sli vs single

[BrightCandle]

Wow so much misinformation.

 

SLI benefits

- Up to 100% extra fps. More typically its around 70-80% but that is going to depend on the resolution and your other components

 

Things that don't change

- VRAM, if anything you get slightly less VRAM overall because SLI consumes some to work

 

Drawbacks

- SLI uses a technique called Alternative frame rendering. Each graphics card is working on its own version of a frame but at different time periods. This has two major consequences depending on how you use that performance boost - 1) If you set the graphics details higher such that the frame rate is similar to a single card then you get better visuals but you also gain latency, because each GPU is taking twice as long to draw the frame (at 60hz that is an extra 16ms). 2) If you use the GPUs to allow higher FPS, ie 120hz+ then the latency remains the same rather than improving but the visual quality will be the same.

- Because two cards are rendering they can get misaligned in their timing. Ideally at 60hz/60fps each card gets given a new frame every 33ms, but because of the second card they can get misaligned and we call this microstutter. Its something Nvidia is keenly aware of but its still a problem sometimes.

- SLI doesn't always scale, infact sometimes it makes performance worse than with just a single card. You will at some point find yourself playing with just a single card.

 

SLI is overall a mixed bag, you get the extra performance but depending on how you use that there are drawbacks specific to your strategy.