Is SLi all that?

[oracle]

I am configuring a new system and i cant afford a top end card so i was considering a 6600gt. Is it worth prepping for sli and paying more for a sli motherboard?

I am currently looking at the asus nforce 4 deluxe motherboard

The rest of the system is: amd64 3200+, 1gb ram, 200gb sata etc.

[VR46]

have a search around for benchmarks on tomshardware.com, think this is a good comparison page ?

http://www7.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20050323/index-07.html

[simoran1]

power wise it does work. however you have to factor in that you'll need an sli mobo which in general are more exspensive. 2x 6600gt is prob the equivlent of a 6800 ultra so have a shop around and see what prices you can get. alternatively you could get an sli mobo and only one 6600gt untill you can afford another. a single 6600gt will suffice for a while yet

[Corrupt Rose]

It's a high end solution aimed at those who want absolute peak performance from their machine. It's expensive, but even in the computing world of luxury items, it's a luxury item, so that's not a problem really.

If I were you, I'd have a couple of concerns, though. Firstly, is your AMD64 3200+ actually going to push the SLi system to it's full performance? If you bottleneck the graphics cards with your processor, then you'll have wasted a lot of money.

Secondly, only 70-odd current games are actually compatable with SLi, but that's not really a concern as you can pretty much expect every game from now on to make use of it.

Most people report 30-70% performance gains (based on the game and the processor) over a single card. Personally, I'd prefer to spend the money on getting a single, more powerful card until you can buy Graphics Card double packs for a discount or something.

But really, if you've got the cash, go for it. It's always fun to have the latest toys.

[DjSatansfury]

Its more future proofing at the moment. Bit like 64 bit processors. Few games use the SLi technology in use at the moment, but obviously in the future its most likely going to become an accepted system.

That said the next gen gfx cards are meant to be along shortly

[simoran1]

It's a high end solution aimed at those who want absolute peak performance from their machine. It's expensive, but even in the computing world of luxury items, it's a luxury item, so that's not a problem really.

If I were you, I'd have a couple of concerns, though. Firstly, is your AMD64 3200+ actually going to push the SLi system to it's full performance? If you bottleneck the graphics cards with your processor, then you'll have wasted a lot of money.

Secondly, only 70-odd current games are actually compatable with SLi, but that's not really a concern as you can pretty much expect every game from now on to make use of it.
.

yep hes got a good point there, theres only so much the gfx cards will do before they are limited by processor power. also as he said alot of the times you will have to get specific drivers for most of the recent games as they are not natively programmed to take advantage of sli. this should become standard in the future however.

[Corrupt Rose]

I think for your processor type, you might be better off getting a single 6800GT, if you're not planning another upgrade in a long time. But on the other hand, as Djsatansfury said, you'll be more futureproofed. If you've got that in mind, make sure you get a Socket 939 motherboard, otherwise you're not going to be able to use the next bunch of processors.

Personally, I've got an A64 3500+ and a 6800GT, which I think pairs up pretty well. Unfortunately, my 939 motherboard is only AGP, which means I'm going to have to upgrade that if I ever want to use SLi, but looking at it, I'll never be able to afford that. I only got the 6800GT when it fell of the back of a lorry, so to speak.