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?
| Slobogob wrote : 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? |
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.
| Quote : Hell, I have a better question: how many PC gamers have monitors that support that resolution? |
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.
| gwolfman wrote : I noticed this too. I had to take a second look for it to make sense. |
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.
| righteous wrote : I've seen enough.
|
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?
| jp182 wrote : 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? |
You know, if you can afford tri-SLI, you probably also have a 30+" monitor.
| jerseygamer wrote : 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. |
Do you say that about all those chinese reviews of unreleased hardware?
| hughyhunter wrote : I'm impressed with the youtube video.
|
OUCH
should have held on a few weeks for the 790i
| Razor512 wrote : it is a complete rip off
|
Let's not confuse issues here. I don't think anyone was talking about SLI being a good proposition for an upgrade path. I agree with you that it is not, but I don't think there's a lot of debate about it either. If anyone wishes to challenge it, bring em on. Buying a single card, with the idea of adding one later on, is simply madness.
SLI is about getting the best performance when you buy the cards. Outperforming a high end card with two mediums in a price competitive way, is very hard but you can get close with a cheaper SLI set-up. Mostly SLI is about getting better performance than a single high end card, so we're only talking big budgets to start with.
| Razor512 wrote :
|
Then your friend was a ..... erm, was misinformed. The same situation is possible again, if you go for the SLI choice of two 8800GTX's today, with the next generation just around the corner. If you have to/want to buy today, then just stick to a budget solution today and upgrade later in the year.
If you want to have performance at the bleeding edge, you will have to make sure you're informed at all times so that you can make the right choices when it is your time. It's not called bleeding edge for nothing, looks like your friend cut himself.
| airblazer wrote : OUCH |
WEll I was under the assumption that the only difference between the 780i and 790i was the DDR3 support. Am a wrong? If I'm not I didnt think that the difference was that much considering the price increase for DDR3.
However if you have strong points by all means let me know I will return the board and wait.
To me the 780i just wasn't worth the upgrade...a patched pci-e 2 on a 680i board...
790i is a different story.
PCI-E v2 integrated into the chipset= better video bandwidth. No latency as thru adapter.
The FSB goes to 1600mhz to support incoming Intel cpu.
Most sites will tell you that the 780i wasn't worth it and to hang tough for the 790i.
If you can wait another month or so (could be 3) you'd be sorted for the upgrade path for the next 2-3 years.
http://www.overclock3d.net/news.ph [...] ing_soon/1
Oh well sure... if you had a 680i mobo it wouldnt be a good upgrade but in my case I had no system that was running anything special and a possibly fried mobo. I didnt want to wait because well... I couldnt really! Well I could have but I want to have a good computer now not later. I really like this mobo (EVGA 780i) and I dont think besides the DDR3 that the 790i is going to be that much better... at least not for a three month wait and a few extra bucks.
Well if your previous board was fried then it's grand...the EVGA boards are very good...much better than the ASUS crap I have..can;t wait to get rid of it.
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