GTX 670 3 way sli Worth it?

[xxtman3]

I currently have 2 EVGA GTX 670 FTW's in SLI. I have 3 monitors and running at a resolution 5760x1080. I found that I can't max out Far Cry 3 and that's just unacceptable .

My question is, would adding a third one be worth it and boost my performance? Same thing with adding a forth in a year or two when I can't max anything out.

Thanks!

 

[xxtman3]

What do you mean scale? I'm not familiar with that term.

 

[Supermuncher85]

Meaning chances are you won't get a linear increase in performance as you did with sli. I assume that right now you got 190% (you'd expect 200% but overheads) or so performance running in SLI and you'd expect to have ~300% in tri-setup when in reality you're far more likely to only get 250% increase at best.

Reasons being: lack of support for tri-sli, CPU bottelnecking, bandwidth congestion on PCIe lanes, and so on.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Meaning chances are you won't get a linear increase in performance as you did with sli. I assume that right now you got 190% (you'd expect 200% but overheads) or so performance running in SLI and you'd expect to have ~300% in tri-setup when in reality you're far more likely to only get 250% increase at best.

Reasons being: lack of support for tri-sli, CPU bottelnecking, bandwidth congestion on PCIe lanes, and so on.

100% scaling would give double the frame rates but you think the OP's getting 4x the frame rate?

Methinks you don't know much about scaling.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I think he means that he's getting 190% the performance of a 670 in SLI and would expect ~290-300% the performance of a 670 in tri-SLI.

Well that still makes no sense as 100% scaling with two cards would give double the fps so 190% would be close on 4x the fps that you would get from a single card, now I like SLi but even I'm not going to try and argue that that is possible.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

easy enough....hardwareinfo has all this stuff

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2725/8/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-plus-sli-and-3-way-sli-aliens-versus-predator

1st number = single card fps
2nd number = 2-way SLI
3rd number = 3-way SLI

Price $360.00 $720.00 $1,080.00

AvP High 4AA 56.9 105.6 153.0
Batman AC Very High 4AA 84.0 95.0 92.0
BF3 Ultra High 4AA 61.0 105.0 132.0
Crysis 2 Ultra High Edge AA 68.3 98.7 100.6
Dirt 3 Ultra 4AA 105.5 157.1 157.6
Hard Reset Ultra 4AA 84.4 116.9 116.6
Metro 2033 Very High 30.0 50.0 73.0
Skyrim High 4AA 108.0 185.0 218.0
Shogun 2 Ultra 4AA 52.1 66.8 87.7

Total FPS 650.2 980.1 1130.5
Cost Per Frame $0.55 $0.73 $0.96

1 card to 2 cards = 51% performance increase
2 cards to 3 cards = 15% performance increase

No doubt later driver releases improved scaling but this is where it was on release date

 

[linkgx1]

3 ways are always worth it...


oh wait.

 

[Mousemonkey]

easy enough....hardwareinfo has all this stuff

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2725/8/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-plus-sli-and-3-way-sli-aliens-versus-predator

1st number = single card fps
2nd number = 2-way SLI
3rd number = 3-way SLI

Price $360.00 $720.00 $1,080.00

AvP High 4AA 56.9 105.6 153.0
Batman AC Very High 4AA 84.0 95.0 92.0
BF3 Ultra High 4AA 61.0 105.0 132.0
Crysis 2 Ultra High Edge AA 68.3 98.7 100.6
Dirt 3 Ultra 4AA 105.5 157.1 157.6
Hard Reset Ultra 4AA 84.4 116.9 116.6
Metro 2033 Very High 30.0 50.0 73.0
Skyrim High 4AA 108.0 185.0 218.0
Shogun 2 Ultra 4AA 52.1 66.8 87.7

Total FPS 650.2 980.1 1130.5
Cost Per Frame $0.55 $0.73 $0.96

1 card to 2 cards = 51% performance increase
2 cards to 3 cards = 15% performance increase

No doubt later driver releases improved scaling but this is where it was on release date

The two that I've highlighted in bold are close to 100% as they are near on double the fps of a single card or is 100% of say fifty not fifty?

 

[Derza10]

Well that still makes no sense as 100% scaling with two cards would give double the fps so 190% would be close on 4x the fps that you would get from a single card, now I like SLi but even I'm not going to try and argue that that is possible.

Err last i checked 100% of 60 FPS was 60 FPS (Single card)... and 190% of 60 FPS is 114 FPS(SLI)... And his example of 250% for tri sli of a base of 60 fps would be 150 FPS... And I believe this is the way he was explaining it... Really not that difficult to make sense of it, why are you trying to make an issue out of it? lol

 

[cyrusfox]

Well that still makes no sense as 100% scaling with two cards would give double the fps so 190% would be close on 4x the fps that you would get from a single card, now I like SLi but even I'm not going to try and argue that that is possible.

Basic math, 100% is normal. So 190 % is implying a loss of 10% compared to maximium, 250%.. .

Come on! you understood what he meant, why belabor the point?

 

[Mousemonkey]

Err last i checked 100% of 60 FPS was 60 FPS (Single card)... and 190% of 60 FPS is 114 FPS(SLI)... And his example of 250% for tri sli of a base of 60 fps would be 150 FPS... And I believe this is the way he was explaining it... Really not that difficult to make sense of it, why are you trying to make an issue out of it? lol

Which would give 120fps.

Basic math, 100% is normal. So 190 % is implying a loss of 10% compared to maximium, 250%.. .

Come on! you understood what he meant, why belabor the point?

Your post doesn't make a lot of sense and belabour is spelt with a "u" in it, your basic grammar is lacking as much as your basic maths.

 

[Supermuncher85]

Don't feed the troll.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Don't feed the troll.

Are you calling me a troll?

 

[Derza10]

Which would give 120fps.

Ummm what??!? 100% is multiplying the number by 1... not 2... I'm not sure where you learned math but they sure failed you. No where did I state that you would get an IMPROVEMENT of 100%... 100% is the baseline ... 1 card = 100% performance.... 2 cards = 190% and so on... how is this so hard for you to understand?

 

[xxtman3]

This post is getting out of hand.. I'm new to this whole SLI thing. So in all your opinion, would it be worth buying a 3rd GPU or waiting for new ones to come out?

 

[Derza10]

If I was you I would stay with what I had and wait till next gen cards come out and see what they have to offer and then make my decision. Unless you are ok with spending $400 now for a 20% improvement over what you currently have (if you have ~40 FPS now you could expect ~48 fps with a 3rd card give or take of course but in the ballpark)

 

[Mousemonkey]

Ummm what??!? 100% is multiplying the number by 1... not 2... I'm not sure where you learned math but they sure failed you. No where did I state that you would get an IMPROVEMENT of 100%... 100% is the baseline ... 1 card = 100% performance.... 2 cards = 190% and so on... how is this so hard for you to understand?

The baseline is not 100%, whatever you add or take away would be the percentile. So if the base line is 50fps then 100% would give 100fps and 50% would give 75fps, 190% would give around 180fps. As far as I'm concerned you are the one who fails to comprehend the maths.

 

[xxtman3]

easy enough....hardwareinfo has all this stuff

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2725/8/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-plus-sli-and-3-way-sli-aliens-versus-predator

1st number = single card fps
2nd number = 2-way SLI
3rd number = 3-way SLI

Price $360.00 $720.00 $1,080.00

AvP High 4AA 56.9 105.6 153.0
Batman AC Very High 4AA 84.0 95.0 92.0
BF3 Ultra High 4AA 61.0 105.0 132.0
Crysis 2 Ultra High Edge AA 68.3 98.7 100.6
Dirt 3 Ultra 4AA 105.5 157.1 157.6
Hard Reset Ultra 4AA 84.4 116.9 116.6
Metro 2033 Very High 30.0 50.0 73.0
Skyrim High 4AA 108.0 185.0 218.0
Shogun 2 Ultra 4AA 52.1 66.8 87.7

Total FPS 650.2 980.1 1130.5
Cost Per Frame $0.55 $0.73 $0.96

1 card to 2 cards = 51% performance increase
2 cards to 3 cards = 15% performance increase

No doubt later driver releases improved scaling but this is where it was on release date

Thanks for this. This was very helpful. Is this at 5760x1080 or 1920x1080

 

[Mousemonkey]

This post is getting out of hand.. I'm new to this whole SLI thing. So in all your opinion, would it be worth buying a 3rd GPU or waiting for new ones to come out?

Wait, although better than before the scaling doesn't get much better once you go above two cards.

 

[xxtman3]

If I was you I would stay with what I had and wait till next gen cards come out and see what they have to offer and then make my decision. Unless you are ok with spending $400 now for a 20% improvement over what you currently have (if you have ~40 FPS now you could expect ~48 fps with a 3rd card give or take of course but in the ballpark)

Thank you for your reply. I won't be buying until Feb anyways and I heard Nvidia was planning on releasing in march or april, so it would make sense to wait.

I hate ATI drivers but you think the 8000 series will be any good?

Also, say I wanted to sell my GPU's, you know a good place to do so?

 

[Derza10]

The baseline is not 100%, whatever you add or take away would be the percentile. So if the base line is 50fps then 100% would give 100fps and 50% would give 75fps, 190% would give around 180fps. As far as I'm concerned you are the one who fails to comprehend the maths.

Obviously there is more than one way to represent this... In other words you are saying 60 fps to 90 fps is a 50% increase (60 x .5 = 30 then 30 + 60 fps= 90 fps)... he is saying 1 card gets 60 fps and that is his baseline... so going from 60 fps to 90 fps is 150% of the original value (60 x 1.5 = 90)... I'm not saying either way is wrong or right ( they are the exact same thing and both are correct)...

 

[robthatguyx]

honestly, if i were you i wouldn't bother unless you really have that free money and want to put up with alot of problems because as others have stated scaleing does not work like doubling the performance when you add another card and three times when there's three cards.Most games are not optimized to run on 3 gpus i wouldn't expect much more than 220% going from 1 card to 3 cards and that is in games that can run and are coded to be able to run 3 dedicated gpu's . in some games you may even lose fps going to 3 cards.

 

[xxtman3]

Thanks everyone!

 

[xxtman3]

Best answer selected by xxtman3.