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DandyBear said:What really is going to "Make" or "Break" SLI or ATI's upcoming Multi-Rendering is the support these companies lend to these technologies. SLI is a new technology, barely a month old and we are complaining that it doesnt work in alot of games. However, If I spent $1000+ dollars on a vid card setup, I'd want it to work great also. The fact is right now, the ends don't justify the means, save your thousand dollars or maybe go on a nice vacation.
killerD said:Even if SLI did work in every game without a hitch, it would still be a waste of money. First lets identify the market of SLI, Nvidia says it aims it at every customer so that they may easily upgrade in the future by buying another card when the prices drop. The problem is you are only upgrading frames per second, not new technology such as shader 4.0 when it comes out. Thanks to this little website called ebay, it would then make more sense to sell your old 6600/6800 and buy the new generation card when it comes out, thus getting the speed of two and the latest technology in OpenGL and DirectX. I didn't even mention it costs $100 more for an SLI equipped MB and probably $50 more to upgrade your PS which would probably be necessary for the "common" man who wants to run two vid cards.
So that leaves us with the real market SLI will capture, the ultra enthusiasts with money to burn. Those who spend more time benchmarking and posting statistics on these forums than playing the games. Yes I realize thats what some of you like to do which I have no problem with, but from a business persepective SLI does not succeed.
killerD said:Even if SLI did work in every game without a hitch, it would still be a waste of money. First lets identify the market of SLI, Nvidia says it aims it at every customer so that they may easily upgrade in the future by buying another card when the prices drop. The problem is you are only upgrading frames per second, not new technology such as shader 4.0 when it comes out. Thanks to this little website called ebay, it would then make more sense to sell your old 6600/6800 and buy the new generation card when it comes out, thus getting the speed of two and the latest technology in OpenGL and DirectX. I didn't even mention it costs $100 more for an SLI equipped MB and probably $50 more to upgrade your PS which would probably be necessary for the "common" man who wants to run two vid cards.
So that leaves us with the real market SLI will capture, the ultra enthusiasts with money to burn. Those who spend more time benchmarking and posting statistics on these forums than playing the games. Yes I realize thats what some of you like to do which I have no problem with, but from a business persepective SLI does not succeed.
Elledan said:So basically nVidia has made us believe (or at least didn't try to disspel the illlusion) that SLI would make every game out there run 20 - 60% faster than with a single card, and now it turns out that this is only true for 'supported' games?
dderidex said:That's exactly my problem with the whole thing.
nVidia pitched this as a solution for every enthusiast - from SLI 6600GTs up to SLI 6800 Ultras for the really wealthy.
However, it's not really an enthusiast solution at all!
If all you ever play is the popular, mainstream, top-10 games - and then, wait a little bit after release for nVidia's next driver update that includes support for them before you even go out and BUY one....then, yeah, SLI is for you.
I don't see how it could be for anyone else, though.
Vega said:As a SLI system owner I can safely say that I am fairly dissapointed with the results of spending quite a bit of money on these parts. I put off buying a new desktop for months for SLI, payed a premium for an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe only for the main game I play, World of Warcraft to not even work in SLI. (Please spare me the WoW doesn't need SLI replies I've already been there and done that).
nVidia really kept this "not working in every game need a profile" crap under wraps for quite some time. The time I did all of my research and decided to wait and buy it there was not a hint of it working with only a few games. Along with the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe which seems to be a fairly unstable MB even at stock that doesn't like to overclock. Not to mention when SLI is enabled, graphical glitches, waves going up and down the screen when only using one graphics cards etc. In SLI 6800 series is allot harder to overclock too.
If Asus can get off their asses and produce a stable bios for this MB (if they can?) and nVidia shapes up and makes these stupid little profiles for more games it will be worth it.
Yeah, but that's not true, though.^eMpTy^ said:For most games one of these new cards is more than enough to begin with...the only games that need SLI happen to be *gasp* the top-ten mainstream games...
SLI is cool...if you don't like it, I recommend you turn a blind eye to the hardware community for the next year at least...because it's not going anywhere...and a lot of people kinda like it...
Vega said:As a SLI system owner I can safely say that I am fairly dissapointed with the results of spending quite a bit of money on these parts. I put off buying a new desktop for months for SLI, payed a premium for an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe only for the main game I play, World of Warcraft to not even work in SLI. (Please spare me the WoW doesn't need SLI replies I've already been there and done that).
nVidia really kept this "not working in every game need a profile" crap under wraps for quite some time. The time I did all of my research and decided to wait and buy it there was not a hint of it working with only a few games. Along with the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe which seems to be a fairly unstable MB even at stock that doesn't like to overclock. Not to mention when SLI is enabled, graphical glitches, waves going up and down the screen when only using one graphics cards etc. In SLI 6800 series is allot harder to overclock too.
If Asus can get off their asses and produce a stable bios for this MB (if they can?) and nVidia shapes up and makes these stupid little profiles for more games it will be worth it.
pinsnpies said:my thoughts exactly. i have an sli system on order i am actually going for this motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Socket_939.html
and these two msi 6600 gts http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/6600_GT.html
but i am worried about this "buying a second card when prices drop business" If i went for 2 6800gts by the time i can afford them, nvidia might have bought out something better so at the moment i am playing it safe with these two 6600 gts
mulpsmebeauty said:Just as a thought - why don't you buy a single 6800GT now which will be about the same price as the 6600GTs, will be slightly quicker overall and have none of the early compatibility issues? You can add in a second one later in the year.
Actually, SLI'd 6600GTs are faster than a single 6800 Ultra by a healthy margin.mulpsmebeauty said:Just as a thought - why don't you buy a single 6800GT now which will be about the same price as the 6600GTs, will be slightly quicker overall and have none of the early compatibility issues? You can add in a second one later in the year.
Dr. X said:Bullshit...they didn't keep anything under wraps. It's right on their damn website, in a couple of places, and they talk about it in every review I've read of the technology. Sounds like you didn't do your homework.
DemonDiablo said:If you did you research you would have known that being the first kid on the block with SLI was only going to end up biting you in the ass
Only a sucker would truely buy into all the hype and be the first in the line to buy something new. Me and the rest of the exp people now enough to let people like you to "test the waters" out for us.
bellevegasj said:Is ATI going to release something similar to this or try to make a better single video card?
Because it's optional *now*, but for how long?Brent_Justice said:why are you all arguing over something that is optional to purchase and completely voluntary?
do your homework, know the facts, be informed about what you are buying
and if you find SLI isn't for you, fine
and if you do find SLI is for you, fine
dderidex said:Because it's optional *now*, but for how long?
Gigabyte has already created a card with two 6600GT chips in SLI that outperforms the 6800 Ultra!
And if the Inq is to be believed (I know, I know), the nv48 and nv50 were cancelled since nVidia believes users just SLI'ing up their older cards is an acceptable upgrade path.
Who is to say nVidia hasn't taken a lesson from Gigabyte and decided rather than having nv48 and nv50 (marginally clocked up versions of their current cores), their next commercial release should be a dual-core 6800 Ultra or something using their SLI technology.
The combination of these thoughts doesn't look promising to me. It LOOKS like nVidia is starting to get the same idea ATI has had for a while - that only users who play the 'top 10' games matter, and that sacrificing compatibility to achieve success in the 'top 10' games is the best market strategy.
This is NOT the direction I wanted to see nVidia going.
Let's just say I really, REALLY don't like ATI's compatibility problems (with older games) and don't even like the thought of nVidia contemplating a path that could lead them in the same direction.Brent_Justice said:paranoid much?
dderidex said:Let's just say I really, REALLY don't like ATI's compatibility problems (with older games) and don't even like the thought of nVidia contemplating a path that could lead them in the same direction.
Yeah, but compatibility doesn't matter for workstation cards.^eMpTy^ said:Well Nvidia is dedicated to SLI...they've said as much...and when they put thier minds to doing something with software...they usually come through...I doubt they'll be sacrificing compatibility that much...since their workstation cards will be SLI as well..
I'm hardly claiming to be psychic, but trends are trends and can be seen.Brent_Justice said:how do you know what NVIDIA is contemplating?
hell i don't even know
i don't buy into rumors, just cold hard facts
dderidex said:Actually, SLI'd 6600GTs are faster than a single 6800 Ultra by a healthy margin.
bellevegasj said:Is ATI going to release something similar to this
or try to make a better single video card?
dderidex said:Actually, SLI'd 6600GTs are faster than a single 6800 Ultra by a healthy margin.
Indeed, those are the cases where the SLI profile isnt working right.Spank said:and sometimes 6600gts in sli is slower then a single 6600gt
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041222/images/image011.gif
look at some real game benchmarks and you will see that in most cases a 6800 gt is the better buy instead of 2x6600gt's
Moloch said:well what if a billionaire was only a billionair in certain situations
Laforge said:As I said.. Xwing is ancient.. it doesn't NEED sli....And sims? Sims2? Does that even need a p4 or a 32mb video card jesus.. I have someone playing sims2 with gf2mx 64mb video on a xp1700+)
From my sim2 box :
Requirements : 800mhz (not even 1 ghz) and a t&l capable, 32mb video card