Windows 7 and Gaming :)

Originally Posted by Mike89

From the time SLI came out I also thought it was a weird concept and designed to make more money for the Nvidia and ATI. The concept just never made sense to me and now motherboards are coming out certified for a separate physx card. I always thought more focus should have been on technology for single card use and get rid of all this mulitiple card stuff. Just my opinion and not meant to start a flame war with the multiple card users.

I would agree with this. Take the effort being put into developing SLI into higher powered single cards coming out sooner and at quicker intervals.

[ViN86]

Originally Posted by Mike89

The concept just never made sense to me and now motherboards are coming out certified for a separate physx card. I always thought more focus should have been on technology for single card use and get rid of all this mulitiple card stuff.

Yes and no, I mean you have to look at the time. Speed restrictions were starting to come into play, so many hardware designers decided to move towards more parallel and efficient processing as compared to raw power.

That being said, when it first came out I wanted an SLi rig pretty bad. Now I have no interest in it.

[Mike89]

when it first came out I wanted an SLi rig pretty bad

I just never did. Contrary to be excited by the idea, I was actually quite disgusted by it (the idea of the direction the vid card makers were going to take it and focus taken off technology for single card use). Money drives the world and that's what this is to me.

[crainger]

SLI is good for game like Crysis, the big ones which Nvidia dedicates a lot of time into the SLI profile and drivers. As more and more games get more attention SLI has gotten a lot better, for older games, there is always SLI AA, and boy do they look good. Plus for awhile 2x260GTX was cheaper than anything else with more grunt. ::

[Scendore]

Originally Posted by mailman2

SLI is more of a PITA than its worth.

I have to agree with you on this one... It's certainly not like the old days of SLI... I still have my Voodoo2s which worked flawlessly for several years back in the day.

Now with all the constant driver changes it just reintroduces problems. For me it's not worth the hassle.

Sure sure once you get it up and running it's a great technology. It litterally doubles performance but the path to get there is pretty bumpy.

Oh well. Can't wait to ditch it

[mailman2]

Originally Posted by crainger

SLI is good for game like Crysis, the big ones which Nvidia dedicates a lot of time into the SLI profile and drivers. As more and more games get more attention SLI has gotten a lot better, for older games, there is always SLI AA, and boy do they look good. Plus for awhile 2x260GTX was cheaper than anything else with more grunt. ::

Keep in mind though, not all games scale with SLI. Some see little to no improvement. Does SLI do anything for GTA IV?

Then there is microstutter, input lag and the multitude of other issues that come along with SLI. Still, I hold my position that its more a PITA than it's worth and will stick with the fastest single cards I can get my hands on.

[shilk]

FWIW, I got my other 9600GT for free, so I'm not complaining. But personally, I honestly think it's not even worth it. Too much of a hassle/pain in the ass to get it to work with certain games and stuff. I know there's nHancer, and I've been using it a LOT more since I got the SLi thing going. I just want to launch a game and feakin play — not sit here and fiddle with settings and drivers just to try and get the game playable.

I would honestly settle for one powerful card rather than have two that couldn't even match it's power, to be honest.

[NaitoSan]

It depends on individuals. For me, I hated it. I used to have so much troubles when I had two 7800 GTX 512mb cards. Maybe it's because SLI was still pretty new. Or poor support from drivers. Either way, I rather deal with one card and run everything with ease. I have other things to worry about like my life and school.

[nekrosoft13]

I preffer single card, I had dealings with SLI in my machine twice. Once with 7800GT SLI and then with 7950GX2. Had no major issues with SLI it worked fine.

From time to time it required a bit of my time to setup a proper SLI profile.

[Dr.Nick]

I think Win7 is a little better if you run SLI or CF. Some games do actually show some improvement over Vista. Plus I've been really impressed at the new GT200 cards as they MUCH better at it than the 7 or 8 series. Smooth as butter my friends