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Thread: SLI or not?

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    Senior Member chriswood_7's Avatar
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    SLI or not?

    Hey guys,

    Just looking for a bit of advice on whether to go SLI or not?

    I recently upgraded my old 3500+ to an X2 5200+, with 2GB RAM and an ASUS SLI board. I am currently running a 256MB Gainward Bliss 7950GT golden sample on this board, but have the opportunity to get another of the same card. Is it worth me whacking in another graphics card, or are my capabilities restricted, and try to save up for an 8800 card?

    Any help appreciated,

    Cheers,

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    Re: SLI or not?

    I would save and get an 8800....even the cheaper 320mb 8800's are pretty amazing and wont have any trouble running modern games on full.

    SLI will get you more brute force and raise ur FPS, but a new card will get you shiney new effects and shaders ontop of that, plus SLI dosnt ever seem to deliver the full 200% performance of 2 cards, you usually end up with much more like 150%.

    Go for the new card!

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    Re: SLI or not?

    I would personally save and get a 8800gt or the newer 8800gts, you will have the benefits of shaders and DX10 and also they will beat the 7950 sli set up.

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    Anthropomorphic Personification shaithis's Avatar
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    Re: SLI or not?

    SLI blows, as does crossfire.

    Do yourself a favor and stay well clear.
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    Re: SLI or not?

    Thanks for the advice everyone cheers

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    Re: SLI or not?

    seems to me that half the time the bloody cards are out with all their spec and jargon and the drivers can't even run the cards at the full spec that their intended without waiting for 3/4 driver fixes before everything "works" without "glitches/errors" tbh if your gonna make something its all very well having the horsepower but without the fuel it aint gonna move is it!!
    or its motherboard chipsets not being good enough like when C2D came out people were oh yeah do this do that and all the sli chipsets were cack and the sli cards were loosing like 50% of the 200% theoretically possible.
    haha triedness and sli discussion =grrr
    just annoys me that people are being ripped off.by time the drivers are out that support it all the cards gone down christ knows how much or they've dropped half the supported features or turned out the games you wanted now requires more kick (remember HL2 people? I had a 9600xt that I'm using atm and that was "designed" for HL2 and it ran it nice yes but not in the full spec that it would of been during purchase like they hyped it up as doing...) so its just a large pisstake factor imo...
    better off getting one ridiculously nice card that WILL work fine on its own that gives you good replay value for your hardware... by just putting the money into one it is so much more justified... like when people would go out and buy 2 6600 pci-e's:| WHY??? a 6800GTX would spank them and create less problems...
    plus remember that x2 is going to bottleneck the 8800 compared to a C2D... which again limits the plus factors of buying it... wouldn't it be better to sell up and get a fresh setup.obviously keep some components if it helps...
    Quote Originally Posted by Fraz regarding the Apple Mighty Mouse
    I just got so fed up with this thing for it's crappy erratically working scroll ball and poor right-click detection that I just threw it against a wall and it exploded.

    Good riddance. Wish I'd done it about a year ago.

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    Re: SLI or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by shaithis View Post
    SLI blows, as does crossfire.

    Do yourself a favor and stay well clear.
    Thats not strictly true - SLI indeed does, but it seems that crossfire scales pretty damn well - with either solutions I wouldnt personally recommend them unless you are gaming on a monitor that supports at minimum 1920x1200...

    For any resolution below that a single 8800 should be fine for now dependent on the resolution and game (crysis mainly) - hard to see past the new G92 8800s...

    Quote Originally Posted by keef247 View Post
    plus remember that x2 is going to bottleneck the 8800 compared to a C2D... which again limits the plus factors of buying it... wouldn't it be better to sell up and get a fresh setup.obviously keep some components if it helps...
    That X2 should be fine - the majority of games nowadays are shader-intensive and over normal gaming resolutions the GFX card will be the limiting factor. I think it will cope with this GFX upgrade - after that Id upgrade to C2D/Q. Im still on an Opty 165 with a G92 8800GTS...

    ps3ud0
    Last edited by ps3ud0; 04-01-2008 at 04:24 AM.

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    Re: SLI or not?

    oh c'mon guys.. SLI is not THAT bad.. I had the same impression until I actually got one and its not overly dissapointing really..

    But if you ask me, I'd say a new 8800GT or newer if its between them and a pair of 7950GT..

    HAving said that again, I think its worth reiterating that SLI is not that much of a boo.. it is actually quite decent by my experience.. just a tad bit expensive for me on the gear I got on launch..

    On the CPU side of things, well.. I have a 4600+ (ok.. overclocked to a 2.8Ghz but its by no means a screaming processor) and I have SLI and I see tangible enough scaling that its actually worth it.. so I think your 5200+ should have no problem.
    Me want Ultrabook


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    Yer Da Sells Avon! keef247's Avatar
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    Re: SLI or not?

    won't the higher cache/fsb etc ratings of a C2D made a large difference then?
    Quote Originally Posted by Fraz regarding the Apple Mighty Mouse
    I just got so fed up with this thing for it's crappy erratically working scroll ball and poor right-click detection that I just threw it against a wall and it exploded.

    Good riddance. Wish I'd done it about a year ago.

  10. #10
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    Re: SLI or not?

    The C2D is a great CPU, but the X2 arent slouchers either really (Id still term them as mid-range+ since they are dual core). The main advantage is they overclock like hell...

    Youd definitely would see a quantifiable increase in FPS but I dont think the effort of upgrading would be worthwhile. I just dont think the X2 would slow down the 8800 enough to make it a viable option...

    No point in upgrading for the sake of it...

    As a caveat, its very dependent on what games you play, the resolution and how much AA/AF you use.

    ps3ud0

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    Yer Da Sells Avon! keef247's Avatar
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    Re: SLI or not?

    ah fair point.haha mate what's your excuse for being up all this time?I'm on ze phone and looking at lappys...CoD4 arrives tomorrow so I'll prolly do an allnighter as If i sleep now i fear i won't hear the postman knock dun dun durrr Lmao... but yeah thats interesting as I might be tempted to go X2 on a lappy to save £ but that is crazy talk...
    Quote Originally Posted by Fraz regarding the Apple Mighty Mouse
    I just got so fed up with this thing for it's crappy erratically working scroll ball and poor right-click detection that I just threw it against a wall and it exploded.

    Good riddance. Wish I'd done it about a year ago.

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    Re: SLI or not?

    On a laptop you should only consider a C2D - power per watt is far superior which means higher efficiency per clock and so a longer lasting battery...

    Im up, cos for some reason, Im addicted to redecorating my room and surfing for a desk atm - even got a room plan setup in Visio . On a side note I got COD4 delivered today from GAME

    ps3ud0

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    Yer Da Sells Avon! keef247's Avatar
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    Re: SLI or not?

    ah yeah i forgot about the power per wattage i remember hearing about that...
    Quote Originally Posted by Fraz regarding the Apple Mighty Mouse
    I just got so fed up with this thing for it's crappy erratically working scroll ball and poor right-click detection that I just threw it against a wall and it exploded.

    Good riddance. Wish I'd done it about a year ago.

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    Re: SLI or not?

    Plus wont Sli'ing the Setup need a more powerfull PSU compared to getting one 8800GT?
    Homer Simpson: "It takes two to lie Marge. One to lie, and one to listen"
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    Re: SLI or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by chriswood_7 View Post
    Hey guys,

    Just looking for a bit of advice on whether to go SLI or not?

    I recently upgraded my old 3500+ to an X2 5200+, with 2GB RAM and an ASUS SLI board. I am currently running a 256MB Gainward Bliss 7950GT golden sample on this board, but have the opportunity to get another of the same card. Is it worth me whacking in another graphics card, or are my capabilities restricted, and try to save up for an 8800 card?

    Any help appreciated,

    Cheers,

    Depends how much you can get the second card for really.
    If its £50-60 then go for it. THe prices of those cards wont drop much further and you will see a bit of a performance increase.

    To be fair though, and i think someone lese mentioned it, if you are on a budget then the 320mb 8800GTS's are already sub £150 and i would think you up a second hand one for around £80-110. This will outperform the 7950GT's in SLi anyway.

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    Re: SLI or not?

    SLI is simply not worth the effort and expense.

    Very few games or apps actually support it properly, and for lots of stuff it make little or no difference, and for some SLI actually degrades performance. Get the fastest single card you can. Save money and hassle!
    Try to make each and every day the best it can be.

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