When was the last time you use a multi GPU setup?

RB30 said:
I had 7800GT SLI for a few months on my current system and the biggest problem was when SLI was supposedly activated, it was still only running single GPU. I had to run 3DMark benchmark to make sure is it is running in SLI everytime I booted up or made any changes to video setting. Pain in the ass. Later, I just upgraded to 8800 Ultra, which is faster than 7800GT SLI anyway.

Yesterday, someone mentioned on Youtube that NCIX is having one day in store sale on Galaxy 9800GX2 for $250 after $100 rebate at Vancouver store. It only had 1 in stock so I dropped by around 2:30pm. Just happened, the guy right in front of me picked that up. We talked a bit, and he is using 7950GT still, so I guess he needed more than I do.

Since I have been playing Age of Conan lately, and people are complaining about 9800GX2 with AoC. Maybe it is a bliss that I didn't get that cheap 9800GX2. Just wait for 280 price to drop or wait for the 280 die shrink to 55nm. Perhaps, I might even consider 4870 1GB if my frame rate can increase by 15-20 running 1920x1200 4xAA.
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Yeah the 9800GX2 sucked pretty hard with Age of Conan.
 
I've used 7900 GTO SLI, X1900 GT Crossfire, 7950 GX2, 8800 GTS 320 SLI, 8800 GTS 640 SLI, 8800 GT SLI, 8800 GTX SLI, 9800 GTX SLI and my current set-up, 9600 GT SLI.


I can't really say i've ever enjoyed using a multi-GPU set-up until now.

The best performing pair was obviously 8800 GTX SLI, but the heat was too much and i'm too cheap for water or even a good air solution.

The 7900 GTO SLI system was good..it was my first multi-GPU, but then the 8800 GTS 640s came out, so I sold them to get one.


By far the best experience for me has been the 9600 GT SLI i'm using right now. They scale very well and run cool and quiet. Nothing like running BF2 with 32X SLI AA...smooth as silk. In SupCom, I can max out all the settings, bloom on, with AA and no lag. I haven't experienced any microstutter with these, either.

8800 GT SLI gave me microstutter in Crysis all the time. Too much heat, perhaps?
9800 GTX SLI is pretty fast, exactly when you don't need it to be. I'd hit 70-80 FPS in Crysis, but still dip into the 20s. Guess it's the bandwidth or the amount of frame buffer. 8800 GTX SLI is much smoother in Crysis- I would have kept 'em, just too damn cheap to buy decent cooling. :)
 
My last multi-GPU card was the Voodoo5 5500 AGP 64MB.. It was replaced by a 64MB ATI Radeon card. I missed the AA but I really enjoyed the AF and sharp image quality of the Radeon card.
 
If I buy 2x GTX280, will I encounter the microstuttering too or does the problem only apply to slower cards. :p
 
Back to the topic of AoC, i still get small stutters with my single 9800GTX but no where near the 1m hard lockups i was getting with SLI9800GTX. Although the game did hard lock on me twice over the weeked for no reason. But the lockups are much less frequent and are only tiny glitches, 5-10seconds tops, now than when i had the SLI going on. As for microstutter, i never noticed it when playing other games.
 
veedubfreak said:
Back to the topic of AoC, i still get small stutters with my single 9800GTX but no where near the 1m hard lockups i was getting with SLI9800GTX. Although the game did hard lock on me twice over the weeked for no reason. But the lockups are much less frequent and are only tiny glitches, 5-10seconds tops, now than when i had the SLI going on. As for microstutter, i never noticed it when playing other games.
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I am using single 8800 Ultra, and I have experience hard lockups for 5-10 secs each time during combat recently as well. Don't know what caused them. Since I monitor CPU and Memory Usage using a external VFD display, I just noticed that whenever the lockups occurred, the CPU usage dropped to below 10% during the lockup. Normal running AoC, CPU usage is 70+%.
 
My last SLI setup consisted of 2 Voodoo 2 12mb's. Back then they called it Scan Line Interleave. Those were the days though! I remember I worked all summer at Pizza Hut for those things. I still get misty eyed thinking about em.
 
I think that now more people ar using multi GPU setup with HD 4800 series right? I hope that some of them could share their experience.
 
I had 2 7800GT's on a DFI NF4 Xpert that I never really liked. I had no idea what to call it at the time but gameplay never really felt as smooth as it should have. I played fear, HL2, WOW etc at the time and while my framerates looked amazing it just felt jerky.

I hadn't heard anyone talk about similar issues until recently nor had I any idea what would have caused it, but I guess now it's known as microstutter. The problem caused me to leave my computer unused during the time I had the two cards and honestly I thought I was just nuts...especially since it seemed I was the only person to notice such oddities as everyone else raved about their SLI setup. When I upgraded to an 8800gts 640 I decided to never do do a multi-gpu setup again.

If it really is fixed I would definitely be willing to try multi-gpu again, other than the issues I had previously I have no issues running two cards (other than the cost of 2 waterblocks).

Microstutter actually reminds me of a discussion I've had with a friend of mine over the past few years. I have a 1080p DLP front projector that I absolutely love. My friend despises my projector. The difference is I have never seen the DLP rainbow effect in my life, and he see's it all the time. It must be the same thing with microstutter, if you don't see it ignorance is bliss. If you do see it, well buy a LCOS projector.
 
If you really crank settings it's pretty easy to notice. 60 fps is the magical number I never want to get below for playability though, so it's not much of an issue for me as I never play games at lower than that even with a single gpu setup.

This is my first multi gpu setup (9800gtx SLI) and I play at 2560x1600.
 
I don't notice it. I use multi-sample both on my old 8800GTXs and now GTX280s.
(1920x1200)
According to ChrisRay a mod at SLIZone, keeping the fps above 25+ is the key for those who notice it.
 
The last time I used a multi GPU setup was during a nightmare. I was about to escape the evil Dr Notnice but microstuttering came on and I was kill.:(
 
was running 2x 7950GTs in SLI until i replaced it with a single 8800GT a month or two ago.
may upgrade to a second 8800GT later on if physx works properly in SLI.
 
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