To Sli or Not to Sli

[Chromatik]

thats wierd... i have a 8800 and my ut2004 purr's like a kitten att max.

Yeah, some have no issues and others are like me

There are threads everywhere about it

http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=558472
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=84358
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=23904

I would really like to be able to play this game again Epic... As long as it doesn't hinder UT3 developement

[[404]Cham3l3on]

Yeah the whole thing is debatable and very configuration dependent, plus software dependent!

My take on it is....for the somewhat marginal gains in some cases is it really worth a few hundred bucks more of you hard earned money? I mean let's be realistic, you only need a decent frame rate to begin with, I personally would just buy the best single card you can afford. Then in the future (assuming you have a sli capable psu and board) then you can add another if need be.

[oldkawman1]

I read that some people don't think SLI is worth the money. I don't agree, look as this test..

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/408/1

Here you see that SLI does almost double the FPS. True, only at the higher resolutions (1600x1200 and higher). But I play my games at the highest possible resolution, who doesn't?

Yes, I SLI XFX 7950GT cards and play at 1600x1200

Here is a benchmark comparison between SLI and single;

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=819&chart=343

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=722&chart=283

Almost no difference on that game at all, only 5 fps. But switch to a different game;

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=722&chart=288

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=819&chart=348

and it's nearly 2X as good for my card. Many cards still are not very good even if you do SLI them. And many more cards in SLI are still not as good as a single better card. If you SLI many cards it may have been cheaper just to get the better card. So, SLI may not be the best solution. Look how badly the 8500GT and 8600GT cards are in SLI, a single 8800GTS still has more than double the performance at the same cost point.

[Fanatic]

Issues with stutter make UT2004 unplayable. Same goes for UT2003. No other games are effected and it only seems to be Nvidia 8 series cards. Apparently it's a driver issue.

UT (the original) runs like butter though. Being about 9 years old it better

thats wierd... i have a 8800 and my ut2004 purr's like a kitten att max.

[VR6Dude]

I read that some people don't think SLI is worth the money. I don't agree, look as this test..

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/408/1

Here you see that SLI does almost double the FPS. True, only at the higher resolutions (1600x1200 and higher). But I play my games at the highest possible resolution, who doesn't?

[oldkawman1]

you can only benefit from SLI if you're running a resolution higher than 1280x1024

How much you gain depends on the game as well as the resolution, check out the benchmarks at 1024x768 on Battlefield

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=819&chart=335

and then at 1600x1200

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=819&chart=338

almost 2X gain at lower res.

[Chromatik]

that card should run UT2004 max'd out? why doesn't it?

Issues with stutter make UT2004 unplayable. Same goes for UT2003. No other games are effected and it only seems to be Nvidia 8 series cards. Apparently it's a driver issue.

UT (the original) runs like butter though. Being about 9 years old it better

[oldkawman1]

I have an ATI X1950PRO and im not sure to buy a 8800GTS....my card go better with ut3 but have no dx10. What shall i do? remind that the new card costs about 400 E

Your good to go. That is a top ATI card. See how it works with the game and decide if you need to upgrade after you play the game for a while. Prices will drop after the new year.

[oldkawman1]

You're sure you can't use both ports on the primary card in SLI?

Yes, go look at the windows SLI FAQ on the nvidia web site. Switching to SLI mode will disable the 2nd monitor. It's also in the LINUX readme and Xconfig section of the manual.

[TensorWM]

That's not correct fyk.

how is that not correct? whats the most performance you can see from SLI at that resolution? 10 frames?

http://www.hothardware.com/articles/...Update/?page=3

ask anyone on the nvidia SLI forums. they will tell you the same thing.

http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?act=idx


the performance gain with SLI is a much bigger result at a resolution like... 1600x1200 rather than 1280x1024. look at the Half life 2 benchmark. if you compare the 8800 GTS SLi vs 8800 GTS @ 1280x1024, its only a 10 frame increase.

now... compare it at a higher resolution at 1600x1200. the performance gain difference with SLi is a good 20-30 frames.

again, my point being, you will benefit from SLi at a resolution higher than 1280x1024 much more than anything below that.

[KriLL3.8™]

you can only benefit from SLI if you're running a resolution higher than 1280x1024

That's not correct fyk.

[TensorWM]

you can only benefit from SLI if you're running a resolution higher than 1280x1024

[KriLL3.8™]

I have an ATI X1950PRO and im not sure to buy a 8800GTS....my card go better with ut3 but have no dx10. What shall i do? remind that the new card costs about 400 E

The step isn't large enough to warrant it imo, either save up for a GTX or Ultra, or wait for the next series of cards from Nvidia.

'Almost' sometimes makes a huge difference

My 8800gts runs UT2004 everything at max 500~ fps, if I go into the Nvidia settnings and force 16x AS and 16x AA the FPS drops to 40~, what is maxed out in your opinion? (I run at 8x both btw, 100~ frames capped to 60 with vsync)

[kelthuzad]

In fact Brizz said that he had almost everything maxed out and it never dropped below 60

'Almost' sometimes makes a huge difference

[Ziobono]

I have an ATI X1950PRO and im not sure to buy a 8800GTS....my card go better with ut3 but have no dx10. What shall i do? remind that the new card costs about 400 E