Becoming Disillusioned with SLi

H

Hurin

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 8, 2003
Messages
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I have used SLi since the 8800GTX era (earlier, if you count Voodoo 2!). GTX 280s, GTX 580s, and now GTX 780s.

Lately, though, I've started becoming less enthusiastic about it. . . because fewer and fewer games seem to work with SLi. Perhaps I'm just unlucky, but here are the last three games I've been into. . .

  • Mechwarrior Online - SLi doesn't work at all.
  • Company of Heroes 2 - SLi doesn't work at all and developer states it never will.
  • Total War: Rome 2 - SLi doesn't work at all and unconfirmed rumors state it never will.
The last game I played that scaled with SLi at all was LotRO. And I'm not playing that (hardly) at all anymore.

Even though I only run at 1920x1200, I like knowing I've got the added horsepower under the hood so I can absolutely max the eye candy. And I've always got my eye on a 30" monitor upgrade at some point in the future.

Well, I guess this is just a sanity check. . . I'm considering jettisoning my 2nd card while I can still get most of my money back for it. $650 (retail) was nothing to sneeze at.

Anyone else in the same boat? Anyone want to talk me out of it? :p
 
Couldnt wait to get my gtx690. I got it and like you I was very disappointed on how many titles dont work with SLI.
 
I keep buying motherboards that support SLI or have at least two full-sized PCI-E slots just in case and then keep seeing stuff like this.
 
I have completely opposite experience. Basically every game that I play benefits and some older ones are v-sync limited anyway (probably works just fine in those too).
 
Tup3x said:
I have completely opposite experience. Basically every game that I play benefits and some older ones are v-sync limited anyway (probably works just fine in those too).
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Yes, obviously, if the games I enjoyed would work with SLi, I would probably feel differently.
 
I ran SLI 670's for almost a year and just sold off my second card. I'm at 1440p and decided that eye candy and some more frames wasn't worth the heat, power and lack of 100% support. I got an alright amount of money for my EVGA card and didn't turn back. The choice is yours though.

Edit... As you're thinking about a 30" ( I assume 2560x1600) you may want to/have to consider SLI for current and upcoming games (depends on the titles you do/will play) but try a single 780 and when you cross that bridge the price probably will have dropped if you want SLI.
 
No issues with sli from 280s,560ti's,670s. 5670x1080 as well.

Probably more game based issues.
 
Like you, I've been experimenting with SLI for a long time, most recently with a GTX690.

I ditched the 690 at a loss and bought an "inferior" Titan.

Couldn't be happier (and I'm on a 30"). I just works.

SLI is not worth the trouble to me.
 
That's about 4 games out of a ton though....

Most people would find value in picking up a second card and just about doubling their FPS. And it is basically plug and play.

I'm not having much trouble at with my SLI setup -- this has been like the 4th time doing SLI. I did crossfire with the 5870s and my favorite game at the time was a flickering mess (Dirt 2) and I stuck with it. With my first SLI experience, with a GTX 295, I had issues w/the card or drivers -- no clue. Bad performance in a lot of games and sold the 295 soon thereafter because it was just not worth the hassle. With the 580s to 780s, it hasn't been bad at all. The 580s were noisy (made worse by living on a hot, tropical island), the 680s were quieter, with less heat generated and now the 780s are fairly quiet and I've since moved back to the mainland in NJ.

I've had flickering textures and some odd low performance in a game or two, but nothing to make me quit going to SLI.

I really can't stand low FPS and I don't like to turn things down unless they're just performance hogs, so I prefer going SLI. The heat and power usage isn't too much of a problem these days for my build and in my opinion, so it's overall a good thing for me.
 
Sorry guys, but this is [H]ARDocp. Not [Half-assed]ocp. It's better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.
 
It sounds like you already know you want to sell the 2nd 780, and just want someone to agree with your reasoning, which I do (based on the info in the OP)..If you play a lot of other games that do support SLI, I could see just working with a single GPU for those that don't, but the titles you listed are major AAA titles, and I would disappointed to not have support for my 2nd pricey card sitting in my rig..

I would sell the 2nd card now before the new AMD cards drop, and as mentioned, you can always pick up another later on if the next game(s) you are obsessed with has proper support..
 
Totally opposite experience for me. Almost all games I play leverage it and run fantastic at 144 fps vsync. Nothing like gaming at that high speeds. Some games do 72 fps vsync (like Metro LL or Crysis 3) and look amazing. In 3D also, SLi is much needed so that there is no stutter and eye candy can be cranked up.

I do know that SLi doesn't work in Company of Heroes 2 which is a bummer. Apart from that game, I don't remember the last game where SLi didn't work. I play mostly FPS, 3PS, RPG and Strategy games and it is fantastic.

I don't think I will ever go back or go AMD because of need for SLi.
 
If a game doesn't agree with SLI, can you just force the game to use a single GPU in the NVIDIA control panel to make the game run properly on a single card or does the game just remain pissed off and confused about the multiple cards?
 
djoye said:
If a game doesn't agree with SLI, can you just force the game to use a single GPU in the NVIDIA control panel to make the game run properly on a single card or does the game just remain pissed off and confused about the multiple cards?
Click to expand...

You can either force it to run single GPU and if that doesn't work you can just turn off SLI completely. Usually forcing it to render on a single GPU works.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. Of course, I do disable SLi as appropriate. But that doesn't change the fact that I've got $650 + tax sitting idle in my rig during just about every game I have played recently or will want to play in the near-future.

I removed the 2nd card late last night and it's packed up in "like new" condition. . . just need to decide to sell it and how to go about doing so. I'm going to sit on it for a few days to make sure I'm happy with this decision. I'm essentially gambling that this is a trend that will continue for me at least into the next generation of video cards where I can re-evaluate and possibly jump back on the SLi bandwagon.

Thanks again, all.
 
Hurin said:
Thanks for the feedback guys. Of course, I do disable SLi as appropriate. But that doesn't change the fact that I've got $650 + tax sitting idle in my rig during just about every game I have played recently or will want to play in the near-future.

I removed the 2nd card late last night and it's packed up in "like new" condition. . . just need to decide to sell it and how to go about doing so. I'm going to sit on it for a few days to make sure I'm happy with this decision. I'm essentially gambling that this is a trend that will continue for me at least into the next generation of video cards where I can re-evaluate and possibly jump back on the SLi bandwagon.

Thanks again, all.
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Multicard support like multi-monitor support is a very niche use case and has been since...well the technologies came around. I don't think that will change, certainly not by next generation.
 
Skripka said:
Multicard support like multi-monitor support is a very niche use case and has been since...well the technologies came around. I don't think that will change, certainly not by next generation.
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What I meant was. . . currently all the games I play do not work (at all) with SLi. Hopefully that won't be the case in the future. But on the off-chance this is the beginning of a trend, I'm getting out and getting back a substantial amount of money.

Again, I've been doing SLi since the 8800GTX series. I'm not an SLi-noob. But these AAA-quality games having zero support for SLi is new. And I just happen to have been smacked by all of them since they're the only games I've had any interest in lately.
 
Hurin said:
What I meant was. . . currently all the games I play do not work (at all) with SLi. Hopefully that won't be the case in the future. But on the off-chance this is the beginning of a trend, I'm getting out and getting back a substantial amount of money.

Again, I've been doing SLi since the 8800GTX series. I'm not an SLi-noob. But these AAA-quality games having zero support for SLi is new. And I just happen to have been smacked by all of them since they're the only games I've had any interest in lately.
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It ain't a new trend by any means, it has been the norm since the tech came out. Multicard support isn't consistent and never was. It is just ill-luck in your taste in the current crop of games. And even in "supported" games it could run like shit.
 
Skripka said:
It ain't a new trend by any means, it has been the norm since the tech came out. Multicard support isn't consistent and never was. It is just ill-luck in your taste in the current crop of games. And even in "supported" games it could run like shit.
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I disagree. SLi used to "just work" nearly all the time. If a game wrote to DirectX in a standard way, it was trivial to get SLi to work merely by creating an SLi profile and we normally could get it to scale substantially.

This no longer seems to be the case as game studios begin more and more to use their own proprietary technologies and engines that conflict with multi-card capabilities.

If you have a recollection of several AAA-quality games being released within months of each other with no SLi capability (and none on the horizon), please share. But I fail to see why this needs to become an argument or a pissing contest. Three games represents a trend to me. . . if you think it's just more of the same, then that's fine. It doesn't change my calculus at all.

--H
 
Hurin said:
Thanks for the feedback guys. Of course, I do disable SLi as appropriate. But that doesn't change the fact that I've got $650 + tax sitting idle in my rig during just about every game I have played recently or will want to play in the near-future.

I removed the 2nd card late last night and it's packed up in "like new" condition. . . just need to decide to sell it and how to go about doing so. I'm going to sit on it for a few days to make sure I'm happy with this decision. I'm essentially gambling that this is a trend that will continue for me at least into the next generation of video cards where I can re-evaluate and possibly jump back on the SLi bandwagon.

Thanks again, all.
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I hear you on that first part -- I won't lie to you, it sucks when I see 50% usage on both cards, lol. If you sell it for close to retail, then you've lost nothing and the money can go to something else that you find useful.
 
I think unless you're going multi-monitor for gaming multi gpu configs are a bit of a waste these days.. the current crop of cards seem so powerful they can generally handle 1920x1200 (pretty common single display res) with EQ settings jacked up pretty well... this is not to say there wouldn't be any improvements for some games, but it might actually hinder you in some cases where SLi isn't supported at all.. etc etc.. if I were on a single display for gaming I would have just bought one 7800GTX and have been done with it. Even at 5760x1080 my 4G cards never use beyond 2.8ish on the mem... and that's on Doom3 with Sikkmod and tons of AA + 4x SS and texture packs.. kind of cracked me up the oldest game I play used the most mem on my cards. :eek:
 
revenant said:
I think unless you're going multi-monitor for gaming multi gpu configs are a bit of a waste these days.. the current crop of cards seem so powerful they can generally handle 1920x1200 (pretty common single display res) with EQ settings jacked up pretty well... this is not to say there wouldn't be any improvements for some games, but it might actually hinder you in some cases where SLi isn't supported at all.. etc etc.. if I were on a single display for gaming I would have just bought one 7800GTX and have been done with it. Even at 5760x1080 my 4G cards never use beyond 2.8ish on the mem... and that's on Doom3 with Sikkmod and tons of AA + 4x SS and texture packs.. kind of cracked me up the oldest game I play used the most mem on my cards. :eek:
Click to expand...

Try out Rage and turn up the AA.
 
redmasc said:
Sorry guys, but this is [H]ARDocp. Not [Half-assed]ocp. It's better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.
Click to expand...

oh boy someone else with psychological association needs..

This is H ..bla..bla..bla..

This website has always been about Price vs Performance and geared toward price minded people. Making the most with less.
 
I too have seen the complete opposite. If all you play are games with no SLI support and are getting frustrated then you must be only playing these types of games (not trying to offend):

Old
Low budget
No-namer games
No-namer developers
Indie
CPU limited games
Shitty console port games

My steam library has over 100 games I've completed and I can only think of 1 or 2 that didn't support SLI. I'm thinking towards the future and I already know the future is 4 way SLI with Titans/GTX 880s with a 4k monitor. Current benchmarks are showing almost perfect scaling with the 3rd and even the 4th GPU in SLI since this is where high SLI truly shines. Unfortunately it's going to be expensive but I refuse to go the console route (always have & always will)
 
I'll help OP, I can get that GTX780 out of your hands :)
 
Seyumi said:
I too have seen the complete opposite. If all you play are games with no SLI support and are getting frustrated then you must be only playing these types of games (not trying to offend):

Old
Low budget
No-namer games
No-namer developers
Indie
CPU limited games
Shitty console port games
Click to expand...
I provided the list.

Rome Total War 2 -- Currently the Steam top seller and has been in the top 10 for months.
Company of Heroes 2 -- ditto.
Mechwarrior Online -- New game. Just launched after open beta. Quite popular.

Not one of those fits the criteria you listed.

--H
 
revenant said:
I think unless you're going multi-monitor for gaming multi gpu configs are a bit of a waste these days.. the current crop of cards seem so powerful they can generally handle 1920x1200 (pretty common single display res) with EQ settings jacked up pretty well... this is not to say there wouldn't be any improvements for some games, but it might actually hinder you in some cases where SLi isn't supported at all.. etc etc.. if I were on a single display for gaming I would have just bought one 7800GTX and have been done with it. Even at 5760x1080 my 4G cards never use beyond 2.8ish on the mem... and that's on Doom3 with Sikkmod and tons of AA + 4x SS and texture packs.. kind of cracked me up the oldest game I play used the most mem on my cards. :eek:
Click to expand...

You're smokin crack. My 2560x1600 single 30 will stress even the highest cards out there. SLi is still a requirement for 2560x1600. Even a single Titan isn't enough. I've been waiting for the day I can move to a single card for years now. Hasn't happened yet.
 
currently running a gtx 590 from evga and I've not noticed any sli problems but I will admit to not really tinkering with it very much, when I want to play I just load up and play and when I'm done I do something else.

This card is a refurb/replacement from evga as my first took a nosedive and its been fine, I had a few problems with Assassins Creed last year but nothing really noteworthy. I've been debating going SLI with two separate cards for my next upgrade and the 7990 with its low prices has been tempting but I'm wary of driver problems with ATI.

Overall, a big part of me thinks I'd like to stick with a single gpu as I have 2 monitors hooked up to my card but I only game on one 27" monitor at 1900x1080.
 
I went to a single GTX 780 due to all the issues I had with SLI. Issues being input delay, microstutter and like the OP mentioned lack of game support. In the end it simply wasn't worth it and I won't be going back to multi-card.

I started with AMD HD5870 CFX, then HD6970 CFX, then went to GTX 680 SLI. I'm getting a new Asus monitor today with a resolution of 2560 x 1080. Hopefully my 780 is up to the challenge.
 
SLI gives me back the performance loss that enabling 3D Vision takes away. I can't remember the last time I had a game that either didn't have working SLI from the start or I wasn't able to use another game's profile to have it work.
 
Arioch said:
I can't remember the last time I had a game that either didn't have working SLI from the start or I wasn't able to use another game's profile to have it work.
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Please do this for Company of Heroes 2 and/or Total War: Rome 2 and report back with your findings! :p

Actually, don't. That would piss me off because I did indeed sell my 2nd card. :)
 
MWO is a game run by completely incompetent retards, that's why SLI doesn't work. The game doesn't even support DX11. My 7970 actually runs MWO better than my 690, but seeing as the game is going no where in the near future, I've pretty much decided to just go surround and buy matching 27s and sell my mismatched 30s.
 
back when I had my first and only SLI system (koff...6-8 yrs ago) they were Nvid cards (7600GT?...
 
I haven't messed with it lately, but it never used to be worth the headache. I've always been a fan of max details + vysnc at the standard resolution rather than using a higher resolution monitor.
For my needs, it just never had the impact I wish it had...especially for the cost of it.
My current philosophy tends to be buying the best single card I can afford every 2 years while selling my old one to help finance that purchase.
 
At this point in time, there are more games that support Quad Crossfire using my 2x 4870x2 cards with the legacy drivers and latest CAPs than support 2-way SLI using my 2x GTX680's.

That's just sad.
 
I haven't messed with it lately
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Key statement. I guess that lately is a long time ago as I have not experience problems with SLI. Only tie I had issues with it , in sort of an SLI issue, was a GTX295..after taht it has been a sweet experience.
Just did tri sli yesterday for the first time too.
 
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