SLI: A tax on the uninformed

[T'wolves]

i want to know where you shop to get a GTX for $700 used

answer:

I know that you can buy a set of 7800GTXs used for about $700

Thats set, as in two and used, and probably from somewhere like our classifieds, as all the rich ppl switch to x1900's or gtx 256s sli to gtx 512s sli.

 

[Evilsizer]

ok so i missed .....nvm then..

 

[t12an_peter]

i've had the same views on SLI as you do for a while now. sli is pointless. period. another scam from nvidia is Quad SLI. lesse how many fools rush in.

 

[Evilsizer]

i've had the same views on SLI as you do for a while now. sli is pointless. period. another scam from nvidia is Quad SLI. lesse how many fools rush in.

maybe but nvidia is not completely dumb... well right now yes because the one area this would really help is in real time 3d renendering which i havent seen any SLI Quatro's or even dual GPU cards. Now they might have them but prolly only in something from maybe SGI?

 

[t12an_peter]

maybe but nvidia is not completely dumb... well right now yes because the one area this would really help is in real time 3d renendering which i havent seen any SLI Quatro's or even dual GPU cards. Now they might have them but prolly only in something from maybe SGI?

true, but the price for quad sli is going to be ridiculous

 

[MeatTheEB]

It seems your post is essentially "anti-marketing". Well, let's be honest... marketing is rarely correct. ATI does not make the best GPUs around, regardless of what their frequent NewEgg ads and their 9x00 series cards have told us in days and years past. All sarcasm aside, marketing is made to be bull****. However, I think you might very well be missing the focus of SLI.

SLI is essentially made as a stop-gap solution. Say I'm building a 939 system, and I don't have $500 to spend on a 7800GTX (which I'd love) or $750 for a 512MB version of the card. Now, I have two options... the first is spend $60 on a 6200TC and have it use 192MB of my system memory to supplement it's existing 64MB. I then have a 256MB video card, and a really ****ty one at that. Or, since I'm already building a system, I can instead chose to, say, cough up $180 on a 6800GS or $290 on a 7800GT, and have great 3D performance. Then, six monthes or a year from now, I can poney up another $150-$250 (probably what those two cards would cost, respectively, after time has taken it's toll) and essentially double my 3D performance.

Not only will this save me money up-front, and allow me to, say, spend more up-front on the CPU or the motherboard, but it'll save me money in the long run by being able to not have to buy two $500 video cards, but instead two $200-$300 video cards.

Now, with this being said, sure I can spend $500 on a 7800GTX initially, and then add a second in a year or so for maybe $350 or $400, and have the same performance-doubling effect. It's kind've like buying a ghetto Kia now, and in six monthes adding enough machine to that Kia to make it a shiny new Nissan, or whatever your preference is. The essential truth (thank you, James Frey) is that you're really not spending that much money, because in the end the idea of SLI actually lets you prolong the amount of time and money you need to spend on upgrading your system.

Now granted, there are some people who went and spent $1500 on two 512MB XFX 7800 GTXs, but you know what I've learned? I've learned that a) I wish I were them, and b) when I am out of college and make $70,000 a year... I WILL be them.

This all depends on what you can allow yourself to justify, and in the past I personally never would've spent $500 on a video card. Nowadays, however, the 7800GTX 256 or 512 MB variation is such a large performance boost that, if I were in the market for a mid-to-high end system, I would consider myself pretty dumb not to invest in one. With that being said, in half a year, I can spend some more cash and let my semi-aging card have new life for an extra year or whatever your preffered duration is.

I guess the point is that SLI is mostly used for prolonging a card/system's life, and very infrequently to try and somehow substitute a higher-end card with two lower-end cards... at least, not out of the box.

 

[t12an_peter]

as an unemployed college student =[, i say that its a waste of money, since the income effect comes into play at this rate. and yes, it's true that SLI helps consumers upgrade at their own pace, but you gotta admit that one of nvidia's goals was to put out something "big" that was a "juggernuat" and was the "best". it's part of their advertisement; its the image that they are trying to send out. but anyways, yes, i wish i had what other people have too, but meh. haha.

 

[dominick32]

I am also on the pro-single card side of the argument. Although I do own an SLI motherboard I also plan on staying single 16X PCI-E.

My reasoning: Financially, my battle plan has always been to buy the top of the line single card (right now its the ATI X1900XT/X). When a card comes out by either Nvidia or ATI that substantially beats my older card by 20% to 30% I go out and order the newest and sell my older one at a relatively slim loss. (Around 15% loss)

Again, a lot of people do not want to spend $500 to $600 a pop on a video card. But rather than buy a lower end card and run an SLI/CF rig I would rather have the latest and the greatest single card. Also, if I win the lottery I can always add 2 of the latest cards in SLI in the future just to put an SLI sticker on my case and make myself feel all big and tough. lol

Dom

 

[T'wolves]

as an unemployed college student =[, i say that its a waste of money, since the income effect comes into play at this rate. and yes, it's true that SLI helps consumers upgrade at their own pace, but you gotta admit that one of nvidia's goals was to put out something "big" that was a "juggernuat" and was the "best". it's part of their advertisement; its the image that they are trying to send out. but anyways, yes, i wish i had what other people have too, but meh. haha.

Well as an umemployed college student it is your opinion that it is a waste of money, as an employed college student it was expensive but a performance king and worth it for me, so this is all opinion here.

sli is pointless.

The point is it offers performance and benchmarks a single card simply cannot provide.

another scam from nvidia.
+

Its not a scam, see below

but you gotta admit that one of nvidia's goals was to put out something "big" that was a "juggernuat" and was the "best". it's part of their dvertisement; its the image that they are trying to send out

your right about this, it was every company tries to do it to gain control of the market; by offering the best and beating compition.

lesse how many fools rush in.

I knew exactly what I spent, exactly what I got, and couldn't be more pleased, sounds hardly foolish to me.

 

[t12an_peter]

of course what i said was an opinion. isnt that the whole point of a forum? =]

correct me if i am wrong, but arent there a lotta games that dont have full sli support?

anyways, i think sli is pointless for now. and the performance gain isnt really something that everybody would wanna fork out a couple hundred more bux, thats why i was saying the sli is a waste of money, BUT i agree that later in the future, it will be beneficial.

i meant when the quad sli comes out, fools will rush in. the new dell thats gunna have 4 gpu's, cmon, thats purely sending an image of being superior and getting people to marvel at its power. =]

but sli does look sweet....

 

[infinitevalence]

It seems your post is essentially "anti-marketing". Well, let's be honest... marketing is rarely correct. ATI does not make the best GPUs around, regardless of what their frequent NewEgg ads and their 9x00 series cards have told us in days and years past. George Bush is not a good President, regardless of what Republicans will tell you, either... oh, and **** Cheney's got terrible aim. All sarcasm aside, marketing is made to be bull****. However, I think you might very well be missing the focus of SLI.

SLI is essentially made as a stop-gap solution. Say I'm building a 939 system, and I don't have $500 to spend on a 7800GTX (which I'd love) or $750 for a 512MB version of the card. Now, I have two options... the first is spend $60 on a 6200TC and have it use 192MB of my system memory to supplement it's existing 64MB. I then have a 256MB video card, and a really ****ty one at that. Or, since I'm already building a system, I can instead chose to, say, cough up $180 on a 6800GS or $290 on a 7800GT, and have great 3D performance. Then, six monthes or a year from now, I can poney up another $150-$250 (probably what those two cards would cost, respectively, after time has taken it's toll) and essentially double my 3D performance.

Not only will this save me money up-front, and allow me to, say, spend more up-front on the CPU or the motherboard, but it'll save me money in the long run by being able to not have to buy two $500 video cards, but instead two $200-$300 video cards.

Now, with this being said, sure I can spend $500 on a 7800GTX initially, and then add a second in a year or so for maybe $350 or $400, and have the same performance-doubling effect. It's kind've like buying a ghetto Kia now, and in six monthes adding enough machine to that Kia to make it a shiny new Nissan, or whatever your preference is. The essential truth (thank you, James Frey) is that you're really not spending that much money, because in the end the idea of SLI actually lets you prolong the amount of time and money you need to spend on upgrading your system.

Now granted, there are some people who went and spent $1500 on two 512MB XFX 7800 GTXs, but you know what I've learned? I've learned that a) I wish I were them, and b) when I am out of college and make $70,000 a year... I WILL be them.

This all depends on what you can allow yourself to justify, and in the past I personally never would've spent $500 on a video card. Nowadays, however, the 7800GTX 256 or 512 MB variation is such a large performance boost that, if I were in the market for a mid-to-high end system, I would consider myself pretty dumb not to invest in one. With that being said, in half a year, I can spend some more cash and let my semi-aging card have new life for an extra year or whatever your preffered duration is.

I guess the point is that SLI is mostly used for prolonging a card/system's life, and very infrequently to try and somehow substitute a higher-end card with two lower-end cards... at least, not out of the box.

Take a good look around at prices the 6800GT came out over a year ago and started around $350 sat at $300 for about 6mths and now has only droped to $240. You my friend are blindly optemistic about your priceing. If in fact prices like that were commen place, then I would not feel like i do about SLI. Your also forgetting one key point. Lots of people think SLI offers and UPGRADE path, but if you put two older cards into one system it will still not have the features of the newer cards, so things like DirectX, Shaders... may have been updated from your last generation of card, and now you have not just one card that is out of date and obsolete for new games supporing this new programing, but you have TWO cards out of date. I just cant see how it will ever breakdown so that SLI is a good value. Its not. Its for raw performance only, it is not an upgrade path, it does not extend the life of your card/s. All it does is offer a tempory burst of performance at a very very high cost.

As i have said before, SLI is not for the mainstream and over 60% of our forum falls into that catagory. They are relying on marketing to make it appealing reguardless of the real cost to the mainstream. If you have the $$ and want to pay for it by all means go for it. I dont (well i coudl but i dont see the point) and im not going to fall into beliving that i need SLI to impress people. My E-Penis comes in a full rack

All hail my e-peins

 

[Evilsizer]

umm is that a rack of dell's or am i looking at a SGI system?

 

[infinitevalence]

Thats my rack of dual xeons, the only dell is a dual xeon 2.8 that is my roommates

 

[vixro]

I'm going to ignore your post before the above infinitevalence. the spelling and grammar errors were just too much for me... now if you hadn't tried to make sentences, you would have been okay and it would have looked intentional too!!

aside.. key points were made and addressed by both sides of the argument, but what it comes down to is that it is not a waste of money to buy SLI if you know what you're doing. the title of the topic says it all. SLI: a tax on the uninformed. inform yourselves and make smart decisions, don't just flame the technology because you can't afford it or it doesn't work for you.

SLI IS useful for more than just massive resolutions or extreme quality settings. You can see large performance increases in regular games at regular resolutions. Going from 1 card to the same card in SLI can practically give a 40% increase in performance on half-life 2 based games.. even at 1024x768 believe it or not. having high quality settings with some AA and AF with HDR will only yield 50 (at the lowest) to 120 fps on the new CS_militia (cs source) with a 7800GT, yet.. 2 in SLI yield 100-160. I for one can tell the difference between 50 fps and 100 fps at a minimum... yet, it only cost $300 to upgrade to those higher frames, while going to an x1900 would have cost well over $550.

 

[T'wolves]

of course what i said was an opinion. isnt that the whole point of a forum? =]....

I also like to think this forum is factual based as well, and most people can prove or back-up thier arguements. Everyone is entitled to opinion, but without facts we can't learn a lot either. The only hard part is figuring out what is fact and what is bs.

correct me if i am wrong, but arent there a lotta games that dont have full sli support?

anyways, i think sli is pointless for now. and the performance gain isnt really something that everybody would wanna fork out a couple hundred more bux, thats why i was saying the sli is a waste of money, BUT i agree that later in the future, it will be beneficial..

Your correct most games are not written to take full advantage of sli, regaurdless there is still a bennefit. I don't know what kind of monitor you use to game, but if you had the chance to see the diffence of sli on say a 24" ws lcd monitor, I dont think you wouldn't be so eager to dis-miss sli. For most people though, your probably right, sli has not matured to something useful yet.

It's just my guess, but I'm thinkin that quad sli(QSLI) is going to be more geared to rendering and companies, which can buy 4 $500 video cards a little easier. Wonder if you can run two 50" HDTV's in dual monitor with that?

 

[MeatTheEB]

For the record, I hardly think "60% of these forums are mainstream". Mainstream can be defined most typically by basically saying that we're all retards who know nothing about hardware. This is not the case. With that being said, I'd like to just ignore the majority of your post altogether, infinite, as you seem to *want* to come off as a douchebag. The fact is, maybe .1% (and that's a pretty big maybe) of the enthusiast crowd use SLI, and good for them, but nobody is sitting there saying "omfg I have SLI look at me I am teh1337".

Sure SLI is marketing bullcrap, so what? If you can't see that, then you're retarded, so why devote a line of bitching rants about it? Really people, we have more pressing issues to attend to, like what to cool infinite's so-called server with when we overclock it.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

So in this sense there is currently no reason to buy dual core when Intel will have quad core out in 2007 ? cause you may only be king for 8 months or a year.... and most people dont need dual core ?

Most people dont need 1g of ram
Most people dont need 300G's of harddrive space or the latest SATA2 or WD raptor drives

Alot of people dont need anything faster then a PIII

People will always want to get the best they can afford - for some people buying an SLI system with 2 7800 GTX 512 isnt a hit in the wallet.

You cant always wait for the next best thing, otherwise you will never own a computer period.

You want it - and you think it will improve your computer experience - and you will be happy with it - then buy it and dont let anyone tell you diff.

 

[koss20100]

not to mention a singe card uses less watts thus less taxing on your psu ..AND you will be runing the comp cooler ..

SCREW SLi !!

 

[MeatTheEB]

not to mention a singe card uses less watts thus less taxing on your psu ..AND you will be runing the comp cooler ..

SCREW SLi !!

Sigh. You miss the point.

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

and what if i want to run 4 x 24' dell LCD's ? or 2x 30' dell's - since the 30" require a dual DVI link from NVIDIA , unlike ATi - you can run a 30" of a single DVI port

SLI is for those who want high resolutions on todays high end LCD's that require hi res to look good.