SLi - Yes or No on your new rig?

[Tech-Daddy]

Me? I'm such a SLi supporter. I just think that it offers me the best possible ammount of forward flexability to handle the forseeable future! If I have a game in a year or two that eats my 6600, I'll snag another 6600 and SLi them together. By that time the 6600 will be dheap, so the additional performance will be a and inexpensive simple addition. After that, I'll move to the next SLi capable card, and single it... until I need more... then I'll dual it.

What are your thoughts on SLi?

And none of the whole, NVidia conspiracy. What they have done is figure out a way to increase their market sales, without increasing the persons. 1 user buying 2 cards = 2 sales. Plus, means NVidia also sold a motherboard based on their corelogic chipset (as SLi is NVidia only...)

They did a good job on the execution of this, and I can't WAIT to see what ATi brings to the table.

 

[Rob Williams]

If I was to buy a computer *now*, I would buy one with SLi capabilities for sure, because of the reasons you mentioned. However, I am willing to wait to see what more comes of this.

ATI has also created technology, more recently, similar to SLi. Except where SLi can contain a maximum of 2 cards, the ATI version can use 16 or 32 cards, I forget which.

I tend to like ATI more, because I've had better luck with their cards, so I am really waiting to see how long it will be before they come out with a similar technology.

 

[madstork91]

Are we talking mainstream use here or 1337 gamers?

For the 1337ists then hell yeah! SLi all the way baby! I mean what are the draw backs? Will new games support it? not to many, and most likely. So Yes. Of course I would say get it.

For the mainstream, No. Too expensive and there are not enough benifits or positive aspects about it. I mean its a pretty new deal really. There are hardly any games that even would come close to taping its potential, and I doubt there will be any for some time. So no. No way. Not right now atleast.

Me? Im the mainstream 1337 (um I'm not an over clocker nor do I know C++ im just the stork ) So unless I get an awsome deal on it... prob not for awhile.

 

[madmat]

Rob, your mobo IS SLI capable with a simple pencil mod and personally I have no big achinmg desire to go SLI until it matures more to the point of encompassing every game out there and if they can't pull it off (I'm not talking about with a performance boost, just not having to shift between SLI and non SLI would be nice) then I'd rather lose a few FPS and stick with a no-hassle setup.

Heck, I'm not ready to dump AGP yet, as long as they keep putting out next gen cards in AGP I'll be happily plunking down the duckets to buy 'em.

 

[Greg King]

Well said madstork91. I would also consider myself to be a mainstream gamer. I honestly have no need for SLI and if I had the money, I would probably just get a bad ass proc rather than spen the money on SLI. AGP is dying but very slowly. I would be willing to bet that the AGP slot will be around for atleast another gen of cards, perhaps even 2 more. Of course they will be in smaller and smaller numbers but the AGP market is still out there and going strong. AGP will be missed......I remember getting the ATi Rage 128. One of the first cards to support AGP. I still have the guy somewhere.

 

[Regeneration]

The current SLI score isnt good enough for me.

 

[Rob Williams]

I somewhat agree. That's why I can't wait to see what Crossfire brings to the table. Of course, you'd really need to have a high resolution to really touch SLi or CF.

 

[Greg King]

I am axious to see what ATi can do with CrossFire as well. I wonder if it will will be able to boost FPS way up or if it will show is't muscle in the higher minimal FPS like SLi does. It will be interesting......

 

[Rob Williams]

Well.. apparently unlike SLi, CF will give higher FPS is *all* games. NVIDIA has that capability too.. but it's software handling, not hardware.

It will be interesting for sure.

 

[Regeneration]

Maybe ill get CF too but I will have to rob a bank or even two.

1500$ X800x2
288$ Motherboard with CF

 

[Unregistered]

I am running Sli duel 6600 GT's AMD 64bit 3.2g 2 sata 60g raided as i only play afew games (normaly the best ones)

This is a kick ass system CS source gave me 120 fps, BF2 on high grapics looks so amazing i was gob smacked when i could see rivets in the steel of a building.

i ko very little about computers but i so GO FOR IT. i can run all the games i want to and later when my 6600gt's get tired i can up grade.

 

[Bobbythecat]

Dammit I forgot where I read this, but I am sure this is on the nVidia site.
They claim superiority over all of what Crossfire has to offer, from the mobo to the cards. Now that I have a 7800gt myself, though, I won't be entertaining the idea of switching to Crossfire anytime soon.
Having a sli capable mobo is nice, since when this 7800gt becomes feeble and dated, I could add another one to give it some more life, assuming that the extra card had depreciated enough for my budget to handle as a law student..

 

[Rob Williams]

You were probably thinking about this article.

I hear you. I really hope that CrossFire blows me away, but I don't really have any need to upgrade. Heck, I game only at 1280.

 

[Ben]

Yes, SLI makes more sense because if you dont not have enough money for a top of the line card, you can buy one cheap card, and then add in another cheap card down the road and get pratically twice the power of one.

 

[Bobbythecat]

And that sounds so lovely...

 

[Blumen]

Well.... for me.. it would be nice.

But for the money, i'm going to have to say no.

My current rig cost me less than the cost of one 7800GTX, so the probability of spending money on a SLI system worth the money is extremely slim.

Plus... there's no Socket A SLI mobos..

 

[Bobbythecat]

Yeah, the socket A processors are not dated yet, but the industry has left it behind in upgradability. Even Socket 754 now has an SLI mobo! Good news for my old 3000+ Clawhammer..

 

[Blumen]

Yeah, the socket A processors are not dated yet, but the industry has left it behind in upgradability. Even Socket 754 now has an SLI mobo! Good news for my old 3000+ Clawhammer..

Well, of course, but who really needs SLI?

As said before in this thread i think, it's better suited for giving new life to an older system....

SocketA isn't that far behind still, at least i don't think so. I cracked 63k in Aquamark last semester with SocketA/6800nu, and i plan on finishing up to 70k before i finally move to s939. Either way, 60k is plenty for almost any game.

Although, if there were a Socket A SLI board, i would be all over it, especially if it were Abit of DFI.

 

[Buck-O]

Im so 50/50 split on this one its hard to say really.

Currently, im running an Asus A7N8X-Deluxe. Its been in my box now for nearly 2 years, and ive had zero problems with it.

My current config consists of a 2500+, and a 9800 Pro (128).

Aside from RAM upgrades, i have yet to see any real reason to go above and beyond this hardware layout. F.E.A.R. is really the only thing that has me jones'n for a new video card. And i can pick up a 6800 (256) AGP, and a 3000+ and be just fine for at least another year.


That being said...if i really wanted to bite the bullet on a NEW system (as the thread title says), then yes...i would go for SLi.

And the reasoning behind it is simple...obviously from my current system specs, i dont upgrade often. I love gaming, i LAN often, and i like having a system with enough pep to get me through the current crop of software with enough pretties to make my eyes happy, and enough performance to make my frag count higher. So with that in mind, SLi compatible nF4 boards are the best choice in the future upgrade route, becuase the number of newer pieces that will need to be bought is less.

Currently, if i where to build a system that i would use for the long haul, id probibly pick up an Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe, with a 6800, or a 7800 if i felt like i could afford a couple hundred extra. But i would still only purchase one card...not two.

The reason for that board is becuase of its dual, full 16x bandwidth PCI-E slots, instead of a split 16x bus that runs each card at 8x. WHich in future when newer, better, faster cards come out with more system memory requirements (i.e. when we hit the same stage AGP did 3-4 years ago) that mobo will be able to keep up with the cards bandwidth requirements. And i also think this board (much like my a7n8x-d) will be Asus's flagship board for quite sometime and recieve the type of support that a long term hardware buyer needs.

So in short...no, i would upgrade over buying into SLi.
But if i had to buy new, i would get an SLi capable board, and only buy one card to start off with, and upgrade to SLi later if the current run of games i was playing noted significant improvement with it.

 

[Jakal]

As a college student paying my own way it's hard for me to hop on this SLi bandwagon. I do see the performance gains and yes it will be the future but as for now I just cant see spending $200-400 on a GOOD SLi compatible card right now.

I do plan on building a new system but it will be AGP based. I do a fair amount of gaming but not enough to warrent that kind of system. Most of my time spent on the pc is listening to music or watching video, and stuff like this. I get into a game of Day of Defeat for a while but I'm getting 30-60fps (sierra style mind you) with my current system.

AMD XP2400+ @2.15GHz Extreme Volcano 12
512MB RAM 80GB WD Caviar
Shuttle AK39N 9200 @ 297/243(simple fan mod)

I built that in 2003, the year I graduated high school, and it's run most of all the games I want to play just fine. I bought and built it mostly because I was still using a 450 K6-2. (Oh the good ole days~~)

My next rig won't contain a dual core processor, SLi chipset, or oogles of ram either, just something that'll run my games/music/video just fine. Seriously, I still go for a game of Quake III now and then and take Star Craft out for kicks.

I hope most of you remember the VooDoo series of cards and their last 2 cards the 5500 and the 6000(Rare). If you recall the 5500 had dual processing chips, the board was huge, but it ran every game out there almost flawlessly. Don't even think about the performance overclocked. That's what I see NVidia implementing today. A way to add dual chipsets to increase performance. Yeah it works and it works great, but like all new things it's expensive.

I had a 5500 and gave it to my friend who up until last christmas was still using a 500MHz AMD and that card. He literally outpaced 1GHz Intels with that system. Then I gave him my 1st 2400+ and an ECS board. He got a Radeon 9800 256Mb card 1Gb RAM and ran Doom3 with all of the settings on high.

The Socket 462's still have some bang to em and even though the new cards offer more bandwidth, it doesn't all get used. Sure the x16 on the SLi provides more, but does it ALL get used? No, it doesn't. Games haven't been written to use the full memory bandwidth. The data is sent out so fast that the memory maybe gets 75-80% filled before the pipelines have already sent the data out. What slows the video down is the rest of the system. You have to take into consideration the bus between the slot the memory and cpu speed. Not to mention the operating system and tasks running.

The 7800 GTX has 41.6GB/s of memory bandwidth (http://www.bfgtech.com/7800GTX_256_PCIX.html), now tell me, which system can actually move that amount of data in a single second? The newest SATA hard drives only move 3GB/s (http://www.sata-io.org/3g.asp), the latest processors move around 14.4GB/s (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_9485_13041^13076,00.html). The newest RAM DDR2-600 bandwidth is 9.4GB/s (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/ddr2-ddr_3.html). You could just add that all up and say total bandwidth is ~27GB/s but still that's no where near the card specs. Why push the cards to move data faster if the bus speeds can't keep up?

It's not just video card performance but the way it's implemented, and SLi does a fine job of putting it all together. Like I said, Pci-E is the next generation and maybe one day I'll get a setup that has dual cards but as for now I'm going to stick with good ole AGP.

Oh here's some stuff on the Crossfire... http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=168&type=expert

Rig plans:
Aspire Turbo Blue Full Tower Alluminum Case 500W PSU
Asus A8V Deluxe
AMD 64 3800 Venice
1GB 2x512 Patriot or Geil RAM (Depending on price)
WD 200GB SATA HD
Radeon X800XL
Kingwin AWC 3000 Cpu + VGA Cooler