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So.. is SLI really worth it?

2

2Fresh

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 10, 2003
Messages
3,767
Seeing the clock speeds of my card now...would going SLI be that much of an advantage?
 
It's hard to say at this stage. SLi is the fastest video setup around if you have two 6800GT's or Ultra's. However since the games are pretty much CPU limited right now, you won't see huge gains over the video card you have now. (The one in your sig anyway)

Now maybe after some more driver revisions and newer CPU designs become available, we'll see a real difference. Right now SLi is nice, but more or less it's for bragging rights and only the hardcore gamer need apply. Honestly if I had the money I'd have it. I'm working twords it now. I just have to wait for some Pentium 4 boards to actually become available for purchase before I can do it. Plus theres the problem with card availability right now.

Since you've got a great card to start with, I'd hold off. Wait until Nvidia's newest architecture comes to market later in 2005. Nvidia claims to have a new architecture due out sometime in the second half ot 2005, which would actually surprise me. I wouldn't imagine they'd have anything other than a refresh for the next year and a half or so.

Plus ATi is said to have a SM 3.0 fully Direct X 9.0C part due out around that time or maybe even a bit before then.

But if your really interested in SLi now, GameVE has both the GT and the Ultra in stock according to thier web site.

http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/Category.aspx?catid=23
 
well, i think there are quiet a lot of post on this topic already, maybe you should have a read at those first....
again, for most people unless money is no object SLI is not really worth it.
 
I agree. As time has gone on, I've been less gung ho about the idea. Plus with newer card designs available during the second half of this year (or so they say) I'm thinking I might wait until then before I replace my 6800GT PCI-E.
 
Again, lots of posts on this already....but:

If you want to play games at really high resolutions (by which I do not mean 1600 X 1200) there is no other good option. Since this represents a very small percentage of gamers right now (those with giant monitors like the Apple 30") the general answer to the question is 'probably not'. But for those few, it certainely is. And as 23", 1920 range monitors become a lot more common, it will become a lot more relevant in general.

Also, remember it's not only about games from the manufacturers perspective. nVidia is also thinking about being able to sell dual Quadro FX cards to workstation buyers.
 
For resolutions above 1600x1200 with AA and AF on large monitors it is a very good option if not the only option. However you have to have deep wallets for it.
 
no, not worth it in my opinion......here's why.....

get two ultra's or gt's now.. for around 800-1000 bucks... couple months later... nvidia or ati comes out with a new architecture.... 1 7900ultra > 2 6800ultra sli....hehe..unless u got ALOT of money and wants the best of the best.....get sli ultra's now.. then sli the next generation of cards too hhaha

o yeah also.. for me... i cannot...i repeat cannot....tell the differences between 1600x1200 and 1280x1024....yes i can tell teh difference between 1024x768 and 1280x1024...
 
2Fresh said:
Seeing the clock speeds of my card now...would going SLI be that much of an advantage?
Click to expand...

Depends what you consider an advantage. A pair of 6800 Ultras stock in SLI will blow away your card, even at the speeds it is clocked. But whether you want to spend the money to get that speed is up to you. It will mainly assist in letting you run newer games like Doom3 and FarCry at 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF at constant 60+fps max settings which isn't really possible with any single card now, not to mention helping intensive games like Everquest 2. And of course, 6800U SLI with SM3.0 will let you run more intensive games coming out later this year.

In the end, whether its worth it is up to the individual, and how comitted they are to having the fastest system on the planet ;)
 
I'd wait until Nvidia releases a list of games that will support SLI and games that won't. Right now Nvidia only list 17 games that support SLI and two that don't.
 
erichui said:
well, i think there are quiet a lot of post on this topic already, maybe you should have a read at those first....
again, for most people unless money is no object SLI is not really worth it.
Click to expand...

Well, If i were not speaking of my card and it's oc...then those threads may have helped... :eek:


Thanks for the input guys, good info. :)
 
i have nothing against SLI, but i'm skipping it for a while. A $200 256-bit memory interface 12 pipeline SLI-capable card might change my mind (or *another* $200 6800GTO would do the trick ;)).
 
aZn_plyR said:
no, not worth it in my opinion......here's why.....

get two ultra's or gt's now.. for around 800-1000 bucks... couple months later... nvidia or ati comes out with a new architecture.... 1 7900ultra > 2 6800ultra sli....hehe..unless u got ALOT of money and wants the best of the best.....get sli ultra's now.. then sli the next generation of cards too hhaha

o yeah also.. for me... i cannot...i repeat cannot....tell the differences between 1600x1200 and 1280x1024....yes i can tell teh difference between 1024x768 and 1280x1024...
Click to expand...

There is no way in hell anyone's putting out a card in the next couple of months that will beat two 6800ultras in SLI. I mean, we can't even buy the friggin' cards that were released months ago. Plus, there has already been stuff going around saying that nvidia's next card will have 24 pipes, and with two 6800gts/ultras having an effective 32 pipes, it's a safe bet that an SLI setup that you can buy now will be good for awhile. That is, if the profile for the game is there. ;)
 
well.. yeha therecan" be.... see..... 9800xt a few months ago... top of the line... 6800ultra and x800xt comes in.. double the speed..... so... two ultra's right now.. which isn't even double the speed all the time... more like 75% from alot of the benchmarks i have seen.......so.. next gen cards.. probably double the speeds of top cards out now... so two ultra's isn't really 100%+ power...and newer cards will be 100%+power...so that makes it faster...wow i hope i didnt confused you guys..hehehheh
 
Maybe there isnt much of a chance that a new card will beat 2 ultras in the next two months but if history repeats itself, we will likely see a card come damn close in the next six months. Lets not forget how the newest ati cards are supposed to be twice as fast our last generation top of the line card.
 
aZn_plyR said:
well.. yeha therecan" be.... see..... 9800xt a few months ago... top of the line... 6800ultra and x800xt comes in.. double the speed..... so... two ultra's right now.. which isn't even double the speed all the time... more like 75% from alot of the benchmarks i have seen.......so.. next gen cards.. probably double the speeds of top cards out now... so two ultra's isn't really 100%+ power...and newer cards will be 100%+power...so that makes it faster...wow i hope i didnt confused you guys..hehehheh
Click to expand...

The difference is the 9800XT was a refresh card that really had nothing over the 9700 and 9800Pro cards that came before them aside from clock speed and more memory. That card was long in the tooth before the X800's came around. There wasn't any new technology offered in the 9800XT.

There was a good stagnant almost two year period of time where nothing new aside from minor speed increases each step of the way. Massive jumps like this occur only every 3 or 4 years. I don't think we'll get anything this groundbreaking for at least another year and a half.

I bought a Ti4600 back when it was top dog. That card served me well for over a year. When the new cards came out, the Ti4600 was beaten by the 9700Pro and the FX5800 but my card still played everything very well and faired nicely against alot of the generation that replaced it. Hell the Ti4600 can do most stuff ok even today. Used it's a hell of a budget card. Then my Ti4600 died and I was forced to get another card. Not having the money for a 9800Pro like I wanted I went with a 9600Pro which was about equal to the card I already had speed wise. Some cases the ATi was faster.

So after almost a year and a half my top end card was at mid range speeds for the next generation. Same thing we see here now. The 9800XT is about as fast as a midrange card now.

An SLi rig should have as much if not more staying power. SLi isn't a bad investment if your a serious gamer. You can use an SLi rig and get awesome gameplay and image quality for a long time to come.

My point was that if you already have a X800XT PCI-E then theres not much of a reason to upgrade as the cost is insane. You'd need $1000 worth of video cards to do it and you already would have had to have spent $500 on the X800XT-PE. So I say it's best in that situation to wait until the next generation comes around.
 
Next gen core will have acces to a full 512Mb gDDR4 mem, nowadays top Sli has 2x256Mb mem where a lot af data is stored double.
Mark my words; one single R520/Nv48 will be able to play Doom3@1600x1200 8xAA. It will kick 6800U Sli's ass. :D

Besides this, they will be able to play FarCry's OpenEXR HDR with 4xFSAA @1600x1200 at playable settings.

Last one is all speculation but I believe in it. :D (cards will be in the store in August/September.)
 
I bought a Ti4600 back when it was top dog. That card served me well for over a year. When the new cards came out, the Ti4600 was beaten by the 9700Pro and the FX5800 but my card still played everything very well and faired nicely against alot of the generation that replaced it. Hell the Ti4600 can do most stuff ok even today.
Click to expand...

QFT. My lan rig is still using my 4600 and I have yet to find a game it can't play.
 
Whats the word on SLI and the performance of AA and AF? I've not really kept up with it, any links to reviews or benchmarks would be apreciated.

Since these features only really stress the video card it would make games look better without having to worry about the CPU, 8xAA and 16xAF Oooohh that'd be nice on a high res :)
 
All I can say about SLI is patience my friends. The price:performance ratio of SLI compared to the newer ATI and 6800's and today's game requirements is not worth it. Look at it this way. Why would you go out and buy something you don't need yet and when the time comes you do need it there's already something better on the market? And once SLI becomes more mainstream I expect to see prices fall. Basic economics.
 
I have 2 6600GTs in SLi and it was a mistake to get them, i am going to return them or try to sell them and get one 6800GT possibly 2. SLi is a neat idea but i dont know why a jumped into it so hard. I agree with the statments above that we will not see a big change in technology for a good 1-1 1/2 years or so. What will be comming out is a refresh of technology for a while.
 
ATI R520 is expected to be released in Spring 2005 on a 90nm process. The R520 core is expected to based on an entirely new core design featuring SM3 support along with some other innovations, including GDDR4 memory support for memory speeds of 1.2Ghz+. The architecture of the R520 is rumoured to contain 48 Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) that can be assigned to either pixel or vertex processing depending on load. Each ALU is expected to be able to perform one vector and one scalar operation per clock cycle, for a total of 96 shader operations per clock.

I'd wait until ATI releases this before buying any Nvidia card or SLI setup.
 
XvMMvX said:
I have 2 6600GTs in SLi and it was a mistake to get them, i am going to return them or try to sell them and get one 6800GT possibly 2. SLi is a neat idea but i dont know why a jumped into it so hard. I agree with the statments above that we will not see a big change in technology for a good 1-1 1/2 years or so. What will be comming out is a refresh of technology for a while.
Click to expand...
Why was it a mistake? Were you running in non-SLI mode most of the time?
 
In my opinion SLI isn't worth it as it currently exists:

1. Add the cost of its requirements (SLI board + two cards) over a single slot board and one card.
2. Look at how much extra performance you get. The ratio of price/performance isn't equal or worth it.
3. As stated, what happens when new architecture comes out? Maybe not a whole lot faster, but if it has something you really want then you have to replace TWO cards to get your SLI up again. Once again lots more money, you've effectively doubled your video upgrade costs (assuming you got SLI to stay SLI).
4. I thought I saw somewhere where all games may not use both cards, depends on support in the driver. Anyone?
5. Lots more heat internally, for once again not much more peformance compared to what you paid.
6. If ATI comes out with BADA$$ future card and whomps Nvidia, your second graphics slot will go unused and your investment might be considered wasted.
7. One other point I don't remember!

It all comes down to the price. If the price were lower for the motherboard then maybe.
 
damn i was so close to going SLI, not I'm not, thank you OP!
 
panhead said:
ATI R520 is expected to be released in Spring 2005 on a 90nm process. The R520 core is expected to based on an entirely new core design featuring SM3 support along with some other innovations, including GDDR4 memory support for memory speeds of 1.2Ghz+. The architecture of the R520 is rumoured to contain 48 Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) that can be assigned to either pixel or vertex processing depending on load. Each ALU is expected to be able to perform one vector and one scalar operation per clock cycle, for a total of 96 shader operations per clock.

I'd wait until ATI releases this before buying any Nvidia card or SLI setup.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a spring 2005 paper release, and then you have to wait until 2007 to buy the thing.
 
well first, it will never be 200% more then one card in performance

2. the wattage needed will cause u to get abigger psu, more money,

3 sli mobo cost about 200, so thats more money

4.buy 2 lower end cards will cost u about about the same as a high end, so there is not middle ground

i mean, if i had the cash, i would splurge on dual cpu and sli all the way, but im 17
 
fallguy said:
Yeah, about 15% faster.. but over 60% more cost. Good ratio..
Click to expand...
Never heard the term cpu-limited have you?

Nothing like picking out graph is a whole series of benchmarks and pointing out how something sucks. Did you even look at the rest of the graphs? Hell, at more graphically intense areas in HL2 you can see a 75% increase.
 
Dr. X said:
Yeah, a spring 2005 paper release, and then you have to wait until 2007 to buy the thing.
Click to expand...
I see alot more PCIe ATI 850 XT PEs available than PCIe 6800U/GTs and at almost half the price. ATI seems to have gotten their distribution straightened out hopefully Nvidia will also. At least ATI's DVD decode works wish Nvidia's 6800 did; maybe next time.
 
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