NVIDIA SLI Performance Preview with MSI's nForce4 SLI Motherboard
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 29, 2004 5:06 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Doom 3 Performance
This benchmark requires no introduction - currently the most stressful game on today's GPUs, Doom 3 performance is the perfect area to look at the benefits of SLI.
Starting at 1024 x 768 we see that despite the low resolution, the GeForce 6800GT got a nice 46% performance boost from SLI. The performance improvement is much greater on the slower 6600GT as it is more GPU limited at 1024 x 768 than the 6800GT, weighing in at just under 72%.
Here the performance of two 6600GTs is equivalent of a single GeForce 6800GT.
As the resolution goes up so does the performance benefit from SLI. The 6800GT moved up to a 68% performance improvement, while the 6600GT only inched up to a 78.2% gain. The 6800GTs in SLI configuration actually make 1280 x 1024 with 4X AA smooth as butter under Doom 3.
At 1600 x 1200 we see some huge performance gains from SLI: 75.3% and 85% from the 6800GT and the 6600GT respectively. It's clear that SLI makes even the highest resolutions with AA enabled quite playable.
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SDA - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
Maybe, maybe not, #3. Modern PSUs have a lot more juice than the systems actually use. I wouldn't be surprised if a 380W Tagan could handle an A64 rig with dual 6800Us.Anyway, yeah, this is decidedly sexy. What I like about it is that it actually has appeal for normal people as well... say you want to buy a midrange system that you can upgrade easily later. Get a dual PCI-E 16x motherboard and a 6600GT, then add in another 6600GT whenever you feel like you want a performance boost! Shame SLI isn't available on the 6200...
ukDave - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
1600x1200 high detail for any current game, that certainly is impressive. I'm an 'ATi Fanboy', but congrats to nVidia, damn fine job.I think even my luberly Tagan might have issues running two on these 6800 Ultras :o
keitaro - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
Here's an interesting idea... take SLI setup, plug in 2 17in to 19in LCD monitors, do some benchmarks and play with that setup for a while. Then tell us about the experience. :)xsilver - Friday, October 29, 2004 - link
Sweet.... Sweet candy ...... drools... wants nowI'm no fanboy but those ATI fanboys will have to give in to the fact that nvidia now has the "fastest" card abeit it will cost 2x more
Finally on the issue of SLI if the exact same card must be used to enable SLI, is there any info on the future availability of these cards.... eg if u buy a 6600gt now in 18 months this card may not be available anymore? eg. will be 6700gt? will these be compatible? Forcing you to upgrade before the product is phased out may not be so good
Also just noticed in the far cry 1600x1200 test SLI is more than 100% faster... how the hell does that work? margin of error?