Anyone got any experience of a dual GFX card setup? Is it worthwhile? I have a mate who's dead set on spending £2500 (why!?) on a PC and he's interested to know.
SLI worth it?
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/SLI worth it? It greatly depends on the game.
some games get a 30% speed boost, some 50%. Some run *slower* on SLI. It's definitely not going to double the performance, though.
For real results I guess you'd want to look at a bunch of the benchmarks (tomshardware.com ?) and see how the games compare that you're actually *playing* to see if it's worthwhile for you or not.
some games get a 30% speed boost, some 50%. Some run *slower* on SLI. It's definitely not going to double the performance, though.
For real results I guess you'd want to look at a bunch of the benchmarks (tomshardware.com ?) and see how the games compare that you're actually *playing* to see if it's worthwhile for you or not.
It seems to me that its kind of expensive, unless you really need 10 - 20 FPS extra, or must have super high res graphics and are willing to spend a fortune then thats up to you.
I still havent found a game that really pushes my 7600 GS hard enough on my 4 year old CPU to warrant an upgrade yet. Will probably happen in the coming months though :)
I still havent found a game that really pushes my 7600 GS hard enough on my 4 year old CPU to warrant an upgrade yet. Will probably happen in the coming months though :)
I don't think its worth spending all that extra money for a few more framerates that you probably won't even notice that much. I got the 6800GTS SLI configuration 2 years ago and the experience didn't change that drastically like I was hoping from one graphics card. So with that said, I'm just sticking to one card for my next one.
I'm trying to convince the guy that it's a better bet to buy a £1000 system now and another in, say, two years, rather than spend £2500 now and keep it four years. Thanks for the comments, I will pass them on.
Yeah, I think you can keep up almost at the cutting edge with the latest games quite easily if you have $400 - $600 a year to spend on upgrades. You might not always get over 60FPS at high res, but definately 40+ at a reasonable res with all the candy turned up.
I got about 60% the speed increase until one of my cards died. I have this to say about SLi though:
If you are not using the top graphics cards then getting 1 better graphics card is superior to getting 2 inferior cards.
If the best game you will play a lot cannot run at a good 60fps or so with one really good graphics card then is it worth waiting 3 months for a better graphics card to appear? ie: How soon can you replace the money that two top of the range cards will cost you.
If you are not buying the very top and most expensive graphics cards on the market, then dont bother. If you aren't replacing those cards with the newest and latest cards twice a year or more then dont bother.
I do not plan to replace my failed 2nd graphics card, and do not plan to invest in SLi again unless I somehow miraculously become filthy rich.
If you are not using the top graphics cards then getting 1 better graphics card is superior to getting 2 inferior cards.
If the best game you will play a lot cannot run at a good 60fps or so with one really good graphics card then is it worth waiting 3 months for a better graphics card to appear? ie: How soon can you replace the money that two top of the range cards will cost you.
If you are not buying the very top and most expensive graphics cards on the market, then dont bother. If you aren't replacing those cards with the newest and latest cards twice a year or more then dont bother.
I do not plan to replace my failed 2nd graphics card, and do not plan to invest in SLi again unless I somehow miraculously become filthy rich.
Same may be true with the rival setup of Crossfire, or two ATI cards together (I was planning on running 2 x X1950Pros myself, on a P35 mobo). However, for two mid-range cards like that, I'd much rather go for one single 8800GTS, not only because it's the same price as two mid-ranges, but it will also outperform that, even tho it's on a Crossfire board, and not an SLI one. However, you probably would rank Crossfire as being weaker than SLI, wouldn't ya?
No idea... I was kind of bundling Xfire in with SLI. What I'm hearing here is that it's only really worth it for SLI if you are buying top end cards, it's power at any price, and you are going to upgrade regularly... which sounds about right from common sense.
IMHO SLI is a good marketing idea not a good performance solution, so no I don't think it's worth it.
Darkheart
Darkheart
SLI is good for about 1 to 2 years
After that its crap and there is better gfx card to buy
worse is that your gfx card will not handle dx 11 ;)
After that its crap and there is better gfx card to buy
worse is that your gfx card will not handle dx 11 ;)
Pfft, right. Well, it's like that I was originally gonna go with 2 x 1950Pros in Crossfire, but for the same price, you can have a single 8800GTX, and will outperform that hands down.
SLI is to expensive for the average joe,(well it is for me)at the moment so when prices come down and more people can afford it.You will see games rock.Em don`t rush in to it.
I'm going to buy a 7950gtx, I dont need DX10 (don't intend on buying Vista anytime soon...) and on pure pixel performance the 7950 is faster than the 8800, with the 8800 massively outperforming the 7950 on shaders (pure harware specs here, not drivers + benchmarking...).
Though the last two weeks, i've finally started to play games that are relying no shaders more...
Though the last two weeks, i've finally started to play games that are relying no shaders more...