Graphic Cards Why Go SLI !!!

Switch

Switch

Skilled
Its the latest buzz word all around the town. Everybody wants a piece of it. But is it really worth it. I dont know. Lets see:
nVIDIA promised that going SLI would give you 180% to 200% performance boost. But in reality its close to 130% to 150%. I am talking about games here and not 3dMark Scroes.
Secondly it is supposed to be future proof. Well how future proof is it. Lets take two senarieo.
Senario one: You have Rs 40000 Budget for CPU + Mobo + RAM + GFX. You spend approx Rs 9700 on the CPU(AMD 64 3200+ 939) Rs 12500 on the SLI mobo(ASUS A8N SLI) Rs 6000 on I Gig RAM and Rs 11500 for the 6600 GT. Thats makes it Rs 39700. Its a mid end rig as of now. Now lets say after an year you want to upgrade the machine. You spend around another 8000 for the second 6600 GT(The price could have been dropped a little more). So in all you have spent RS 47700 and you increased your system performance by 30% to 50%.
Senario two: You have Rs 40000 Budget for CPU + Mobo + RAM + GFX. You spend approx Rs 7500 on the CPU(AMD 64 3000+ 939) Rs 7000 on the mobo(ASUS A8N-E) Rs 6000 on I Gig RAM and Rs 18500 for the X800XL. Total price of the system Rs 39000. Thi is for sure a high end rig. And this rig is better than the above rig even after the upgrade. The performane will be better than two 6600 GT's togather. The performance is more close to 170% to 200% than that of the above rig with a single 6600 GT. And you can save that upgrade money to buy anything else in the future.
I know the pricing of the components is favouring the situation but i beleive it would be like this most of the time. I know ATI's AMR will nullify this but till then i dont think nVIDIA SLI is way to go. It is a good technology for sure and can work for some people but i beleive one ends up paying a lot more for the expected performance gains which is only good at paper.

Lastly: Also the DX standard we are using as of now is DX9. By next year we will be on DX 10. So buying a second card with DX9 only support with the SLI rig wont help much. It will only give us btter frame rates but we will still not be able to enjoy the eyecandy. On the otherhand a new card will have the newest support. Hope you guys got that.
So in the last i would like say the famous puch line of a Soft drink Commercial Dekhavo pe met jaoo, Apni Akal Lagaoo ;)

Hope this helped. I would like have everybody's views on this. I dont mind flames but try to support your views with reasoneing :).
Switch
 
hmm good point.

you can always go for 2 x 6600GT which works out cheaper than 1 x 6800GT.

But yes SLI needs much more CPU resources.

Currently the technology is CPU restricted.

It is still to be seen if a equivalent CPU is used, what performance does it give?
 
Very good....

And another thing I would like to point out here is that even on 2x 6800GTs, the performance gain is seen only at high res like 1600x1200. With AA and AF at the highest setting. But at those settings, the clarity is anyway so good that AA and AF will not make much of a difference. It is like runninf 1024x768 with AA and AF. Which can be run very comfortably on a 6800GT. Even a 6600 GT would do very well.... but probably with the AA an AF turned slighhtly down.
This again means that SLI is sort of waste unless you want bragging rights. And high 3D Mark scores.

So, to get that sort of resolution, you would need to spend more on the monitor as well...

And another thing...... your electricity bill would go up too ;).
 
Hehehe ...same views here....
SLI is for mainly topping the 3dmark recors for Nvidia to fool ppl tht their latest card is the best than ATI's.....
In sme reviews ppl compared two top of the line frm Nvidia running in SLI nd ATI's top of the line x850xt pe...diff was there but not much.....wht if the x850xt pe was running in SLi??/
It wud hav killed the ultras's

nd bout the upgrading thng i believe ATI's tech (counterpart of SLI) is much more better than SLI, atleast on paper, nd also whn u can use even old cards with new 1 (whn u hav saved enough) ...

EDIT: in the end thou yeh Dil Maange More ..... :rofl: :rofl: ...this wasnt necessary thou :bleh:
 
I totally agree...... On paper, ATI actually rules. Initially, the X800 series was a disaster. With very few cards being available and those too being priced waaaaay above their MSRP. But with the launch of the X800XL and X850 series, ATI are back...... But people are going for nvidia(even for 1 card) as they think that they can double the performance later in the future.

And as Switch made out the point abt the DX9 and DX10. Also, the two cards running in SLI should be from the same manufacturer, should have the EXACT same BIOS, everything should be exactly the same.

So, SLI is better when you buy both cards at the same time.
 
In sme reviews ppl compared two top of the line frm Nvidia running in SLI nd ATI's top of the line x850xt pe...diff was there but not much.
Click to expand...

Are you sure ?
I think thats not the case.
Infact if you have observed carefully, Geforce 6 series cards dont get too bad a battering from ATI in HL2,agreed they loose may times if not always but what happens in Doom3 ???
It is total humiliation for ATI,isnt it?

has anyone considered this fact ?
I am not against ATI or side with Nvidia but think, i guess you will realise what i am tryin to say. ;)

Just my opinion,so dont come charging towards me. :hap5:
 
SLI is only for uber rich. But Darky has a point Nvidia has an edge in OPenGL games, but look at the amount of titles which the Doom 3 engine has been licensed for only 3. On the other hand 12 titles have been registered with Unreal 3 engine and 4 titles with the source engine.

At the moment Nvidia and ATI are nearly head to head with Nvidia leading in lower segments and ATI having an edge in mid segments. Upper segments performance is on par.
 
I would support darky on this... nVIDIA got back the top spot in style by the GF 6 series. It litreally murdered ATI's dominence in all the segments. ATI on the otherhand just got a back little bit with X800 and X800XL but still availability is a big issue. nVIDIA has all segments cards both in PCIe and AGP in stocks so as of now nVIDIA is up.
 
@Darky ... u r rite in tht, but Doom3 was highly optimised for Nvidia while ati tried to do the same too , but valve made the game so tht it cud run on even a geforce2 nd wit a patch for the game there seemed no diff in performance.

wht i meant was overall the x850xt pe kills a single 6800ultra, rite??

also wht Aces said, the 6600gt is a nobrainer for sme1 upgrading in tht price range, but only till the x800pro makes its entry widely here
 
Yeah overall a x850xt pe kills a 6800U, still i'd like ppl to stay on topic :p Lets not get into ATi Vs Nvidia here. We shud stick to discussing SLI or AMR ............
 
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