ClioSport.net
Register a free account today to become a member!
Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
-
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read more here.
Dual SLI
- Thread starter 172boost
- Start date
Clio 182
Only certain games are scalable to SLI/CrossFire. Make sure if you are getting SLI that you get a decent motherboard with 2 x 16 speed PCIe slots.
I prefer Crossfire but that is because it is less fussy about the "slave" card meaning it can be a different brand or even a different model (within the same class).
I prefer Crossfire but that is because it is less fussy about the "slave" card meaning it can be a different brand or even a different model (within the same class).
Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
So does nVidia. I've got an Asus 7900GTX in the first slot and an XFX 7900GTX in the 2nd one - and it works fine.
To the OP - dual cards aren't all they are cracked up to be. It varies from game to game and your typical performance increase is around 60% - though it can be less.
When I ran the HL2 benchtest on one 7900GTX - I got 90 frames per second average. When I added the 2nd card to the mix, it only increased to 112fps - clearly a poor increase. Compare that to a m8's single ATi 3850 and he was getting 170+fps on that card alone.
SLi has never really been happy with Vista 64 either. I had horrendous issues getting games to run in that - though Vista 32 seems to be a lot more stable. No real idea how ATI's CrossFire compares as I've never used it.
I personally, would compare how cheap two cards of the same type were - against the same cost of a single 'better' card. I have been toying with the idea of two 8800GT cards in replacement for my twin 7900GTXs. But instead of paying circa £110 per card, I start to think what single card could I get for around £220.
Swings and roundabouts, eh?!
D.
Clio 182
So does nVidia. I've got an Asus 7900GTX in the first slot and an XFX 7900GTX in the 2nd one - and it works fine.
Yeah sorry i meant with ATI you can have one top end card for example 3870x2 and then pair it with a something a lot less powerfull.
Vista 64 and crossfire are ok, but unless the drivers and the games are compatable you wont use the slave card so you are limited, they update the game profiles but you have to update your drivers every other week to stay on top of it.
But as you say swings and roundabouts
Apparently the only realy cost effective/performance cards with which to bother with SLI is the 7600/9600 cards, after that your as well buying the most powerful single card you can. But then I could never afford two mid range cards let alone one big meaty monster so what would I know........
Asus A8n32-SLI Deluxe is a good board, check it out ...SLI enabled...obviously :rasp:
Edit: If iirc then when you use sli mode BOTH cards need to be exactly the same...make and model...e.g geforce 7300gt x 2...not a 7300gt and 6500 for example...
And 4 cards is quad-sli i think
...SLI enabled...obviously :rasp:Edit: If iirc then when you use sli mode BOTH cards need to be exactly the same...make and model...e.g geforce 7300gt x 2...not a 7300gt and 6500 for example...
And 4 cards is quad-sli
i think
Clio 182
Asus A8n32-SLI Deluxe is a good board, check it out
Edit: If iirc then when you use sli mode BOTH cards need to be exactly the same...make and model...e.g geforce 7300gt x 2...not a 7300gt and 6500 for example...
And 4 cards is quad-sli
Same model, they can be different makes as Darren has said.
Dont forget to get a decent power supply if you are going down the SLI route as a low wattage one would not be enough to power it you need at least 700-1000 watt to be safe and able to upgrade to newer cards as and when.
Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
Asus A8n32-SLI Deluxe is a good board, check it out
Edit: If iirc then when you use sli mode BOTH cards need to be exactly the same...make and model...e.g geforce 7300gt x 2...not a 7300gt and 6500 for example...
And 4 cards is quad-sli
Quad SLi (iirc) is made up from two graphics cards, each with dual GPUs onboard - hence making four graphics processors in total. The latest high-end mobos offer triple-SLi for potentially 6 GPUs, if you get three 9800GX2 cards, for example. Which as far as I'm aware, only Vista will make use of?
Quad cards with 8 GPUs won't happen just yet as there's no bloody space left on the ATX standard mobo to fit them! I've often thought that they should do an ATX-Ultra standard (or something similar) that would allow such features as onboard SAS drive support, more SATA connections and maybe a few extra PCI slots with space to spare.
D.
all this and it still wont run far cry...Asus A8n32-SLI Deluxe is a good board, check it out
Edit: If iirc then when you use sli mode BOTH cards need to be exactly the same...make and model...e.g geforce 7300gt x 2...not a 7300gt and 6500 for example...
And 4 cards is quad-sli
Quad SLi (iirc) is made up from two graphics cards, each with dual GPUs onboard - hence making four graphics processors in total. The latest high-end mobos offer triple-SLi for potentially 6 GPUs, if you get three 9800GX2 cards, for example. Which as far as I'm aware, only Vista will make use of?
Quad cards with 8 GPUs won't happen just yet as there's no bloody space left on the ATX standard mobo to fit them! I've often thought that they should do an ATX-Ultra standard (or something similar) that would allow such features as onboard SAS drive support, more SATA connections and maybe a few extra PCI slots with space to spare.
D.
Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
ROFL! Maybe good enough for Solitaire though, eh?
D.
superbenji88
ClioSport Club Member
BMW M135i
i have SLi Nvidia graphics system, you need to have direct X 10 to make use of it aswell
Better than yours. C*nt.
Asus A8n32-SLI Deluxe is a good board, check it out
Edit: If iirc then when you use sli mode BOTH cards need to be exactly the same...make and model...e.g geforce 7300gt x 2...not a 7300gt and 6500 for example...
And 4 cards is quad-sli
Quad SLi (iirc) is made up from two graphics cards, each with dual GPUs onboard - hence making four graphics processors in total. The latest high-end mobos offer triple-SLi for potentially 6 GPUs, if you get three 9800GX2 cards, for example. Which as far as I'm aware, only Vista will make use of?
Quad cards with 8 GPUs won't happen just yet as there's no bloody space left on the ATX standard mobo to fit them! I've often thought that they should do an ATX-Ultra standard (or something similar) that would allow such features as onboard SAS drive support, more SATA connections and maybe a few extra PCI slots with space to spare.
D.
There is space if you consider something as specialised as the Intel Skulltrail, however this only supports Tri-SLI or Quad-SLI if you're using GX2s. As for using 6 GPUs in SLI (3xGX2s) this is physically impossible - all current GX2s only have one SLI 'tooth', meaning only two cards can be paired.
Better than yours. C*nt.
No you don't - back in your box. SLI has been around for years, much much longer than DX10.
Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
I'll be keeping an eye on that - sounds like it could be interesting.
In the bigger picture, I wish AMD would pull something out the bag. A one-horse like Intel is at the moment, is never good for progress - or pricing.
D.
Better than yours. C*nt.
It's already out there:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=764124
Intel Seaburg 5400 workstation chipset with two nVidia 100 MCPs, allowing 4xPCI-E x16 slots (although not 2.0 compatible).
Two Intel Xeon 771 sockets (although Intel ported a Core2Extreme over to the platform for the enthusiast market) and runs on FB-DIMMS, so memory is more expensive. But better.
Very, very capable platform. Running 2x2.6Ghz Quad core Xeons on mine at the moment with 2x Radeon HD4870 1Gb for testing. Not allowed to say much more, other than I've not seen anything this graphically and processing capable in a workstation/desktop environment.
AMD have just about collapsed for the desktop environment at the moment, with most of their efforts being focused on wiping nVidia clean with their new graphics cards and possible physics engines. They've still got a hold on the server market in places however and they've got a strong contender for the laptop/mobile market on the cards.
Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
^^^^ - how are you finding the Radeon 4870s? I was thinking of switching from nVidia on the next build. I was impressed with my 9800 Pro back in the day and liked the regular driver updates (compared to nVidia).
Noticed a fair few BSODs with the 3850 series, but they are getting better, imo.
D.
Noticed a fair few BSODs with the 3850 series, but they are getting better, imo.
D.
I liked my 9800Pro as well. I had the XT firmware loaded on mine with the artic heatsink thing great card back in the day. Then got my 7800GTX 512 which was fast but I always had stability problems with it. Now running an 8800GTX and its just not quick enough no more.
Was trying to decide if I should go GTX280 or look at 4870's as I could probably then stretch to corssfired 4870's for a bit more than I would spend on the GTX280. Just the nvidia GPU has physx on it which improves performance a fair bit looking at benchmarks etc. If I was buying a single card would definitely be the GTX280 though.
Decided against it for now though instead going to wait for Nehalem and then build myself a high end rig will likely be a new gen of graphics cards round then and I can cope with the 8800 for now its still not exactly a slow card.
Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
Doesn't the 4870 have inbuilt physics support too, wozzaa?
I was thinking of maybe getting a single 4870 for my PC at the moment. It's an AMD based system on a M2N32-SLI mobo. Far from cutting edge now, but it would benefit from one of those, rather than the SLI'd 7900GTXs that I have now.
Just a shame its not Crossfire'd.
D.
I was thinking of maybe getting a single 4870 for my PC at the moment. It's an AMD based system on a M2N32-SLI mobo. Far from cutting edge now, but it would benefit from one of those, rather than the SLI'd 7900GTXs that I have now.
Just a shame its not Crossfire'd.
D.
ATi's cards are great its just as per usually they run hotter than the nvidia boards and use more power yet deliver slightly less in terms of performance. From what I have seen depending on game that is running the 4870 will match the GTX260. Which can occasionally match the GTX280 but in other games you are looking at a 30% performance increase with the GTX280 over the 4870....which when you think it is only 30% more expensive isn't so bad. Priceerformance scales well.
The ATi card does have physics Havok based. The Nvidia cards have PhysX based physics. Guessing games will either support both or choose 1 over the other. So it all depends who comes out on top really to which game is being played.
They are both good cards. And the point is you can buy 2 4870's for a little more than 1 GTX280 so that makes it worth it when you can put them in crossfire and have a rig that will run pretty much everything.
erformance scales well.The ATi card does have physics Havok based. The Nvidia cards have PhysX based physics. Guessing games will either support both or choose 1 over the other. So it all depends who comes out on top really to which game is being played.
They are both good cards. And the point is you can buy 2 4870's for a little more than 1 GTX280 so that makes it worth it when you can put them in crossfire and have a rig that will run pretty much everything.
Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
4870's are around £150+VAT. Not bad at all that, imo. Quite a bit less than the GTX pricing!
Haven't nVidia dropped the GTX260 pricing to be more on par with ATi, recently?
Decisions, decisions. Sacrifice the SLi functionality and get the ATi, or get the nVidia card with the option for SLi support at a later date? Trouble is, by the time the nVidia cards come down in price to make an SLi setup a reasonable amount of money - far better cards have already been released. Been there - done that with the 7900GTXs.
D.
Haven't nVidia dropped the GTX260 pricing to be more on par with ATi, recently?
Decisions, decisions. Sacrifice the SLi functionality and get the ATi, or get the nVidia card with the option for SLi support at a later date? Trouble is, by the time the nVidia cards come down in price to make an SLi setup a reasonable amount of money - far better cards have already been released. Been there - done that with the 7900GTXs.
D.
Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
Better than yours. C*nt.
Decisions, decisions. Sacrifice the SLi functionality and get the ATi, or get the nVidia card with the option for SLi support at a later date? Trouble is, by the time the nVidia cards come down in price to make an SLi setup a reasonable amount of money - far better cards have already been released. Been there - done that with the 7900GTXs.
D.
Yep, and then get the problem of "Do I waste £200ish quid on an out of date card or do I put up with what I've got and save for the £400 behemoth"
b*****d game - makes me very grateful I only have to buy a workhorse, as all the gaming kit is bought for me!
Similar threads
