SLI Setup

[Kaldrin of Farahlon]

I was wondering if anyone uses a SLI setup for their machine. i jsut bought the parts for a new box and I'm wondering a few things about it.

Is it hard to set up?
does a major difference in card performances matter?
Is the performance difference really noticable?
Is it hell on a PSU?

[Zyn]

I have built a computer or 5 in the past 3 years, but never an SLI setup. I do know that it is suppose to take stress off the CPU, you should have an above average amount of memory and that the Graphic cards have to be identical. Other then that I have read its easy to set up. Hell, everything is plug and play now.

O...and you should have a beast of a Power Supply. Something near the 1000 mark, and LOTS of cooling, liquid preferred.

[Teneral]

If WoW is all you're worried about, I think an SLI setup is probably overkill. My own graphics card is now a year or two out of date and except for a few extreme situations in game, I normally run well over 60fps. That's faster than the monitor can refresh and well above what the eye/brain can really register well as far as image changes go.

Granted, Northrend is more graphically-intensive than current WoW and if you enable stuff like the new real-time shadows (awesome-looking!) to full then you'd certainly need a bit beefier setup to keep the same performance as you'd get now. But I think it could easily be handled by a single current-generation top video card.


Now, if you're worried about other more-intensive games or other graphical work, SLI could well be worth it. Like Zyn said, though, you'll want a hefty PSU as well as great cooling.

[Kaldrin of Farahlon]

I have a deep and overwhelming desire to run the expansion in max settings with External shadows set to at least 4. to do so at a good frame rate, I will require a SLI setup.

Yes, it is actually that intensive =^o

[Dragonpaw]

Kal i run a SLI setup i ahve 2 Nvidia en7900tx 512mb and my rendoring of graphics is always maxed out and even when the intensive AOE fight does my frame rate drop down to like 30fps its always at about 60-70fps normaly. i actually plan on getting 2 new ones soon as 1 of my cards just went out i have had em for almost 2 years. but i recomend getting just 1 video card there really isnt any advantage except you have 2 so if one goes out then you have a back up is all...with some of the newer cards you can get a really good 1gb card and be done with it realy unless yiou have noting else to spend money on like me :). but let me know if you need any recomendations for a SLI card... Turu

[LuringShadow]

My rig was running 2 9800 GTX cards and I ran everything completely maxed. I just did a minor upgrade on Sunday ( Solid State Hard Drive, more DDR3, and a GTX 280). I only have one card for now to see how it performs.

But setting it up is super easy. just make sure you have a big-ass power supply like 1k at least. but just install the cards and use the little bridge thingy (technical term) to join them on the top. If your board has 3 PCIE slots that you can use put the cards on the two furthest ones so they get the most airflow that they can. Mine had room for 3 but I've only done 2.

[Dragonpaw]

Good point Luring lots of airflow Kal .