# SLI vs single graphic card



## dreampc (May 8, 2011)

Whats the difference in performance between 2 3 or 4 way SLI and a single graphic card??? Is it worth going for a SLI configuration??? Please let me know guys. Thanks in advance


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## slashragnarok (May 8, 2011)

From what I've read, 2 cards will be better than 1 but at the 3 card point it's gonna be more a waste of money than increase of performance, if you aren't using multiple monitors.


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## sam1 (May 8, 2011)

i'm using 2 8600GTs in SLI and frankly, i believe u shud rather go for 1 high-end card rather than 2 cards in sli.


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## 1993gregory (May 8, 2011)

for those who are under budget a single card will be best.
and over clocking enthusiastics and heavy gamers SLI is best.
so it depends heavily on your budget.
and as slashragnarok said 2 way sli is better in performance but with 3 way and above there wont be much of a difference in performance.


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## slashragnarok (May 8, 2011)

sam1 said:


> i'm using 2 8600GTs in SLI and frankly, i believe u shud rather go for 1 high-end card rather than 2 cards in sli.



Completely agree.


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## coolgame (May 8, 2011)

the more cards u add the more power and heat and lesser becomes ur performance output with respect to number of the cards used.that is, it is lesser than the ideal performance u would expect.2 gpus in sli/cf wont give 200% scaling if ur scaling is 100% for one gpu.it will give ~180% or so. similarly 3 gpus will lessen the ratio to ~230% performance and not 300%.not all gpus support beyond 2 way sli/cf and u need supporting motherboard+high end PSU and a well ventilated case.Also, more gpus,more driver bugs


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## asingh (May 8, 2011)

coolgame said:


> the more cards u add the more power and heat and lesser becomes ur performance output with respect to number of the cards used.that is, it is lesser than the ideal performance u would expect.2 gpus in sli/cf wont give 200% scaling if ur scaling is 100% for one gpu.it will give ~180% or so. similarly 3 gpus will lessen the ratio to ~230% performance and not 300%.not all gpus support beyond 2 way sli/cf and u need supporting motherboard+high end PSU and a well ventilated case.Also, more gpus,more driver bugs



It is not that black and white -- actually. These days cards have become extremely energy efficient and a minimal 650W supply can easily do the job. Even a single GPU does not give 100% scaling, cause a ton of the work is still being done by the CPU. Multi-GPU is totally a different ball game, and one cannot just read reviews and post their experiences. IF someone has actually tried multi-GPU and seen the difference with 1 card "on" and then both loaded will know. I get a jump from around 22 FPS to 43 FPS straight in Crysis warhead. This is the most demanding of games. Another factor is that future proofing is strong using Multi-GPU. I had put in 2x HD4890s back in June 2009. Believe me, there is not a game which has stuttered @ 1080pi + all maxed out. All the highest possible settings. I run Metro 2033 full notched up. The drivers are really good now for multi graphic sub systems. 

If one puts in the effort they can easily reap the benefits of such a system. Not good to just 'sign it off'.


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## rchi84 (May 8, 2011)

The sweet spot right now seems to be 2 Card combinations, which give you a good boost. with 3 and 4 cards, it's more of lesser returns for higher cost, power, noise and temps.

And the more cards you add, the higher your CPU needs to be clocked, to ensure that each card is being fed enough data to keep it active. 

Plus, for 3 or more cards, you definitely need an elite cabinet and motherboard that offer 16/16/8/4 x PCIe lanes etc. while 2x 16 or 16/8 or even 16/4 motherboards are pretty common now. 

Scaling has improved with each successive generation, but the bigger question is whether the PC has enough games that stretch the capabilities of systems. Back in the day, each release of a game used to hurt your rig, but nowadays, I can run most games on high details at 720p on my laptop with a mobility Radeon 5650 just fine.

So that's that


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## dreampc (May 9, 2011)

My budget is around 9 to 15k for the GPUs but its quite flexible........and it would be helpful to know whether most games support SLI otherwise it would be a waste.......



dreampc said:


> Whats the difference in performance between 2 3 or 4 way SLI and a single graphic card??? Is it worth going for a SLI configuration??? Please let me know guys. Thanks in advance





Oh and please suggest me a good configuration for a gaming cum multimedia rig which I would be building for at least two to three years..........with the graphics being the last thing I buy because they get outdated too soon
Thanks for all your replies


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## ico (May 9, 2011)

sam1 said:


> i'm using 2 8600GTs in SLI and frankly, i believe u shud rather go for 1 high-end card rather than 2 cards in sli.


You made the mistake of choosing two mid-range cards (then) for a multi-GPU set up. If you are going for a multi-GPU setup, it is better to go for flagship models.

You see, we won't advise anyone to go for HD 5770 CF or GTS 450 SLI.


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## sam1 (May 9, 2011)

ico said:


> You made the mistake of choosing two mid-range cards (then) for a multi-GPU set up. If you are going for a multi-GPU setup, it is better to go for flagship models.
> 
> You see, we won't advise anyone to go for HD 5770 CF or GTS 450 SLI.



that maybe true, but it's not just abt the performance that i'm talking abt. the heat + problems with the SLI bridge at times, gave me a lot of additional headache.


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## vickybat (May 11, 2011)

^^8600gt's are very hot cards. Current gen cards are much cooler and consume less power making them ideal for sli/cf.


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## sam1 (May 11, 2011)

vickybat said:


> ^^8600gt's are very hot cards. Current gen cards are much cooler and consume less power making them ideal for sli/cf.



got the point. seems like it's high time to upgrade! but as far as power is concerned, the 8600GT consumes 47W approx. a GTX460 wud consume abt 160W i guess....so didn't get the less power thingy. did u mean compared to high end cards back then?


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## dead.night7 (May 28, 2011)

Its just like If you want to extract the real juice from all top games you would rather go for a single high end card or the SLI configuration. Now the tricky part ~ I dont have enough money to buy High End what should I do...? then you may go for slightly mid end, that may run games quite fine for an average game. But afterwards If you think around 6/8 months Purchase Similar card and plug it onto your dual PCIx16 Motherboard then you may see that the high end CF/SLI System you've made is quite much appreciable then what if you had purchased High end card Before. But now as time passes more efficient cards release very soon they drag our attention towards them and we probably mess around with what typo should we have.


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