Is SLi actually worth getting?

[Muni]

By worth getting I don't just mean price for performance. What I mainly worry about is issues having SLi could cause. I've noticed there are actually a lot of games that either completely don't support SLi configurations or do and have many bugs/issues. Not to mention I've read complaints about people getting stuttering in certain games with SLi enabled.

For the past few years I've kept away from SLi due to these reasons.

Has it changed at all nowdays? I don't understand why the whole idea could be plagued with so many problems yet people are still buying 2-3 cards and putting it into their system?

I am asking this because I plan to build a new gaming rig when the Ivybridge and 600 series cards come out. I've been wondering what I'll do. Either buy SLi-GTX670's, or buy a single GTX680.

[Bznga]

I would say only think about sli when the best gpu out there isnt enough for you.So in your case,get a single 680 instead of 2 670's.

[Zkeya]

I would say only think about sli when the best gpu out there isnt enough for you.So in your case,get a single 680 instead of 2 670's.

GTX 670 SLI will probably be better and more expensive than a single GTX680 though. It depends on your needs and your budget. If you're sure that you'll be able to afford some more on the future, you should get a single 680 and get another one later.

[Arisfarreach]

SLI-GTX670's will most likely crush a single 680 (If the 5xx series is anything to go by), but chances are you won't need that much power. Just go with a single 680 and pick up another sometime down the road.

As far as SLI issues and stuttering, I've yet to experience any kind of stuttering on a CFX setup, but some people see it, so it differs from person to person/card to card. Also, most modern games will have an SLI profile. Any quality game that you'll NEED SLI for will support it 99% of the time. AMD/Nvidia have gotten pretty good about getting out SLI/CFX profiles.

Also, since we don't know anything about the Kepler cards yet, everything mentioned in this thread could end up being entirely wrong. Just sayin'.

[ArchType]

I thought two 560Tis were much better than a 580, espcially when you can overclock them to 570 speeds.

[Deleted]

I'd say you buy a single, good card first. Then when the new generation comes along, you get the same card again, to stay on top-ish (be able to play everything on the same settings most of the time) and when the second generation comes along, you switch to that. But that's the only scenario I'd ever go for that, because there are no games out there that actually requires a CF/SLI if you have one of the better gpus

This is of course just my opinion, a more tech-savvy person might have a better and less subjective opinion ^^

[Arcilux]

While I understand that SLI support has gotten much better, I am personally a fan of single card setups. This isn't from any true technical standpoint, other than a single card will allow you to easily SLI later down the road assuming your mobo, psu, case, etc. can handle an SLI setup, but I personally prefer going with the best single card you can afford.

[kailtas]

I thought two 560Tis were much better than a 580, espcially when you can overclock them to 570 speeds.

The GTX560 Ti uses the GF 114, while the 570, 580 and 590 uses the GF110.

And the 560 Ti stock clock (core clock), is superior to 570s core clock. But you dont compare core clock on 2 different cards, especially not when they use different CPUs.

[Meleti]

It looks like people will need to SLI for BF3 with all the graphics options maxed out. Even a 580 is GPU-bottlenecked in that game. And that's an example of where SLI is useful.

In general, though, I agree with the OP. A single GPU is always going to be supported more consistently than multiple GPUs in SLI, and it's much more likely to not have problems during the first few days of a new title's release.

[ArchType]

True but for example BF3 has had an exstensive beta, and SLI has been working pretty well. Therefore there shouldn't be too much release errors. However like Brink it can be a clusterfuck for every type of card..

[Wries]

SLI is a tinkerers wet dream and a casual gamer's nightmare.

To be fair nvidia is doing a very good job nowdays auto-updating new profiles without you as a user having to care. But you can still tinker around with the profiles =D

Let me put this in an arrangement to make it easier to understand;
SLI 560Ti = 580
SLI 570 = 580 x 1.5
590 = 580 x 1.6
SLI 580 = 590 x 1.4
SLI 590 = SLI 580 x 1.5
3-Way 580 = SLI 590

Nono scale is all wrong. My 460 SLI is = 580, overclocking aside :P

560Ti SLI should be close to 1.5x 580

[Meleti]

True but for example BF3 has had an exstensive beta, and SLI has been working pretty well. Therefore there shouldn't be too much release errors. However like Brink it can be a clusterfuck for every type of card..

For BF3 sure, but Rage was a recent AAA title that launched with almost no support for SLI.

[ArchType]

Yeah forgot about that xD That was another clusterfuck ;P But then again it was pretty bad for single card setups aswell.

[Bann]

Id always opt for spending my money on one card, always you can always stick another in at a later date, when the card will be probably much cheaper and would give you a cheap boost in performance.

Gives you another avenue to consider when upgrading further down the road

[DeltrusDisc]

I thought two 560Tis were much better than a 580, espcially when you can overclock them to 570 speeds.

Don't base it on OC'ing to 570 speeds. The 570 has more processing cores than the 560 Ti, therefore they are not comparable just based on speeds. You can OC a 560 Ti all you want, but it will still not quite stand up to 570 in practical use.

A 560 Ti has 384 processing cores while a 570 has 480 of them. Not to mention a 570 typically has about 256MB more GDDR5 memory than a 560 Ti.

[Deleted]

Since I run three screens its esential for me to have SLI. I can see the apeal, but unless you plan to go over the 1920x1080 mark, most single slot graphic cards are great for this already.

[Deleted]

Just get a sli ready mobo and go for single card (add another la<ter if you wish). I did the same and now im running 2 x 6870xfx. Roughly getting same fps out of the x-fire friendly games as 6990 and 590 so im fairly happy with them. I just wish the games would be better optimized for them and i also wish that i could update them a bit less...

[ArchType]

Just came out today I think http://uk.geforce.com/whats-new/arti...ivers-released