SLI vs single card

Hi,

I have been thinking about purchasing a SLI base (double 7950 GTX w/512M RAM) and an equivalent system with a NVIDIA Quadro.

I am wondering I am really going to see a huge performance difference between the 2 systems. Is it better to have a single board (NVIDIA Quadro) or a full SLI system with 2 GForce card?

Regards,

 

If you are going to be gaming then get the SLI.
If you are going to be workstation AutoCAD type work get the quadro.

 

With SLi you are paying a premium of x2 the cost of a single card, while only receiving roughly a 30% increase in performance, a single quadro, should server you well. (Personal opinion SLi = bragging rights :-/ ).

 

Nailed that answer...

SLI was originally a marketing idea to find a way to "help people keep their investements longer"... but there are a few flaws...

1. Nothing of depreciating value is an investment.. They should have really said "prolong the inevitable"

2. If you have a computer long enough that it needs an update on the video power.. chances are more then just FPS rendered has changed.. *DX version's, pixel shaders, etc*

3. The intent was that you would buy a system with a single card, and later pay a little more to get another card and make it last longer... Thats assuming your current card doesn't die mid upgrade (And you don't end up paying for a new power supply because the one that came with your case probably won't cut it)... A better option? Buy a video card from EVGA - Lifetime warranty + Upgrade program to keep you current.

4. Most of the time... A single $250 card bought now.. will be more capable of higher FPS then your $175 + $100 later upgrade.

5. Performance gained varies from game to game, partly depending on the way it was written (think of how many title's truly support multicore CPU's, it's kinda limited eh) which means you end up with real world 20-30% improvements on average...

However, that being said... for a product like a notebook that tends to rack up more hours of use before it's replaced, SLI in the ORIGINAL manner might be a good thing... but, only if you truly only need to buy a card, and not new heat systems and motherboards and power supplies.. and also only if when you go to upgrade, they still make parts for your system..

 

regardless of the usefulness of SLI, The quadro is a card that is designed to be used in porfessional workstations for use in digital content creation and CAD.

The GeForce series is designed to be used in a gaming system.

 

I thought that a huge part of this "graphic balance between the 2 video boards" is the role of the video drivers and OS.

Also I heard that so far vista and nvidia drivers do not support very well the SLI systems.

By the way , thanks guys for your good remarks

 

The driver's are having some issue, but that is more compability and stability, same as the OS...

The games have to be written to use optimized DirectX logic, and with how long many of the major games take to create they tend to be unable to utilize alot of the newer SLI enhanced features. Has to do with the game engine mostly, which normally is just a fancy wrapper around DirectX or OpenGL/AL platforms.

Unreal Titles, and pretty much anything from Id Software are great at supporting the latest and greatest because they believe is writing clean scalable architecture. Things like MMO's and story based RPG / FPS games often have been in development to long.

Pick either of those answers, they are basically the same

 

I found a this article ( http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzEx )that talks about the games that support SLI.

Are the new generation of CLEVO laptops fully video card upgradable ?

Regards,

 

Thanks for the link, I feel bad for all the people that buy SLI stuff thinking it's like flipping a switch to 2x performance. I've been watching some news about a new system platform for desktops that will have 6 SLI slots (uber gaming rigs)... Don't see the point until they get the rest of the world up to speed.

As for your questions answer, yes and no. Alot of people felt tricked because the upgrades for their systems required new motherboards and cooling as well as the video card, making the upgrade cost nearly as much as a new computer. The other problem is that notebook architecture isn't fully standardized yet, so you don't honestly know how long parts will be available, and how long that "style" will be supported. MXM has changed styles what... 4 times officially? plus there are a few "custom" versions floating around..

You just gotta be careful with the systems you buy. My ideal ownership cycle is buy a near max / maxed notebook with a 3 years warranty, use it for 1-1.5 years of the warranty, and sell it for 60%+ of what I originally paid to get a new one with a COMPLETE new architecture. (AKA, chipset, bus speeds, audio hardware... a video card is rarely a bottleneck in a high end system) Also, selling it with atleast a year of a GOOD warranty will get you more money, and make it easier to sell.

 

It feels nice to be in forum with people like you sharing there knowledge. Keep up the good spirit

 

*cough* share your appreciation with reputation points! *cough*