Hi all, I was hoping some of you might have some experience with SLI that you're willing to share. I have never used or even seen an SLI system except online, I don't know if I will even want to try it, but the motherboard I purchased has SLI capability and I would like to start researching it. Is it something I should look at if I don't want to spend $600+ on a single GPU? Is it possible to get comparable performance from an SLI (like say 2x $200 GPUs) and if so what kind of specifications should I be paying the closest attention to? Thanks!
SLI - bad scaling, high cost for GPUs, extra cost for bridges and stuff...
No. Just get more powerful graphics card. Not worth it.
PS: Nvidia was afraid people will buy 2x1060 for 500$ and have the same performance as 1080 for 700$ so they removed the SLI compatibility of the 1060...
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SLI or Crossfire can be really nice, but there are some drawbacks as well. You usually can get a ton of performance but some games don't scale well, or at all with 2x GPUs. So if you can find a good deal on lower end cards to run in SLI/Xfire it can be really awesome, but you just have to see if the games you are going to run are ones that like multi-GPU setups.
Otherwise... try for the higher end GPU.
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Generally, one more powerful GPU is a better option, as there are quite a few games that don't scale well in SLI, or don't work at all. You also lose out on the benefit of having more VRAM in DX11 and below titles, as the memory is mirrored on both cards, rather than stacked.
Nvidia have gotten rid of SLI on the GTX 1060, meaning that if you want the performance of dual 1060s, you would need to purchase a 1080.
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Maybe one day. But today is not the day.
No SLI. That is my final answer.
But once scaling becomes a thing like it was in the past then yes.
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No sli (or crossfire in my case because the day you see an nvidia card in my system is the day after AMD is dead). The performance gain is nice when it's there, but that's more of an IF than a WHEN, and if it's not there you get at best the performance of one of the cards and at worst less than the single card would be (that's a rare hedge case but it does exist).
NOPE
Seriously, just get a high end single card. I personally recommend waiting for Vega since that's coming out soon™.
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I personally allways prefer a single more highend gpu,
instead of Sli / Crossfire two lowerend gpu´s.
The main reason for this, is that in some games you will have a good experiance with dual gpu setups.
But there are also games that will be a complete headache.
Next to that, two lowerend cards might look cheaper on first hand.
But if you calculate the extra cost of a higher wattage psu and higher power consumption etc,
then the price benefit over a more powerfull single gpu gets slimmer basiclly.
Also on a side note, a GTX1060 does not support sli.
So if you want to do sli on the Nvidia side of things,
you basiclly are allready looking at GTX1070´s or higherend.
Unless you buy something used from previous gen 900 series or what not.
But buying Nvidia´s cards from previous gen series for gaming,
isnt allways that great of a choice.
Since that it "seems" that Nvidia hardly pays attention to optimized drivers for previous gen cards.
TL/dr My honnest advice, Go with a single more highend gpu.
And save yourself some potential crossfire or sli headaches.
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Always go with a single card over two cards when you can as it's less of a headache and better supported.
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DOn't do it bro!!!!
its not worth it
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Weeell... I have 690. It's 4 or 5 years old and it's still really good when SLI works. "Good" as in "I'm not going to swap it until at least next generation". The only problem is smaller RAM compared to newer adapters. When SLI works. When it doesn't, it's meh. Plus there are some weird bugs sometimes. Like, I didn't even finish DXMD yet because of DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED crap, which only seems to happen with SLI configs and which squenix won't fix.
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yea my experience with SLI/X fire has been, just go for the better GPU, so many headaches when it works, then when it doesn't you're back to single GPU speed.
just get a faster GPU, and then when you have the fastest possible GPU, THEN get a second one fro Xfire/SLI
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I went full dual GPU once.
ᴵ ᶜᵃⁿ ˢᵗᶦˡˡ ᵗᵃˢᵗᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ʳᵉᵍʳᵉᵗ.
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I'm surprised with all of you.
I've been running SLI for years now and have had little to no issues. Everyone here saying it's a headache and not worth it is either talking about old set up's or anecdotally. I've yet to see a modern game from a range of publishers (indies all the way to AAA) that gave me issues. Hell, even most old games are fine with it. While some certainly didn't perform as well as expected with two cpu's, there was an obvious increase in performance. To the tune of no less than 10FPS at worst. While that doesn't sound like a lot...when you've got a game struggling to make 30fps (looking at you Doom 3) those extra 10 fps make a difference.
Is it cost effective? No. I have more money than sense at times. I like to brag about running a dual GPU gaming rig. I do agree that if you have the choice of one high end card or two lower end cards, you're better off going with the single card. However, if you've got the cash to burn on two high end cards....Noting beats the throbbing erection you'll get from looking at your dual GPU rig.
edit: Don't waste time with tri-sli. The cost to benefit ratio is even more out of whack than regular SLI. I let my buddy go down that road....he swore he'd never do it again and yells from the mountain top not to go tri. Not that you can with the current gen cards anyway...
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I have ran my system in both configurations. I think the decision to run SLI for most people comes down to initial funds when building their rig. When I built my first system I opted to buy a single GTX 660 which got me gaming at 1080 at the 60 FPS and later purchased my second 660 for sli after prices of the card fell. I have to say that most games and almost all programs are optimized for single gpu performance so the second gpu isn't even used. Also, when setting up some systems - some linux distros and hackintosh machines - are a pain in the ass trying to get setup for the first time and cause problems later on. However, when things work right are optimized for a sli config, the performance is amazing and gaming on a sli system cant be beat.
I would like to add that some people get to hung up on FPS in their games and often buy way to much graphics power for what they actually need. Graphics cards should be bought to fit the bottleneck of each system, the monitor / tv. There are a lot of people that use tv's or monitors that have a 60htz refresh rate. For those people a 1060 will run every game well beyond the 60fps that the tv will reproduce. However, there are a lot of people that feel like they need to rush out and buy a 1080 to run games on a system that is lock at 60fps because the tv / monitor won't reproduce anything beyond that. Don't get me wrong, if your using a monitor like a predator that has a 100htz refresh rate or will do 4k video then you should look at getting something like a 1080 or running sli because your not limited by your monitor.
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I crossfired for three years and it wasn't the best experience. Lots of games don't support multiple GPUs at launch and sometimes ever. Some games have lots of issues even months down the line. I've had lots of flickering textures and stuttering. Also, one thing that may not seem like a big deal at first is the amount of heat the cards can generate. In the summer, this PC can heat up the room quite a bit and I game a decent sized living room. If you game in a smaller room, it's going to get hot.
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From what i understand SLI is even worse then x-fire.
Either case the cost of "extra performance" is redicules e.g. sli is like 30-40% extra performance for a extra GPU.
crossfire is maybe 60-70 percent return(And not as cash nazi about your product), but either way it is a HIGH price compared to gain, unless you got a APU, and just want that extra performance by buying a regular GPU to work with your IGPU.
To sum up the price/gain is simply not worth it as it is, maybe once vulkan, and DX12 really gets a hold and the "alternative" ways of handling multiple GPUs is explored, but as it is, no, even NVIDIA says so themselves.
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Okay then! Thanks all! Great comments. Huge help. I think I've seen enough - I've been using nvidia products for years, mostly because ... it's what I had. My work-in-progress build is heavy on the motherboard and CPU and my budget is really getting tight. Maybe SLI will drastically improve in the future? Either way, tinkering with GPU configurations and cards seems to be a sport on its own and I have options in the future due to the way the build is coming together. I have my eye on this guy: http://pcpartpicker.com/product/sx98TW/xfx-radeon-rx-480-4gb-rs-video-card-rx-480p4lfb6 as kind of my introduction to AMD products.
I've also been running SLI with no issues for years now. If the game supports SLI, the system uses it, if not, it just uses the one card.
Something you should consider is what resolution you plan to use. If you are only playing in 1080, then there is really no need to go SLI. A single mid range card will be totally fine. If you want to run 4k maxed out, then SLI becomes more attractive.
Having 2 GPUs right next to each other reduces airflow around them & makes them run hotter too. Mine are on water now, so they run super cool, but heat was an issue in summer when they were just running the fans.
If you don't want to spend $600, just get the best single GPU you can afford now. If you want to upgrade in a few years, you can look at getting a second one. Once DX12 & Vulkan are used on more titles, multiple GPUs should be a bigger performance boost.
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Sounds like a good plan to me - I do NOT have any needs above 1080p for gaming and don't anticipate having any in the near future. Thanks again
If you are interested in a RX480 instead of a Nvidia card.
Then maybe a 8GB RX480 might be more interesting then a 4GB model.
They dont even cost that significantlly more.
Allthough a 4GB RX480 is still good enough for 1080p gaming.
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