Any SLI users here?

[dburne]

Hey gang,

 

I have been building and overclocking my own systems for many years now, around 20 or so I guess at this point.

Really is about as much a hobby of mine, as flight simming is.

 

One thing I have never done, or even ever seriously considered doing, was running two or more graphics cards in SLI.

I have been a firm believer in the KISS principle. I will build systems, spend hours and hours tweaking for the best overclock, even overclock the graphics cards. Just have never been drawn into the SLI thing.

 

In fact, the last 5 systems I have done, had the ability to do SLI on the motherboard.

My new build I did this week,  with the EVGA X-79 Dark board, even has the ability for Quad SLI.

 

That I have not done it to date probably has more to do with the fact, that I am not what I would consider a real hard core gamer. I do enjoy games on the PC very much, however I am limited in the time I have available ,and also I tend to get motion sickness very easily. For this reason I can not even play FPS games - after about 20 minutes or so, I am so sick to my stomach. Luckily for me though, flight sims and racing games, do not have the same effect on me, that FPS games have.

 

Reason I am sharing all this, is to maybe give you an idea of what type of gaming I do. The last 4-5 years have been all flight simming, used to be heavy racing simmer back in the day, but my main love is and always has been in flight simming.

 

So all of this leads up to what I am curious about:

Is SLI something that maybe I should keep an open mind to and consider doing at some point? I know nothing really about it, but seems like a game needs to actually support SLI to benefit from it? I am not sure any flight sims I run would even benefit from it?

Mainly at this time  my gaming consists of ROF, Cliffs of Dover, the DCS Series ( A-10C, Black Shark 2, Flaming Cliffs 3, P-51), and obviously BOS. More than I really have time for anyway.

 

So does anyone here get into this SLI thing? Do you think it is worth it? Do any present day flight sims benefit from it?

 

Just got curious about it tonight , thanks for any tips on this.

Edited December 22, 2013 by dburnette

[Sim]

I think the question is what kind of monitor do you use? I would only buy into SLI setup if you are:

 

a) Running a triple-monitor setup

b) Running a 4K resolution monitor

c) Running a 120hz or 144hz monitor and want to have high FPS to keep up with refresh rate.

d) want to do some fancy things like 3D gaming

 

Otherwise SLI is a waste of money IMHO. Not to mention there is a high possibility of some graphical issues with SLI setups. Also, the two-way SLI setup usually does not mean you will have twice the FPS. The benefits/utilization depend on the game.

 

Not to mention you need high-end CPU to drive more than two GPUs (due to bottlenecks).

[skline00]

I'm running 2 EVGA GTX670 FTWs in SLI in my 3930k machine and 2 GTX660s in SLI in my 3770k machine and really like both. I see in your sig a GTX770 4G vram. You need a strong PSU for running higher end gpus in SLI. In my 3930k rig which is custom water cooled, I have a PC Power and Cooling 950Watt PSU which has plenty of juice for my overclocked 3930k (4.5Ghz) and my dual 670s OC'd. Both video cards have full water blocks to keep them cool. Frankly I love SLI for the gain in fps.

 

My second rig with 3770k OC'd to 4.5Ghz has dual GTX660s in SLI with an Antec Gamer 750W PSU. It gives me great fps and is smooth in flying. I'm flying the Alpha of Il2 BOS without any problem.

 

I notice a lot of negative comment on running SLI. How many posters actually have a SLI setup when making the negative comment? The comments about "high probability" of graphical issues is something I have NOT observed and I have played BF4, COD Ghost, Bioshock, ROF and now Il2 BOS. I don't know, perhaps I'm lucky or perhaps posters keep on repeating old problems observed. I do know that Nvidia constantly keeps upgrading drivers with new SLI profiles for modern games.

 

I agree with the poster above about monitor inquiry. The dual 670s really help my fps play in 2560x1440 resolution mode.

 

For me it's a great bang for buck.

Edited December 22, 2013 by skline00

[dburne]

I think the question is what kind of monitor do you use? I would only buy into SLI setup if you are:

 

a) Running a triple-monitor setup

b) Running a 4K resolution monitor

c) Running a 120hz or 144hz monitor and want to have high FPS to keep up with refresh rate.

d) want to do some fancy things like 3D gaming

 

 

 

I'm running 2 EVGA GTX670 FTWs in SLI in my 3930k machine and 2 GTX660s in SLI in my 3770k machine and really like both. I see in your sig a GTX770 4G vram. You need a strong PSU for running higher end gpus in SLI.

 

I agree with the poster above about monitor inquiry. The dual 670s really help my fps play in 2560x1440 resolution mode.

 

For me it's a great bang for buck.

 

Thanks guys,

 

I run a new Asus 27" LED 144hz monitor as my main monitor, and a Samsung 24" LED as my secondary monitor.

Both run in 1920x1080 resolution ( 60hz on the Samsung).

I use  a Corsair HX1000 modular power supply in my system.

 

As I mentioned only reason I have not seriously looked into, is I like to keep things relatively simple. Undoubtedly running SLI for me, would introduce more complexity to what I have that I would need to deal with - maybe the end result would be worth it to me who knows.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it!