...your computer...

[bm]

Asda_price - Are you ok?

Intel P4c 3.2 Ghz
P4C800 - Deluxe
1Gb DDR PC3700 Corsair RAM
ATi 9800XT
2x 120Gb Maxtor Diamond max 9 SATA
Saitek X-45

[asda_price]

I tell you what, Bird Man, mate, I'm absolutely friggin' crazy! . I just can't stop buying new PCs.

Cheers,

Rob

[bm]

Ah - I thought so  ;)

Can I have your "old PC"  ;D

[asda_price]

Maybe. For a good price.

But you have to be nice to me. Do you live near London?

Cheers,

Rob

[bm]

Its ok - i'm happy with mine! It pretty much stays at 30fps.

Question is - do you see any improvement

[asda_price]

Oh, bloody hell, yes! PCI-Express SLI is definitely the way to go! I recommend it whole-heartidly to everyone. Oh, in simple words, there is a lot of improvement.

Cheers,

Rob

[Gixer]

SLI wont give drastic boosts with a fair bit of teh current software though (so I read)  But yes for future proofing yourself its definately the way to go as more and more software takes advantage of it.

[asda_price]

Don't forget, there is also the brilliant 'Video Array' available soon on the Alienware ALX systems which allow you to hook up any two video cards to work parallel to each other, just like SLI. For example, you are able to make a parallel function with an ATi X800 XT and an nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra.

Cheers,

Rob

[the_autopilot]

Oh, bloody hell, yes! PCI-Express SLI is definitely the way to go! I recommend it whole-heartidly to everyone. Oh, in simple words, there is a lot of improvement.

Cheers,

Rob

Ummmm......NO!!!

SLI currently offers a performence drop in fs9 when compared to sing;e card operation.

However, in games that do support it like doom3, there is HUGE performence gain. It is a lot of money and there's no game out there that really requires it. Not even doom 3 in ultra mode in 1600 by 1200...which worked on a single 6800 ultra with playable frame rates with a few tweaks.

As for the video array, I haven't seen any benchmarks, so I wouldn't recommending counting on that .

Personally, I'm waiting for ATI's "multi-rendering" dual-vid card  solution

[asda_price]

Ummmm......NO!!!

SLI currently offers a performence drop in fs9 when compared to sing;e card operation.

However, in games that do support it like doom3, there is HUGE performence gain. It is a lot of money and there's no game out there that really requires it. Not even doom 3 in ultra mode in 1600 by 1200...which worked on a single 6800 ultra with playable frame rates with a few tweaks.

I'm afraid you are very wrong. My performance shot up now that I've got SLI, I don't know why you aren't getting the same effects. Or maybe you just haven't noticed it properly. For me definitely, SLI is the way to go.

Cheers,

Rob

[bm]

I don't play many FPS, but was given Half life 2 - runs smoothly on a single 9800.

I would think that by the time SLI has any significant performance advantage the 6800s & X800s will have been supassed by bigger & better things.

Don't know 'bout doom 3 though - I can't believe that any game released could be quite so graphics intensive as to require 2 NG cards! They wouldn't sell anything......

[the_autopilot]

I'm afraid you are very wrong. My performance shot up now that I've got SLI, I don't know why you aren't getting the same effects. Or maybe you just haven't noticed it properly. For me definitely, SLI is the way to go.

Cheers,

Rob

See the benchmarks my friend:


My own timedemo with fraps confirms this. I get better fps with a single X850 xt pe.

SLI uses a specific profile for each supported game. If a game is unspported, it has no profile and SLI will actually decrease performence like what happens with fs9.

However, in the games that do support it (like doom 3), the performence is almost twice that of non-SLI. Unfortuately, only about 50 gmaes are supported as of now.

Benchmark for doom 3:


In addition, of the 50 games, all of them (except doom3 and far cry) will run with more than decent frame rates on the highest quality on a SINGLE gfx card.

Games like Half life 2:


SLI does not make too much of a difference as you can see here. SLI only makes a difference on shader intensive games like doom3 and farcry. However, those are the only gmaes that can be descibed as shader intensive.

Geting SLI only gives you bragging rights. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing bad about SLI. I have it my self (see sig). Its just that its kinda of a waste at this point in time.

[Scottler]

P4 2.0, 1GB RAM, CD/DVD writer, Saitek X-45 HOTAS, FX5200 128mb vid card, and as of a few minutes ago, a bright and shiny 200 GB hard drive.  Let the downloading begin!

[asda_price]

You know, the_autopilot, I guess you're right, but for the future definitely, SLI is the solution for graphics.

Cheers,

Rob

[Ivan]

AMD 2400xp, 2000MHz
A7V333 rev 1.x, 266MHz FSB  :( too bad it's a V1.x
1024MB RAM
SB Live 1024  :( it has the beep sickness
ASUS GeForce 4200ti200 128mb
1x Maxtor 30GB
1x Maxtor 60GB
1x Maxtor 80GB
Speakers: Kenwoord KR-V-5090 Dolby Prologic, 5x 50W. Wharfdale main speakers and Sony surround set
Iiyama 19" crt
All in a Huge Aopen H700 series bigtower

Accessories:
Logitec Wingman strikeforce 3d

FS Version
Running: FS2004
in boxes or otherwise: FS5.1 CD version, FS2000, FS98

Specs upcoming machine
AMD 64 FX, not yet decided what clock speed
PCI-E motherboard, NForce chipset or something
PCI-E video, most likely nVidia
2 SATA Maxtor liquid bearing drives, non-RAID setup