Why Sli is a lie. From the 8800's to the 980's. A paying customers account of constant problems.

[D007]

I have gone from the old 8800 series to the current 9 series and have used SLI all the way.
I have been using SLI for pretty much as long as sli has existed and I have to say I am disappointed.
There are few games I have played where micro stutter, game breaking bugs, bad performance issues or some other issue, presents it's self in sli. Then it does not present it's self in one gpu mode.

I could bore you with tons of games and specific problems regarding each one but instead I'll just give a brief explanation of very recurring problems.
Blackscreens, Timeout detection, freezing, device hanging, micro stutter and major stutter, artifacting and other visual oddities.
These are issues in game I have had where even when it says sli is supported, it still has issues with it..

I have been trying and hoping for years for Nvidia to get their stuff right and apparently they just can't.
So I think I'm going to stop buying sli set ups anymore.

Really isn't much else to say.. It is what it is.
I have tried it, I have tested it for years and it's always been the same.
One gpu is great, two and you will have problems with a lot of games in one way or the other.
Problems you might not even notice if you always leave SLI on.
But disable it in the same game and all of a sudden you go "Holy crap, you mean the game isn't supposed to stutter like that"!?"

I'd bet the same can be said for ATI as well..

I wasted a lot of money over the years for hopes of what I was told was a quality product, with claims of 90% performance increases, which turned out to be 90% of stutter increase mostly..

Not to say some games don't perform wonderfully in sli but 50% doesn't cut it for me.
/Sad panda

 

[xfia]

hassle for the masses! just waiting for the day when the powerful apu takes over gaming.

 

[EarthDog]

Your experiences, though real, are likely title specific? While multi gpu implementations are not without issues, my experiences with it on both camps have been ok. Yes there were unplayable titles, this was an extreme minority however most worked fine. I couldn't notice any stuttering with the titles I play... But then again, I, like many others and reference materials state, can't notice a difference between 4k over 1080at xx feet like you can... so perhaps you are hypersensitive to those type things?

That said, you are playing with the big boys being up there at 4k and in a lot of titles have no choice but to sacrifice IQ (AA or other texture settings) to play a lot of games with a single card. Being on the bleeding edge of things tends to also display more of what's wrong than what is good.

Scaling also varies by title/settings/resolution.

What settings are you running on? Perhaps you are hammering vram limits in 4k when on high/ultra settings? Did you check that?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

well.... Having had 4870s, 5850s, 6970s in Xfire and 680s, and now 970s in SLi, I can honestly say that i havent had half as much problems with SLi as i have had with Xfire. AMDs were just terrible and I got sick of the constant BSODs and broken Xfire profiles caused by AMDs inept driver team - though they will never admit to it. The greatest thing that ever happened was when they got caught out by the runt frames fiasco which really pushed their driver team to get their butts in gear.

enough was enough though and i shifted over to Nvidia. I have experienced a little microstutter in a few games i played but those were normally older titles that did not support SLi or had a bad SLi profile. Not enough to put me off SLi completely. to be able to play ARMA II without crashing ONCE is quite refreshing.

And people said it was my CPU OC back then that was the culprit - Upgraded from 6970s to 680s and boom = no more problems.


As always with hardware and the many plethora of hardware configurations - your milage may vary.


Im not saying Nvidia's drivers are perfect - but they've worked a lot better for me than AMDs. If AMD were to release something that directly competes with the 970 and also runs cool and efficient then I may just switch back to AMD.

 

[xfia]

damn you two and your rationality

single gpu ftw

 

[R-T-B]

I've only ever used a single GPU. But then I don't see a need for anything over 1080p really.

 

[newtekie1]

I've run SLI since the 7000 series. Even step has started with a single GPU and added a second later. And while I can say it hasn't been a completely un-eventful experience. I will say problems are extremely rare, and it has got a lot better since I first started using SLI.

My nVidia SLI GPU history: 7900GT -> SLI 7900GT -> 8800GTS 512MB -> 9800GTX -> SLI 9800GTX -> GTX285 -> SLI GTX285 -> GTX470 -> SLI GTX470 -> GTX670 4GB -> SLI GTX670 SLI -> GTX970


Some issues I'vehad were the 9800GTX era had a nasty habit of not installing drivers properly, so the second card would get drivers and bring everything down. I could still enable SLI, which was odd, but performance would suck compared to a single card. I'd have to run driver cleaner and re-install drivers to get things working again.

Though micro-stutter has been an issue in the past, since the GTX470s I haven't noticed it at all. There have been other issues though, like really bad shadow issues in Watch_Dogs and FC4 games that I finally found the fix for by adjusting settings(must use HBAO and TXAA to stop the problem).

In the end I don't think SLI is a lie. It has allowed me to run settings and resolutions that I could not run with a single card. I'll take pretty consistent 60FPS, even with minor micro-stutter, over 40FPS anyday. And that is what SLI does.

 

[qubit]

@D007 That sounds like a nightmare, buddy. I've played with SLI on and off over the years, mostly with dual GPU cards and they've generally behaved themselves very well, with only relatively few glitches. I also played different games to those in your post and not a huge variety either, so that would make a difference too.

Ironically, I tried SLI recently using two 8800 Ultras I got for cheap ages ago and they had a few odd issues, such as weird fan spinups on the desktop and strange video glitches while gaming. It's ironic of course, because these cards are long obsolete anyway so the problems don't matter, lol.

Upgraded from 6970s to 680s and boom = no more problems.

Im not saying Nvidia's drivers are perfect - but they've worked a lot better for me than AMDs.

That's pretty much what I experienced when I moved from a HD 4870 to a GTX 285 almost 5 years ago and the fact that I still see so many people bitching about AMD drivers 5 years later only confirms that I made the right decision. I also like the driver control panel interface and features you get with NVIDIA.

The catalyst for change was that old b-grade 8800 GTX I got for £60 at the time just to play with since it was such a legendary (and expensive!) model in its day. Sure it benched slower than the 4870, but it just ran so much better, with less hitching and visibly more even frame pacing (Fallout 3 especially). The noise profile was better too and it ran cooler, just to rub it in. The GTX 285 I got as a result of this then really cemented that improvement with its vastly better frame rates. That 4870 ended up unceremoniously on eBay.

These are the sorts of reasons why NVIDIA can afford to play silly games with dodgy 970s and more or less get away with it. Such a shame AMD isn't equally strong to give them proper competition.

Finally, I've never gotten rid of my HD 2900 XT even thought it's a lemon, because she looks so gorgeous! It was embarrassing seeing it get destroyed in framerate performance and noise to the 8800 GTX, even after all this time.

 

[RejZoR]

damn you two and your rationality

single gpu ftw

This. I'm following this rule and never had any problems with graphics.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

damn you two and your rationality

single gpu ftw

This. I'm following this rule and never had any problems with graphics.

what these 2 said.

 

[Protagonist]

Thanks for your info, very much informative,.. i did try SLI and Crossfire back in the days than God it wasn't my money or my rig those belonged to curios friends,.. i never liked the experience while the cards produced more FPS but it was far from amazing just my opinion.

Ever since then i decided multi-GPU setup is not for me I've always gone with single GPU setups for my rig, and i like it that way.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I've used SLI since 7000 series and I've had very little issues. I ran 7600 GT, 8800 GTS 640MB (used EVGA Step-Up to get 8800 GTS 512MB when they came out), GTX 280 and now 570s.

I do notice some micro-stuttering in a few games, but it's nothing that makes/breaks a game for me. The very few games that just don't function on SLI that I own, I simply disable SLI and no problem. Most games offer support (some clearly better than others) and generally give me no problems.

The only big issue I came across was back when The Witcher was out and drivers with SLI were causing light sources (torches, moon, etc) to bleed through walls. A few adjustments using a third party program fixed it, but any driver I tried from Nvidia did not fix the problem.

I guess the big question here for the TC - why continue with SLI if you had problems in the past? Seems like a waste of money and more headaches for you.

 

[eidairaman1]

Sorry to hear your troubles. Id definitely contact nvidia and your board makers on this.

 

[xfia]

On a side note..... I wonder how many forums that D007 has posted this rant on. Maybe its just his time of the month again ;p

Sorry to hear your troubles. Id definitely contact nvidia and your board makers on this.

 

[VulkanBros]

My nVidia SLI GPU history: 7900GT -> SLI 7900GT -> 8800GTS 512MB -> 9800GTX -> SLI 9800GTX -> GTX285 -> SLI GTX285 -> GTX470 -> SLI GTX470 -> GTX670 4GB -> SLI GTX670 SLI -> GTX970

So you ran 470 in SLI - did they produce much heat? I had borrowed a GTX480 to try SLI with my own ASUS GTX480 - I did´nt need heat in my room that winter

 

[yogurt_21]

only really had 2 sli setups. My previous 480 sli which I ran from July 2010 to July 2014 and a GTX 295 which ran for a month before I got the first 480. Have to say no issues on either setup. 480 sli actually became the pillar of stability until my 8 year old psu couldn't handle it anymore.

ran crossfire just once back in the X1800 days when you needed a master card...lets just say they've vastly improved it since then. lol.

 

[Batou1986]

I Agree 100% after trying numerous SLI and CFX setups they lead to more problems than the sometimes increased performance was worth.

 

[peche]

I'm not SLI fan or user, also I'm part of the ones who think that it's better to have one powerful card!

 

[Frick]

I'm not SLI fan or user, also I'm part of the ones who think that it's better to have one powerful card!

Not sufficent for high res, high end gaming. Moe money moe problems etc. I see it as a form of poetry.

 

[xfia]

I think AMD is raising the bar for single gpu lovers

 

[HumanSmoke]

One gpu is great, two and you will have problems with a lot of games in one way or the other.
Problems you might not even notice if you always leave SLI on.
But disable it in the same game and all of a sudden you go "Holy crap, you mean the game isn't supposed to stutter like that"!?"

Multi GPU has always been a moving target as far as performance and issues are concerned. Having had SLI'ed systems since the 6600GT arrived, it has always been advantageous to treat every game, every app, every driver, every OS update, every third party software update with suspicion. Just because you have multi-GPU it doesn't automatically follow that you present both (or more) cards to every application.
If you're the "set and forget" type, stick with a single card.

I'd bet the same can be said for ATI as well..

From my experience yes - but I'm told by many other AMD owners that the issues I've had are just figments of my imagination, or a world-wide conspiracy by a shadow world government, so YMMV.

I wasted a lot of money over the years for hopes of what I was told was a quality product...

Multi-GPU being equated with cost effectiveness? From my perspective, Crossfire/SLI have been outlets for tinkering, benchmark fun, and excess for the sake of it. But then, I could probably cool my CPU with a $40 heatpipe tower, but choose to spend hundreds mucking around with water loops, so I might not be coming from the same perspective you are.

 

[newtekie1]

So you ran 470 in SLI - did they produce much heat? I had borrowed a GTX480 to try SLI with my own ASUS GTX480 - I did´nt need heat in my room that winter

Yeah, I didn't really notice how much they heated up my room until I switched to the 670, and then to the two 670s...

Also, they did this:

 

[the54thvoid]

Dual card set ups are not for the faint hearted but my current 780ti sli set up works as I'd hoped.
I think the OP is s bit OTT. Sli does work and its not a lie. XDMA crossfire works well too but it is as already stated, game dependent.
As for 4k, its a cluster farce (look at the Scotsman not cursing!) for drivers and performance in general. I'm not moving to 4k until GM200 or 380X prove themselves. That's if I move at all.

 

[erocker]

Yeah, I didn't really notice how much they heated up my room until I switched to the 670, and then to the two 670s...

Also, they did this:

'Tis a fine patina!

 

[HumanSmoke]

Dual card set ups are not for the faint hearted but my current 780ti sli set up works as I'd hoped.

Likewise with my 780's. Of course I'd love the scaling and performance to be consistent across the board, but given that both camps can't claim that for single card use in apps, it's probably realistic to settle for less as you add complexity.

As for 4k, its a cluster farce (look at the Scotsman not cursing!)

For someone whose most vivid memories of Scotland are being "greeted" by hordes of apoplectic supporters at Hampden Park, I didn't think a thing was possible.

for drivers and performance in general. I'm not moving to 4k until GM200 or 380X prove themselves. That's if I move at all.

I probably won't make the jump to 4K until font issues are well and truly sorted for apps and OS, even if the hardware is capable of running the res. Won't stop me buying the hardware of course, but that's what they invented downsampling for isn't it?
EDIT: On a semi-related note, not everything on the Nvidia-Samsung front is about lawyering up it would seem. Nvidia just signed up with Samsung for 14nm-XM SoC/GPU manufacture

Also, they did this

Barbecue at your place? I'll bring the beer.