SLI and BF2142

[D0ubl3Hel1x]

I've decided to jump into the SLI club. I just bought my second PNY 7900 GS card and am axiously awaiting quitting time to get home and mess up my box. Er, I mean install the 2nd card. My question is: does anyone have anything good or bad to say about their SLI config? Any issues with 2142 and SLI? Any tips? Neither cards are OC'd yet so I'm hoping for an issue free adventure.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[draeh]

Originally Posted by D0ubl3Hel1x

I've decided to jump into the SLI club. I just bought my second PNY 7900 GS card and am axiously awaiting quitting time to get home and mess up my box. Er, I mean install the 2nd card. My question is: does anyone have anything good or bad to say about their SLI config? Any issues with 2142 and SLI? Any tips? Neither cards are OC'd yet so I'm hoping for an issue free adventure.

Thanks in advance for your input.

I have an 8800GTX SLI setup. Don't expect over 100FPS (I think the game throttles to 100FPS internally). Also, framerates seem to wander as server load changes. For instance. I can have 100FPS while we're mining Toll station, but once the battle is raging in Toll Station, my FPS drops into the 70s. If I move my soldier to a different part of the battlefield (less populated... less data coming from the server), my FPS goes happily back up to 100.
On other games that do not cap frame rates, I saw a HUGE increases with SLI.

Battlefield looks so pretty at 1680x1050 with all the detail on.

[D0ubl3Hel1x]

Originally Posted by draeh

I have an 8800GTX SLI setup. Don't expect over 100FPS (I think the game throttles to 100FPS internally). Also, framerates seem to wander as server load changes. For instance. I can have 100FPS while we're mining Toll station, but once the battle is raging in Toll Station, my FPS drops into the 70s. If I move my soldier to a different part of the battlefield (less populated... less data coming from the server), my FPS goes happily back up to 100.
On other games that do not cap frame rates, I saw a HUGE increases with SLI.

Battlefield looks so pretty at 1680x1050 with all the detail on.

I play at 1600x1200 on a 20" with full detail except camera shake and 2x AA and am able to pull 40-45 FPS on average but with fraps running it drops to 20-25 with one card. I am hoping to hit 50 or 60 adding SLI and yes, the game is gorgeous at high resolution. Even my girl was in awe at the sunset on the new map.

Thanks for your input.....now give me your graphics cards.

[D0ubl3Hel1x]

Originally Posted by G--Man

Until more games are released to take advantage of SLI you won't get any better than what draeh reports. The only recent game I've seen that really takes advantage of SLI is Call of Duty 2 (I'm sure there are more), it actually has an SLI setting option in the video configuration options

There are two different settings for SLI (listed below). AFR and SFR. SFR being for games which have SLI profiles like CoD2 and the other just divides the workload so games without SLI support will still see a significant increase in performance.

Copy and paste:

Alternate Frame Rendering: This is a rendering mode where one video card renders even-numbered frames while the other renders odd-numbered frames. This mode usually works best for both supported and some unsupported games and applications since it is has a fairly solid track record with both, considering it isn't as algorithmically intense like SFR. AFR has two modes, aptly named Alternate Frame Rendering 1 and Alternate Frame Rendering 2. AFR2 can be considered a "safe mode" version of AFR in the sense that some games may be able to use AFR2 instead of AFR1, although it can produce better frame rates in some situations when both modes work.


Split-Frame Rendering: This is a rendering mode usually reserved for games and applications with official SLI profiles and support due to the way the load is distributed amongst the processors. SFR draws a line where half of the visual information lies on the screen and allocates one half per GPU, hence the name "split-frame." A function known as the "SLI Visual Indicators" can show you just where that line is in Split-Frame mode, and depending on the concentration of visual detail the position of said line can differ. In a basic cuboidal room with no objects or actors, the line will hover right around the middle of the screen. In a room with stairs, windows, ceiling fans and light fixtures, doors, support columns and whatnot, the load balance is going to be thrown way off since there is more visual content in one part of the screen than the other. The visual indicators also visually display the workload distribution in the AFR modes, although it is slightly different and difficult to understand. In AFR modes, a vertical band is seen on the left side of the screen with a green box in the middle of it which will grow vertically depending on the amount of scaling in the scene.

[Ferris Bueller]

Well, although its not NVIDIA, it's still technically SLI (crossfire is ATI's rendition), I'm running 2 Radeon X1950 Pro's at 1600x1200 on full high-res and I get about 75-80 FPS in full-on firefights (again, the toll station melee is a good example) and during lower-numbered encounters I hit the 100 cap constantly.

[Anospa]

SLI is only something you're gonna notice giving you more perforance if you're running a higher Res. It'll give you more power to push out those higher textures, but won't really show much gain at a lower/"regular" res.

[D0ubl3Hel1x]

Originally Posted by Anospa

SLI is only something you're gonna notice giving you more perforance if you're running a higher Res. It'll give you more power to push out those higher textures, but won't really show much gain at a lower/"regular" res.

I have read this as well and this is especially true with high end cards like Draeh's. I'm wondering if this can be applied to mid-range cards like mine. When you say regular resolution do you mean 1024x768?

[Anospa]

I've found out recently that FRAPs is more so CPU and HDD intensive than GPU due to recording and writing of the large video file.

Standard monitor size is probably between 17" and 19" these days (1280x1024 being the higher of the two). I'm at 1440 x 900 (19" WS) and running on a 7900 GT KO slightly overclocked with all max settings, and average 40ish and 30s-ish while FRAPsing, all dependent on what is happening on screen.

The thing with SLI is that you get two mid-range cards and they may help out and make things good for awhile, but the high end card will easily be the better. Its all gonna be what you need things for and your budget.

[UnDeaD77]

I get 70+fps with one 8800GTS 320mb. 2x aa as well.

[Zoopy]

Whatever you have you'll still bog down to crap when in the middle of an orbital strike.

[UnDeaD77]

Not me, I do pretty good on strikes.

[D0ubl3Hel1x]

update because I know you guys are dying to know: The installation of the SLI config happened without a hitch. The only problem I ran into was my SLI bridge was not where I thought it was and was forced to order another. I decided to go ahead and test the config without the bridge and received about a ten FPS increase at max graphics on 2142, Lineage II and Half Life. Even though the two cards have to communicate via the mobo and this slows downs the process compared to the bridge being installed I noticed more plush graphics, detailed shading and smoother gameplay even with camera shake turned on.

[draeh]

Originally Posted by D0ubl3Hel1x

I noticed more plush graphics, detailed shading and smoother gameplay even with camera shake turned on.

You know... I have never tried turning the camera shake off.... Hmm.

[Thanatos]

I am green with envy.

[draeh]

Originally Posted by Anospa

I've found out recently that FRAPs is more so CPU and HDD intensive than GPU due to recording and writing of the large video file.

Thankfully on my dual core machine and SATA harddrives, I see no performance hit when recording with FRAPS (other than the FRAPS framerate setting).