Stop saying SLI/CF is overkill!

[Gauzl]

Getting really sick of people telling others SLI/CF is a waste on a single 1080 or 1440p monitor. I built my first PC in 2012 and started with a single GTX 680 and in a couple month purchased a 2nd GTX 680 and never regretted it, and I had a 120hz 1080p monitor. Now I have 2 GTX 780's which I bought both at the same time and a single 1440p monitor and can expierence smooth frame rates without sacrificing graphic settings, which you WILL have to sacrifice if you had a single card atleast at 1440p. When I use my 120hz 1080p monitor I can expierence games at over 100fps and still without sacrificing graphic settings, which you wouldn't with a single GPU, that being said, the games I'm talking about are all triple A titles.

[Bagmup]

It's the same argument with psu's. One mans overkill is another mans just right

[Oshino Shinobu]

When people say 1080P, they mean 1080p 60Hz. SLI 780Ti is overkill for that, but isn't for 120Hz. I've never seen anyone say that SLI is overkill for 120Hz. 

[Askew]

Nobody says it's overkill for 120Hz.

[Gauzl]

It's the same argument with psu's. One mans overkill is another mans just right

Atleast by "over killing" you're at the same time future proofing, so I don't know why people still complain.

[Bagmup]

Atleast by "over killing" you're at the same time future proofing, so I don't know why people still complain.

I find it quite funny, it's like someone's choice of gpu or psu is directly affecting them so they must point out the mistake haha.

[Owen]

I wouldn't say it's overkill for 120hz, but I don't really think its needed either. In most games I play I get around 115-120 fps on my single 290 (BF3, hardline beta, MMOs, etc)

[dev893]

It's the same argument with psu's. One mans overkill is another mans just right

the only reason they say that is because if you are using a system that under full load only draws 450 watts but you have a 750watt PSU 300watts of energy is being wasted thus meaning your spending money on electricity that you are not putting to use so it is overkill on your wallet lol

[Oshino Shinobu]

the only reason they say that is because if you are using a system that under full load only draws 450 watts but you have a 750watt PSU 300watts of energy is being wasted thus meaning your spending money on electricity that you are not putting to use so it is overkill on your wallet lol

That's not how PSUs work. It's not always using 750w. If your PC under full load uses 450w, your PSU will only be pulling 450W from the wall. 

[79wjd]

Atleast by "over killing" you're at the same time future proofing, so I don't know why people still complain.

Because you're paying a lot upfront. You could just buy one card at a time as its needed and save quite a lot of money as by the time the second card is needed it will likely be far cheaper than when you initially would've bought it. 

[Bagmup]

the only reason they say that is because if you are using a system that under full load only draws 450 watts but you have a 750watt PSU 300watts of energy is being wasted thus meaning your spending money on electricity that you are not putting to use so it is overkill on your wallet lol

No you're not, a 750w psu doesn't just sit there pumping out 750w. If you're using 450w, well you're using 450, not 750w.

[helping]

We generally have a problem with SLI/CF unfortunately since neither Linus nor Slick likes it.

the only reason they say that is because if you are using a system that under full load only draws 450 watts but you have a 750watt PSU 300watts of energy is being wasted thus meaning your spending money on electricity that you are not putting to use so it is overkill on your wallet lol

lol.

[Oshino Shinobu]

We generally have a problem with SLI/CF unfortunately since neither Linus nor Slick likes it.

SLI/CF does have its place, but there are issues with it. I find that Far Cry 3 in particular has massive issues with SLI. 

[jmaster299]

I agree OP. It's not always necessary, but it's not always overkill either. I try not to jinx myself, but I should have some money coming in soon, and if as much as it should be I will be going SLI with one of the 1080p gaming monitors from the BenQ XL series.

[Najuno]

All that talk with over- or underpowered, future proof and such things... I tend to find these discussions very boring... they´re just as old as the whole computer hardware itself.

 

It is much more interesting to either find someone´s need in hardware and advise these guys the right way, so that they get the best bang for their buck.

 

Or just satisfy the personal needs, and this will always be a very individual choice . I am not the biggest fan of CF/SLI myself, but it is an option that gives people out there the power they need (or when they think they need it hehe) for more than just 1080p in 60Hz.

 

I´ve written it many times already but hardware is always just a matter of the budget, and with all the respect, believe me it is great to have a big budget and get exactly the rig you want to have .

 

And with that being said, I know that many guys do not have the knowledge or expirience or that money to realize bigger projects, but therefore we have this awesome forum and base with so many nice people to help each other .

 

GreetZ Naj

[Thebman712]

Well im some ceses it is, like haveing 2 titan z for 900p gaming is udder bull shit, but if you are playing at 4k, a titan z or 2 may not be bad.

But generaly speaking it is better in the long run to get a singe high end gpu over 2 lower powered ones, maybe not right at the start but in a few months when you get extra $ to upgrade with, you will be happy with your choice.

Now as xfire or sli being overkill, it again depends on the situation, if you want a 144hz 1440p monitor, having dual 780 will be better than a single 780ti, and it really comes down to the situation

[Mountainlifter]

I understand you, OP. I get the same arguments from people about my TItan SLi rig at 1080p 120hz.

 

I tell them I prefer frames over resolution and will upgrade the monitor to a 1440p after gsync/fsync becomes easily available. 

 

The same people then laugh and tell me that a titan sli or 780Ti sli or 780 sli is for 4k gaming only, not 1440p.

 

I usually point them out to the fact that crysis 3 at 4K doesn't even hit 60fps average on a titan Z. Source: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-TITAN-Z-Review/Crysis-3 Also, three of the six games tested in this review do not hit 60 average at 4K.

[GloriousPain]

That's false too .-. PSU is gonna pull about 20%more  than it needs  so 540w for a 450w rig, unless you built your own superconductor based psu... there's a reason 80+ certification only goes til Titanium which is very very very very rare.

That's not how PSUs work. It's not always using 750w. If your PC under full load uses 450w, your PSU will only be pulling 450W from the wall. 

Edit: So logically buying a lower wattage higher efficiency is smarter unless your planning an upgrade.

[Oshino Shinobu]

 

Edit: So logically buying a lower wattage higher efficiency is smarter unless your planning an upgrade.

Pretty much. There are some PSUs that will benefit from being 'overkill' though. Such as the RM series which won't even spin up the fan until it's under a certain % load. 

[GloriousPain]

Pretty much. There are some PSUs that will benefit from being 'overkill' though. Such as the RM series which won't even spin up the fan until it's under a certain % load. 

 Forgot about that but yeah... Sorry had to correct you, you were breaking the laws of physics...

[Jumper118]

there is no such thing as overkill. people say the same about the titan, but it will be will be way better than a 780ti in 5 years or so. that extra vram will help massively. when i was looking at getting a fx5950 i got thee ultra over the standard one with double the vram. its ok thing that was overkill for 1024x768, but its much better now. 

[Lays]

That's not how PSUs work. It's not always using 750w. If your PC under full load uses 450w, your PSU will only be pulling 450W from the wall. 

 

WELLLLLLLLLL if we're being all correct and official, that's wrong as well  If you're pulling 450w from the PSU, the power drawn from the wall will be whatever the efficiency is

 

IE: 450w drawn from PSU to PC = 500 watts from the wall at 90% efficiency

 

 

( had to do it )

[Tam3n]

I'd say never go with two low/mid end cards in crossfire/sli... I myself did have a 7850 crossfire, and while it could produce a better price to performance ratio over 7950/7970 in most cases, other times when crossfire/sli was not supported or had issues, I was stuck with one lower end card. I'd say that always buy the single best card your budged allows, unless you need even more power than a single high end card can deliver. I run all less gpu hungry games with a single card, but games like Crysis 3 max out both cards at 1440p without even using any insane AA. Of course, if you already own a decent mid end card, adding a second one is probably the most budged friendly upgrade.

 

I'm also a little annoyed by the fact that people are shouting "overkill!" whenever someone is going to get a 850 W PSU when they are technically alright with just 500 W. Yes the PSU might have more watts than necessary, but if it's only few bucks more why not. It will probably just run cooler and quitter and without the person needing to worry about watts, and it also leaves some headroom for possible future upgrades. I bought my AX860i thinking I could just have bought the AX760i as well, but now it turns out I'm maxing my PSU when I turn up the OC to the max on the cards, though that's only when doing benching & testing fun... http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/168268-r9-290-crossfire-total-system-power-consumption-ax860i-results-at-different-overclock-speeds-water-cooled/

[d3nia1]

I love the option of SLI. In my main computer I have 2 Asus 760's running. My computer went from running really well, to RUNNING LIKE A GLORIFIED MAJESTIC TIGER, SPRINTING THROUGH THE FIELDS OF GRAPHICAL QUALITY.

 

It is great! So for about $550 total I now have the graphics power of a $1000+ Titan card.

[SpyRosL]

My definition of overkill:

When you have a specific,usually low-medium budget and you spent much more in one thing that doesn't matter too much and skimp on a thing that matters. (example: decides to go with 16gigs of ram and 750watts psu and has to downgrade the graphics card in order to meet his budget).

 

When someone has a huge budget and decides to go with lga2011 instead of 1150 is not an overkill for me.