SLi fur dummies?

[Keygrip]

My weekend research into my dead compyootah reveals I need yets another motherboard.

So far, I've been working/playing/battling/screaming* (*delete as applicable) with an ASUS M2NSLi Deluxe motherboard - but am on my fourth board (about to become fifth) within 18 months.

The original board was chosen because it praised itself for being SLi ready - provided it was fed by two identical graphics chips.

That meant two video cards - which, having chosen the GeForce 8600GT (PCI-E) graphics card gave me 4 DVI outputs.

I use two digital monitors, a 21" for working and surfing, and a 19" for e-mail and any mini windows I need (calculator, skype, messenger etc) for a short time.

The SLi never did work - totally blank screens. I ended up running just one video card and operating both monitors from one card. Nice, neat, easy, efficient.

Never worked out if I should have bothered with SLi - as I didn't *really* understand its proposed benefits.

Now that I'm required to install another motherboard, I'm wondering if it's worth going down the SLi route for little other reason than "because I can"...although I do play a lot of "Second Life" - which is a very graphics resource hungry on-line environment.

Can anybody explain *IN LAYMANS TERMS* exactly what the pros and cons of SLi bridging are?

Conversations with ASUS when trying to make all this work suggested that if SLi bridged, the two video cards would only produce ONE video signal and the remaining three ports would be disused. I'm certainly not going that way.

I'll use my new, problem solving, lower quality PCI card to run a third monitor (HDTV set) - just because I can. Can monitor my radio station then - and play more youtubes, too.

[Sprogget]

The very basic idea is that two gpu's share the processing effort for graphic intensive data & render one single output, so as to increase graphic performance & reduce load on the rest of the system resources. You can only do it with identical Nvidia gpu's & you need an sli cable to connect the two. IIRC it stands for Nvidia scalable link.

Unless you're playing call of duty four on 60" plasma screens, I would question the need for sli processing but of far more concern is why you have been through four mobo's in under two years.

Putting one foot infront of the other, I would be solving that problem before worrying about graphics - a new motherboard every four months is not normal.

[Bushfiva]

I dimly remember that ASUS takes a novel route to SLi cards:some motherboards have the "EZ selector card" that needs to be removed, turned around, and re-inserted. I could Google for more info, or you could look in your MB manual :-)

[Keygrip]

Thanks, Sprogget and Bush5A.

I did start to believe the idea that SLi was purely for super high end, high speed, graphics - and eventually I had no real *need* for it.

The original PC - before the one in question - had a standard off the shelf AGP2 graphics card supported ny a 1.7gb CPU and, whilst absolutely fine for general PC use, gave me a frame rate of about 4 frames per second on Second Life.

I designed and built my super-computer ("Deepthought") with SLi in mind in an attempt to improve the in world experience. The SLi never worked, on three different serial numbers of the same, exchanged, motherboard, possibly due to an inherent fault with the motherboard, the graphics card choice and 64 bit Vista - never tested by the manufacturer - they used different cards and Windows XP to test.

Running Deepthought on a single, yet fairly powerful, graphics card supported by a 3.2 gb CPU gave me a frame rate of anything from 35 to 60 fps - which is higher than broadcast television (25 UK, 30 USA) and renewed my questioning the validity of SLi.

Now that I have traced the (different) fault on this particular motherboard (intermittent connection between PCI-E graphics card and mobo) and have to replace it with a different model (as commented by Sprogget), I wondered about trying SLi again - but not at the cost of dropping down to just one monitor.

The new PCI graphics card that I used to prove the fault with the PCI-E slot is now giving me a totally unworkable frame rate of just 2.4 fps - makes Second Life absolutely impossible.

Thanks again for the wisdom.

=^..^=

[Bushfiva]

I got a GE force 9800GT: my particular card is effectively a GeForce 8800 GT with 55nm dies rather than 65nm. It suits me fine: cheap as chips, & fast enough. I can't believe Second Life needs anything faster. I get very good frame rates with Eve etc., and drive two displays. I wouldn't go with SLi without having a good reason to. And I don't have a good reason: two video cards at my pricing point won't outperform a single card at twice that pricing point, as far as I can tell.

[Jofm5]

Keygrip,

As has been mentioned an SLi set up will only need to be used on the very most demanding games and only then when you want to play with the prettiest settings.

You are better off paying more for a single more powerful GPU rather than having two slower graphics cards in SLi.

My current setup is on a single older (2 years+) 8800gts, which runs quite happily a 30" monitor at 2560x1600 and an a 20" at 1600x1200 and it easily copes with Everquest II on the larger screen with a browser on the smaller - both connected by DVI.

Of the current decent cards out there the GTX 275 is around £175 and is more than ample to deliver your needs effectively - or another cheaper card which is good is the ATI 4870 which incidently can later be paired up using Crossfire (ATI's equivalent of SLI).

Personally I would save on the motherboard expense and go for a more expensive graphics card.

[Sprogget]

Mine is an Nvidia 8500gt - way old by today's standards but I keep it on as I only watch telly & surf through it plus it has a heatsink rather than a fan, so it's ideal for my media box. Nice & quiet you see.

[Keygrip]

Surprised to find that ASUS are shipping me another motherboard of same model - as mine is within the warranty period.

I was perfectly happy with the single card I had - and will go back to that, whilst using the new PCI card to run a third monitor (just because I can).

Thanks for your comments folks.

I'll look into bigger cards - but have no growls at my 40 fps rate on Second Life.

Ah...the trubbles of a furry, eh?

=^..^=

[Bushfiva]

furry

xkcd - A Webcomic - Skins

[Keygrip]

You getting at furries, Bush? I bite ya!

[Bushfiva]

In your dreams. Or in your nightmares if you've ever seen a photo of me.

[Forkandles]

I designed and built my super-computer ("Deepthought")...

I know you're a moderator, but FFS, a super-computer called Deepthought???

You can't even get it to work properly...

[Keygrip]

It has a cold - it is not capable of even designing its own parameters just now.

(Yes, with regards to D.A.)

[Jofm5]

and there was me thinking that the Deep series was only designed to be good at chess...