SLI Primer 275
GFXguy writes "If you are looking to catch up on some hardware learning you may want to check out "SL Why?". It is a short article that goes over the basics of SLI graphics. The article goes over some strengths and weaknesses of this technology as well. It looks like one video card is not going to cut it any more, at least for the hardcore gamers out there. "
Voodoo (Score:2, Informative)
AFR / SFR error (Score:4, Informative)
Other upgrades (Score:4, Informative)
Even just adding a second fast hard drive and placing your paging file on that with your OS on your first hard drive would give most users a big bump in speed.
I could go on, but I think on a list of 10 things to do, taking advtange of SLI is probably number 9 or 10.
Re:Scalable Link Interface? (Score:5, Informative)
Upon further investigation it seems that nVidia's SLI stands for "Scaleable Link Interface", but you are correct in noting that it used to stand for "Scan Line Interleaving". They likely wanted to keep the acronym so that people would know what the technology's function was, but Scan Line Interleaving would be non-despcriptive, as their cards don't interleave at all, each renders approximately half of the screen.
Re:Maybe something I'll look into (Score:5, Informative)
same revision, same card almost?
ever tried to add a 2nd CPU to a multi CPU system 18 months later?
Re:Other upgrades (Score:4, Informative)
Just run Performance Monitor (or Performance or whatever your version of Windows calls it) and add the following metrics:
Pages/Sec from the Memory Object
Average Disk Queue Length (total) from the physical disk object
Even if your memory used is nowhere near what your physical memory is, you will notice two things:
1. Your system still consistently uses the paging file
2. Every time your system uses the paging file, your disk queue length spikes
The moral of the story is, you need a fast disk subsystem for your paging file because Windows will use it even if you have 4 gigabytes of physical ram and are only using 256 megs.
As for RAID 0 vs RAID 5 in speed, what you say is true for writes, but not reads.
SLI-who needs it? (Score:4, Informative)
I run an AMD 1700, on an ABIT mainboard, with an old ATI9600. Not the pro, but the $79 budget card. I have no exotic cooling, just a nice sink and fan. I added a good copper fan unit to the videocard, which came with passive cooling. I use the features of the Abit MB to run the 1700 at 2.11Ghz, and the video got a 80Mhz bump. I see over 70fps in the CS:Source test, and average around 55-60 online. All for about the cost of one video card.
Re:FUD Biased Article with Inaccuracies (Score:4, Informative)
Relative to the cost, the performance gain for SLI is negligable. Take a look at the benchmarks [tomshardware.com] - for the $1100+ you'd spend on a pair of 6800 Ultras, or the $750+ you'd spend on a pair of 6800 GTs, you could obtain nearly identical performance with a $525 X850XT PE, with far less wattage and heat.
That Gigabyte single-board SLI implimentation? It's a big piece of crap [anandtech.com].
Roundup (Score:2, Informative)
Re:PC vs Console - TCO (Score:2, Informative)
Did you intentionally mix this metaphor? If not, you probably meant 'pass muster'. Alternatively, you might have meant 'cut the mustard'. Either way, you don't 'cut the muster'.
Cut the mustard [yaelf.com]
Pass Muster [usingenglish.com]
Please don't flame me. I'm just trying to help; I'm not intending any disparagement whatsoever. You are, of course, free to ignore my advice entirely.
Re:Voodoo (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Voodoo (Score:3, Informative)