PCFormat Forum Archive

"When Vista was released back in January, most people expected multi-GPU support to be quickly forthcoming. In February, some reviewers thought it "should be coming in a couple of weeks" (link). More recently, some others believed that the drivers should be done "by the end of April" (link). Countless performance reviews of games ran multi-GPU setups and wondered why running more than 1 GPU didn't affect performance much. Many heads were scratched."

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardw ... crossfire/

So roughly between 50%-70% improvements across the board at resolution (ie non CPU limited circumstances) except Medal of Honor? I thought SLI was useless according to some people.

Well, MOH directly said they do not support SLI... Thus they will not have gains...

I must add - Considering MOH is running on Unreal Engine 3, what does this hold for Unreal 3? Will that then also not support SLI at all?

Even at 70%, the fact remains that if you pay double the price for a card, you can get something even better in a single card format... If you want to SLI at a later stage (Lets say 1 year later), you can also sell the single card and buy a bigger card for the money you have... SLI works, but doesnt add any true value. Its for the rich of the rich and those that dont want to sell / buy constantly...

EDIT - I also see that Crossfire performance is WEAKER than single card setup on Bioshock? Okay... So you pay more to downgrade your system then? Even some of the other ones as well... One game showed HUGE increases, the rest shows lowered stats...

Wait... Where do you get your 60-70% increases? I see a few places where SLI has only a 20% or so gain... Hell, some games even show NO gain... World in Conflict shows it quite nicely...

My debate isn't whether SLI is good value, some people on this forum keep spreading FUD that you get practically zero improvement.

Even at 70%, the fact remains that if you pay double the price for a card, you can get something even better in a single card format...

You can't get anything faster than SLI 8800GTS 640s except SLI 8800 GTX or SLI 8800 Ultra. Not good value, but if you have the money, so what? Especially with Crysis coming.

It always has improvement - but most games still show only a 20-30% increase. Vista is a new OS and thus would give other stats... Matter of fact is - in XP SLI is not quite up to scratch. The improvements still to come in Vista might change that,... Who knows...

Wait... Where do you get your 60-70% increases? I see a few places where SLI has only a 20% or so gain... Hell, some games even show NO gain... World in Conflict shows it quite nicely...

To remove CPU limitations you always look at the max res and weakest card.

Taken from 8800GTS 640 max res benches:

World in conflict 20%
Bioshock 50.4%
Medal of Honor 20.6%
Lost planet 78.2%
Call of Juarez 53.3%

World in conflict and Medal of Honor both show characteristics of CPU limitation. Changing the resolution has little effect even in single card benches.

Sli is looking promising.

Again - MOH directly states that they have NO sli support whatsoever and in fact actually recommend and tell people to disable SLI on their sites and manuals... Thus you can expect a 50% increase by doubling your price? the ratio just does not make sense still... CPU Limitation or not... No SLI support negates any CPU limitations that there could have been...

World in Conflict on the other hand I can not speak for.

Also, Why pay for SLI then if the CPU will still limit your performance and take away the gains in going SLI? Would it then not be wiser to get a single card only and upgrade your CPU rather?

IMO sli is only when you have top of the range. IF you can afford to have 2 8800U you can afford a 24".

No SLI support negates any CPU limitations that there could have been...

You need to balance your system. Running an 8800 Ultra on a Celeron D 2.66 is not a good idea. Using GMA 950 with a 5Ghz quad is also going to suck.

Thus you can expect a 50% increase by doubling your price? the ratio just does not make sense still... CPU Limitation or not...

You always pay a premium to have the best. Intel extreme QX or EX doesn't make any sense either when it comes to ratios.

Well, in context my 8800gts is bottlenecked by a e6600 @ 6.3Ghz.

Mow wrote:Well, in context my 8800gts is bottlenecked by a e6600 @ 6.3Ghz.

WR ftw.

Well, in context my 8800gts is bottlenecked by a e6600 @ 6.3Ghz.

Playing what, tetris?

Sooo, sorry . Meant 3.6.

Maybe my reasoning is out. I get a certain score, I oc the 8800 - no change. I push the cpu further and get a better score.

In what benchmark? 3dm01, 3dm05, 3dm06 and Aquamark are all CPU limited with that card. I think 3dm03 might be a little less.

Hex_Rated wrote:In what benchmark? 3dm01, 3dm05, 3dm06 and Aquamark are all CPU limited with that card. I think 3dm03 might be a little less.

Most of the testing was done in Aquamark. Im thread jacking. This is not truly on topic.


Regarding sli . I think slasher is correct. But , maybe take into account that the cards depreciate over time. The card your going to sli with wont be at its current price 12 months down the line.