SLI yes or no

Hi

Is there a simple answer to this question with a very simple reason why

I personally have 2 X 8600GT's but I could have spent the money on 1 better card and got better performance

All opinions welcome

Thanks

Lee H

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Comments

dynamik

If I were to build an SLI-capable gaming machine, I'd put in the single nicest card I could at the time. Prices on these drop fast, and you'll be able to add a second card in 12-18 months (probably when you'd actually need it) at a great value.

Lee H

i would be concerned that the card may not be available at a later date which would make me have to buy 2 new cards

loxleynew

Yea buy a better card like a 9800gt and SLI that in a year once the price comes down.

dynamik

Lee H wrote:

i would be concerned that the card may not be available at a later date which would make me have to buy 2 new cards

They display the 8 and 9-series geforce cards, but you can easily find 6 and 7s as well: http://www.pricewatch.com/video_cards/

Ebay, tons of other liquidators, etc. will always have stuff like that. I really don't think you have anything to worry about.

Mishra

No.

The performance increase that you get with SLI doesn't justify the cost of the more expensive components.

You will spend more money on

Motherboard
Power Supply
Case
Addtional Video Card

Than you will with just buying the better video card. In general, you are better off just buying the more expensive video card if you are wanting price/performance.

Lee H

so in a nutshell, its a definite performance increase but expensive so only people who have a lot to spend shall go with sli, maybe thats why not everyone is in favour of it

Mishra

Lee H wrote:

so in a nutshell, its a definite performance increase but expensive so only people who have a lot to spend shall go with sli, maybe thats why not everyone is in favour of it

You get better price/performance by simply upgrading your single card on a non-SLI compatable machine. If you are looking for the greatest system with the most power then you are forced to go SLI with the 2 best video cards but only the people who would rather spend money on a computer than a Hot Tub do that.

dynamik

Mishra wrote:

You get better price/performance by simply upgrading your single card on a non-SLI compatable machine. If you are looking for the greatest system with the most power then you are forced to go SLI with the 2 best video cards but only the people who would rather spend money on a computer than a Hot Tub do that.

I think it works out well the way I described it. Realistically, you'll probably get anywhere from a 50-80% performance increase with a second card. I'd rather add a $75 card a year or so later than purchase a new $300+ card.

Mishra

SLI is only a 20-40% increase in performance. And this is only if the actual game supports SLI. If it doesn't, you only get to use 1 card. Which is another benefit to using only 1 card.

I did a cost different when I was researching this for my machine... It turned out that I would spend more money simply perparing my machine for SLI for a 40% increase if I did buy the 2nd card, than I would if I just bought a new card later for a greater increase (putting a range on it isn't really feasible).

Maybe it has changed but a year ago or so, buying an SLI motherboard was quite expensive.

dynamik

A lot of the benchmarks I've seen show at least 50% performance: http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=2408&pg=2

There are tons of others.

Mishra

These charts are usually what I pay attention to.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Crysis-v1-21,747.html

Like if you look at the 9600 GT SLI and the 9600 GT.

27 to 32 increase in frame rates. or a 18% increase.

dynamik

The 7600 GS to the 7600 GS SLI would be TOTALLY WORTH IT

Look at the higher settings though, that's where SLI really shines: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Crysis-v1-21,758.html

Lee H

I have 2 X 8600 GT's in my PC at present and it runs sweet, would it have been better for me to spend the cost of these 2 cards on 1 single card

JDMurray

Lee H wrote:

i would be concerned that the card may not be available at a later date which would make me have to buy 2 new cards

Any card will still be available two years later, but the newer card may not be 100% compatible with a much older card of the same model. Best to have multi-card configurations use cards from the same manufacturing lot.

Also consider that multi-card graphics is only a passing trend until multi-core GPUs become common. Two years from now it may seem very impractical to put multiple SLI or Crossfire cards in a machine.