Are nVidia's SLI Cards Worth the Investment?

aendeuryu asks: "So there's a lot of buzz right now about nVidia's SLI architecture, which allows for two video cards to be placed in tandem PCI-express sockets on the same motherboard to share processing. Based on the relatively low price of a PCIx 6600GT, and the promise of it dipping further, it would seem like a good idea to invest in one and an appropriate motherboard, so that one can upgrade later, right? So, for anybody who's actually got the setup at home, have SLI cards shown themselves to be worth the investment?" "There are two problems with the current state of SLI:

• It's hard to tell what software companies plan to take advantage of the SLI architecture when coding their games -- Doom3 and Several Benchmark software tests show a significant improvement over non-SLI setups, whereas some games like Far Cry actually show a performance hit over single video-card setups.
  
  
• At the moment, the upgrade path actually requires two identical cards, so you'd have to choose your initial purchase extra carefully to make sure your model is still around when it's time to upgrade.

What does the future hold for SLI, or, for that matter, the ATI counterpart, AMR?"

Comments

No

[reynaert]

says /me who is still using a Matrox G400 with 4MB RAM in his desktop.

You want to play games or show off your 3DMarks?

[Dr.Opveter]

I just recently replaced my (3-year) old Geforce 2 MX for a Geforce 6800LE. I got to unlock the pipelines and an extra vertex shader and i run it at stock speeds. Most recent games work pretty well on high detail setting and resolution up to 1280x1024.

I'm sure a SLI setup would give me even more frames per second, but i doubt i would have use for it. If you like to show off your 3DMark scores though, go ahead, you're gonna score better. In a couple of years my card will be 'old' of course, and i will have to put detail on 'low' again for the latest and greatest FPS, but i will probably upgrade the whole machine by that time anyway, over time you get more performance for your money usually so i'll be getting a better thing than SLI by then.

Far Cry Performance

[he1icine]

Far Cry performance *IS* improved with SLI as long as you are running above 1024x768 so says Anandtech:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2284 &p=14

and if you are going to drop $800-1200 on video cards, you are not likely to still be gaming at 1024x768, but your credit card might be weeping.

I think it;s worth it and the idea is great.

[generalleoff]

I havent yet bought in yet but I very much like the idea of being able to have 2 high end graphics cards working together sharing the load.

I'm planing on building a high end HTPC setup using two 4:3 projectors capable of 1920x1440 each in parralel for a spaned screen size of 2.667:1 or 3840x1440.

This setup will allow me to show a movie on one projector while playing a game or looking at a website on the other projector or using the combined size of both for watching movies/playing games.

I think PCIe and SLI will allow this to be done without taking a heavy hit on the system or being a pain in the ass to deal with like it is right now with using AGP and PCI in combo.

Re:I think it;s worth it and the idea is great.

[psergiu]

There are A LOT of cards with 2 (or even 3) outputs on the market now. You don't need 2 cards. And /even/ if you decide to put 2 cards (that support SLI) in your PC, you will have to REMOVE the SLI cable to get 2 outputs :)

Re:I think it;s worth it and the idea is great.

[NRP128]

Umm...just FYI, i don't know what that other guy is talking about, but there is no pass through cable or anything. These aren't Voodoo2s, the SLI is done completely through the PCIe slots and a daughter card that bridges the two cards together inside the case. With two PCIe cards in you can run a quad monitor set up, so says the latest issues of MaxPC. Anandtech says different, though they used beta boards. Your mileage may vary. Regardless, you're not going to lose a video output on either card because of SLI. Like i said, these ain't Voodoo2s.

if you can afford buying dual cards does it matter

[gl4ss]

ok. they might be worth your investment if you're into playing hardcore simulators, using dual(or more) hires screens..

otherwise, no, not really.

you might think that dual 6600's are a bargain vs. 6800 ultra or whatever.. well, look at the benchies and decide then.

if you just want to be playing buying a 6600 now and another 200$ card 2 years later is a much better investment into longevity than two 6600's now too.

Investment?

[lezerno]

How do you define investment? Get the system you need to use today. Buying computer equipment for future use is a bad "investment". By the time you want to upgrade the card the rest of the system will be outdated.

Short Answer: Go with a single 6800GT/Ultra

[JFitzsimmons]

NVIDIA's SLI Shortchanges Gamers?

A nice article.

In my opinion? No.

[Dragoon412]

SLI is apparently aimed at the same market as the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, and the Athlon 64 FX - namely, the crowd who views their synthetic benchmark scores as a sort of virtual penis. ...and the exceedingly small market of people that can build PCs without any budget limitations.

The current crop of video cards is hideously expensive. Where the last generation's flagship models weighed in around $500 at retail (the 9800 XT and 5950 Ultra), this new batch has seen the X850 XT Plantinum Edition retailing for $700 and the 6800 Ultra going for not much less. The "average" performers for this generation are in the high $200-$300 range.

Furthermore, SLI is a lot like SMP. First off, the game needs to actually be able to take advantage of it. Next, even if the game does, you're not seeing a linear performance boost; that is to say, if you've got a pair of 6800 Ultras, you're not going to see double performance. The rule of thumb is it'll boost performance by about 65% - sure, it's very substantial, but with the premium price on cards already, it's an even less worthwhile purpose. To top it off, you're going to be looking at an extra $50 or so on a motherboard with SLI, and who knows how much extra in cooling.

So, from a performance standpoint, SLI is obviously the king, but from a cost effectiveness standpoint, it's about as bad as it gets.

As for using SLI to level the performance field with mid-range and low-range cards, buying an SLI board with a pair of 6600GTs is going to run you, say, $600 ($200 for a mainboard, $200 for each card). That may actually be worth it, as you're going to drop the same amount of money on a 6800 GT & similar non-SLI board which will perform slightly worse.

But then, here's the problem with that: not only do games need to support SLI, but nVidia needs to write their drivers to support a specific game. Play a game that flies under nVidia's radar? Too bad, no SLI for you. Additionally, while a pair of 6600GTs perform marginally better than a single 6800GT right now, what's to say there'll be a great price point on this type of card for the next generation when you go to upgrade?

SLI's close to being worthwhile, but at the moment, I'd not bother with it. Maybe once the technology's more mature.

Re:In my opinion? No.

[Dooferlad]

Actually you can create your own game profiles to enable SLI. They are stored in an XML file to hack in the System32 directory called NvApps.xml.

imo: absolutely not

[p373]

just a few better things you could do with all that money:

-make a donation to a worthy charity/non-profit
-save/invest if for the future
-treat your s.o. to something nice
-go on a trip
-put it in your kid's college fund
-build a robot

Re:if you can afford buying dual cards does it mat

[Klowner]

I think you may be missing the point, the purpose of SLI is not to drive multiple heads, but rather to harness the power of two graphics cards to produce output on a single monitor by having each card perform shader operations on different regions of the screen.

Correction

[NRP128]

At the moment, the upgrade path actually requires two identical cards, so you'd have to choose your initial purchase extra carefully to make sure your model is still around when it's time to upgrade.

Actually you don't need identical boards, they have to be identical chipsets. You can mix and match vendors, so long as the chips and configs are the same. You can't run a 6600 and a 6600GT in SLI mode, but you COULD (in theory) run them to power 4 DVI displays. I say in theory because everyone is still so hung up on SLI i haven't seen anybody try this yet. The main outline of the spec is that you can run cards from different vendors, they just have to be the same configs. Many of you know that already, but i felt obligated to clarify for those who haven't been keeping up ;)

Personally i'm looking at SLI capable boards for my next mobo upgrade for that reason above, not for the SLI portion, but the fact that i may be able to run dual vid cards and not have one on the slow ass PCI bus. With most integrated mobo periphials moving to PCIe anyway, this isn't so much an issue, but if you have firewire, any kind of hdd access, audio, etc moving on the 133MB/s PCI bus you're going to be hearing pops and skips in your audio, looking for lost packets, and pulling your hair out with IRQ conflicts. I don't want to add video to the mess that already exists. dual PCIe x16 slots seem a VERY nice solution :)

What about straight dual-head nvidia cards?

[bmac]

I know this is mostly off-topic, but does anyone
here run one of the nvidia dual-head cards to
increase their desktop space? I'm running
1600x900 and there just isn't enough space,
so I've been considering getting one of the
Nvidia Quadro4 XGL cards, which are pretty
pricey (>= $450), and an extra monitor.

I'm wondering if anyone actually uses this
setup and has any comments on the usability
of Windows XP for it (someday my FreeBSD
will be ready for primetime, but not yet,
IMO). Specifically, is there a separate
taskbar for each screen and are they
completely independent in terms of resolution
and settings?

Also, is it just more trouble than it's
worth? Maybe just blowing a chunk on a
huge (1920x1200) monitor and a better
AGP card to drive it would be better from
a usability (and simplicity) standpoint.

Further sidebar: I saw one of those Mac
30" monitors - talk about drooool! Trouble
is, I'd hate to turn into a Mac fanboy :-)
That, and I don't have an extra three grand.

Peace & Blessings,
bmac

Three truths of hardware

[SpinningAround]

1- Your shiny new hardware from the top end of the manufacturer's range will depreciate at a rate that makes your car appear to be a excellent investment.

2- 'Future proofing' never happens. Manufacturers and software companies invent new buses, interfaces, pin counts, slot types, power requirements, driver levels and all manner of interesting 'features' specifically so that your two year old hardware is obselete.

3- Even if you have a 130 fps, the fastest processor on the market, a TB of disk, a massive 5.1 surround sound setup and the biggest, fastest CRT monitor out there, you will still get your ass handed to you in Counter-Strike by a spotty 12 year old who's voice hasn't broken.

DFI

[E_elven]

You could get DFI's LanParty Ultra (A64-939); it doesn't support SLI--unless you own a pencil and feel like enabling that support yourself :) Anandtech has details on the mod. The board sells in the $150-$160 range.