"SLI, The Way It's Meant To Be Played?" Nvidia?

[duddley]

I'm not quite understanding this. Why is the game still not smoothly playable with a single 8800gt or 8800gts?

I paid $380 originally for evga 8800gts and the game played OK, but still was getting FPS drops to as low as 30 at some high intensity points.

So, I then purchased an xfx 8800GT OC considering an average benchmark of 8-10fps above the 8800gts. Installed it, it ran at max fps about 80 and it dips as low as 30.

Is it a requirement to get an SLI setup for the game to look/play any good?
Even if I turn up all the detail, it looks like garbage compared to pics I've seen.

BTW, these FPS are with ALL settings turned down, bloom etc. @ 1280/1024

Current system:
5200+ (@2.8)
8800gt oc
g-skill 800 ram.
7200 sata hd.
600w OCZ psu
vista 32 bit.

Is SLI necessary to play the game and have it look any better then UT99? I just want to play the game how it always looks on videos with 60 fps minimum.

Can people with SLI setups please give me some idea of the difference it makes in UT3? I'm only interested in UT3 playability.

[JordanLee]

SLI is a waste of money.

Does your motherboard have 2 X16 Speed PCI-E Slots? Most of them have
1 PCI-E X16 Slot and 1 PCI-EX8 slot making both cards run at X8 which slows them down.

[duddley]

No, I'd have to get another motherboard for it.

What kinda of frames do you get on your 8800gts ssc?

I'm wondering what will help me more, buying a nice Core 2 Duo/quad with a new motherboard, or going SLI with a new mobo.

[m4tze]

Your system is fine, unless you always have to play any game on earth at highest details with super duper framerates...

[duddley]

Your system is fine, unless you always have to play any game on earth at highest details with super duper framerates...

I use all low settings and turn off all Bloom/distance effects. What else can I do? The game looks worse then UT2k4 right now, and I'm playing at worse fps.

It would be pretty sad if I have to turn my settings down to 1024/768 or 800/600 to get a solid 60 fps considering I'm using a dual core processor and the latest graphics card out.

[KingLollo]

Question, you have a dualcore CPU ? (couldnt see that there)

Thats the reason the game doesnt run well, you should upgrade ur CPU to a shiny little C2D.
Friend of mine has a brand new PC with an C2D and an 8800GTS and the demo ran very very very smooth @ 1280 x 1024 and max details.

[duddley]

Yeah, I've got a 5200+ and x2 processor over-clocked to 2.8Ghz. I'm starting to think that getting a C2D will REALLY help my fps. I don't know where AMD screwed up, but the difference between the two companies dual-core processors for this game is amazing.

[Mosh]

Yep, you will be way better off with an Intel processor.

I used to be AMD/ATI but now there really was no option than Intel/Nvidia. Intel is eons ahead of AMD all of a sudden.

[[TT]BrundleFly]

SLI is a waste of money.

Another uninformed half-wit.

If you are running any game at 1920x1200 or 2560x1600, then SLI is pretty much a requirement. It is at the high resolutions that SLI really shows the difference.

In 2008 there will be motherboards released that support 4 video cards. It's being done for a reason, not just to waste money...

[db|mak]

I have a Q6600 (C2Q) @ 2.4Ghz (no OC) and a 640MB 8800GTS(also no OC), and I ran the demo at 1920x1200 on max settings and got 60 fps(capped) nearly all the time. It would dip to about 45-50 maybe in intense spots.

[oldkawman1]

SLI works great for me with 7950GT cards

I ran the demo with a single 7900GTX card and the with 7950GT SLI. The SLI setup runs much better. I use 1600x1200 res with quality 3-3.

setup with single 7900GTX card;
unknown brand 7900GTX 650MHz clock
Epox nforce4 ultra board with 2.6GHz AMD dual core Opteron 180
4 GB G.Skill DDR400 @ DDR415
average of about 45 FPS
drops just below 27 at place on bridge in ShangriLa

SLI setup with 7950GT cards;
XFX 7950 GT 570MHz clock
DFI Infinity nforce4 SLI board with 2.4GHz AMD dual core Opteron 180
2 GB value ram DDR400
average of about 60 FPS
drops just below 40 at place on bridge in ShangriLa
almost always at 60-62 FPS, may be limited by the ini max setpoint of 62

Even with the lower CPU and GPU clocks, the 7950GT SLI setup runs at least 40% better than the single 7900GTX

I was not able to play very well at the lower FPS. Playing at higher FPS is like night and day difference in how well I play.

[oldkawman1]

I'm not quite understanding this. Why is the game still not smoothly playable with a single 8800gt or 8800gts?



Current system:
5200+ (@2.8)
8800gt oc
g-skill 800 ram.
7200 sata hd.
600w OCZ psu
vista 32 bit.

You do not state how much ram you have, needs to be at least 2Gb.
You are running a 32 bit OS, too bad, 64 bit is better performance.
Did you try the beta driver, 169.04?
Do you have the AMD dual core optimizer installed?
According to benchmarks you should be running the game perfect with that card.

[db|mak]

oldkawman makes some good points. I'm pretty sure those drivers make a big difference.

[kray28]

SLI is not a waste of money if you run high res, or want to run your games at native LCD resolution (1920x1200+).

It's more like getting what you pay for....does it cost more, yes? Does it deliver more? Definitely.

It's also nice to be able to turn on AA and AF and max out texture res and detail and see very little perf hit, while getting awesome image quality. Single cards will usually have to scale back on that. Even if the game doesn't support SLI, you can usually force SLI AA on almost anything, and get high levels of AA and better image quality even though one card does all the rendering. This is usually great for older engine games like Source....playing HL2: Episode 2 with 32x AA is quite nice.

[Devil_Spawn]

Yeah, I've got a 5200+ and x2 processor over-clocked to 2.8Ghz. I'm starting to think that getting a C2D will REALLY help my fps. I don't know where AMD screwed up, but the difference between the two companies dual-core processors for this game is amazing.

not really, oc'd to 2.8ghz....

try removing the overclock, and also install the amd dual core optimiser


you should get 60-100fps constant on demo max