How many SLI users would do it again?

I just honestly don't know if I'd go SLI again or not. I will more than likely upgrade my notebook from 7950's to 8800's but if I went with a new notebook I don't know if I would buy another SLI rig again.

The main problem for me is that of drivers....I can count on one hand the # of drivers that I've been able to enable SLI with and get to work...with glitches. I hate the nonsupport of SLI notebooks. I really never saw people talk about it but then again I guess that SLI notebook users are a very slim minority.

If your a SLI notebook user what do you think?

I personally would like Nvidia to actually support SLI notebooks or have notebook ODM/OEM's give us notebook updates that actually work.

There are several drives on Pro-stars/Eurocoms/Sagers site that say they work for SLI but in fact do not. Do they bother to test them?

The only SLI drivers that 'actually work' (there are some that will allow you to select SLI enabled but don't actually do anything) have been 165.01 and 94.22 so far for me.

 

Hi, Wu Jen I also don't think that I would buy a new notebook again till my Sager NP9261 is out of date like in three years or so. The only thing that I am going to add is a new NVIDIA 8800M GTX SLI and one more Segate SATA hard drive to add more space to my RAID and that is pretty much it. Yes I also agree with you that NVIDIA need to come out with better drive not just beta all the time. But I hope that they would start making new driver after they come out with 8800M GTX card.

 

Maybe someone that know will comment on why notebook users get the driver shaft. Why does Nvidia offer desktop driver upgrades but not for notebooks. Why do Sager/Pro-star etc have drivers listed on their sites support section that do not work with SLI but are clearly labled as 'working' SLI drivers? Is it a quality control issue? Thanks for being honest fubarms.

 

I would buy another SLI system again and I do not expect to buy a desktop again. The driver situation needs to be addressed that is true. But it is somewhat out of Nvidia's hands. It is up to the laptop makers to ensure the drivers work. While Nvidia has been struggling to make it work even in the desktop arena with Vista I think they could do a little better job as well or at least get a team to help the laptop manufactures get the products out. This might happen in the coming year because more people are moving from desktops to mobile devices. Those of us that use mobile platforms are still considered enthusiasts as far as gaming and high applications are concerned it is becoming more mainstream every quarter so it will happen before long. Just to add it was not that long ago that while SLI was a selling point in desktops it was not very well supported until the last 2-3 years and not by many "name brand manufactures" until last year.

 

Just ordered a SLI notebook and this thread scares me.

 

It shouldn't really laptops have the same problem without SLI. If you use it to game and want the latest drivers you need to use the INF mod easiest place to find is at laptopvideo2go. It has been this way for sometime now. Laptop makers want control and Nvidia wants to sell cards and agreed to it. They provide the drivers but it takes the manufacture to long to post them or they don't see the need for them. So we find our own way around it.

 

Personally its one of the dark 'secrets' of SLI. I had never heard of it before I purchased my notebook. I just wanted to shed some light on it. Finding new drivers and getting them to work is a pain. Plain and simple.

 

But SLI is working right? Those 165 drivers are working with all the games right? I ordered Vista Ultimate 64 bit, should I have any trouble?

 

I was under the impression that SLI does not yet work with Vista... or has that been resolved yet?

 

mine works fine i installed the 169.04 and the INF and sli works fine i did have2 blue screens but just rebooted and defragged and it has not happened again lol(i think its software) i have visa 64bit
oh if u do install the 169.04 driver u must turn sli back on ,lol. i found that out the hard way lol 3DMark06 test @ 5+++ lol turned sli back on got 8998 score
I'm very happy and yes i would go sli again
they make it so u kind of have too, with the games out now i play bio and crysis and its still not perfect in sli i dont think i could play it with one 8700.
but thats just me always looking for the best!

 

SLI has been working in vista, they did have an issue with 4G of memory but fixed that in mid-late Oct. It did go through a rough period for a while with hit or miss depending on drivers though.

 

So what issues will I have when my laptop arrives? Will I have to anything like tweaks or something to get my video cards working perfectly?

 

Since they updated the driver you should not really have to do anything. I was looking at the Sager site and there is a newer driver there as well. If you want a little more performance you can download the the driver from laptopvideo2go. As a side note I bought my system 15 Oct and there are some newer drivers on the Sager site for audio, WIFI, network card, and a few others as well. It would be worth while to install them. Not that I am pushing this site, but if you to laptopvideo2go they a link to a driver scanner that will tell which ones have something more current. On my system there were 8 that could be upgraded.

 

I am going to only use XP because XP has the best support and runs SLI with modded drivers better.

you get better FPS and it runs just plain better.

B-sides vista is a hog that sux.

 

Personally I think the same about most microsoft products.

 

Hehe, I honestly don't know if I would get an SLI lappy again.

In my experience as a very mobile person... 12lb laptop + 2.5lb power brick + school books... My back is killing me already, and I've only had it since August.

Thats a big consideration right there.

The other is drivers. I got 163.71's loaded now, and I honestly can't tell you if SLI is working or not. GPU-Z, Riva-Tuner, and the NV-Control Panel all say SLI is enabled, but my framerate in Source Engine games is only 2/3 of what it was with 165.01's.

BUT, all newer games like Crysis, COD4, Bioshock, Hellgate:London, and the new NWN2 expansion are all running at nearly 1.7x the FPS as the 165.01's. And some of the newer stuff won't even run properly with the 165's I had. (Yes, Bioshock went from 17fps to about 45, at 1680x1050... which is more like 2.5x the frames )

Anybody feel like enlightening me on that? Can anybody tell me if SLI is working on my thing, because after a solid day of futzing with drivers, these 163.71's are the best I've found for XP. I'm highly surprised that HL2 and CS:S would DECREASE in performance with a driver update, but thats what seemed to have happened... Coincidentally, I believe that the 163.71's were titled as the TF2 official driver... Funny that.

Overall I'd say the performance, once tweaked to the proper degree and once drivers are actually found for it, makes SLI lappy's very appealing. But, the price premium to me is seeming like it was a bad investment more and more.

I'm hearing from Anandtech that 1 8800m GTX is equal to 2x 7950's. So, I really could have gotten a 5790 for half my 9260's price, not require a chiropractor, upgraded it to an 8800m, and gotten a killer desktop. All for slightly less than the $4500 I shelled out for my 9260.

So, really, I'd have to vote:
YES, if the price premium and driver support were improved.
NO, if the above werent addressed. Which is most likely.

 

I think the driver situation will improve this year as more manufactures are going to SLI solutions. I can't speak to XP I haven't used it in a year, but with 169.04 vista 64 playing HL2 I get something like 145fps on fraps in most areas. Thats with 8700's SLI stock at 1900x1280 with recommended settings not sure what else I should change. So at this point I am happy but I made the jump from 7900gs go.

 

I get those framerates at that res with my 1 oc'd 7900

 

Yeah, CS:S & HL2... I used to get between 200~240 fps, average. Now I'm getting 90~150. Thats at absolute max in-game settings, 1920x1200.

But Bioshock getting that with one card is disconcerting. I'll have to try those 169.01's or something, since the 9260 thread says they work with XP32.

 

dexgo, thats great it looks like you saved yourself 4K.

 

Ha, with a 1710? More like $1.5k, in the most likely event.

 

naw, it's the 8700's they can't hack it at high res cuz of the 128 bit bus. this has been Covered to death. and the M1710 isn't that cheap

seriously take a sli 7950 to high res and they can do better than a single 7950/7900 but take sli 8700 to that res and they do as good as 1 single 7950.

this has been proven.

 

Well for my system and Crysis @ 1920x1080 I'm getting anywhere from 15fps up to 30ish fps. Depending on how many trees and things are around. This is with no AA and everything set to HIGH.

 

That looks beautiful! Do you regularly play on those settings?

 

Keep on thinking.

 

I want the game. I am going to have to order it online.

 

Yes, using XP with 169.09 drivers. No Overclock (Which I'm thinking about doing to add a few more FPS) The lowest I see at 1920x1080 with everything set to HIGH is that it will drop to 15fps in some thick jungle. Most of the time my FPS is around 25fps which to me is playable. When you get into villages compounds it actually goes up to around 30+FPS.

I may wind up dropping the resolution a bit and overclocking just to put vsync back on...I hate tearing...although this game its not as noticable to me as it was in FEAR.

 

now that's what I like to hear.

That's the reason I am gonna get myself a D901C wit 7950's cuz 1 7900 I can get 30fps+ on Medium @ 1600x1050 oc'd to 650/730

 

you are forcing SLI right? cuz if you are only using 1 card My 1 card is much more powerful OC'd than a single stock 7950.

 

Wow, Wu!
I'm going to go get those 169.09's right now! I was originally going to do it when I got around to it, but that kind of performance in Crysis, with SLI, and with XP... A setup I can't resist!

Thanks.

 

I'd almost certainly not go with an SLI notebook again unless I knew driver support was much better. I've tried most of the drivers except for the 169.09s. Per the increase in 3DMark06 scores, SLI was working. All of them had issues in games: flickering, strobing, half the screen fuzzing, water turning black.

It's been a lot of time and effort for no real positive results. And I'm not particularly technically inclined so I get no joy from hunting for and changing drivers. I'm not looking for an extra 5 FPS, just solid performance across various games.

 

If I were you I would Install windows XP, and Install the LaptopVideo2go 169.09.

you will get the best SLI results and Gaming Results in windows XP 32. Bar None.

I know people have vista working.... but TRUST ME.. XP is still the king when it comes to better FPS and games working/ Drivers in conjunction.

Try it.

 

i don't understand why you guys do not use the drivers that come from sager. getting blue screens and glitches from modified drivers is not really a performance gain.

surely the stock drivers that came with your laptop do not have these issues. what do you get with modified drivers, 200 points more in 3dmark? is it really worth the hassles?

 

I have never ever had a problem with Modified drivers from LV2G

 

The base drivers are good but they aren't the best. Until Grey728 found out how to enable SLI with most of them they would cause me to crash just installing them the regular way. To me ARGH, the reason I bought this notebook was to get the most performance possible. To that end I try new drivers. Having a bad driver will discourage you but it's not the end of the world. If you know what your doing. Dexgo, can you go to that waterfall, it's at the first of the game where you infiltrate the village and take a screenshot with fraps? I'd like to see what score you get at the same resolution and everything set to HIGH. I'd be more than glad to compare with you. As I said earlier I'm going to try a bit of OC'ing myself to see if the #'s improve and tweak the game. I've been reading up on some tweaks to apply.

 

sure, but I am still waiting for my new PSU to come. As I have explained before.

 

The reason I went with Vista was so I wouldn't have to do an OS upgrade or clean install. I find the prospect of doing that daunting.

 

it's up tu u

 

That's almost worthy of being a /sig. Which is funny and sad all in one.

 

i have oced mine and i see a big difference in game but my fps is not working in rivertuner right now so i cant tell u what the difference is. i just know that there is one
oh and i have had 2 blue screens with 169.04 driver but still very happy with it

 

Try downloading fraps it will give you your framerates on screen. It is the in game utility I have seen for that.

 

Yep. That's why I'm still trying drivers. I count myself fortunate not to have had any BSODs. There may well come a point where I say the heck with this and load XP. But the games I'm playing at the moment all seem to do fine on one card with the exception of WIC.

 

I got the 169.09's on now... and my Crysis FPS was cut in half. I love how driver updates are a roll of the dice! I'm gonna try Wu's suggestion on the front page about only installing one at a time, so I hope that works.

Mobile SLI is the devil.

 

I got the 169.09 and my FPS went up 5-6 fps.

I get over 30 @1600x1050 medium settings.

with 1 7900gtx