GTX is $550 two should NOT cost $1100, they should sell a special bundle of the two for like $900 because your not getting 100% increase in performance with the second card just like 75% at most and only in certain game's

Too bad they just cant make it simple, ya buy a second card plug it in and bam you get twice the performance right away in every game no adjusting or anything it should just work perfect and give 100% extra frames, until then SLI can blow me
Click to expand...

Evga had this program called cardpool in 2005 where if you bought two videocards of the same model and registered them both on card pool you got 50 dollars back...:D

Also, if you buy an 8800 GTS 640MB Superclocked i can BET that it will be faster than two 7900GS' and it will have DX10 and you can run dual monitors...
 
The concept behind sli is simple.

What is the only thing faster than a 8800 GTX? 2 8800 GTXs!

Do you really need that v-12? Does your 21' bass boat really need a 350 hp Mercury? No...its for the hardware enthusiest where money is of no concern. If you fit into that catagory, then by all means, go for it. If you are concerned about budget though...then like others have said...1 8800 gtx will do perfectly :)
 
trick_m0nkey said:
The concept behind sli is simple.

What is the only thing faster than a 8800 GTX? 2 8800 GTXs!

Do you really need that v-12? Does your 21' bass boat really need a 350 hp Mercury? No...its for the hardware enthusiest where money is of no concern. If you fit into that catagory, then by all means, go for it. If you are concerned about budget though...then like others have said...1 8800 gtx will do perfectly :)
Click to expand...

Note: The OP was not going to spend over 500 bucks... and the 8800GTX alone is a little over 500 bucks..
 
I have 2 640 GTS, and the performance is great.

With 2x GTS 640 I get 15,600 marks in 3DMark06

With 1x GTS 640 I get 11,300 marks with the same setup.

Only thing that turns me off from my 2 GTS is the heat output. The thought of selling my 2 GTS' and getting 1 GTX has been going through my head as well.

The only thing holding me back is the fact that I will be downgrading my pc :(
 
Triz08 said:
I have 2 640 GTS, and the performance is great.

With 2x GTS 640 I get 15,600 marks in 3DMark06

With 1x GTS 640 I get 11,300 marks with the same setup.

Only thing that turns me off from my 2 GTS is the heat output. The thought of selling my 2 GTS' and getting 1 GTX has been going through my head as well.

The only thing holding me back is the fact that I will be downgrading my pc :(
Click to expand...

Not if ya play WoW where one single card is better then SLI which doesnt work in that game, so a GTX is like 25-30% faster than a GTS in high resolution
 
akapaulk said:
I have been out of the loop on graphic cards so excuse my ignorance.

I am looking at a Intel Duo Core processor with 4GB RAM.

Would you rather:

a) spend more money on an SLI capable board and pay for two graphic cards
+ $210 Asus P5N32-E SLI
+ $129.99 XFX GeForce 7900 GS XXX / 256MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express
+ $129.99 XFX GeForce 7900 GS XXX / 256MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express
= $469.98

or

b) buy a non-SLI board and pay for one top end graphic card?
+ $115 GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965
+ $350-$400 Video Card
= $450-$500

As you can see - this adds up to about the same amount of money. Which option is better?
Click to expand...
I chose option C.

XFX 680i LT mobo for $150 (after rebate) + 1 8800GTX for $520 (after rebate), total = $670. By the way, that is U.S. dollars. That way, if I decide to go SLI in the future, I can whereas I can't if I went with an Intel mobo. I play oblivion at 1920x1200 with a max settings as I can get. Still can't get everything I want, but don't know if I need to OC my cpu or add a second GTX.
 
I will say this.

I swapped to Vista 32bit in November my 7950GX2 requires SLi support to run at full speeds (essentially SLI on one card) and we didn't get that until Feb (if i remember correctly)

Not long ago I updated to Vista 64bit because I got an additional 4Gb of RAM and found that an SLI bug caused SLI to not work and had to disable my new RAM to get that working.

What occured to me was that while SLI users pay more money to Nvidia and Nvidia basically are better off for creating SLI, it's always going to be 2nd with support because not enough users have it to warrent them caring a whole lot.

While I do love my 7950GX2 and have enjoyed its sheer power under XP especially just after its release I won't go back to SLI, Nvidia have proven to me that SLI support is back seat, especially when developing for Vista, you can't seamlessly switch between dual monitor and dual GPU (needs a restart now)

It's not worth the extra hassle IMO, only if you're running a massive panel and NEED the power to display native res, I'd just go for the single card high end solution, you're always going to have less problems, it's just unfortunate that this time around the hardware has essentially been broken for 6 months :rolleyes:
 
Zorachus said:
Not if ya play WoW where one single card is better then SLI which doesnt work in that game, so a GTX is like 25-30% faster than a GTS in high resolution
Click to expand...

Well even with WoW my fraps is always maxed out with 60 fps with sli enabled, so I wouldnt say it runs worse. I actually have a graphic bug when only using 1 card, where some textures dont render like they should and they shimmer, but doesnt occur when both cards are installed.

For the games I play, the performance increase is a night and day difference (RB: Vegas, Fear, Stalker, CoD series). Even if the increase may only be 30-50% depending on the app, its still a good 20 fps increase on average which is very helpful especially when it comes to First Person Shooters.

Though I still wouldnt reccomend SLI for those who want to buy 2 brand new GTS or GTX right off the bat. SLI fits the needs of those who already have 1 GTS or GTX, and still arent happy with the performance or feel that they could really use more. I see SLI as a great upgrade path for those looking to spend money on something they can actually see the results from doing so.
 
Simply put, if you have the money and won't feel bad about spending it SLI is worth it. You can't look at it any other way, don't try to justify it if you're saving up for it, or breaking the bank with it. SLI is something for people with a ton of money to blow, or when you want the absolute fastest possible. 15-30% performance @ 2x the cost ? Logically its a dumb move.. Think about it in relation to a CPU, would you pay 600 instead of 300 for a 15-30% jump? if not.. there is your answer. I always go middle road because if I upgrade 2x as often and buy parts that are best bang for my buck, I can sell the old system, make money and dump it into a new one, or spend it somewhere else.

There are also other factors to SLI most people don't think about; first you need a power supply that can handle it, also you need sufficient cooling that can handle it as well, then on top of all that, you have to make sure all your drivers are compatible with the OS you plan to use.

Factor in your time, and decide if its worth it for the small gain. Realistically, its not worth it unless you have a load of money to blow. So if you have doubts, it's probably not worth it to you.
 
The only justifiable reason to go with SLI or Crossfire is to buy two of the best card available so you get the maximum performance. Such a person will have the money to burn.

It's not an economic option under any circumstance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top