would SLI be useful for 1680x1050 gaming???

wtfbollos · Post by **wtfbollos** » 05 Oct 2007, 14:52

hi,

i've got a 22" widescreen, 1680x1050 native res monitor...(a rather nice 5ms HP model, actually) and am soon going to be buying a new system...

i considering going for an SLI solution using 2 x 8800GTS's...prob the 640mb one...

i've seen plenty of benchies that state that at 1024x768 most single cards beat dual...1280x1024 is about the same, but that at higher res's SLI/CROSSFIRE start to go out in front...?

i mostly play BF2, but i am SO looking forward to Crysis, COD4 and GTA4...

so my question is this...would it be worth me getting a second card and an SLI mobo...?

will it make that much of a difference?

8)

BlueMak · Post by **BlueMak** » 05 Oct 2007, 14:58

First of all, no.

Second, GT? GT what? (yeah probably the GTS) there are GTS and GTX. Neither of which is worth to get 2 of them for that resolution.

wtfbollos · Post by **wtfbollos** » 05 Oct 2007, 14:59

First of all, no.

Second, GT? GT what? (yeah probably the GTS) there are GTS and GTX. Neither of which is worth to get 2 of them for that resolution.

sorry i meant GTS's (i hadn't finished editing the post, you were too quick!)

ok thx for your reply :)

can you explain your reasoning?

for me the GTX's and Ultras are waaaaay to expensive considering how fairly close they are to the GTS's...

i just built two systems using a single 8800GTS each and got them for Â£175 each from novatech...some of the GTX's are like over Â£300 each!...hence this idea...i know that the 2900pro is close, performance-wise tho...and the XT, i just prefer nvidia, right now...

BlueMak · Post by **BlueMak** » 05 Oct 2007, 15:09

Too much power for not enough gain.

GTS has no problems to push games at that resolution, or even higher.

You pay (your prices) 600GBP for two GTX and in 3-4 months you can get 1 card for half the money for that performance.
Waste of money SLI.

Plus, if you use DX10, they are not DX10.1 capable.

Either get a single GTS or wait a couple of months to get a single next generation card.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 05 Oct 2007, 21:36

SLI and Crossfire are good for bragging rights, or if you're a performance freak that absolutely must be at the bleeding edge (your wallet certainly will) but other that that, it's not really all that worth it. ;)

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 06 Oct 2007, 00:36

Here, especially at the mentioned resolution, the phrase "If you have to ask..." comes to mind. That phrase is used many ways including with the endings, "...you're probably doing something wrong.", "...you probably won't understand.", etc.

Applied here it can mean over-complicating something due to lack of need and/or understanding. SLI and Crossfire are a lot like that, unnecessary complications. I still think it's absurd that SLI caught on so big considering many games don't support it.

That being said, I am very much a gadget freak and follow advances in technology. I've never thought a gadget freak is one to just collect lots of gadgets for the sake of having them though, that defines a pack rat instead I think.

To me, gadgets have to make sense, better yet if they're affordable and versatile. I hate to say it but ATI has Nvidia beat on the latter two, though their poor driver and customer support is unacceptable to me after owning an X800XT for a few years now. Besides that the sheer lack of competitive performance in ATI's latest AGP hardware is quite underwhelming. When it comes right down to it though, SLI caters to the wealthy because if you try to implement it affordably then it REALLY doesn't make sense.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 06 Oct 2007, 11:41

...though [ATi's] poor driver and customer support is unacceptable to me after owning an X800XT for a few years now.

I find ATi's drivers better than nVidia's for the most part. At least they don't need a new driver for almost every game you want to play. :lol:

And I've never needed to use their customer support - although piss-poor customer support seems to be standard faire for almost all companies nowadays. :(

Acrobat · Post by **Acrobat** » 06 Oct 2007, 12:58

I think you should get an 8800GTX.

I don't like SLI because you lose too much. Its double the price, double the heat, double the power draw, but its not double the speed. So you aren't really getting value for money. If I was you, I would just but an 8800GTX. And unless you plan on watercooling the graphics card, just buy a cheap brand, because they are all pretty much the same.

Post by **dopefish** » 06 Oct 2007, 15:21

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 06 Oct 2007, 15:47

I find ATi's drivers better than nVidia's for the most part. At least they don't need a new driver for almost every game you want to play. :lol:

And I've never needed to use their customer support - although piss-poor customer support seems to be standard faire for almost all companies nowadays. :(

It's not how many drivers you need to update to, it's whether there's one available that actually works. Although there are many examples of ATI's lousy drivers and CS, I'll give just two.

When Cat 5.7 came out all of a sudden none of the Medal of Honor games would work on it, including the then 2 expansions Spearheard and Breakthrough. On a call to ATI a few months after this had gone on and tech savvy gamers had discussed on Rage3D there was a workaround for it discovered by a gamer I found ATI was still oblivious to it even being a problem. On the phone their guy implied those on the Rage3D forum just didn't know how to install the game, drivers, or patches and totally mocked the workaround I mentioned which worked fine.

The workaround involved extracting the OpenGL driver from Cat 5.6, putting it in the game's exe directory, and all of the installments will then work off that driver while the rest of your system uses the latest installed driver, simple but effective. A few months later ATI finally mentioned in their driver release notes there was a problem with the MoH games not playing and they were working on a fix for it. The 1st paragraph of this example speaks for ATI's terrible CS attitude.

The other is their terrible dual display support, mainly in the form of lacking a usable extended desktop mode if your primary display is 4:3 and your secondary is widescreen. This is something that has gone on so long I gave up using Cat drivers long ago for the more stable and useful Omegas. Omega drivers being so widely used for ATI cards is perhaps one of THE biggest arguments against using their products. Such drivers wouldn't even be necessary if they'd write their own properly.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 06 Oct 2007, 21:27

Fair enough. I've had a different experience - that of every new game I buy needing a new driver from nVidia to work without problems; and that new driver breaking something with slightly older games.

Example: the first beta driver for Far Cry that fixed texture flickering I had broke almost every other game I had installed on that system at the time. But with the vast array of computer builds out there, everyone's mileage will vary, ne? ;)

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 07 Oct 2007, 05:06

But with the vast array of computer builds out there, everyone's mileage will vary, ne? ;)

Very true, and I'll add that one of the things I don't like about SLI is that since Nvidia has become so obsessed with it their driver support has gotten worse. I still give the edge to Nvidia on drivers and CS though from what I've experienced.

neoWidescreen · Post by **neoWidescreen** » 09 Oct 2007, 12:02

i would get a single 8800GTX over 2x8800GTS in SLI. Otherwise, buy the best you can afford -- that's the simplest approach.

if you're trying to buy ahead for crysis/cod4/gta4, you'll need the best you can get now OR wait and buy tomorrows hardware at tomorrows prices.

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 09 Oct 2007, 16:13

I'm still wondering which rumors are true concerning Nvidia's next line of cards. Will it be 8900s/8950s, or will they skip right to the 9000 series?

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 09 Oct 2007, 17:05

I hope they skip to the 9k's, now. But I doubt they will. AMD's current cards can't compete at the ultra-high-end, so they're safe to milk the market a while longer. ;)

wtfbollos · Post by **wtfbollos** » 10 Oct 2007, 17:03

ok, thank you for your replies...i've read all of them :)

thx to:

BlueMak
Paradigm Shifter
Frag Maniac
Acrobat
dopefish
neoWidescreen

i'm gonna bow to your greater collective wisdom and NOT go with sli and wait for next gen tech and then get a cheap(er) GTX...

i'm currently running a 7900GTO, which is just about on the limit for 1680x1050 gaming...maybe tweak down a few bits here and there...

i'm getting a E6750 based box, with P35, soon, so will prob run the 7900GTO in there, for now...

thanks again peeps!

:)

p.s. maybe you find something funny here (you're welcome to steal!)?

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 10 Oct 2007, 21:22

I've got a 7900GTO running a lot of stuff quite happily at 1920x1200. It just depends how high you want settings. ;) Most games can be played with completely acceptable settings. ;)

wtfbollos · Post by **wtfbollos** » 06 Nov 2007, 18:52

I've got a 7900GTO running a lot of stuff quite happily at 1920x1200. It just depends how high you want settings. ;) Most games can be played with completely acceptable settings. ;)

you seen the tests for the 8800GT?

it's rather good!

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 06 Nov 2007, 20:57

Yeah, I have.

Am currently waiting for the price-gouging-effect of supply shortages to end so that I can buy two. ;)

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