Experiences with SLI?

[Melee]

I have a single video card (7800GT) and I am considering getting a second to use the SLI capability of my mobo. I'm wondering what people's experiences have been using SLI. Has it been a headache or troublefree?

[B. Clawhammer]

I'm running the exact card in SLI and haven't had any issues really. I don't notice a huge difference in game, but having SLI definitely boosts benchmark scores. Just keep drivers up to date and you shoul dbe good to go.

[Zoopy]

As long as your using Windows XP. Vista does not support the 7000 series in SLi.

I (used to on XP) have two 7800GTX in SLi. It works great for preaty much all games. If the game you want to play does not have a SLi profile, then you can rename the exe file to some other game that has a SLi profile already. For example:

Rainbox 6 vegas -> rename the game.exe to UTGame.exe

Armed Assault -> rename Arma.exe to Gothic3.exe

That is if you don't want to make your own profiles. In the end I find SLi slightly impractical unless you can get a second card for really cheap or run high resolutions.

[Boot]

I ran into some issues with my Asus Nvidia 680i mobo and new X-Fi while running SLi. They call it the Screech of Death and that should be enough of a description. Looks like a USB 2.0, SLi and X-Fi combined issue: no fix yet, maybe a workaround. If you have two of these already, be wary of the third.

[B. Clawhammer]

Originally Posted by Boot

I ran into some issues with my Asus Nvidia 680i mobo and new X-Fi while running SLi. They call it the Screech of Death and that should be enough of a description. Looks like a USB 2.0, SLi and X-Fi combined issue: no fix yet, maybe a workaround. If you have two of these already, be wary of the third.

Come to think of it, I too had some issues with my X-FI and SLI. I would hear the snap, crackle, pop with SLI enabled, but it would go away if disabled. I read somewhere that it was a power issue, so I got a new PSU and it seems to have gone away. Who knows though...

[Drizzid]

I am running SLI with EVGA 7800 gt also. I haven't had any issues except for the last driver update. The last Nvidia drivers would cause you to loose one of the cards, so I just rolled back to my last driver and have been running smooth as a babies butt!

[Boot]

Originally Posted by B. Clawhammer

Come to think of it, I too had some issues with my X-FI and SLI. I would hear the snap, crackle, pop with SLI enabled, but it would go away if disabled. I read somewhere that it was a power issue, so I got a new PSU and it seems to have gone away. Who knows though...

The snap crackle pop issue was different: Official word from Creative was that it had to do with the card running out of buffer when requesting data through the PCI bus. Latest official word is here. It implies that there are BIOS fixes but I haven't tried it yet.

[marstein]

From what I understand the newest card is always faster (and cheaper) than an SLI solution.

[xTYBALTx]

Yeah I'm with Marstein on this - for another $100, you can get one 8800GTS... and it should be quite faster than the 7800GT-SLi.

[JME.Fidelity]

I used 2 7800gtx's in SLi with an Asus P5N-SLi32 before upgrading to a single 8800GTX.

As far as issues go, the Sli'd 7800gtx's were incredibly easy to set up, simply install the driver and set whatever SLI mode you want for games. Couldnt be easier.

A few games have problems with SLI, but these are few and far between. You can always just disable it for a certain game. I would say the performance benefits would be worth it, but your mileage may vary.

[Buckets]

I have two GeForce 6800s in SLi and I have no complaints. Its great for running games at high details. The cards are a bit outdated, though so I'm looking to upgrade in the next few months.

[Zid]

every card is able to run in SLi in vista except for the 8 series.

if your running SLi you'll see the biggest improvement at high resolutions (example 1920 x 1200)

also the 7800GTs are no longer being made so you'll probably need to find a Used one.

[Melee]

Originally Posted by Zid

...the 7800GTs are no longer being made so you'll probably need to find a Used one.

Yeah, I've been looking at used one's on ebay going for ~$125. Or I can sell mine on ebay and buy a 7950GT. While the 7950GT will probably give me better performance, it's easier to buy than sell on ebay. I also have a SLI capable mobo so why not try it once before building a new Vista system with DX10 card?

So many toys, so little time.

[=Sarc=]

Originally Posted by Zid

every card is able to run in SLi in vista except for the 8 series.

Isn't it the other way around like Zoopy said? I've looked at the release notes for the Vista drivers and they say only DX9 SLI is available for the 8 series at this time.

[Satertek]

Yea I've found that it's almost always a better idea to sell your current card and buy a new one.

Right now I could either buy a 2nd 6600GT or sell my current one and pick up a 7600GT, which would both be cheaper and give me much more performance.

Originally Posted by =Sarc=

Isn't it the other way around like Zoopy said? I've looked at the release notes for the Vista drivers and they say only DX9 SLI is available for the 8 series at this time.

All cards work in SLI on Vista now.
(With the exception that SLI dosesn't work in DX10 apps yet...of which there is only one test nVidia app out now)