Originally posted by: Thermalrock
when you could hook up two voodoos ppl thought it was cool for a lil time then it got annoying and back to single card the market went.
Originally posted by: IAteYourMother
While it isn't very smart in terms of cash to get 2 video cards now, the point for the cheap majority of people is for upgrading purposes. You buy your 6800GT now for 400. Maybe 2 years later, you find one for say 200 dollars and you buy it, hook it up through SLI, and you've successfully upgraded your comp to current specs without having to shell out dough for a brand new card.
That's odd. All the reviews, here included, show it to be a huge advantage. Why do you say this? Links?I think Sli is a good idea on paper but in real life it wouldn't really give you that much of a advantage.
I buy a new motherboard every year anyway, Ive read these will cost $150 and up. (about $10-$20 more than I usually spend, so not a factor?)--First you would need to invest in a SLI mobo,
Why wouldn't you get to use it fully? When you're playing every game at 16X12 4X8X with no slowdowns, that isn't "using it"?--If you get 2 top end card now, it would be a overkill and you'll be spending too much $$$ for something that you will not use fully.
Errr, this is sort of the point? That you can by another of the same card later when they're cheaper rather than selling your old card at a huge loss?--If you get 1 top end card now, you'll be limited to getting the same card later if you plan to take advantge of the SLI Motherboard that you purchased before hand. By doing so you are limiting yourself on videocard options. Either you get the same card you got a year ago, or you get a new Graphic card. If you are getting a new Graphic card then you just wasted you money on the SLI mobo, so your only option that Justified you purchase of this SLI mobo is to get the same card you got a year ago.
Of course, you'll have to live with much lower performance than the guys who bought SLI, and knowing that you're usually a guy who tries to have the best or close to it, but now you're just in the middle of the pack with average performance. Every benchmark you look at from now on will have your $400 - $500 card in the middle of the chart.So instead of getting a SLI mobo and then a top end card, you could just get a top end card, and when the time comes to upgrade, you can get the new top end card and just resell your old one.
More support? Who cares? Motherboard makers are working feverishly to put out boards like this as we speak. We know how it works with FarCry, Doom3, and Half Life2, which are going to be the most heavily licensed engines in the next couple years?You also have the options of moving to SLI mobo if it gained more support by this time, and you'll know exactly how 2 sli card will preform on the newer current games.
nVidia cards are DX9 SM3. The games that support this will start coming out over the next year. Even though DX9 has been out two years there are less than 10 games that really use it. Do you honestly think you can tell us, and not have us laugh really hard, that DX10 and 11 will be a factor in the next year and a half? How often do you think people with $600-$1000 to spend on video cards upgrade video cards? (hint: they are not keeping them 5 years)A Good example is Direct X.
If you do SLI now you are limited to DX9 and i'm sure the new card will be going to DX10 or 11.
LOL- this proves my point. HL2 came out a year and a half after the FX5900. I don't know about you, but if you honestly keep any computer hardware 2 years, you're using antiques.So this can really decrease your preformance, if the game you want to play is base on the new DX. Just check out how bad the FX5900 did on DX9 over DX8 on half-life 2.
You'll wait a long time for that, do you think the only components on a video card that change are the core and RAM?!?!?What i'm waiting for is a Videocard that's similar to a motherboard, so that we can just exchange the GPU and RAM.
Originally posted by: Rollo
I don't know about you, but if you honestly keep any computer hardware 2 years, you're using antiques.
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--If you get 2 top end card now, it would be a overkill and you'll be spending too much $$$ for something that you will not use fully.
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Why wouldn't you get to use it fully? When you're playing every game at 16X12 4X8X with no slowdowns, that isn't "using it"?
Can't you already play every game at 16x12 4x8x with no slowdowns with just ONE 6800 Ulta?. Hence wouldn't two be overkill ATM?
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--If you get 1 top end card now, you'll be limited to getting the same card later if you plan to take advantge of the SLI Motherboard that you purchased before hand. By doing so you are limiting yourself on videocard options. Either you get the same card you got a year ago, or you get a new Graphic card. If you are getting a new Graphic card then you just wasted you money on the SLI mobo, so your only option that Justified you purchase of this SLI mobo is to get the same card you got a year ago.
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Errr, this is sort of the point? That you can by another of the same card later when they're cheaper rather than selling your old card at a huge loss?
I think his point is that the SLI route does limit your future gfx card choice, unless money is of no concern in the matter. I think it's a good point
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So instead of getting a SLI mobo and then a top end card, you could just get a top end card, and when the time comes to upgrade, you can get the new top end card and just resell your old one.
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Of course, you'll have to live with much lower performance than the guys who bought SLI, and knowing that you're usually a guy who tries to have the best or close to it, but now you're just in the middle of the pack with average performance. Every benchmark you look at from now on will have your $400 - $500 card in the middle of the chart.
What? Games are more important than benchmarking for many of us. I'm going to guess that future top-end cards will play future games perfectly fine with no slow downs in FPS. So continually upgrading to one top-end card seems to make sense for gameplay. If you wanna have the top bencmark scores, by all means you will need SLI with two current top-end cards. In otherwords, you'll have to buy two new cards every product cycle to be "benchmark King". Hardly economical though.
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A Good example is Direct X.
If you do SLI now you are limited to DX9 and i'm sure the new card will be going to DX10 or 11.
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nVidia cards are DX9 SM3. The games that support this will start coming out over the next year. Even though DX9 has been out two years there are less than 10 games that really use it. Do you honestly think you can tell us, and not have us laugh really hard, that DX10 and 11 will be a factor in the next year and a half? How often do you think people with $600-$1000 to spend on video cards upgrade video cards? (hint: they are not keeping them 5 years)
Yeah, peeps DO get exited about the "new features". Haven't some said that nVidia won this new round because the 6XXX series has these "new features". Remember the patch for Far Cry? For SLI to make any economical sense you're gonna have to hold on to the cards for a couple of years and yes, you will likely be missing new DX features that will be present in games
Originally posted by: Acanthus
I dont see how 70%+ across the board is a negligible gain either.
I buy a new motherboard every year anyway, Ive read these will cost $150 and up. (about $10-$20 more than I usually spend, so not a factor?)
Originally posted by: Genx87
Applying AF and AA it is worth it if you want the absolute fastest frames.
But I am wondering if when you dont apply AA and AF if we are too CPU bound at the moment?
Will Dual core CPUs alleviate this problem?
Not unless the game is smp aware. Otherwise you either get load balancing or can assign it to run on 1 CPU with duallys, neither of which will out perform a single CPU of the same specs in game performance for all but the few smp aware titles or those that allow for running more than one instance=very short list.Originally posted by: Genx87
Applying AF and AA it is worth it if you want the absolute fastest frames.
But I am wondering if when you dont apply AA and AF if we are too CPU bound at the moment?
Will Dual core CPUs alleviate this problem?