Is SLI worth it?

Hendrix89

Hi, i am thinking of gettin a second 7800GTX for an SLI setup but have heard positive and negetive things bout it so i am a bit confused. So is ther a large performance increase with SLI over a single card or an increase that is not worth the price? thanks

Ginger

SLI really helps on High res stuff rather than the low res.

With the GTX if you have a 2* X16 board rather than a X16 (which splits it in 2* X8) you would be better off. Also a consideration is the PSU with will supply the cards with the energy.

What games do you play and what res do you play them at. What is the maximum res of your monitor.

Hendrix89

Okay first off i have a 600W Seasonic s12 PSU so im not worried about power. I own a 19'' LCD monitor so i can only go as high as 1280x1024 res. so do you think thats too low for SLI too benefit? Also right now i play my games at the normal 1024x768 resolution but would go up if i was to get SLI.
Here is my system if it makes things clearer; Athlon 64 3700+ (stock), Sea. 600W PSU, Asus a8n-Sli Premium MB, 2gigs Corsair XMS 3200 memory, single Xfx 7800GTX (475Mhz), 150GB Raptor 10krpm, running Win Xp Pro. So what do you think?

Oh yeah and i play games such as FEAR, Call of Duty and any other high end FPS games that will out come out.

Ginger

Check and see if that PSU is SLI capable.. should have 2 GFX connectors (dont know the tech term off the top of my head) and should be up to spec from Nvidia (technically)

These cards draw a hell of a lot of power. I played NFS MW there on my machine with SLI at very high res everything turned on and it looks amazing and goes bloddy fast. Watched it on my mates machine and it didnt look half a good.

Check the reviews for the games you think you might play with it and see if the gains are worth the bucks.

If you are into your gaming, sli is a very nice thing to have.

Hendrix89

Okay thanks for the advice, my PSU is SLI capable so i should be fine then.

L31mr0d

The 7900 series of Nvidia draw a lot less power being 90nm technology, and produce a lot less heat, which is of a major concern if you're packing 2 graphics cards into a case, and they are also SLi ready so you might consider getting those.

Also, one question. I have a 6800 Ultra and an SLi capable mobo and PSU, would any other make of 6800 Ultra work in SLi? Or do they both have to be from the same manufacturer?

Also found this good benchmark list to compare whether its worth your while going SLi or just buying 1 card
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/index.cfm?a=wiki&tag=rmp_vds

Ginger

Originally had to be same chip and vendor, then it went to same chip now its same series.. So you will need a 6 Series GPU to go SLI

8T8

Hendrix89 SLI with high end GPU's is "generally" worth it under a few conditions.

You have the platform for it, good CPU, SLI chipset & reasonable PSU.

And the most important a monitor capable of 1600x1200 or greater.

Don't bother going with SLI if as you say your display is limited to 1280x1024 you wont gain anything out of it.

[However a case could be made if you really stress the GPU's by turning on every possible image quality improvement and turn off all optimizations then you may gain something as the GPU's have to do a lot more work at 1280x1024]

Really there isn't anything that shouldn't be playable at 1280x1024 currently with a single 7800GTX - not counting AF/AA.

conzy

You shouldnt be gaming at 1024*768 with a 1280*1024 LCd.........

It must look a bit crappy.........

Since you are "limited" to 1280*1024 (which is a nice res, its only marginally worse than 1600*1200) I would sell the 7800GTX and get one X1900XTX

Its a much better card that will be more future proof and perform a lot better than the Nvidia in newer games........

Hendrix89

ConzyMaher, i am interested in selling my current GPU and going for a better single card but i really like Nvidia (even though i know that a 1900XTX is way better than even Nvidia's finest, at an equal price) so would much prefer to stick with them. What do you think about the Geforce 7900GTX? I am considering that card but i have heard rumours of them being faulty/unstable.... is this ture or would the 7900 be equal in quality to my 7800GTX?

8T8

Hendrix89 wrote:

ConzyMaher, i am interested in selling my current GPU and going for a better single card but i really like Nvidia (even though i know that a 1900XTX is way better than even Nvidia's finest, at an equal price) so would much prefer to stick with them. What do you think about the Geforce 7900GTX? I am considering that card but i have heard rumours of them being faulty/unstable.... is this ture or would the 7900 be equal in quality to my 7800GTX?

Performance wise the X1900XTX and 7900GTX are roughly on par with each other sure they are each faster in specific games but not too much to call one an outright winner.

The X1900XTX has the edge in the features department ensuring you can turn on things like AA with HDR e.g. Oblivion, FarCry and future titles the NV parts cannot do that till the series 8 GeForce cards come out at the end of this year. Only big downside of the X1900XTX is it has a winy fan though the HIS ICE cooler versions solve this but you pay a premium for those.

There aren't any stability issues with the 7900GTX out side of ones that have been heavily overclocked out of the box, some of NVIDIA's partners went a little crazy pushing the clocks a too high. If you are genuinely worried get one which sticks to the stock speeds it will be perfectly fine.

I would not upgrade to a 7900GTX over a 7800GTX it is the same card just a bit faster [that it unless you can acquire it for a cheap price] but frankly I doubt you would get even a performance improvement if you only play games at 1024x768 as the GPU isn't terribly stressed at that resolution.

It is playing games with the max levels of AA/AF applied what your trying to achieve or a general performance improvement ?, you might want to consider getting a more powerful CPU to better exploit the 7800GTX.

Hendrix89

8T8 wrote:

It is playing games with the max levels of AA/AF applied what your trying to achieve or a general performance improvement ?, you might want to consider getting a more powerful CPU to better exploit the 7800GTX.

Well i dont quite understand what you mean but yes i want to be able to play all current and upcoming games with max AA/AF (and not having to reduce graphics effects/details to do so) at 1280x1024 without my card breaking a sweat (unlike my 7800gtx at even 1024x768 res....) Currently i play FEAR at max possible AA and AF (4x/16x), with all settings on highest except for Vol. Lights on medium and all at 1024x768. I get the following results on the FEAR stress test; 38Fpsmin, 68/69Avg and 165Max... Thats not even at full graphics settings.... Aside from all that i like what your saying about me getting a new CPU instead as i have been considering that but at the same time have assured that my 3700+ is powerful enough. Anyway i have up to say 550Euro to spend so what do you suggest? CPU?(what type?), GPU? Preferably on Komplett. Thanks for your advice so far. Really preciate it if you could help me out on this one.

8T8

Hendrix89 wrote:

Well i dont quite understand what you mean but yes i want to be able to play all current and upcoming games with max AA/AF (and not having to reduce graphics effects/details to do so) at 1280x1024 without my card breaking a sweat (unlike my 7800gtx at even 1024x768 res....) Currently i play FEAR at max possible AA and AF (4x/16x), with all settings on highest except for Vol. Lights on medium and all at 1024x768. I get the following results on the FEAR stress test; 38Fpsmin, 68/69Avg and 165Max... Thats not even at full graphics settings.... Aside from all that i like what your saying about me getting a new CPU instead as i have been considering that but at the same time have assured that my 3700+ is powerful enough. Anyway i have up to say 550Euro to spend so what do you suggest? CPU?(what type?), GPU? Preferably on Komplett. Thanks for your advice so far. Really preciate it if you could help me out on this one.

A new CPU is what you want, a new GPU's potential (like a 7900GTX) would go largely unused if you plugged it into your system playing at 1024x768-1280x1024.

Those are decent numbers for FEAR the thing with FEAR is with the benchmark you need to keep the frame rate above 40FPs in order to keep smooth game play and it will tell you how long it dipped below that mark - a small percentage is acceptable.

A 3700+ is still a fairly decent CPU but obviously if you want to crank the details to the max and with AA/AF applied then you need something with a litte bit more kick. A more powerful CPU will also help increase performance of the 7800GTX which is more than capable for current games.

For instance I played FEAR at 1280x1024 with my Athlon 64 X2 4400+ & 7800GTX with 4xAA,16xAF,TrSS-AA with max everything (except soft shadows because the IQ improvement is barely noticeable and drains performance by a huge amount) and it was fine no problems playability wise.

Now as for which CPU to get well really it is your call so get which ever fit's into your price bracket best see Komplett's CPU range you may want to try something in the Athlon 64 X2 range. However a good option is the Athlon 64 X2 4600+ which OcUK sell for €538 if you want the fastest CPU you can get in your 500 price range (komplett don't sell that model).

A final "free" option is to try overclocking your existing CPU of course not everyone is comfortable with this and it can be a bit of a dark art to some.

Hendrix89

I see... youve given me alot to think about. Okay so i think i may go for a new, more powerful dual core CPU then, as you suggested. That 4600 is a very nice price for its performance. I never looked at that CPU as an option as i thought Komplett was my only option. I dont feel comfortable with OCing and have never done so before so that really really is not an option for me so i think ill just aim for that new CPU then. Another thing though is that i dont have a sound card (using integrated). Is a sound card really neccessary or will there be a barely noticable performance increase?

8T8

Hendrix89 wrote:

I see... youve given me alot to think about. Okay so i think i may go for a new, more powerful dual core CPU then, as you suggested. That 4600 is a very nice price for its performance. I never looked at that CPU as an option as i thought Komplett was my only option. I dont feel comfortable with OCing and have never done so before so that really really is not an option for me so i think ill just aim for that new CPU then. Another thing though is that i don't have a sound card (using integrated). Is a sound card really necessary or will there be a barely noticeable performance increase?

OcUK are fine to use as are Dabs (another UK store) both ship to IE, used them loads of times myself for when Komplett doesn't have what you need.

With 1280x1024 being the top resolution allowed I think the more powerful CPU is the better option alright as it will benefit in the long term as well as more games become multiprocessor aware if you go dual core.

As for the integrated sound it does eat into some CPU usage though it is hard to say how much unless you go to the trouble of benchmarking with and without sound enabled - though bear in mind sound will always impact performance anyway even if you were to get something like a dedicated sound card. I haven't see any benchmarks or data that say a dual core CPU helps in this area with on-board sound so it may do & it may not.

You can get cheap sound cards which might be a small step above in terms of lowering CPU usage as well as the more pricey Creative offerings, but I'd hold off on that till you see how things work out with a new CPU.

po0k

SLI: No.

lazygit

Hendrix89 wrote:

Currently i play FEAR at max possible AA and AF (4x/16x), with all settings on highest except for Vol. Lights on medium and all at 1024x768. I get the following results on the FEAR stress test; 38Fpsmin, 68/69Avg and 165Max...quote]

I have P4 3.4, 2GB Ram and 2x7800 in SLI mode.. and i get way higher that that if i remember correctly.. im in work so i dont have the full results but i know i was playing the game and getting an almost constant 170fps spiking up to over 200, this was using FRAPS to measure the frame rate.. ill run the benchmark tonight if i remember and post the results.

Hendrix89

Right just to let you know i think i might actually go for the the Athlon x2 4800+ CPU cause i dont like the look of that 512kb cache for the 4600+. Its over my budget but its price had a really big drop on Komplett just recently if im right? So anyway the 4800+ should last me a very long time i guess so i see no downside.