So.. is SLI really worth it?

panhead said:
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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You're such a fan boy, it's hilarious. And please, for the love of god, show me where you can buy an x850xt-pe PCIe for HALF THE PRICE of a 6800gt/ultra. You have got to be kidding me.
 
Dr. X said:
You're such a fan boy, it's hilarious. And please, for the love of god, show me where you can buy an x850xt-pe PCIe for HALF THE PRICE of a 6800gt/ultra. You have got to be kidding me.
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1st I am no fan of ATI, I have 4 computers running at home and all of them run Nvidia.
2nd I saw the chumbo link for $485, granted they are on order, my mistake
http://www.chumbo.com/Info.aspx?id=241592
But there are 850's available now in the $800's, that is pretty good for ATI since the card was released December 1st. 6800U/GT was released, April 2004, 9 months later still can't find PCIe at MSRP $399/499.
 
panhead said:
1st I am no fan of ATI, I have 4 computers running at home and all of them run Nvidia.
2nd I saw the chumbo link for $485, granted they are on order, my mistake
http://www.chumbo.com/Info.aspx?id=241592
But there are 850's available now in the $800's, that is pretty good for ATI since the card was released December 1st. 6800U/GT was released, April 2004, 9 months later still can't find PCIe at MSRP $399/499.
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I guess I totally misunderstood you. I thought you meant the 6800gts/ultras were TWICE the price of the x850xt pes.
 
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
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You're ignoring their product cycles. The 9700pro->XT was hobbling along with minor upgrades for 2 years. Yes, the world will be rotating backwards if we see cards soon trump the XT:pe's and Ultra's by 2x. What you are talking about would be more akin to if when the 9800pro came out it bashed the 9700pro by 2x... Not confused... you're not paying attention. ATi did reuse alot of R3xx, so they can might be able to play there "engineered from scratch" card but they are still pushing the limits of modern fab technology with their PE's as is nV.
 
Well I am gong SLI because i am quite frankly, Bored stiff. I have been using Intel forever and the lga775 makes no sense to me. I can keep my current memory, play with a new technology, and have an upgrade path all the way to dual core processors with the the same mobo.

I am going SLI for the sheer joy of it. I guess thats my point. You see none of us even needs a 1ghz machine but that does not stop us. It is a great time to be alive and I intend to ejoy every moment of it and that includes playing with the latest technology whether i need it or not.
 
jacuzz1 said:
Well I am gong SLI because i am quite frankly, Bored stiff.
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Will you be bored with SLI when ATI comes out with their multi-render chipset or R520 and buy that? I like SLI's concept, but there are too many asterisks next to the performance numbers for me to jump on the band wagon yet. If all I played was Doom3 and Far Cry then SLI would make sense, but I play a lot of other games that don't see a performance increase from SLI or Nvidia has not stated if SLI is supported and I am not going to spend $1000+ to find out if it does. I really don't like the fact that the 6800 series cards do not have functional DVD decode. Thats a nasty bug in my book and if ATI had released a chip that had that bug I think there would be a lot more noise on the web about it than there is now.
 
texuspete00 said:
You're ignoring their product cycles.
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You are ignoring ATI R520. 90nm fab, SM3, GDDR4 1.2GHz+, 48 programable ALUs. This sounds close to another 2x performance increase.
 
obs said:
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.
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I didnt pick any graph. I quoted you when you picked one out. But good try?

Seeing how the SLI tests in that graph you picked out, wasnt all that much faster. No its not worth it for that game.
 
You guys keep mentioning cards that are paper releases in spring lol. You won't see those cards on store shelves before summer/fall. I did buy SLI but so far all it's doing for my extra $750 is give me a decent upgrade path.
 
panhead said:
Will you be bored with SLI when ATI comes out with their multi-render chipset or R520 and buy that? I like SLI's concept, but there are too many asterisks next to the performance numbers for me to jump on the band wagon yet. If all I played was Doom3 and Far Cry then SLI would make sense, but I play a lot of other games that don't see a performance increase from SLI or Nvidia has not stated if SLI is supported and I am not going to spend $1000+ to find out if it does. I really don't like the fact that the 6800 series cards do not have functional DVD decode. Thats a nasty bug in my book and if ATI had released a chip that had that bug I think there would be a lot more noise on the web about it than there is now.
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Your point is valid and underlines my logic in buying the 6600GT x 2. If the ATI solution is compelling i will go back to a single card solution. The Sli board does not preclude me from doing that. I suspect Nvidia's answer would be even more compellling andthat answer x2 would be astounding. My choice of platform gives me more options. Bottom line is i get to play around with SLI now and I have 90 day s to decide where to go from there.

I understand that not everyone has the resources to do this I am just saying it is right for me.

Oh and by the way all the pci-e cards have the video issue fixed
 
2Fresh said:
Seeing the clock speeds of my card now...would going SLI be that much of an advantage?
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My personal opinion is ... NO it's not.


But you have to understand, I'm of the category of people who think spending $500 on *1* gaming card is completely retarded. I have a 9800 NP, 128MB, and I can play *EVERY GAME* out there. A 9800XT might be a bit faster than my 9800NP and I know the X800 definately is.. but I'm not one of these goobers who thinks you need to buy the X850XT-PE [Penis Extender] Edition cards for $550 [or the price gouged price of $880] to get good game performance. I work under the belief of computer components should be bought with the ideaology of

"State of the Art" - 2 Levels = Best purchase.

If I was building a new rig RIGHT now, I'd probably look at an x700 [pci-e] or x800 pro [if i was using an agp rig] cause it's a few steps below the x800xt/x850's.. but i'd most likely not even go that high, as the x800 pro's are still ~400..
 
Dr. X said:
I guess I totally misunderstood you. I thought you meant the 6800gts/ultras were TWICE the price of the x850xt pes.
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Well, two of them would be... or around that, anyhow.


6800Ultra = ~485-500 [and that's for the AGP card]
I'm guessing the PCI-E ones cost even MORE money.

X850XT-PE [unless you are being gouged] = $549

485x2 = 970

970/549 = 1.76

So.. two 6800Ultras are 76% more expensive than 1 X850XT-PenisExtender

XPCGear = 6800Ultra PCI-Express x16 = $999
http://www.xpcgear.com/en6800ultra.html
EastLuna = $625, but not in stock == 1 card, remember
http://www.eastluna.com/hardware/details.php?ProductID=0251
 
Chumbo ispretty good about their pricing, but they are notorious for their "lack" of supplying ATI cards, so I wouldn't trust chumbo for early releases on ATI cards. I do however trust them with Nvidia, as they are launch partners with BFG. SO your price tag of 485 for the X850 can't apply because I guarantee they won't have the X850 in a LONG while, while those that do DO price gouge on the X850 either have them or will have them in the very near future. I can say I bought a 6800GT PCI-e for 399 and it arrived next day.... can anyone say the same for an ATIX850?
 
I still think its to early to tell... youd ont have individual profiles for the games yet and sli seems to be cpu limited, there is mutch larger diffrence in fps when changing chip speeds then when not in sli mode... ill try to find the report that showed that think it was an H review actualy
 
A couple of reasons I went SLI:

A) I am a big boy and I can make my own decisions as to what I want to do whether the price to performance ratio is good or not. (I also like fine suits that I could buy cheaper at JC Penney but I don't). I have also spent close to $500 on a stick and throttle set-up for my flight sims. See point D. I have much money invested this hobby.

B) At this point I understand that I am taking on new technology that will cost much more than the perceived benefits but this is HardOCP and members here are hardware enthusiasts who crave using new technology. I assume the risks associated with it.

C) I don't buy or put together computers often. The last time I bought a computer the Ti4600 had just come out and a Northwood P2.4 was king! So I buy with the future in mind. If new vid cards come out that are faster from Nvidia then I will have the option of pairing two of them together as well. I bought a FX-55 to go with this to avoid being severely cpu-limited but yes that I is a concern. I assume the risk. See point B again.

D) I am a flight simmer and tactical shooter gamer primarily. Both of these genres are harsh on vid cards especially the flight sims I play. I also love using high resoultions so I wanted a set-up that could go to 1600X1200 with acceptable frame rates and visual quality. My SLI rig does not dissappoint. If you stay at 1024X768 mostly then an SLI rig is not worth it since the benefits come at high resolutions with FSAA and Anisotropic Filtering turned on.

E) Should I have waited? No, I wanted something now and I was willing to pay for it. If ATI comes out with something better, then fine. Actually I hope they do. It is good for competition. If you are constantly waiting for something better you will never buy anything although I am glad I waited for the AMD SLI solution and not Intel's.

So the original poster who started the thread wanted to know if it's worth it. The answer is completely subjective and depends on many factors. For me, it has been more than worth it. For you, it may not be. So be it. In the meantime, I feel I have received exactly what I paid for and I am content!
 
Maestro said:
A couple of reasons I went SLI:
D) I am a flight simmer and tactical shooter gamer primarily. Both of these genres are harsh on vid cards especially the flight sims I play. I also love using high resoultions so I wanted a set-up that could go to 1600X1200 with acceptable frame rates and visual quality. My SLI rig does not dissappoint. If you stay at 1024X768 mostly then an SLI rig is not worth it since the benefits come at high resolutions with FSAA and Anisotropic Filtering turned on.
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I hope you don't play MS Flight Simulator 9 because SLI doesn't work for that game, frame buffering techniques used in games of this sort that are problematic for SLI.
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041123/sli-performance-05.html
 
jacuzz1 said:
Oh and by the way all the pci-e cards have the video issue fixed
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This is good to hear, I was under the impression it was a problem with the 6800 GPU. Do you have a source for announced fix for PCIe 6800's?
 
jacuzz1 said:
Unless i am mistaking this is where i read it was corrected.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2305
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No WMV9 decode is not fixed for PCI-e 6800U/GT only the 6800. and you have to pay another $20 for Purevideo. :(

"As we mentioned before, PureVideo is only partially functional on NV40 and NV45 (GeForce 6800 Ultra and 6800GT, AGP and PCIe), all of the de-interlacing and image quality functionality is there, however those GPUs do not have any WMV9 decode acceleration ...
Remember that this only applies to the NV40 (GeForce 6800GT/Ultra AGP) and NV45 (GeForce 6800GT/Ultra PCIe), NV41 (GeForce 6800) has fully function WMV9 decode acceleration.
 
I was under the impression that all the latest pcie cards like the 6600 and 6800 were, I believe that your post is in the context of an AGP discussion article
 
jacuzz1 said:
I was under the impression that all the latest pcie cards like the 6600 and 6800 were, I believe that your post is in the context of an AGP discussion article
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The PCI-e NV45 (6800 ultras/GTs) don't have functional WMV9 decode acceleration only the NV41/43 (6600/6800) work.
 
As far as SLi being worth it. Personally I'd love to see Farcry running on a pair of 6800 Ultra's in SLi at 1600x1200 with HDR enabled. My system does it playable at 1280x1024 with HDR. But I imagine the difference is huge on an SLi setup.
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
As far as SLi being worth it. Personally I'd love to see Farcry running on a pair of 6800 Ultra's in SLi at 1600x1200 with HDR enabled. My system does it playable at 1280x1024 with HDR. But I imagine the difference is huge on an SLi setup.
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Well I do not have 6800 Ultras but I have GT's in SLI overclocked a smidge. Here are some Far Cry scores.

Resolution: 1600×1200
Ultra quality option, Direct3D renderer
Level: Pier, demo: 1.tmd
Pixel shader: default model
Antialising: 4×
Anisotrophic filtering: 4×
HDR: disabled
Geometry Instancing: disabled
Normal-maps compression: disabled

Score = 63.27 FPS (Run 1)
Score = 63.42 FPS (Run 2)
Average score = 63.34 FPS
 
As far as SLi being worth it. Personally I'd love to see Farcry running on a pair of 6800 Ultra's in SLi at 1600x1200 with HDR enabled. My system does it playable at 1280x1024 with HDR. But I imagine the difference is huge on an SLi setup.
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Sli strangely enough doesn't help HDR performance at all, read the Sli reviews.
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
As far as SLi being worth it. Personally I'd love to see Farcry running on a pair of 6800 Ultra's in SLi at 1600x1200 with HDR enabled. My system does it playable at 1280x1024 with HDR. But I imagine the difference is huge on an SLi setup.
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I will take screen shots once the Ultras are available i will be all over it dude
 
Here's another question: will planning for SLI be more expensive then just buying two single cards? If you were, as I am, thinking of building a new rig with 1 card now and 1 later (in SLI), you'd have to shell out an extra ~$100 for the mobo, ~$30 for a power supply with an extra 60 watts of power on the 12v rail. Assuming the price of a 6800gt drops from $400 to $250 when the next generation comes out, I've saved myself...$20 over going out and buying a new 7800gt. Not to mention that the 7800 (or whatever it ends up being called) will likely support more advanced shaders etc etc. :(

I've heard the hype about "Buy one now, one later and upgrade less often", but all of a sudden I have difficulty believing it. Did I get something wrong? In other words, is this implementation of SLI worth it?
 
haelduksf said:
going out and buying a new 7800gt. Not to mention that the 7800 (or whatever it ends up being called) will likely support more advanced shaders etc etc.
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I don't think you will see anything new from Nvidia this year. NV47 never existed, NV48 and NV50 are cancelled. I think they have their hands full with nforce4/5 and SLI. It seems Nvidia is relying on SLI to stay ahead of ATI's R520.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20250
 
panhead said:
I don't think you will see anything new from Nvidia this year. NV47 never existed, NV48 and NV50 are cancelled. I think they have their hands full with nforce4/5 and SLI. It seems Nvidia is relying on SLI to stay ahead of ATI's R520.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20250
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I think you read the article wrong. They gave implications that Nvidia is working hard on something else, and that they don't know what'll compete directly with ATI's R520. In fact, they insinuated ATI maybe be at a threat seeing as how they are clueless as to what Nvidia is doing. Assuming they are relying on SLI to compete for a technology that will be months later is absurd.... this is Nvidia we're talking about.... they'll have something.
 
quicksilverXP said:
They gave implications that Nvidia is working hard on something else, and that they don't know what'll compete directly with ATI's R520. In fact, they insinuated ATI maybe be at a threat seeing as how they are clueless as to what Nvidia is doing. Assuming they are relying on SLI to compete for a technology that will be months later is absurd.... this is Nvidia we're talking about.... they'll have something.
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I agree that Nvidia is working on something, I just don't think it will be out this spring when the R520 is scheduled to be released. Since NV47/8 and 50 have been canned, we can only hope it will be a new :)ATI:) killer GPU.
 
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