Is anyone running SLi?

[Munson]

In my upgrade list, I currently have dual 7800GTX 512mb overclocked cards at £490 a piece. I plan to feed them with a serious 64bit AMD processor all running on the best motherbaord money can buy.

My question is does anyone already use dual cards? I'm thinking primarily for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Does the dual card route make use of any current games fully? I'm mega fussy and would like to run F.E.A.R. (for example) at 60fps with Vsync, top AA&AF with max eye candy @ 1280x1024. Do I need SLi to achieve this?

All comments welcome apart from the console boys slating the expense and ranting about the 360 (which my favourite games arent available on )

 

[Lee]

As you know Roy, I've got 34 machines running dual 780GTX at work.

Any game will take advantage of the card, but some have pre set profiles to take full advantage of the cards, nvidias tech demo Doom 3 is the program nvidia recommend everyone runs to make sure all is happy with your system should it be unstable, as the cards and code were produced in such close contact between the two companies it uses it properly.

From memory Doom 3 ramped up to the max was running at 64fps on Athlon 4800 X2 systems with SLI'd 7800GTX 256mb cards. The 512 wasn't out at the time.

I never got round to trying F.E.A.R on one but that ran perfectly with all the eye candy on in an FX57 Crossfire system with X850XT Radeon cards.

Unless they have re written a lot of stalker from the ground up that's going to be one dated looking game when it finally surfaces. I got really excited about it a couple of years ago, then pretty much the entire team got poached when someone offered them decent wages!! I've still got it on pre order though.

 

[hitharder]

i run sli 7800 gtx 512mb and it makes one hell of a difference. it is incredible to nearly all games. counter strike source from 89 fps to 213fps

 

[wozzaa]

To be honest you wont need the dual sli 7800gtx's

The performance increase you would get isnt that much in some games it actually drops because there isnt a cpu out currently that can feed both the cards enough info fast enough.

Even 1 of these cards is still CPU limited when you have an FX57 which is the fastest cpu amd make currently and even very overclocked it cant supply enough for 1 7800gtx to perform to its full.

But i can tell you now just one of those cards can run fear at 1280x960 with AA and AF cranked up and still get over 60fps. You cant except even 2 of them to stay at a constant 60 though the actual performance advantage in some games is massive in fear i think you jump from around 71fps on average to 90fps. Is the extra £500 really worth that kind of jump?

The resolutions your using the cards are not gonna be put to full use. Mine isnt at 1600x1200. Id honestly say spend the money on somethign more worthwhile as your very unlikely to see any benefits of the 2 cards when your running at 1280x960

well sorry 1280x1024 (never got why that resolution is used when its not 4:3 like all the others)

 

[SimonV6]

All comments welcome apart from the console boys slating the expense and ranting about the 360 (which my favourite games arent available on )

My favorite games/sims are NOT on a 360 either (so I don't want one), but it doesn't stop me from ranting on about how cheap the 360 XBox compared to paying over £900 just for some fastish PC graphics.....
I reckon graphic card makers can see us mugs coming from miles away


Simon

 

[Jonesy]

Id love to know why they charge so much, a ps3 will last 4+ years and graphic card less than a year. not worth it imo

 

[wozzaa]

Because the PC graphics cards are faster... By a fair bit. also have to be designed to run any game around and cant just be programmed specifically for a few games. like the xbox / ps3 etc can. need to be able to be put into a pc with any other hardware combination. etc etc etc. differentthings like different psu motherboard etc an all upset a pc graphics card.

 

[wozzaa]

Oh and then theres the fact consoles are sold at a loss. they dont make money on them typically they make the money on the games.

 

[Munson]

Hmmmm.

Well as my LCD runs at '60hz', I'm capped at 60fps anyway if I run Vsync (which I always do) so its basically either 60fps or 30fps and all that the divider entails (think the next jump is 20?)

So it's looking like a single 7800GTX might do the trick for me, with the OPTION of adding another.

 

[Munson]

Basically I want a solid cap @ 60fps with all the latest and upcoming games. My system has to to able to maintain 60 or it'll drop to 30 on the FPS divider. 30 still looks good of course, but if it still cant draw the next frame in time, we're down to 20, which sucks c**k.

 

[Munson]

Oh and... one thing the console guys keep forgetting (as wozzaa implied) is that you all pay stupid prices for your games, which cancels a lot out very quickly indeed.

 

[Woodentop]

get a single 7800 GTX the performance increase you would get by having two would be pointless, and look at it from this point... once new games come out there will be a new graphics card out so the price of the 7800GTX will have fallen loads making it a cheap upgrade if needed.

 

[FirePHoenixCTk]

dual 512 gtx is just overkill atm especially with the price. And i agree with what woodentop said.