An Anthem for SLI: Bioware's New Universe in 60 FPS 4K Run on Two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080Ti GPUs

[Kaapstad]

They had better get SLI working properly soon or there will be a very big problem for game devs.

2160p/144htz is coming, good luck trying to get that to run on a single GPU.

Not even a Titan V is up to the job.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Does SLI works properly with G-Sync??
Btw, the one thing I was hating during my SLI/CF years were the constant stuttering and lag over the single card setup, so no more SLI for me. Ever.

 

[JalleR]

Me2 i had some Really weird and funny issues with SLI and CF, the only way i would considering trying SLI again where if they brought back Split Screen Rendering.

 

[robb]

I like the idea of SLI. I would get another 970 if it wasn't for the 3.5GB VRAM.

what a stupid thing to say. have you been living under a rock? even the last 1080 sli review on this site showed 1/3 of AAA games have ZERO support at all for multi gpu. that does not even get into Indie games which have MUCH less support. and that does not even get into all the issues in games that do work with SLI such as drivers or game updates breaking SLI, flickering, and stuttering. you would be an idiot to go with a second card in SLI instead of just selling your current card and getting the fastest single gpu that you can afford.

 

[Vya Domus]

the only way i would considering trying SLI again where if they brought back Split Screen Rendering.

There's a reason that's gone , it was an even worse technology.

 

[LemmingOverlord]

SLI is long time dead, and btw game is crap anyway

Well, thanks for reviewing the game before it is out.

 

[cadaveca]

Far Cry 5 : )

one out of countless titles proves my point. I Mean, it cool that some titles support SLI, but while they remain a minority, so will user that take advantage of such tech, making this a self-defeating circle with both devs and gamers the losers here. Devs can't get the performance they need from a single VGA, and gamers can't afford multi-GPU (and I've been a multi-GPU user since it was possible).

 

[Outback Bronze]

one out of countless titles proves my point.

You said name one dude, I did : )

If you said name 10.. well I would have been in a pickle.

 

[LemmingOverlord]

Seems SLI still polarizes a lot of people (and considering there's a prevalence of AMD users, there's usually a lot of back-and-forward banter on the forums).

I consider myself to be a pragmatist PC gamer. Last year I got a second GTX 960 4GB to SLI with my first one, knowing full well there were issues, but at the same time going out on a limb just to try the technology out. It was an economical choice. I got the second GTX for £110, which gave me performance (in SLI games) similar to a GTX 1060 6GB. Which was what I wanted.

Games I tested it with: The Division, Fallout 4, SW Battlefront, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Battlefield 3 & 4, GTA V, Warhammer Total War & Rise of the Tomb Raider. I also tried to get a few non-SLI titles to work, but results were, at best, horrid.

In general, performance in SLI-enabled games was great. Really really great. Smooth as silk and framerate up the wazoo (in an old rig gaming @1920x1080). I had no issues related to performance. No stuttering, nothing. However, the Nvidia software did require tweaking settings in the games I didn't want SLI to try and do its thing.

Later, I uninstalled card #2 and stuck with just the one. Why? I actually just play one game for extended periods of time, and SLI isn't really doing anything for it (Unity Engine, based, say the developers). I even thought about recording gameplay and tried to get shadowplay to run off the second card, but it always defaults to the one rendering the game. (if anyone knows a workaround, tell me). So there's no real point to having both cards installed.

I'm about to sell both my GTX 960 4GB and the SLI bridge and switch to a single 1060. I pay a little more upfront, sure, but it's a single card, which doesn't steal that much space in my case, draws less power and performs slightly better in all games (rather than just a few choice SLI titles).

I think the 1000-series GTX cards broke the SLI rationale. In the old days you'd have, say, a GTX 460, and when the 560 came out, you'd have some 20%-ish gains. You could buy the new card, or, get a good deal on a second GTX 460 card and set up an SLI rig. With the transition from GTX 900-series to GTX 1000-series, two GTX 960s (4GB!) come in at roughly the same performance as the GTX 1060 (6GB). There's no longer any reason to buy into the tech, and even less if you factor in the lack of AAA titles and the reported bugginess some people claim to experience.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

this shows that even the fastest single GPU out there still isn't fast enough to render full 4K frames @ 60fps... and I thought a single high end Pascal chip was beastly enough for such task... damn....

 

[Bytales]

Im sorry, but 4k@144Hz is the next Thing. So might as well start selling those 1080ti, and get two volta Cards 3000 euro a Pop. But i doubt even that would do the trick

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Volta isn't gonna be fast enough to render it... you'll need to use at least 3 of those to get such frame rates but time-frame & microstutters will be enough to make you go "ugh..."

 

[Kaapstad]

Volta isn't gonna be fast enough to render it... you'll need to use at least 3 of those to get such frame rates but time-frame & microstutters will be enough to make you go "ugh..."

There are hardware fixes that can be used to get rid of microstutter like those found on the GTX 690 which was fantastic in 2 or 4 way SLI.

Having said that there is nothing that can fix the game devs attitude to DX12 and mGPU where they have to spend money and resources to get it to work. The game devs were fine with DX11 and mGPU where most of the work to get it to run was done by NVidia and AMD but now that it cost the devs money to get DX12 and mGPU to work it is another matter.

 

[trog100]

well at least my pair of 1070 cards will play it nicely at 1440.. he he

the secret with sli is a simple one.. dont rely on it scaling well all the time.. all my games play nicely at 1440 with a pair of 1070 cards good scaling or not.. they would mostly play nicely with a pair of 1060 cards but nvidia have cleverly removed the fingers so what would be a very nice (and potentially very popular) option dosnt exist any more..

i think a pair of 1070 cards is a sweat spot for sli.. they run nice and cool and have enough grunt to play games nicely even when the sli scaling isnt that good.. sli for sure scales well in all the benchmarks and it could do in all the games if the developers made it so..

for 4K gaming i would say sli is far from dead.. in fact i think its a must..

trog

 

[Xaled]

GPU sales are down, so let's "necro" the old SLI adagio....

This.

SLI (and all gaming multi gpu solutions) are dead since it was found that they never match the fluidty of single gpu. Which for me was like 8 years ago.

 

[Upgrayedd]

one out of countless titles proves my point. I Mean, it cool that some titles support SLI, but while they remain a minority, so will user that take advantage of such tech, making this a self-defeating circle with both devs and gamers the losers here. Devs can't get the performance they need from a single VGA, and gamers can't afford multi-GPU (and I've been a multi-GPU user since it was possible).

Vermintide 2, Kingdom Come Deliverance, FrostPunk..The SLI supported games page is out of date. Just read all the driver releases that get posted on TPU.. they are adding profiles all the time..

This.

SLI (and all gaming multi gpu solutions) are dead since it was found that they never match the fluidty of single gpu. Which for me was like 8 years ago.

They've released new SLI bridges to alleviate it.

what a stupid thing to say. have you been living under a rock? even the last 1080 sli review on this site showed 1/3 of AAA games have ZERO support at all for multi gpu. that does not even get into Indie games which have MUCH less support. and that does not even get into all the issues in games that do work with SLI such as drivers or game updates breaking SLI, flickering, and stuttering. you would be an idiot to go with a second card in SLI instead of just selling your current card and getting the fastest single gpu that you can afford.

Why you got to call me an idiot multiple times? All my games I play support SLI. They make new bridges now too.

 

[Xaled]

They've released new SLI bridges to alleviate it.

Poor boy. So they sold you another card and an SLI bridge too? for what? for getting stuttering?


why did they drop sli support from low and mid cards then? even 1060 is not supporting it?

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

maybe Nvidia think mid-range cards isn't "worthy" for SLI... but for AMD's case, they didn't really bother much since their target was, after all... is to let anyone CF the crap out of ANY GPU lineup they have on their table.

 

[Xaled]

maybe Nvidia think mid-range cards isn't "worthy" for SLI... but for AMD's case, they didn't really bother much since their target was, after all... is to let anyone CF the crap out of ANY GPU lineup they have on their table.

Or maybe low profile cards expose the lie of multi-gpu and bridge more clearly because they are more prone to fps drops that becomes much more worse when using multi_GPU solution which *supposedly* its main purpose is increasing fps therefor eincreasing gaming fluidity.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

maybe... there are quite a number of factors when it comes to multi GPU scaling & how well the game's code responds to them, regardless of how extensive GPU vendors tried their best on each driver updates.

 

[RealNeil]

The guy next door plays that with SLI 980Ti cards and he says it is as smooth as can be. No problems at all.

 

[trog100]

Poor boy. So they sold you another card and an SLI bridge too? for what? for getting stuttering?


why did they drop sli support from low and mid cards then? even 1060 is not supporting it?

they dropped sli support from 1060 cards because mid range sli is that good a pair of 1060 cards have have hit high end sales..

people that run sli set ups dont fualt it people that dont just copy and post the bullshit they read about it.. he he

i ran 970 sli it ran fine.. i ran 980ti it ran fine but did generate a little too much heat.. i now run 1070 sli.. perfection.. he he

trog

ps.. and i didnt bother forking out for a new bridge.. i use the old one and it works fine.. and to answer an earlier question.. yes it works fine with g-sync..

 

[Jism]

If done correct both CF and SLI do a fantastic job. Linear performance if you stick with just 2 cards. But for those who want crisp 144hz / fps at the highest possible resolution going SLI/CF is'nt the way. There are games that really benefit 2 cards, and both camps have their profiles to make games work that are not optimized for 2 cards in the first place.

Efficiency is in such situations different yes. You might consume double the power and get only 15 up to 25% extra in return. But it might be the kick forward to get a fast paste game with all eye candy turned on. I've worked with 3x & 2x CF 580's 8GB for a while, and yes a limited amount of games did actually support it. And thus the extra heat/noise in your case (2x 180w), i ditched the cards after a mining craze and went back to just one card. The input of one card simply feels just that little more solid then 2 or 3 cards in this case.

FPS gamers want speed.

 

[RealNeil]

Them gimping SLI on 1060s ensured that I would never consider buying one of them.
That pissed me off.
1060 SLI would have been fine. Probably too fine and it scared them into killing it off to save higher-end card sales.

 

[Xaled]

I have some bad news for you guys. Multi gpu is useless because you cant get consistent fps rate even from a single gpu. you either get inconsistent frame rate from both cards which leads to stutttering or a socalled solution; cap frame rate to the lower frame which changes constantly and in its way lead to lag. In both senarios gameplay loses the fluidity and smoothness of a single gpu. So good look in fooling yourself forever.