Dual, even Quad GPU's, is it really necessary?

[PCGeek1]

I don't consider myself a "heavy" gamer but I have a couple. One GF7800SLi card seems to work just for what I do, but I just want everyone else opinion on the MB's with the quad pcie slots...my MB has a dual, but I don't see a need for a 2nd 7800....

 

[cleeve]

SLI/Crossfire are by no means 'necessary'.

Consider SLI/Crossfire the 'Ferrari' of graphics cards. You can get real nice performance from a 'Ford Mustang' (your 7800), a 'Ferrari' (SLI/Xfire) is a little faster but is not cost effective because it costs over twice as much and isn't twice as fast.

But it's still nice to have a Farrari if you can afford it. Necessary? hell, no.

 

[Heyyou27]

Then don't buy a dual or quad GPU setup; no one is forcing you to.

I myself wouldn't invest in a quad GPU setup; if someone else wants to then that’s their business, not mine.

 

[kumana1]

if youre pleased with how your 7800 is performing, then no need to even consider a multi-gpu setup. i'd worry more about what to make for dinner.

 

[muharizj]

Maan whats up with all the hatorade? There are situations when you need SLI-

I use dual 20 inch 1600x1200 LCD's for development. When gaming, i use the primary display, because LCD's should be used in native resolution, I have no choice but to play games at 1600x1200. Now as anyone who has tried this knows, playing FEAR at that reso with any options on can be a gruelling task for my single 7800GTX (AMD 64 3500+, 2GB RAM). So i feel the need for an SLI rig right now, coz it doubles the FPS. Those who don't know about the performence gain should not be posting.. sigh

 

[azgard]

Maan whats up with all the hatorade? There are situations when you need SLI-

I use dual 20 inch 1600x1200 LCD's for development. When gaming, i use the primary display, because LCD's should be used in native resolution, I have no choice but to play games at 1600x1200. Now as anyone who has tried this knows, playing FEAR at that reso with any options on can be a gruelling task for my single 7800GTX (AMD 64 3500+, 2GB RAM). So i feel the need for an SLI rig right now, coz it doubles the FPS. Those who don't know about the performence gain should not be posting.. sigh

Im glad you enjoy your Alienware so much, noone believe's you.

 

[jap0nes]

so as dual core were marketing strategy not so long ago... at the time there were no real need for going dual core, but processor industry got to a point were it wasnt possible to extract any more performance from a single core, then they lauched dual core... now everybody wants to go dual core...

multi gpu is not needed today.. tomorrow will probably be

 

[cleeve]

You can't relate a CPU to a GPU. Dual GPUs are for gaming, and it doesn't help alot in most cases. A dual core CPU helps in multi-tasking 100% of the time.

I dunno. I'd say the comparison is pretty close... when was the last time you started rendering a video before you started your favorite FPS?

Even dual CPUs don't help much, unless you're multitasking.

But I guess when more games become optimized for multicores, that'll change... its just I've seen too many people that think their X2 4200+ will kick the ass of a 3800+ at everything under the sun... in reality, a 3800+ will do many things faster, it just can't do a bunch of them at the same time very well...

 

[sdrawkcaBgoD]

No.

 

[jap0nes]

SLI has been around longer the dual core CPUs, and do not help 100% of the time.

well, dual core cpu's help 100% of the time when it uses threaded software, which are starting to be common by now. a year ago was hard to find threaded software, then dual core didnt show much of an impact...

i guess (hope) when sli - or even multi-core gpus - becomes mainstream, game developers start to develop threaded games at gpu level, not cpu...

but i agree that going sli now is dumb

 

[cleeve]

I guess it comes down to this; as long as ATI and Nvidia can keep upping the ante with huge performance jumps between videocard generations, SLI/Crossfire will remain a toy for the rich.

but if they ever hit a wall like the Pentium 4 did, all of a sudden SLI/Crossfire will the the only viable way to move forward... just like all CPUs are going multicore now... and it won't be an option anymore, it'll be mainstream.

 

[jap0nes]

Well, dual GPUs are for gaming, so I don't see it relating. When games become multi-threaded, then dual core CPUs will be needed, but dual GPUs probably won't be needed.

multi-core cpus are a development of multi cpu systems... it seems gpu industry is taking the same road... multi-gpu... multi-core gpu...

 

[jap0nes]

to process data they need instructions... the gpu has instructions sets, which process data

 

[PCGeek1]

Then don't buy a dual or quad GPU setup; no one is forcing you to.

I myself wouldn't invest in a quad GPU setup; if someone else wants to then that’s their business, not mine.

well actually when I bought my MB combo last summer, I didn't realize I had dual slots until after it arrived, the price was right for what I paid, so no need to get snooty with me...I just wanted everyone elses feedback and your comment was, should I say, useless... :?

 

[navysealbrian]

So i feel the need for an SLI rig right now, coz it doubles the FPS. Those who don't know about the performence gain should not be posting.. sigh

Okay, so where are you getting the doubling in FPS from? Last time I checked, benchmarks showed that the performance was 30% AT MOST. Things don't run at most, so on average, depending on settings, you will get 20% average if you get any increase at all, but if F.E.A.R. you definately gain some performance. So if you can post some benchmarks on where it actually doubles FPS, I would be glad to see it.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

but if they ever hit a wall like the Pentium 4 did, all of a sudden SLI/Crossfire will the the only viable way to move forward... just like all CPUs are going multicore now... and it won't be an option anymore, it'll be mainstream.

That's been my view of SLi/Xfire for quite some time, it's best implementation will be when proicesse shrinks aren't a quick and 'easy'.

Here we are barely into the 90nm generation and voila 80nm in a month or two.

I have a feeling that after 64nm things will get tight, and then multi-vpu setups will start being the answer.

As for the multi-threaed/mp issue I think FiringSquad's review shows that the impact even then is limited (but not non-existant it would be nice to see if they'd look at absolute minimum fps in some cases since that's what we're trying to avoid, the 1fps brief second.);
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/oblivion_athlon_64_x2_fx_cpu_performance/page12.asp

I think it's a question of balance. for people wanting to game on LCDs (still the mutt of the platform) it's a solid useful option. But I'd never call it necessarry nor a wise investment, but that's not to say that there aren't good reasons for considering it.

 

[Amnesia]

you get next to none FPS increase with SLI at res's below 1600*1200 of course there will be some because 2 cards are better then one. SLI allows you to turn your res up and maintain a decent framerate, if your looking for eyecandy with high res, go SLI, but if ur a person like me that dusnt mind playing at 1280*1024 stick to a single high end card.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

True to some extent but SLi also helps you minimum FPS numbers, both of which (min fps and higher rez) matter much more for LCD owners since they do not have the option of scaling down nor much flexability on their refresh.

 

[Amnesia]

true, I have seen SLI used, my frend had slied 6600gts and i had a single 6600gt. at 1024 res there wasnt much difference between our framerates with the fear settings test having pretty much equal scores, it was only when we turned the res up to 1600*1200 on his 19inch that the SLI really did anythng, he beat my single card by about 30 frames on each having no frames below 25 fps and mine was sitting on about 20% below. i now have a 6800GS with 512mb ram (goes like hell) and i can beat his SLI rig now. i told him to upgrade but hes a n00b so im gona bash him....

 

[nannerla]

I guess it comes down to this; as long as ATI and Nvidia can keep upping the ante with huge performance jumps between videocard generations, SLI/Crossfire will remain a toy for the rich.

but if they ever hit a wall like the Pentium 4 did, all of a sudden SLI/Crossfire will the the only viable way to move forward... just like all CPUs are going multicore now... and it won't be an option anymore, it'll be mainstream.

I think befor we go to needing SLI we should start getting dual core gpus that well are dual core and yea idk what else to explain with this 1