Is laptop SLi really worth it?

i have been looking at laptops with dual Nvidia 8600GT's and i was wondering are there any real performance advantages to it? or is it jsut bragging rights ...

are there any issues with temps?

thanks.

 

8800m GTX over SLI 86's any day.

 

hope you are not looking at the m17x

 

one word answer : No.

 

Is SLI anything really worth it? No

Its a waist in desktops too, more power, heat, space, for a loss in scalability.

The only way to change this would be an outstanding deal for 2 mid range cards for much less than 1 high end card. However it just doesnt work that way it usually cost more to get about the same performance.

SLI was really supposed to be a way to extend the life of a product. You buy one card now and when its at the end of its life, rather than it becoming trash you can buy a 2nd one cheap to extend its life and give more performance, but it just doesnt work this way. If your card is EOL (end of life) its probably that way for a reason and adding a 2nd card just like it is not going to bring you up to speed compared to a new high end card.

So what SLI did do instead was give the guys with too much money new grounds to compete for world record benchamarks, making it a requirement to get into the top 10, and that huge score tricked down into the masses giving SLI a good image of performance and thus the middle of the line guys like us get a false view of how good SLI is and people end up waisting money on it for no reason.

So if your not shooting for world benchmarks records, or have more money than sense then SLI is probably not for you.


I admit that SLI and Xfire have both recently made huge leaps in performance and finaly mobo's are being made for it to work right with the faster pcie slots and interface, but still unless the price is just right its not worth it and SLI is still a crapshoot for some games where it will not give nearly the performance gains that it does in another game.

 

The reality is that you don't get 100% performance gain with a second card - in ideal situations (IE: the "right" software - some programs play nice with SLI, and some don't) you get around 70%.

However, an interesting aspect of graphics card pricing is that older cards don't really drop in price unless they were crappy cards to begin with. For example, say you've got a 7900gtx. A second one (likely used) will cost you more than a new 8800gtx.

Further, doubling up on older cards hamstrings you in other ways. While you gain more raw processing power, you lose new functionality and efficiency that you'd gain from simply buying a new, decent card.

As the previous poster noted, support is growing and new software is being designed to be more SLI-friendly, but until solid cards are available cheap, it's still not really practical unless you've got tons of money to burn.

In my experience, you can always buy a single graphics card that will perform very well overall - and better than any two cards that you'd be able to get for that price.

SLI certainly isn't bad, and if you've got money to burn getting a silly-powerful rig, then it's good gravy. But it's only going to actually gain you performance if you're willing to invest in multiple high end cards.

 

I bought my first SLI notebook now from Dell, actually my second XPS, first one was a M170.

Actually to be honest SLI can be a real hassle to deal with, especially micro stuttering and such which can get really annoying. However most new games I have played on it scales with SLI really really good and is stutter free too.

Look at it this way, if you want to play Crysis at 1920x1200 DX10 High get a 8800m GTX SLI laptop, actually if you want to play new modern games with high framerates get 8800m GTX SLI.

 

8800M GTS > or = 8600M SLi. And you won't have SLi compatibility issues or the ugly micro-stuttering that results from SLi and Crossfire. And you can get a Gateway P-6860FX at BestBuy for $1349, cheaper than the Toshiba X205-SLi (you are probably looking at those because they are the only series I know of that has 2 8600s, because they require a PCIe lane splitter) wjhich brings up another point: 8800GTS is 1 chip, 8600M SLi is 3. 8800GTS also has a 256bit memory controller. the 8600s only have 128bit. And you have more power draw and heat produced by that stupid PCIe chip on the 8600 setup.

-J.B.

 

thanks for that, do bestbuy ship to Canberra, Australia ?

 

no they do not ship overseas, it has to be a US billing address.

 

Just a comparison of a few games with SLI enabled and disabled

2008-03-23 10:39:47 - XR_3DA
Frames: 2138 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 35.633 - Min: 26 - Max: 46

2008-03-23 10:44:32 - XR_3DA
Frames: 3110 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 51.833 - Min: 38 - Max: 65

2008-03-23 10:50:51 - witcher
Frames: 3033 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 50.550 - Min: 17 - Max: 74

2008-03-23 10:56:03 - witcher
Frames: 2214 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 36.900 - Min: 14 - Max: 47

2008-03-23 11:02:41 - Crysis
Frames: 2027 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 33.783 - Min: 22 - Max: 62

2008-03-23 11:10:55 - Crysis
Frames: 2886 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 48.100 - Min: 18 - Max: 69

2008-03-23 11:17:17 - Bioshock
Frames: 3586 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 59.767 - Min: 24 - Max: 82

2008-03-23 11:21:54 - Bioshock
Frames: 2584 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 43.067 - Min: 9 - Max: 72

2008-03-23 11:28:51 - FarCry
Frames: 3072 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 51.200 - Min: 41 - Max: 61

2008-03-23 11:33:26 - FarCry
Frames: 4636 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 77.267 - Min: 58 - Max: 93

Faster ones are obviously with sli enabled,I took great care to do exactly the same thing with each run so to minimize any errors,and were done with FRAPS,and the original Dell drivers for the 8800's under XPP.

The Witcher has a problem with microstutter as does GOW for me,but disabling SLI fixes it and reducing a couple of quality settings raise the FPS again........all the above benches were at max every setting except Crysis which was at a mixture of high,med,low settings @1920x1200

 

Too much heat, Too much Problem, not much gain....

 

There was one on ebay a week or two ago.
I'm a Canberran too

 

dual 8600GT's & 8700GT's are definitely worth it providing a lot more bang but dual 8800GTX's aren't really worth it since they only increase GPU power by 10-20% if that.

 

darkfly, have you actually used dual 8800's?

i get about an increase of 60 - 80% on most games with my dual 8800's compared to my 87's

and to answer the original question "is SLi worth it"

no, put simply, but if you have plenty of money to burn it means you can usually get one of the top laptops out there, altho i wouldnt get dual 87's because an 8800 is better than two 87's.

in performance it goes 8600 > SLI 8700 > 8800GTX > SLI 8800.

the price difference gets bigger the further you go up the scale, for the price SLI costs, it just isnt worth it, but if you can afford it, then you might as well get it anyway.

 

I am from Glasgow, Scotland .... but live in Kambah now

 

I'm sorry ,what? Obviousely you never owned an SLI system so you don;t know the benefits.
Those who get SLI want max performance.

50-100% gain in some case,drivers are easy to find...
Again, having not owned an SLI system does show its opinion
If the man wants SLI how about explaining what benefit he'll have too , not just the downsides?
Dual 8600M GTs will be around 7-8k in 3dmarks and will game very nicely.
Of course, that's in the Toshiba x205 SLi... if you are looking at the m17x, then don`t..or the m9750...

As people said, the Gateway p-fx with the 8800MGTS is the best choice but since you can`t get it, may I sugest something else?
Sager 5793 - 1 8800M GTX which is sufficient to play today`s games at high details and resolutions...
Check out the Clevo Guide .
There is also the sager 9262 , with SLI 8800M GTX..but that's 3500$...

 

Er maybe you cant understand the way I word things because thats pretty much exactly what I said.

In other words top performance for those guys with more money than sense.... Its great for somebody with a tripple monitor setup that already costed 3000$ then they need a 4000$ computer to run it. Or the 30" computer monitors ect.

But for anybody else they do not need SLI the higher single card is better, and needing 2 of the top card is just a waist unless... your rich.

 

It doesnt make much sense. Those who buy SLI want the best performance out there, however, the 8600m GT isnt the best card on the market anymore, you can now also buy a 8700m GT, or even a 8800m without the annoyances of having an SLI system. So why would you run a dual 8600m GT? If you ask me, that setup became obsolete as soon as the 8800m came along

 

Dont even think of Graphic card in terms of Crysis.

What SLI does easily is double the Video Memory.

 

No, it doesn't, actually....

 

Cheh.... I dun really understand anything about SLIing 8600 and 8700 while 1 8800M would be on par with them minus all those annoying problems.

Before the 8800M was out, maybe it was yes, it's worth it. But now the answer is clearly NO! If you really want an SLI machine, then go for the SLI 8800Ms.

 

Best advice around.

 

Funny that I instinctly use "an" for SLI machine... rather than "a"... typos

 

An SLI machine sounds fine to me. Saying "a SLI machine" sounds like you`re using verbal brakes.

What do I know, English is not my native language

 

SLI is Worth it, and i'm going to tell half of the people here that are basing thier "NO" answers on nothing, and never tried a SLI laptop, Yes it is worth it, but not in the case if the OP was hoping to get a 8800GTX performance through 8600's SLI.

 

yes but we can read reviews by every carbon based dipstick who "claims" that SLI doubles performance. The only dual card setups that can "almost" do that are XFire set ups, which are not in laptops atm.


It is worth it if you have to much money to know what to do with, or want ur e-peen to be bigger.

 

Performance wise definitely. This bull about 20% increase, no not in any game I have played so far with my 8800m GTX SLI setup. For example one 9800m GTX won´t replace two 8800m GTX in SLI. SLI is more future proof than one single GPU.

Todays games scale much better with SLI than older games.

 

^ Hear hear .

 

With one VERY important exception, Crysis. I don't know about notebook SLI, but desktop cards (singular, not SLI) are generally powerful enough to run most games at smoothe frame-rates with effects turn on, save Crysis.

If you want to play it at another ~30% more FPS (instead of 10 you'll get 13 ) then sure SLI is worth it. If you are concerned about future proof, I wouldn't buy a notebook to game on.

Desktops simply get more performance and your purchase will last longer, making it more future proof (and cheaper).

If you "need" a laptop and don't want a desktop too, then SLI might be for you.

 

sli has worked well for me. it didn't cost me an extra grand to do the setup though. i don't think 1 grand extra for dual 8800's is worth it, as a single 8800 does perfectly fine right now. that said, having the ability to get your hands on another 8800 in the future, i would suggest adding it for an sli setup. sli does improve performance. 20-50 fps is a significant gain. i get 30 fps in cod4 with my card, versus 70+ fps when i'm playing in sli. once sli becomes optimized better, it will be very nice to use. also, sli can take advantage of AA and AF easily too by dedicating one card to AA and AF while the other card draws the screen.

(the reason we say "an sli" is because the letter s is pronouced, "es", therefore applying the grammar rule to prevent us from becoming a studdering mess. if we say a bunch of words that all start and end with "e" sounds, then we will be pausing each time we began a word or mushing together all the words into one, so instead we say "an" to break up the vowel sounds when speaking. "a apple" would become "aapple" if you were speaking unless you made a distinct pause, so we say "an apple" to break up the vowel sounds.)

 

So AN sli is the way to go
Got it.Can't wait to get my rig....

 

Really? So then the importance of SLI is as good as Zero.


I like some NBR members signature ...it says smthg like this:

haha..so true rite?

 

Having never owned an SLI system desktop or laptop I can't share any personal expirence. Until recently I viewed it as a waste of money because performance was hit and miss but here is an article that compares very similar computers 1 with a 8800M gtx and the other 8800M gtx SLI and it shows that SLI has advanced well and it really shines in newer games. The average increase was 69.6% in 18 different tests. Having said all that I don't think 2 8600gt are worth it unless you can't find a computer in your area with an 8800M gts or gtx.

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3262&p=7

 

Well we are at a notebookforum right? Most people here ask about notebooks specifically, not how a desktop performs.

Of course everybody knows a desktop is more future proof. However an 8800m GTX SLI laptop kicks many desktops asses out there, then I mean single GPU desktops.

Damn there is a guy, I think it is brainer who has 7950 GTX SLI and his rig still plays games really good according to benches he has shown.

8800m GTX SLI will last for a while definitely. Also I always hear the cons with SLI, sure it stutters in some games, though I think people will be pretty amazed the that newer games runs really good with SLI. Stuttering can be work around in some games. I have worked around a few by different optimizations so to speak.

If you want to buy and have money and want performance, then I say go for SLI.

 

Yea, Brainer`s 7950GTX SLI still competes nicely with the 8800M GTS/X ...

 

Sli is good in two instances

1) When the single most powerful GPU is still insufficient

2) When you already have a single GPU, and can add a second one cheaply for great performance, or two GPU's beat a single card in the same price range.

Laptop SLI = silly unless it's the high end variant. You can't have one 8600gt and decide to add one later in laptops, so why would you go for budget card Sli when faster single card solutions are available? Doesn't make much sense.

Sli definitely has it's place, but not remotely as much in the laptop market. i.e 8800GTXM Sli is OK, but 8600GT Sli etc seems pointless, unless, as stated above, you simply can't find a laptop with an 8800 or something.

At least in a desktop, you can have a single 8800gs for example, and add a second one in a few months for a boost in performance at little cost. It doens't work that way with laptops so buying dual low end cards is just uneconomical - even in a desktop, would would pay for dual 8600GT's new for example with more poweful single gpu's available for the same price?

 

Totally true, The Crysis SLI fix didnt do anything, but i still had 45% gain in FPS, well lets see how Crysis warhead will scale

 

For price as of now,I would say not worth it.

 

yes I have on a friends on laptops but we are talking about laptop 8800GTX's not desktop's.

Taken from NotebookCheck.com:
Two Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX are combined by SLI with the purpose to offer the fastest graphic performance for laptops. DirectX 10 games should run fluently with high details. Currently the SLI is solution is only 0-9% faster than a single 8800M GTX in games (in 3DMark up to 36%).

Also taken from NotebookCheck.com:
Single 8800GTX - 3d06 score = 9500

8800GTX Sli - 3d06 score = 12390


http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Grafic-Cards.130.0.html

 

in case you didnt know Darkfly, that website is BS

 

Check out this review I did of a Toshiba X205-SLi laptop, namely the performance tests and the conclusion:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4121
Short answer: no. There's a lot of great feedback in this thread.

 

your BS

 

What does 3D Mark 06 have to do with actual in game performance Dark Fly? Nothing at all. 0-9% faster? Don´t think so. Crysis runs at 1920x1200 DX10 at almost twice the performance compared to a single GPU.

 

Darkfly it actually is check out 7950GTX SLI 3dmark06 score, its 6k something.. rofl i get 9100+

 

I wasn't talking about 7950GTX SLI only 8800GTX SLI, fail

 

bah.. alright you win.. kinda.. what my point was not to look at my cards the point was that this site has false benchmarks on many cards, probably including the "0-9%" ingame increase for the 8800GTX

 

brainer, enlighten me on your 9000k+ 3dmark score. i'm trying to break 8600 =*(.

 

lol let us not highjack the hell out of this thread, pm me

 

The 7950M GTX is a good example of a good SLI card, though(for it's day), as is the 8800M GTX.

The key point is to consider your goal: Do you want good performance at a good price; or do you want maximum performance, and damn the price?

If it's the former, go with the best single card you can get. If it's the later, go with TWO of the best single cards you can get.

The only reason to ever buy lower-end cards is to get adequate performance at an excellent price - not at all a bad thing, mind you.

Just don't look at SLI as a way to get good performance cheap. It really is a "go big or go home" thing.