How effective is SLI?

[Psittac]

Someone called me out on my claims of SLI not working most of the time.  I thought I would get a consensus on how effective SLI is as I could be wrong.  I have used crossfire and a friend of mine has used crossfire in the past and it was not a fun experience.  I can't site any resources but I'm pretty sure I've heard on several occasions that it is not widely supported and when it is the result's are hit or miss.  Who knows maybe it was some kind of confirmation bias.

[Princess Luna]

The get the single best GPU you can afford rule still applies, SLI only makes sense if you're an enthusiast wanting further power than a single GPU can provide (or GTA V is all you play lmao) and doesn't mind that at least half the games you'll try probably gonna scale poorly.

[TheGlenlivet]

SLI scaling ranges from 100-0% in effectiveness.  It all depends on the game in question.  If you only played 1 game that got 100% scaling, then you would get your monies worth.  Other than that, it's questionable as to it's value and in the last few years the number of games that have used it have declined.

[samcool55]

I tried crossfire last week mainly because i could. Holy crap it's bad these days.

I know it's not SLI but i would say close enough, and it's a disaster.

 

If you had a multi-gpu setup a few years ago, i could sort of see why because in most games it worked. But today, just nope.

Absolutely useless and a waste of money. And i'm not talking about poor scaling alone. It either doesn't scale at all (which is usually the case) and if it does somehow work it's a stutterfest. Not a great experience.

 

These days especially with stuff like G-sync, freesync and high refresh rate monitors it's just not worth it. A single card will give you in almost every case a better gaming experience even if there is some scaling with 2 cards because you don't need to fight stuttering which is sometimes already difficult enough with 1 card.

[tarfeef101]

As someone who runs dual GPUs in his main rig, it really just depends. 

SLI scaling in firestrike is amazing. almost 100%. SLI scaling in the game I play (Warframe) is poop tier, so i just mine on my second card for that. But, usually, in AAA games and benchmarks, you'll find better scaling. 

If you're ever considering dual cards, first go through this checklist (IMO)

• Do I already own 1 card?
  • If not, get 1 card that is as powerful as you need
    • if that doesn't exist, check if the games you play scale well (google)
      • if so, go SLI
  • if so:
    • if SLI scales well for your games, will you need a new PSU?
      • if so, probably not worth. sell your card and get a new, single card
      • if not, how long will this SLI setup last you?
        • if it is more than a couple years, then sure, why not. SLI
        • if not, just get a new card and sell

[Mick Naughty]

Used every generation since the 5xx series in sli. One has always been better then two for me. But I don't play crap games. The only game I play that doesn't support it would be pubg which I didn't purchase myself.

 

Its a non stop circle of get the best card you can get. So upgrade every few months to get another 5-10 fps and still not be good enough.

 

Its as effective as the game makers will let it be.

[Mk7-Golf-R]

1 hour ago, Mick Naughty said:

Used every generation since the 5xx series in sli. One has always been better then two for me. But I don't play crap games. The only game I play that doesn't support it would be pubg which I didn't purchase myself.

 

Its a non stop circle of get the best card you can get. So upgrade every few months to get another 5-10 fps and still not be good enough.

 

Its as effective as the game makers will let it be.

Did you mean two has been better than one? If not, why run every series in sli?

[Mick Naughty]

2 hours ago, Mk7-Golf-R said:

Did you mean two has been better than one? If not, why run every series in sli?

Because not all cards are created equal. Also if I’m building a new rig I’m not gonna the old rigs stuff in it. 

[andrewmp6]

Like said sli and crossfire are not worth the money.A lot of games do not support it now.The price of a 2nd card and big enough psu to drive both is a lot money to waste to me.I would get a 1080ti or vega 64 you can game on both 1440p max settings and see 100fps plus.Or depending the game you can run 4k 60fps max settings.But i would go 1440p for a nice big ultra wide monitor and be happy.And what the 2nd card and bigger psu cost you could send that money for a nice big monitor.

[Mick Naughty]

Assuming you have a cpu that could handle a 1080ti. Cheaper to not upgrade an entire system and just throw an old card in with your other one and actually enjoy the game compared to the lag fest of a weak cpu paired with a subpar gpu that’s supposed to be good. 

[Kalm_Traveler]

11 hours ago, Psittac said:

Someone called me out on my claims of SLI not working most of the time.  I thought I would get a consensus on how effective SLI is as I could be wrong.  I have used crossfire and a friend of mine has used crossfire in the past and it was not a fun experience.  I can't site any resources but I'm pretty sure I've heard on several occasions that it is not widely supported and when it is the result's are hit or miss.  Who knows maybe it was some kind of confirmation bias.

SLI varies by title. Recent testing (I can't recall which site off hand) found that 80% of modern titles they tested saw at least some benefit to SLI over a single card, but the benefit varied alot from maybe only 5% higher FPS up to I think 60% higher or so. It really depends on the game.

A few games will not work with SLI, or will work but actually have worse performance than with SLI disabled and just running on one card.

[MANDINGO]

4 hours ago, andrewmp6 said:

Like said sli and crossfire are not worth the money.A lot of games do not support it now.The price of a 2nd card and big enough psu to drive both is a lot money to waste to me.I would get a 1080ti or vega 64 you can game on both 1440p max settings and see 100fps plus.Or depending the game you can run 4k 60fps max settings.But i would go 1440p for a nice big ultra wide monitor and be happy.And what the 2nd card and bigger psu cost you could send that money for a nice big monitor.

Have you tried SLI?

[andrewmp6]

5 hours ago, MANDINGO said:

Have you tried SLI?

Crossfire on a pair of 5770s years ago,Never been a nvidia fan.

[MANDINGO]

2 minutes ago, andrewmp6 said:

Crossfire on a pair of 5770s years ago,Never been a nvidia fan.

I see the problem...

[Limecat86]

Had 2 GTX 970's in SLI before. Can't say it was really worth it. Got about 30% extra performance in general. In some games more and in others less. Even a lot of games don't support it (well). Now I'm running a single GTX 1080 and instead of a second card I bought a 21:9 144Hz G-Sync monitor. Still very happy with that decision.

 

[Frankenburger]

As others have said, it depends on the game. But in general, between 3/4ths and 4/5ths of the games out there scale with SLI.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1080_SLI/20.html

https://babeltechreviews.com/the-50-game-gtx-1070-ti-sli-review/3/

 

In games that SLI works with, you'll typically see between 50% and 80% scaling. Some games nearly double, and some games get negative scaling.

 

Also, SLI doesn't really work well at lower resolutions. Starting with Pascal GPUs, you really want to consider playing at 3840x2160 minimum to get the most out of the setup. If you don't have a 4k panel, then you can still use DSR. People make the mistake of using SLI 1080 or SLI 1080Ti at 1440p, and then complain they aren't getting good scaling.