sli scaling

[teamzissou]

i have an older foxconn nforce 590 mobo with a athlon 64x2 3.0ghz with 2gig ddr800 ocz ram and im upgrading graphics card soon and iwas wondering what would be my best option. im wanting to sli and was wondering if 8800's would perform better than 9800 series cards due to my older motherboard or is the scaling between cards not hardware specific and more of a driver thing.

[david.hill64]

Not sure about 9800 cards, but reports show that the scaling on 9600GT is much improved on the SLI performance of 8000 series cards probably because of driver improvements.

The 9600GT also take much less power than 8800 cards. If you SLI 8800GT Nvidia recommends a PSU with at least 750W. You only need 600W for two 9600GT cards. Thisnk about teh PSU as well when you make your choice.

[srpeters18]

From what I've seen a single 9800GX2 will perform about the same as two 9800GTX's. I would go with the GX2, cause if you really want to get a second one you'd be running quad-sli, which slightly outperforms Tri-SLI GTX's. And I'm gonna go out on a limb and say a single GX2 is cheaper than 2 GTX's.

[PP Mguire]

which slightly outperforms Tri-SLI GTX's. And I'm gonna go out on a limb and say a single GX2 is cheaper than 2 GTX's.Actualy SLI 9800GTX's is a better deal. Quad SLI is sometimes outdone by Tri SLI. In this case, more than 2 GPUs isnt always better.

As for the original question. The only problem you will have is basicly being CPU limited to your performance with ANY SLI. Your chipset is fine for the 9800 cards. Id say go ahead and get 2 9800GTX's when they come out.

To answer your second question SLI scaling has to do with the chips and drivers, but mainly the chips. The 9000 series (Specificly 9600GT and 9800GTX) scale alot better than the 8000 series of cards.

[Ranzear]

Resolution. Resolution. Resolution.

If you're under 20" of screen real estate, don't bother with SLI or a GX2. 1920x1200 is a must to get out of CPU-Bound with that thing.

[MrX]

Sli doesn't necessarily scale as good or even work in all games but all these 9600gt would be good for SLI. Usually outperforming 8800gts for the same money.

[teamzissou]

I have a 22" monitor with a max resolution of 1680x1050 so would that make my system cpu limited and then should i just scratch sli and get just a 8800 or a 9800 and how much and when for the 9800gtx

[darkorb]

I recently got my 2nd GTS and i run at 1680x1050. I was not noticing any FPS increase, actually i was being slowed down. So i gave the 2nd card to my brother. Honestly, not worth it. Although it might have been my CPU slowing it all down..

[srpeters18]

Keep in mind also that we're recommending 9800's in SLI, not 8800's. Its been pretty well documented that the 8800 series does not scale well and in MOST cases is not worth the time or money.

[Ranzear]

I recently got my 2nd GTS and i run at 1680x1050. I was not noticing any FPS increase, actually i was being slowed down. So i gave the 2nd card to my brother. Honestly, not worth it. Although it might have been my CPU slowing it all down..

2.7ghz dual, definitely CPU. I ran my 90nm dual out to 3.56something and was still gaining 3dmarks and FPS in Bioshock with my dual 8800GTS setup. Now I'm having RAM troubles with the Phenom but it still killed my old 3dmark06 by a couple thousand at just 2.8ghz. Didn't get much run of Crysis before encountering some hardlocks and stuff, cleaned the coolant off my RAM but haven't ran it since.

[darkorb]

3dmark06 is a good tool to see if SLI is working or not, but dont use it as a reliable benchmark because it isnt. Games are much better. although i think u no that