Isnt SLI pretty useless?

[Scholar]

I guess I got a serious bite from the SLI bug(although I know very little about computers) but the more I think about it...isnt SLI pretty damn useless? Usually the top of the line card out for any generation will be much, much, much more than enough to handle ANY game out there at all max settings so isnt the only real purpose of sli is for the virtual pissing contest that are benchmarks? The only other reason I can think of is it might keep you from upgradin as often but wouldnt simply upgrading to a single better card be more cost effective in the long run? I mean really...whats the point of TWO 7800 GTXs? Its like having a supercharger and a turbocharger on a car....yeah youre faster but is the cost worth it and is is it that effective with a quarter mile? Opinions?

[trowand]

I'm sure we're going to start a big heated debate here but I agree. I've always been against the whole idea of SLI & Crossfire from the start. I think it's just a way for the GPU manufacturer's to suck more money from our wallets. I'd much rather have one faster more powerful card than have to buy two. Even if that meant paying $600+ for the one single card. If you look at most benchmark results that compare the performance of two cards in SLI vs. single cards, the difference is many times almost NOTHING and sometimes SLI performance is worse than a single card. And I have yet to see SLI performance prove worthy of the high price of the second card. It never even comes close! I'm planning a new build in the near future and I'm just going to get a top-of-the-line card with 512MB of VRAM. (I'm waiting for ATI's R580 w/ GDDR4) I'd love to see the whole dual graphics card thing go away. It'll save us all a lot of money.

[catacon]

I agree, too. How much better can your performance get, if it is already at its best? I know I can't afford it, and probably never will, but even if I could, I think I would put my money into a better processor or more memory, or something entirely non-computer related.

[weremonkey]

Its aimed at down the road, when the current top-of-the-line cards can't handle the top settings on all games. Thats when you pop in the second one, which, by that time, will be considerably cheaper, meaning that, instead of having to go out and spend another 4-600 dollars for the next top-of-the-line card, you buy the matching card to the one you already have

[rspassey]

weremonkey got it exactly. Plus, at the time I got into SLI, I bought two of the second best video card on the market (6800s) before there were 7800 series, and in benchmarking, my two cards together beat the #1 card at the time. Additionally, there is advanced rendering modes like SLI AA 8 / 16 and these cut back your Frames Per Second to almost 50% that what you would normally have if you applied no antialaising or anistrophic filtering - meaning you can dual up two of the best cards on the market and toss in near perfect rendering and play it smoothly.

[Force Flow]

From the mech's SLI Technology article...

It may be slightly cheaper to get two weaker cards paired off with SLI, but ultimately, the overall performance usually turns out to be far better with a single all-powerful card. It’s the same with any piece of hardware. RAM, for example, usually runs a bit better with one large stick, rather than two or more smaller sticks. If you do go with an all-powerful card, later down the road when it’s time for an upgrade, you could probably get that same card for about half the price, install it in the SLI setup, and nearly double the performance, thus extending the life of your gaming machine. Remember, if there are powerful cards running in SLI configurations, very few games actually utilize that graphics power. Some of the more resource dependant games are CPU-bound, rather than graphics card dependant because of the hefty physics calculations required, such as in Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, and most notably in Half-Life 2: Deathmatch. Using this technology for future upgrades, rather than obtaining dual video cards immediately is a bit more practical. After all, it was originally 3dfx’s intention. For these reasons, if you do so choose to invest in nVidia’s SLI technology, investing in a single all-powerful card now appears to be the best road to take, not counting, of course, the “coolness” factor of running a dual card gaming rig.

[trowand]

Originally Posted by weremonkey Its aimed at down the road, when the current top-of-the-line cards can't handle the top settings on all games. Thats when you pop in the second one, which, by that time, will be considerably cheaper, meaning that, instead of having to go out and spend another 4-600 dollars for the next top-of-the-line card, you buy the matching card to the one you already have

That is a very good point BUT remember by that time you're going to want a nice new CPU which will more than likely be in some new socket no longer compatible with your motherboard and you'll end up building a completely new system anyway.

[PCBrandon]

Originally Posted by weremonkey Its aimed at down the road, when the current top-of-the-line cards can't handle the top settings on all games. Thats when you pop in the second one, which, by that time, will be considerably cheaper, meaning that, instead of having to go out and spend another 4-600 dollars for the next top-of-the-line card, you buy the matching card to the one you already have

By the time SLI becomes useful there will be some other type of new technology for the extra bucks sucking money out of people. It's a cycle, I doubt the games we (will) have will ever catch up to our technology.

[rspassey]

But if you look at all the people with SLI I don't think any of them regret it, I certainly don't.

[glc]

It's the other way around - game developers are waiting for technology to catch up with their dreams.

[rspassey]

Very good point glc, games would be made much more intricate and demanding but they don't make them like that because the majority of computers would not be able to play such a demanding game and thus they would make less money.

[guruboy]

The artice on Optimize your SLI rig was especially helpful for myself. Going with SLI saved me money once I bought the second card, and using that helpful article I was able to get the most out of it. Thanks PC Mech!!!

[David M]

Guruboy, you can thank Ryan for that excellent article.

I guess Guruboy and I are the Lone Ranger's here.

For me, SLI is definately worth it. I can turn up all the features in a game and enjoy all the eye candy at 100% Ever see FarCry at 8x anti-aliasing with the framerate over 70?..Or Doom3 or Battlefield2 with the same thing.

I guess you have to see all the eye candy turned up all the way AND still have a decent framerate on a 1200x1920 monitor to understand the difference. It feels much more like you are actually there. I don't know how else to describe it. It probably has something to do with filling a greater percentage of the human field of view with more pixels.

Who is to say what others should be spending to get an incremental increase in graphics power? Should that not be the decision of the user and not some stranger trying to decide what someone else should and should not be spending? Different people have different values when it comes to spending their money. Different people also have different amounts of disposable income. Just because you disagree with how someone has spent their money does not make the other person wrong...they just have different values when it comes to money.

I have run my computer with one 7800GTX and with two 7800GTX's and I can assure you there is a difference, regardless of what the magazines and websites are saying. Do they test these cards with an overclocked FX-57 and 2 Gigs of overclocked RAM? For me, the difference between one and two graphics cards was worth it, and thats what counts.

[HAL9000]

I would imagine to those that are heavy gamers and run large, hi rez monitors, it's well worth it. In my second machine, I still have dually Voodoo 2 12MB cards running SLI. I'll never forget the difference when I played an old favorite (Incoming) and thought it was cool graphics... well, dumped in the duallies and WOW... smoke actually looked like smoke instead of black and grey blocks and the speed of the game was incredible.... and this was probably about 7-8 years ago.

[trowand]

Hey David M, what monitor are you using? Sounds sweet.

[rspassey]

I kinda guess this can be summed up with "one man's trash is another man's treasure" Those of you who think it is useless can continue with that mindset, and those of us who agree that SLI is worth it, then we can continue to spend out money the way we want to. End of the matter.

[Hi Ho]

My next rig will probably be SLI. However, I will not be buying two cards at the time I build it. I will probably go with a single 7800 GTX. In a couple years I'll throw in another one for a much lower price and pump in a few more years of life.

I build a new PC maybe once every 4-5 years. I'm still running games just fine on PC in my signature.

[Scholar]

I think its also entirely dependant on what kind of buyer you are now that i think about it. Some people pay an average amount of money over a period of time. I, on the other hand, am one of those types that will tenaciosuly save and blow my money on the best...so for me I think a single all powerful card is better for my preferences...since the matter at hand here is when you will be upgrading...some like to buy a second card to help them along when their system gets a little slow...I on the other hand would just suffer with it until I had the money to go out and buy the next all powerful card.

[Pandab34R]

Quick question - do your cards have to be the same for sli to work? For instance, could I use my current SE6600 with(hopefully what I'll be getting soon) 7800?

[Hi Ho]

With SLI the cards must be the same.

With Crossfire you can use two different cards.

[David M]

For SLI, the graphics cards must also have the same BIOS. So be careful when you order a second card that the BIOS matches.

Trowand, I am using a Dell 2405 FPW. It's a good monitor. The only downside is at full resolution it is limited to 60Hz. So things can look a little choppy when throwing the mouse around during heavy gaming. They occasionally go on sale on Dells website for under $1000.

[trowand]

Originally Posted by David M Trowand, I am using a Dell 2405 FPW. It's a good monitor.

I just got a new MaximumPC magazine today and they gave your Dell 2405FPW a "Gear of the Year" award. SWEET!