Is SLI worth it?

Fantasia · 10-10-2005, 12:05 AM

Ok I’m about to build my system and I need to know If SLI is worth getting. I am a hard core gamer, and I hear a lot about how SLI is not great or it’s too much money for what it’s worth and you don’t get that much of a boost in performance, Also If you buy a card and wait to upgrade in a year that there will be a better single card out. But the problem with all this is that everywhere I look people have or want an SLI system? What’s the take? Let me know?

[-0MEGA-] · 10-10-2005, 12:16 AM

If your a hard-core gamer, then you should get it. Theres about an 80% performance difference when you have another card in SLI array, so i dont know why people would say that its not worth it, but if you had 2x 7800GTX's, it will be a long time before they are outdated. So i would get it, and an SLI motherboard isnt that much more expensive then an ordinary PCI-E motherboard.

ckfordy · 10-10-2005, 12:30 AM

get sli if you have the money you will have a big performance boost in games and they wont be outdated for a long time

Johnnyboy0056 · 10-10-2005, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geoff5093

but if you had 2x 7800GTX's, it will be a long time before they are outdated.

true, but this is a very expensive set of vid cards that cannot even be used to their full potential yet by any video game on the market.

Just an idea fantasia, get an sli mobo, and buy 1 sli ready vid card, such as the 7800gtx, and when the time comes, buy the second one then. geoff is correct about them not being outdated for a long time, but u dont need both right now. the computer can work with 1 sli card, and then upgrade when u need to/have the money/want to.

[-0MEGA-] · 10-10-2005, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnnyboy0056

Just an idea fantasia, get an sli mobo, and buy 1 sli ready vid card, such as the 7800gtx, and when the time comes, buy the second one then. geoff is correct about them not being outdated for a long time, but u dont need both right now. the computer can work with 1 sli card, and then upgrade when u need to/have the money/want to.

lets say you buy a new computer with a 6800GT, now that is really good now, but when it becomes outdated, then you can buy another 6800GT for alot less and then SLI them, and you will have a very nice system again, and it would be much cheaper then ditching the 6800GT and picking up the newest card.

gamerman4 · 10-10-2005, 01:42 AM

I don't think it is necessarily worth it. Say you spend $1000 on 2 $500 cards in SLI and have excellent performance for a long while. But you could spend just $500 on one card and have an unnoticeable performance difference since your eyes can't tell the difference between 150FPS and 75FPS. Your $500 card would be a great performer for say a good 3 years before it really starts showing it's age. In 2~3 years there will most likely be another $500 card that would be better than the $1000 SLI setup you paid for originally. This has already been seen because a 7800GTX is very close in performance to 2 6800s in SLI (not exactly sure by how much) and the 6800 was made maybe a year before the 7800GTX. Or it has been said that you could just buy one 7800GTX now and later when the 7800GTX pushes into mid-range prices, buy another one to ensure your performance for a little while longer. Or when ATi releases Crossfire, you can do that which could be a better (or not) alternative, it depends on the way Crossfire is implemented to increase performance.

[-0MEGA-] · 10-10-2005, 01:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamerman4

I don't think it is necessarily worth it. Say you spend $1000 on 2 $500 cards in SLI and have excellent performance for a long while. But you could spend just $500 on one card and have an unnoticeable performance difference since your eyes can't tell the difference between 150FPS and 75FPS. Your $500 card would be a great performer for say a good 3 years before it really starts showing it's age. In 2~3 years there will most likely be another $500 card that would be better than the $1000 SLI setup you paid for originally. This has already been seen because a 7800GTX is very close in performance to 2 6800s in SLI (not exactly sure by how much) and the 6800 was made maybe a year before the 7800GTX.

thats why you dont buy them at the same time, say you buy a 6800GT now for $225, then in 1-2 years you buy another 6800GT for about $125, its cheaper to do that then it is to buy a new card when yours become outdated.

gamerman4 · 10-10-2005, 01:57 AM

Quote:

thats why you dont buy them at the same time, say you buy a 6800GT now for $225, then in 1-2 years you buy another 6800GT for about $125, its cheaper to do that then it is to buy a new card when yours become outdated.

I edited my post already. I know what your saying but I would rather have 1 new card than 2 outdated cards because we are still in the generation of DirectX9 and in a few years I would like to know that my cards will support the new features of newer software. Kind of like that older cards don't support SM3. SM3 is pretty much useless now since SM2 is still more than enough but eventually SM3 will be standard and PCI-E will make use of the extra bandwidth of the slot and other things are discovered and made.

[-0MEGA-] · 10-10-2005, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamerman4

I edited my post already. I know what your saying but I would rather have 1 new card than 2 outdated cards because we are still in the generation of DirectX9 and in a few years I would like to know that my cards will support the new features of newer software. Kind of like that older cards don't support SM3. SM3 is pretty much useless now since SM2 is still more than enough but eventually SM3 will be standard and PCI-E will make use of the extra bandwidth of the slot and other things are discovered and made.

i see what your saying also, i guess its just a matter of opinion, i like the fact that i can add 2 cards if i wanted to, but then again, you wont have the newest technologies in 2 older cards.

gamerman4 · 10-10-2005, 02:11 AM

I fully agree with you

In the end it's all limited by money.

10-10-2005, 12:05 AM	#1 (permalink)
Fantasia New Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 7	Is SLI worth it? Ok I’m about to build my system and I need to know If SLI is worth getting. I am a hard core gamer, and I hear a lot about how SLI is not great or it’s too much money for what it’s worth and you don’t get that much of a boost in performance, Also If you buy a card and wait to upgrade in a year that there will be a better single card out. But the problem with all this is that everywhere I look people have or want an SLI system? What’s the take? Let me know?

10-10-2005, 12:16 AM	#2 (permalink)
[-0MEGA-] Diamond Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Concord, NH Age: 19 Posts: 26,338	If your a hard-core gamer, then you should get it. Theres about an 80% performance difference when you have another card in SLI array, so i dont know why people would say that its not worth it, but if you had 2x 7800GTX's, it will be a long time before they are outdated. So i would get it, and an SLI motherboard isnt that much more expensive then an ordinary PCI-E motherboard. __________________ Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.83GHz Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L ATI HD 3870 GDDR4 @ (840/2332) 4GB (2x 2GB) DDR2-850 500GB SATAII HD w/16MB SilverStone 750W +12V@60A 3DMark06: 11593

10-10-2005, 01:42 AM	#6 (permalink)
gamerman4 Platinum Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Arkansas Age: 18 Posts: 992	I don't think it is necessarily worth it. Say you spend $1000 on 2 $500 cards in SLI and have excellent performance for a long while. But you could spend just $500 on one card and have an unnoticeable performance difference since your eyes can't tell the difference between 150FPS and 75FPS. Your $500 card would be a great performer for say a good 3 years before it really starts showing it's age. In 2~3 years there will most likely be another $500 card that would be better than the $1000 SLI setup you paid for originally. This has already been seen because a 7800GTX is very close in performance to 2 6800s in SLI (not exactly sure by how much) and the 6800 was made maybe a year before the 7800GTX. Or it has been said that you could just buy one 7800GTX now and later when the 7800GTX pushes into mid-range prices, buy another one to ensure your performance for a little while longer. Or when ATi releases Crossfire, you can do that which could be a better (or not) alternative, it depends on the way Crossfire is implemented to increase performance. __________________ My Gaming PC: NZXT Nemesis Elite Black Case Intel Q6600 @ 3.20 Ghz COOLER MASTER RL-EUL-GBU1-GP Watercooling Gigabyte DS3R 2 x 80GB HDD 1 x 250GB 1 x 500GB 2 x 1GB Patriot Extreme Perf. DDR2 nVidia 8800GT 512MB Antec Smartpower 2.0 400 Watt Last edited by gamerman4; 10-10-2005 at 01:49 AM.

10-10-2005, 02:11 AM	#10 (permalink)
gamerman4 Platinum Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Arkansas Age: 18 Posts: 992	I fully agree with you In the end it's all limited by money. __________________ My Gaming PC: NZXT Nemesis Elite Black Case Intel Q6600 @ 3.20 Ghz COOLER MASTER RL-EUL-GBU1-GP Watercooling Gigabyte DS3R 2 x 80GB HDD 1 x 250GB 1 x 500GB 2 x 1GB Patriot Extreme Perf. DDR2 nVidia 8800GT 512MB Antec Smartpower 2.0 400 Watt

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10-10-2005, 12:30 AM	#3 (permalink)
ckfordy banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Madison, Minnesota Age: 18 Posts: 2,744	get sli if you have the money you will have a big performance boost in games and they wont be outdated for a long time