Article by Rob Wright
 
Nvidia released a new beta driver to improve SLI performance with Crytek's 1.1 patch for Crysis. The only problem is, the game's performance is worse with 3-way SLI at a resolution of 2560x1600. We try to get to the bottom of this mystery.
 
http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2008/02/08/crysis_3waysli/

You switched the color of the graphs on the second page. On the first blu means on, on the second blue means off. Is someone intentionally trying to confuse readers?

Surprise, surprise. This is why everyone has been recommending against tri-SLI. Even when it does show improvements over SLI, the differences are almost negligible over a dual-card SLI... especially when you consider the $ / frame ratio that the last card will often net you (or in some cases, take away).

Before any more PC builders / Nvidia try to push this any further, they really need to put more effort into getting it to actually improve performance by some worthy amount.

I know someone is going to argue and say it's the game developers fault, etc. etc. Well, Nvidia needs to get their butt going and encourage the game devs. to support their setups. By not doing so, they make their so called "Enthusiats-level" parts look terrible.

My $0.02.

Hmm.. who thinks that anything less than 30fps is playable?

I noticed this too.  I had to take a second look for it to make sense.

Haha, nVidia sucks

i think below 30 is fine depending on if you are talking averages or heavy fire fights.  I've played plenty of games at 25 fps in the past as I've never had the best equipment.  And if it's a firefight heavy game, I usually either turn the graphics down or just lower my resolution from 1280.   So if 25 fps is what happens when I'm being shot at by 5 or 6 guys and a tank all at the same time; I'm fine with that.  As long as it's 30 while I'm walking through the jungle.
 
Now, what i want to know is why the concern over a 2560x1600 resolution?  Do the majority of PC gamers really run their games at that resolution?  Hell, I have a better question: how many PC gamers have monitors that support that resolution?
 
If I could get 30 fps with all the settings on very high and no AA or AF at a resolution of 1280; then to me that rig is running pretty well and i'd probably wouldn't even think about upgrading for a year or two.  However, spending on my PC isn't as much of a priority as it was before and it was never that high to begin with.

30"+ monitors. So, a very small amount of gamers. I believe the average res. as reported by steam was still 1024x768 or 1280x1024.

Well you have to admit that the results are impressive.
 
BUT
 
Once again, more stuff that a lot of us wouldn't and couldn't buy. Up to now it is still hard to justify buying two slower cards, when one faster card is actually cheaper and would consume less power. Also some people don't consider the additional cost of getting an SLi/Crossfire board which would usually run you $200 above, a good psu $130+, and additional cooling. When in a single card solution would run you a board at around $150 or possibly less, and probably a $70~100 psu.

 
Changing it now. Not sure why that happened. I apologize for the confusion.

it is a complete rip off  
 
in most cases 3 way sli  doubles performance
 
but for the price you can up grade your videocard every year  for 3 years
 
newer video cards are generally up to twice as fast as  the older model and costs about the same price as the older one  
 
SLI is never worth it
 
my friend spent almost $1000 getting 2 7800GTX cards only to have both cards beaten by a $400 card  a few months later
 

I’ve been running with SLI 8800GTX’s for almost a year and then went to 3 last December. I started out with SLI 7800GT’s before that and can tell you it made all the difference in the world visually and for game play. When I bought the 8800’s I also got a 24 inch Acer and started running all my games in 1920x1200 and can tell you for me it was well worth it. There isn’t a game I have that I can’t play at max setting with full AA & AF except Crysis. The only thing I can’t turn on in Crysis AA or AF other then that I run it with very high settings at 1920x1200 with this result.
 
Time Demo Play Started, (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
Time Demo Run 0 Finished.
    Play Time: 69.55s, Average FPS: 28.76
    Min FPS: 17.50 at frame 261, Max FPS: 39.98 at frame 980
    Average Tri/Sec: -15067940, Tri/Frame: -523954
    Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.75
Time Demo Run 1 Finished.
    Play Time: 64.67s, Average FPS: 30.92
    Min FPS: 17.50 at frame 261, Max FPS: 41.78 at frame 95
    Average Tri/Sec: -15885242, Tri/Frame: -513673
    Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.78
Time Demo Run 2 Finished.
    Play Time: 65.04s, Average FPS: 30.75
    Min FPS: 17.50 at frame 261, Max FPS: 42.84 at frame 61
    Average Tri/Sec: -15745457, Tri/Frame: -512060
    Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.79
Time Demo Run 3 Finished.
    Play Time: 64.82s, Average FPS: 30.86
    Min FPS: 17.50 at frame 261, Max FPS: 42.84 at frame 61
    Average Tri/Sec: -15800044, Tri/Frame: -512049
    Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.79
Time Demo Play Ended, (4 Runs Performed)
 
I also noted that when I had fraps running it ran slower and as soon as I shut it off the frame rate went up. I think there may be a memory leakage problem because during game play after a while the frame rate would drop to 7, 8 frames and I’d have to back out to the main menu then start again and everything would be ok.  

Anybody here watch Maxishine 3 way 8800 ultra sli video at 1920 x 1200?
 
 
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eP3Ifl9lpqQ
 
some pretty impressive results on ultra high and at that resolution.

I've seen enough.
 
So we know that 2 way sli smokes 3 way.
 
Now all I need is for ATI to get off their butts and release the damned crossfire support for the 3870x2. tap tap tap.....
 
I think crysis might do very well with the ATIs.
 
Can someone tell me what Maxishine is?
Looks like dude has good fps, but with 1800+ bucks worth of card he ought to have more!
 
So far triple sli is nothing more than a gimmick to me.
it's like spending 600 on a third card and then getting the performance of an 8500. lol

theres no doubt that 3 way sli improves performance, but the amount of improvement doesnt add up to the price.
 
3 times the price for a 30-40% increase in performance

Please someone please tell me why someone would review a brand new tech on beta drivers? This is like wondering why a 1 week old baby cant do your taxes for you.

 
You have no idea of what your talking about.

I understand that you have to use the Nvidia Drivers but in this case they don't perform correctly, i am using the 173.26 and works fine in 3 way SLI  
in crisis with the max res in a 47 inch westinghouse  
i can refer u to this web the have the 171 i never test them but according to the Nvidia partners they have more support for the 3 way SLI
 
httpdownloads.guru3d.comdownload.phpdet=1839
 
Also I am using 64 bits because i am using 4 GB
 
the Aliens are watching you!!!
 
regards
 
the Gray
 
ps.  
 
the games works better in win XP 64 using DX9 with some file adjustment    
http://www.crysis-online.com/?id=449

I'm impressed with the youtube video.  
 
I personally bought a 780i board. Unfortunately I have two 8800GT's and Nvidia forgot to add 3 way SLI feature to these cards. Seriously what was Nvidia thinking? Why would they release new cards than release a mobo that wont even support three of them while the older G80 will? Stupid! What are they thinking?

You know, if you can afford tri-SLI, you probably also have a 30+" monitor.
 

Do you say that about all those chinese reviews of unreleased hardware?
 

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