Author Topic: nvidia SLI and ah (Read 562 times)

jaxxo · « **on:** September 15, 2006, 04:52:55 PM »

has anyone tried running dual nvidia SLI cards, and if so is there any difference/performance increase in the game? is one top of the line card better than 2 mediocre? any comments are apprec....

Slash27 · « **Reply #1 on:** September 15, 2006, 06:30:36 PM »

The way I understand it, AH does not support SLI. Also from what I gather, going with a single good card is the way to go. But Im far from an expert on the subject Jaxxo.

Sancho · « **Reply #2 on:** September 15, 2006, 07:16:30 PM »

So SLI wouldn't help even if you were running at 1920x1080 resolution? It wouldn't work period?

Slash27 · « **Reply #3 on:** September 15, 2006, 08:37:47 PM »

Honestly, all I know is that it doesnt work with AH. Im really not the one to be covering this one.

eagl · « **Reply #4 on:** September 16, 2006, 12:23:42 AM »

Do a search for SLI in this forum... Basically it works fine.

Blagard · « **Reply #5 on:** September 16, 2006, 03:34:11 AM »

Jaxxo,

I wondered the same whilst building a new PC and thinking two cards may work better then one. From the digging I did, there is no doubt that is the case, but the problem is, the gain is not much and it really is a waste of money. Unless you already have a very high end card that still does not do a good enough job and you happen to be made of money (Loaded ?). The reviews I read concluded it was a high end performance tweak and that if there is a single card that will do the job for you, then this is still the most cost effective approach by far.

I was considering a pair of 7300GT instead of a single 7600GT. The cost would have been similar either way, but I became convinced after reading the tests that the single 7600GT is the better solution if you want the better performance.

Maybe later when the 7600GT becomes cheap it might be worth putting in another alongside using SLI. But I would not expect a major leap in performance.

Regards
Blagard.

Slash27 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 16, 2006, 05:58:31 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by eagl
Do a search for SLI in this forum... Basically it works fine.

Works fine as in how? I thought AH " doesnt support SLI"?

eagl · « **Reply #7 on:** September 16, 2006, 06:09:43 AM »

Find one post that says AH doesn't work with SLI.

Or do a search in here, and find maybe 10 posts that say it works just fine.

Slash27 · « **Reply #8 on:** September 16, 2006, 06:16:56 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by bloom25
It's probably worth throwing in that SLI requires specific driver support for every application. I doubt nVidia will be coding SLI support for AH anytime in the near future.

Best I could come up with so far. I swear I read Skuzzy said that there was no SLI support for AH too, but Im not sure.

eagl · « **Reply #9 on:** September 16, 2006, 07:15:19 AM »

It doesn't help that SLI is "too short" of a search term... It also seems like this forum's history is truncated and a lot of threads specifically covering SLI are no longer here. Too bad.

In any case, nobody has said that SLI "won't work" with AH. Skuzzy probably pointed out that AH isn't specifically coded for SLI, but that doesn't really mean anything except YMMV. I don't remember a single post by anyone in here, skuzzy included, stating anything substantially negative about AH and SLI. The worst has been that there are no guarantees that it will speed anything up and that the money spent on a second video card might be better spent on other system bottlenecks, or even on something else entirely (like beer).

Still, a bunch of people have reported that AH runs just fine with an SLI vid card setup and some have also reported that it runs fast without any problems.

Slash27 · « **Reply #10 on:** September 16, 2006, 10:32:21 AM »

I have not read anything that gives me the impression its worth it right now. I suppose I should have said that to begin with.

eagl · « **Reply #11 on:** September 16, 2006, 10:36:56 AM »

Being worth it is a completely different question than if it works with AH

whels · « **Reply #12 on:** September 16, 2006, 11:21:15 AM »

I ran SLI 6600 GTs when it all 1st came out. you have to make a profile for AH. I got alittle boost from SLI but not like other games do/would.
i ditched the 6600GTs and got a 6800 ultra and got a few more fps from
single card.

If Ah is all you play then no its not worth it. BUT if u play other games
like BF and such then yes it could boost preformance alot.

Whels

ALF · « **Reply #13 on:** September 16, 2006, 11:56:05 AM »

AH from my experience is way behind the curve on graphics card requirements for good framerates. Better cards certainly can help, especially with FSAA settings, but its nothing like a current top end hog like Oblivion. Get an SLI setup if you need it for other games, but not just for AH IMHO.

I get very good results on my ancient radeon 9800pro on my secondary system....which is certainly no slouch in its day, but isnt even on the charts these days, and honestly its not a huge jump to my main system which runs a 6800gt, sure I can set the ground detail a little farther off, but its just no huge change for 99% of gameplay.

eagl · « **Reply #14 on:** September 16, 2006, 12:45:41 PM »

Alf,

Either skuzzy or HT said a while ago that newer vid cards will look better because they use more advanced graphics techniques and settings by default when a newer video card is detected. There were no details given, but they very specifically said that the newer video cards would look better than the older ones because AH uses some features of newer video cards.

I have no idea what these features are and have never done a side-by-side comparison of AH with a new and old video card, but that's what was said.

It was also a fairly long time ago so I don't know if that is still the case, however I suspect it is still true because the min graphics requirements for AH have remained so low. It sort of makes sense that certain card-specific rendering choices are made for each video card generation.

Again, I haven't tested it but that's what was said. If I recall correctly, it was around the time the nvidia 6xxx cards came out and a little bit before the new advanced water effects were put into the game, but I'm not sure and the post is not available here in the forum anymore.