Is SLI worth it?

[HeaT]

Is SLI really worth it?

I have a http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-064-GI and I'm thinking of going to SLI for the first time.

What are the pros and cons. Would games really benefit that much?

i9 950

Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz XMS3

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB

c300 64gb

F3 1TB

 

[Tortuga]

Well the general rule of thumb is, buy the single biggest card you can afford at the time. Yes SLI has great scaling usually. Two 460s are great, 2 560s are epic, but you lose the expandability of the bigger cards. Your 570s and 580s can run 3 way, and quad sli. So it just depends on your needs. Lower end cards only offer 2 card sli MAX.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Well the general rule of thumb is, buy the single biggest card you can afford at the time. Yes SLI has great scaling usually. Two 460s are great, 2 560s are epic, but you lose the expandability of the bigger cards. Your 570s and 580s can run 3 way, and quad sli. So it just depends on your needs. Lower end cards only offer 2 card sli MAX.

"the general rule of thumb" Hmm... If you follow the "rule of thumb" that dictates you should buy the most expensive things you can afford, then you'll end up a pauper.

 

[Tortuga]

"the general rule of thumb" Hmm... If you follow the "rule of thumb" that dictates you should buy the most expensive things you can afford, then you'll end up a pauper.

Sure if you apply it to every aspect of your life, I thought we were talking about video cards? I did have a few drinks, and the drinks weren't the most expensive I could afford. I thought I laid it out rather nicely up there. If your not planning on expanding, and you want gtx 580 like performance right NOW for cheaper, sure, SLI a couple 460's or 560's. You just lose expandability and of course the hassle of SLI driver issues in some games.... so it just depends what ya want.

 

[INMATE183]

Only reason I have a 5770 is because I fell in to the duel card trap...baught 2x 5770 instead of getting a single 5850 due to all the WOW look 2x 5770 runs amazing! same as a 5870! WOW ...

FAIL... it worked well on one game...and had to turn it off for everything else

I think its probly better to run one card in to the ground...by the time you want to upgrade you could sli/xfire it via ebay or get a later card? later card it is then

....1 card at a time

less power, less noise, less hassel, less heat....WIN!

 

[rwiuviberwVFIUBER]

Yeah I definitely agree with Tortuga here. I myself basically set a budget on how much I wanted to spend on my system, and basically did a seperate budget for my GPU, which was 300. So I ended up with a 560, but that also means I have room to expand later down the track.

Always buy the better single card first, then expand on that later

 

[hmmblah]

I have been pleasantly surprised with my 470s. Every game I've played I have had 0 issues to speak up. I'm not a huge gamer though anymore due to life happening, but when I do get a chance everything has been working great.

460s are cheap enough now that it would be worth it to add another depending on what resolution you game in. Are there any games right now that you feel are being held back by your single 460?

The worst part about multiple cards is the added heat. The best part is the increased PPD.

 

[murphy7801]

Generally its good sli is supported by almost all games thing is better to go with a big card due to way sli works the render each frame alternately so for example:

Crysis for each frame for a pair of sli'ed gtx 460 you only get the maximum number of shaders, ram and gpu limits per frame which means you get amazing mid to high graphics better not extreme. Because each card by themselves cannot cope with one frame of extreme even if there doing half the number of FPS. So SLI is great just got to be know what getting yourself in for cards like a gtx 570 in sli have loads shaders though so not normally an issue in sli.