Is nVidia SLI needed ?

[garikfox]

No way !

SLI and the UPGRADE that comes with it is absoLUTELY Expensive/and not needed.

I took mine back and got what I have now but let's even say you buy it all, Ok WoW look at this Figuire :/

2 x 6800U PCIe 700.00+ US Each !! WOW ! If u can get one. :/

Then The Mobo is 250.00US thats alot in itself.

Then a NEW PSU, WHAT you say !! Yep no kiddin a New eATX PSU is Now gonna be common.. add another 150.00+

CPU - 300.00US + (upto 700.00 +)

Just those 3 is a WHOPPING !

2100.00+, Simply Mind Boggling when they just came out with the AGP 6800 Ultra then now they want ya to get this stuff ? NO WAY !!!!!!!

If u have a current system with a AMD64 setup and a(Good card like 6800NU,U,GT) AGP, PCIe is not worth it in any way. It's just simply a hype which I found out the expensive way. !

 

[whoisrube]

The technology is not a scam or hype. It does work. However, the implementation curently sucks. A driver update for every game? bah.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzEx

 

[SynthDude2001]

SLI is not "needed" any more than $800 Athlon 64 FX CPU's are, but as the previous poster said, it does work if you're willing to fork over insane amounts of cash (which most people are not).

 

[biostud]

OMGWTF!!!!! Is that a search button in the top?????....... I wonder what that does.

 

[Boze]

garikfox, as long as there are people like myself with extra money and the desire for the best gaming performance possible, there's a 'need' for SLI (in any implementation, I remember buying two Voodoo2 cards for $250 each so I could run Quake 1 in 1024 x 768), just like there's a 'need' for McLaren F1s.

I think what you mean to say is:

For me personally, the cost/benefit analysis has provided me with the necessary information to surmise that SLI is unnecessary and too cost-prohibitive given my personal financial situation and current level of desire for best possible gaming performance.

Try using statements like that before you let the AnandTech Forums know that you've outsmarted all of nVidia's engineers, scientists, and theoretical pioneers, sport.

 

[housecat]

Its a need.

Quit questioning it.

 

[DorianX]

Yes it is a must need in order to go even deeper into the future of gaming i am just waiting for a Dual AMD 64 Nforce 4 SLI mother board

 

[DorianX]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
SLI is not "needed" any more than $800 Athlon 64 FX CPU's are, but as the previous poster said, it does work if you're willing to fork over insane amounts of cash (which most people are not).

Well you dont have to spen an insane amount anymore i work at a computer store and the prices on amd have dropped an insane amount and will continue to do so for a while since the new 4gig cpu came out the 3gig is under 200 now and the next 4.2+that is coming out in a few months will drop the price a bit also

i built a all gigabyte nforce 4 Sli system for 1000 and teh most expensiver thing was the hard drive which is a 5400 200 gig one and over a gig of ram from Corsair

also i have an insanely priced sound card the new audigy pro 4

 

[shinotenshi]

If you have to ask, then its not for you

 

[quattro1]

Originally posted by: whoisrube
The technology is not a scam or hype. It does work. However, the implementation curently sucks. A driver update for every game? bah.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzEx

^^^^^this person did not read the whole story and still does not understand SLI^^^^^^

You do not need a driver update for every game. You can enable SLI in the control panel to multi-GPU rendering for any game. If you want to create a specific profile, and one is not in the driver, just edit the nvapps.xml and create one.

There are soooo many uninformed people out there about SLI...and most of them are the people who dont have it

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: DorianX

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
SLI is not "needed" any more than $800 Athlon 64 FX CPU's are, but as the previous poster said, it does work if you're willing to fork over insane amounts of cash (which most people are not).

Well you dont have to spen an insane amount anymore i work at a computer store and the prices on amd have dropped an insane amount and will continue to do so for a while since the new 4gig cpu came out the 3gig is under 200 now and the next 4.2+that is coming out in a few months will drop the price a bit also

i built a all gigabyte nforce 4 Sli system for 1000 and teh most expensiver thing was the hard drive which is a 5400 200 gig one and over a gig of ram from Corsair

also i have an insanely priced sound card the new audigy pro 4

What are the specs of this $1k SLI setup? I spent over $800 on just the video card and cpu alone in my rig, and it is nowhere near an SLI system...

 

[Blazin Trav]

At some point it will go down in price. I'm sure other less expensive cards will be made to work with it at some point, I hope.

 

[rbV5]

I took mine back and got what I have now

LOL, sure you did :thumbsup:

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: garikfox
-------------------------
K8N Neo2 Platinum
AMD64 3500+
2 x Corsair 512Mb PC3200
2 x WD360GD Raptor:nVIDIA RAID 0
Lite-On SOHW-1213S DVD-RW
BFG:GeForce 6800 Ultra OC
----------------------

Actually, I propose that we both paid the same for our systems-- your current in-sig rig and my SLI. For what you overpaid for a 3500+, 2 raptors, and a 6800U, I was able to get a 3000+ and overclock it, a 6800GT overclocked, and a plain ol' Seagate 7200 HDD. You don't specify your RAM, but I've got the cheapie value stuff that does just fine. So, I'm willing to bet that altogether, that saved me $375 or so under what you paid, which bought me the 2nd 6800GT from the Chumbo deal.

 

[nitromullet]

but your Seagate HD is slower... Raptors in RAID 0 is certainly not what I would consider a value solution, but it is faster. Your HD probably isn't bad, but please don't talk about "overpaid" when you have an SLI setup. My twp Raptors were still cheaper than even one of your 6800GT's, and they will probably maintain their usefulness a lot longer. Also, I assume that you are aware that an SLI rig with 2 6800GT's is primarily cpu bound, so the money you saved on a budget processor might not the smart move that you make it out to be.

 

[KoolDrew]

Havn't we seen enough of these threads? While SLI is expensive think of it like this. You buy a 6600GT because you are low on cash. Sometime in th near future your games may start to lag so you buy another 6600GT. By then a 6600GT would even be cheaper so you don't have to spend $200 on a new card.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
Havn't we seen enough of these threads? While SLI is expensive think of it like this. You buy a 6600GT because you are low on cash. Sometime in th near future your games may start to lag so you buy another 6600GT. By then a 6600GT would even be cheaper so you don't have to spend $200 on a new card.

...and then when the next generation of cards comes out, you have no more room to upgrade. For the price of an SLI motherboard and the single 6600GT, you could just get a regular motherboard and a 6800GT and get equivalent performance now. IMO, the only reason to get SLI is because you an afford at least two 6800GT's and want the highest performance, using SLI as an upgrade plan doesn't make sense due to the high mothetrboard cost.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
but your Seagate HD is slower

Nobody buys raptors to get better frame rates.

Also, I assume that you are aware that an SLI rig with 2 6800GT's is primarily cpu bound, so the money you saved on a budget processor might not the smart move that you make it out to be.

That's true in some cases, though not so true with max AA/AF at 2048x1536... and who knows how GPU hungry FEAR or STALKER or AOE3 might be. Plus, with 3000+ Winnies hitting 2.6ghz pretty regularly, I wouldn't consider it a lesser processor by any means.

My point is that the OP was estimating a $2k+ rig and whatnot, when I am fairly certain he and I paid around the same for our respective rigs. I simply chose to scale down on a few items that I knew would overclock well, and that money saved easily went to an additional GT.

I can't imagine any forum member that would rather have a 3500+ with 2 raptors and a 6800 ultra versus a 3000+ with a Seagate and SLI'd 6800GTs for the same cost, unless they were bound to 1280x1024 resolutions (which I know many are these days with LCDs).

 

[BFG10K]

SLI in general is a waste of time and money regardless of who does it. I prefer to upgrade single cards more often.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
SLI in general is a waste of time and money regardless of who does it. I prefer to upgrade single cards more often.

I agree with upgrading single cards more often, but I will not contest the purpose of SLI for those who want it. Just not something I could personally justify.

 

[genghislegacy]

Originally posted by: DorianX
Yes it is a must need in order to go even deeper into the future of gaming i am just waiting for a Dual AMD 64 Nforce 4 SLI mother board

Had to say now is not the right timing though, technology need sometime to get matured.

 

[stnicralisk]

Originally posted by: garikfox
No way !

SLI and the UPGRADE that comes with it is absoLUTELY Expensive/and not needed.

I took mine back and got what I have now but let's even say you buy it all, Ok WoW look at this Figuire :/

2 x 6800U PCIe 700.00+ US Each !! WOW ! If u can get one. :/

Then The Mobo is 250.00US thats alot in itself.

Then a NEW PSU, WHAT you say !! Yep no kiddin a New eATX PSU is Now gonna be common.. add another 150.00+

CPU - 300.00US + (upto 700.00 +)

Just those 3 is a WHOPPING !

2100.00+, Simply Mind Boggling when they just came out with the AGP 6800 Ultra then now they want ya to get this stuff ? NO WAY !!!!!!!

If u have a current system with a AMD64 setup and a(Good card like 6800NU,U,GT) AGP, PCIe is not worth it in any way. It's just simply a hype which I found out the expensive way. !

They dont expect you to go out and purchase all of those things with the sole intent of SLI although some people will do just that. What they are doing is introducing a new technology. Unfortunately since PCIe is so new at the moment the prices for PCIe products is still high. However that will change due to supply and demand both raising. We will see if next generation offers SLI. I believe it will. By this time PCIe will start to become a market standard. After all even Dell offers it! This means you will be able to upgrade for cheaper.

Most new technologies are not worth their price when they first are produced. Unfortunately PCIe, SLI, and Intel's new socket all are new technologies that must be bought together (although I would go with AMD 64 personally.)

 

[stnicralisk]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: DorianX

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
SLI is not "needed" any more than $800 Athlon 64 FX CPU's are, but as the previous poster said, it does work if you're willing to fork over insane amounts of cash (which most people are not).

Well you dont have to spen an insane amount anymore i work at a computer store and the prices on amd have dropped an insane amount and will continue to do so for a while since the new 4gig cpu came out the 3gig is under 200 now and the next 4.2+that is coming out in a few months will drop the price a bit also

i built a all gigabyte nforce 4 Sli system for 1000 and teh most expensiver thing was the hard drive which is a 5400 200 gig one and over a gig of ram from Corsair

also i have an insanely priced sound card the new audigy pro 4

What are the specs of this $1k SLI setup? I spent over $800 on just the video card and cpu alone in my rig, and it is nowhere near an SLI system...

Dont even bother asking him questions he refers to the 4000+ as 4gig. The "computer store" he works for must be best buy.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
SLI in general is a waste of time and money regardless of who does it. I prefer to upgrade single cards more often.

I can't even believe you posted this BFG.

When I had a Ti4400, and you had a Ti4600, you used to tell me the 4400 wasn't good enough because it couldn't run some setting your 4600 could.

As we both know there are settings that can be run on a SLI rig that we can't run on our 6800U/XT PEs, I don't see how you can say it's a "waste".

The website we're on pretty clearly shows the value-
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2284&p=11
Going from a 54fps average with one Ultra to 69fps with two is a pretty healthy jump!

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2284&p=13
Going from 42 to 73fps at Doom 3 is the difference between playing it at that setting or not.


http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2284&p=14
Same thing at Far Cry. I'd never play 16X12 4X8X with your 6800U at 38fps, but at 61fps with SLI you could.

Your reply surprises me.

 

[JMag]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
SLI in general is a waste of time and money regardless of who does it. I prefer to upgrade single cards more often.

Why? Because you have had SO MANY opportunities in the past to upgrade with 2 cards? uhh... ok...