How much of an improvement will SLI net me?

C

Corvette53p

New Member
Alright, well the motherboard I'm planning to get isn't SLI compatible and it was something I was planning on doing. However, the board is reliable and worls with the new 45 nm Penryn cpu's so now I ask the question: How much of an improvement will I really see if I use two gpu's? In case it matters I'm planning on purchasing an 8800 gtx.
 
First of all, welcome to the forums :)

Now, if you ask me, I would never SLI (nvidia) or Crossfire (ati) two video cards together. Thats because it is very expensive (double the price of the video card) And will most likely NOT give you a 100% increase in performance. Although say you have a 2x8800GTX setting, it will definitely run everything maxed out (except Crysis :D) at fluent FPS that of course if you have a nice CPU and RAM.

But the disclaimer is this: you have your expensive top of the line $800+ SLI/Crossfire Setting and then what? a better line of video cards come out and you're outdated and will most likely want to get 2 of those new cards.

Overall, just pick one, the GTX is more than enough for today gaming and it will be easier for you to upgrade if new cards come out later. Also consider the 8800GT

Hope that helped ;)

Haha pretty lenghty :P
 
ramodkk said:
First of all, welcome to the forums :)

Now, if you ask me, I would never SLI (nvidia) or Crossfire (ati) two video cards together. Thats because it is very expensive (double the price of the video card) And will most likely NOT give you a 100% increase in performance. Although say you have a 2x8800GTX setting, it will definitely run everything maxed out (except Crysis :D) at fluent FPS that of course if you have a nice CPU and RAM.

But the disclaimer is this: you have your expensive top of the line $800+ SLI/Crossfire Setting and then what? a better line of video cards come out and you're outdated and will most likely want to get 2 of those new cards.

Overall, just pick one, the GTX is more than enough for today gaming and it will be easier for you to upgrade if new cards come out later. Also consider the 8800GT

Hope that helped ;)

Haha pretty lenghty :P
Click to expand...

I run Crysis Maxed... Smooth as anything else...
 
INTELCRAZY said:
I run Crysis Maxed... Smooth as anything else...
Click to expand...
Yes, but on "high" settings, not "very high", correct?

This is a bit off topic, but I'm surprised I actually get a higher score in 3DMark06 with my rig :)
What resolution did you run your test at?
 
Thanks for the warm welcome! Anyway I have been debating between the 8800 GT and the GTX. It's all going to come down to my budget when I do end up purchasing the parts (within a couple of weeks). Anyway, I'm not looking for perfection, but SLI would have made good use of my GTX when I purchased another gpu (whenever the new 9 series are released). Thanks for the input.
 
SLI generally gives you about a %15 to %40 increase. SLI just is not worth the cost.


With the new pci-e 2.0 spec out, SLI might improve on the new x38 chipset boards.
 
Ditto, after you buy the 2nd GFX< you'll most likely need a better PSU... and with those costs added up, you could've gotten a better card alltogether, regardless of the 2 cards working together...
 
Corvette53p said:
Thanks for the warm welcome! Anyway I have been debating between the 8800 GT and the GTX. It's all going to come down to my budget when I do end up purchasing the parts (within a couple of weeks). Anyway, I'm not looking for perfection, but SLI would have made good use of my GTX when I purchased another gpu (whenever the new 9 series are released). Thanks for the input.
Click to expand...

The 8800 GT is only right behind the GTX in performance making the GTX not worth the money. The new GTS pretty much equals the GTX's performance for still cheaper.
 
Good points, If that's the case I may wait a few months in order to reap the benefits of 45 nm cpu's and the 9 series of NVIDIA (even though I really want to play Crysis). If I end up wanting to SLI in the future, I'll wait until more reliable and efficient mobos are released. Unfortunately I don't have much interest in ATI because my board is Crossfire compatible. Anywho, my only hope for SLI would be if they released the drivers for it, but that could take any amount of time.
 
Corvette53p said:
Good points, If that's the case I may wait a few months in order to reap the benefits of 45 nm cpu's and the 9 series of NVIDIA (even though I really want to play Crysis). If I end up wanting to SLI in the future, I'll wait until more reliable and efficient mobos are released. Unfortunately I don't have much interest in ATI because my board is Crossfire compatible. Anywho, my only hope for SLI would be if they released the drivers for it, but that could take any amount of time.
Click to expand...

There IS NO nVidia 9 series...
 
The upcoming plateau is the revised 8800GTS (dumps the wierd 320/640 memory and gains the new G92 core, which is what made the new 8800GT so damn great). I've heard reports that the new GTS would hit today (Dec 3), and also in the middle of the month. I'm just praying to God they hit in time for me to use my EVGA Step-Up.
 
dave_w said:
The upcoming plateau is the revised 8800GTS (dumps the wierd 320/640 memory and gains the new G92 core, which is what made the new 8800GT so damn great). I've heard reports that the new GTS would hit today (Dec 3), and also in the middle of the month. I'm just praying to God they hit in time for me to use my EVGA Step-Up.
Click to expand...

Actually they delayed the release till the 11th..
 
SLI right off the bat doesn't make much sense, unless you have enough money to throw down for two GTX cards or the high end cards I don't even know the names of.
If you have enough money to buy two 8800GT cards, you might as well go with one super-duper expensive card.
I'm going with SLI because I will buy an 8800GT or 8800GTS. And a few months down the road when I have more cash and the cards have fallen in price, I'll buy another identical card.
For me, that is an upgrade. Cuz when I build a computer, it stays built. I don't upgrade and switch out parts and whatnot. If I like a new video card, I'm building a new system around it.
If I had to upgrade a single video card slot to a newer video card and take out the old one, not only would I be hesitant to sell the old one, but the old video card would probably inevitably be "behind the curve" by any standards by the time I took it out, making it useless to anyone.
But then again, if you're the kinda person who tinkers and changes stuff in and out all the time, and considers upgrades, then yea, SLI prolly isn't for you from an economical standpoint.
 
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