Best scaling NVidia card

[mlee49]

Can anyone provide evidence on Nvidia's scaling, and details/benchmarks/reviews on the best scaling cards?

From the breif reading I've done the 9600 GT's scale really well. Thoughts on the 2xx series or perhaps detials on the up comming 3xx series?

Thnx TPU

[Jstn7477]

Honestly, I wouldn't want two small single chip cards if one big single chip card can do the same amount of work. 2 9600GT cards pretty much equal a 9800GTX, without needing to worry about scaling. Also, 2 9800GTX cards would probably be around a 280/285.

Also, the big downfall of multi-GPU systems is micro-stuttering. Since each card in a dual card setup renders every other frame in AFR mode, each card has the possibility of sending its frame at an unequal time i.e. card 1 sends frame 1, card 2 sends frame 2 say 12ms later, and then card 1 sends frame 3 at say 20ms. This causes stutter, because the frames aren't being delivered with equal spacing. Not to say that this is experienced in every game or program, but it certainly happens in some. This is why top-end single chip cards are better than a bunch of tiny chips at this point in time.

[aCid888*]

Originally Posted by Jstn7477

Honestly, I wouldn't want two small single chip cards if one big single chip card can do the same amount of work. 2 9600GT cards pretty much equal a 9800GTX, without needing to worry about scaling. Also, 2 9800GTX cards would probably be around a 280/285.

SLi 9600GT's slap a single 9800GTX/GTX+ silly.


If I were looking to SLi two cards it'd be 8800GT's to be honest as they can be had very cheap these days and when you put two together they perform very well.

If not those then a pair of 9800GTX+ as they OC well, run cool and are pretty decent on price to boot.


Also, what scales best is down to drivers and game support....I guess the 9600GT's do a good job and following that trend you could say the GSO's do a good job too; other than that I would think scaling is relative to your application.

[MKmods]

Originally Posted by aCid888*

SLi 9600GT's slap a single 9800GTX/GTX+ silly.


If I were looking to SLi two cards it'd be 8800GT's to be honest as they can be had very cheap these days and when you put two together they perform very well.

If not those then a pair of 9800GTX+ as they OC well, run cool and are pretty decent on price to boot.


Also, what scales best is down to drivers and game support....I guess the 9600GT's do a good job and following that trend you could say the GSO's do a good job too; other than that I would think scaling is relative to your application.

+1!!!!

[Jstn7477]

Okay, well if you don't count MIRs at Newegg, a 9600GT is $85.99 and a GTX 260 is 179.99. Maybe I should have said GTX260 vs. 9600GT SLi.

[MKmods]

thats closer but the 9600s still beat it. One reason for going 260 over the 9600s is on more than 1920 X 1200 res where the extra memory is needed.

I never went with the 260 and GTX cards because they were so long, But now that I have seen 260 for as low as $120 they are an excellent deal if they will fit

[GC_PaNzerFIN]

You need to be absolutely nuts if you grab a lower end SLi over pretty much similarly priced and performing single GPU.

I have had 5 multi-GPU setups this year alone and woah I am never going to get another one again unless there is no other alternative or AFR is finally replaced with more robust technology.

[MKmods]

SLI's maximum benefit is with low to mid cards. It has very little benefit to multiple high end cards

[Jstn7477]

Originally Posted by GC_PaNzerFIN

You need to be absolutely nuts if you grab a lower end SLi over pretty much similarly priced and performing single GPU.

I have had 5 multi-GPU setups this year alone and woah I am never going to get another one again unless there is no other alternative or AFR is finally replaced with more robust technology.

I agree. Micro-stutter is horrendous with the 8600GT SLi setup in my laptop.

[MKmods]

I have never once seen micro stutter and I have been using SLI since 7600s...

[Jstn7477]

Originally Posted by MKmods

I have never once seen micro stutter and I have been using SLI since 7600s...

You must be lucky then. Google has practically 1.7 million results for this issue.

[MKmods]

I would be more interested if I had noticed any bit of it myself or if there was more current probs (newer than a year or 2 ago)

[{JNT}Raptor]

Originally Posted by Jstn7477

You must be lucky then. Google has practically 1.7 million results for this issue.

Most if not all of those individuals are not using the optimum SLI mode for that particular game.....use Nhancer....get to know the app...you'll love it for any SLI setup....I used it with my 9800GX2 and it rocked......I purposely ran the wrong sli profiles for games....and guess what....micro-stutter.....switched back to the recommended sli profile and viola....no stutter.

Hope it helps.

[GC_PaNzerFIN]

Originally Posted by {JNT}Raptor

Most if not all of those individuals are not using the optimum SLI mode for that particular game.....use Nhancer....get to know the app...you'll love it for any SLI setup....I used it with my 9800GX2 and it rocked......I purposely ran the wrong sli profiles for games....and guess what....micro-stutter.....switched back to the recommended sli profile and viola....no stutter.

Hope it helps.

You can change everything game specific from the CP too. Usually when you change the SLi profile to something else than what is the default and recommended one for the game, you get performance issues, rendering issues, CTDs and so on. So no luck.

AMD is even worse in this as you can't change the rendering techique yourself for games, its either single GPU or what ever ATi decided to use.

[Jstn7477]

If I ever game on my laptop anytime soon, i'll give nHancer a try. Sorry if I was being a little bit of a d*** earlier (didn't mean to).