Why does SLI/Crossfire suck?

I switched from ATI to Nvidia because I was sick of Crossfire drivers and I've had ATI cards since the 9800pro when the Nvidia 5 series sucked so bad. However since having my 670SLI I've never had my second card on, it always drops performance and never gives any advantage and I find that sad. I mean I'd rather away to just have one card and that SLI card act as more Vram rather than it being a mirror lol.

We went through a period when crossfire/Sli added to FPS and now it just does nothing, in fact 9 times out of 10 it makes my FPS worse..

Why does it even exist? It sucks!

 

Wrong thread, but its the game devs who arent doing it properly not so much nvidia/amd but its not like theres many games that need it anyway.

 

SLI works very well when properly enabled through either NVCP or Inspector profiles.

 

It doesn't suck.

 

Which games are you trying?

I sometimes have problems with new released games but after a week or so it gets fixed. Other times it's fine, MOH:WF runs very well on SLI since day one.

 

i have gtx295 quad sli and its working albeit for low(53%) gpu usage

 

There might be some configuration issue you are having because when SLI / Crossfire works it is awesome for adding a whole HEAP of FPS - however there are also a fair portion of games which seem to get very little benefit or even messed up performance and problems.

I guess overall, considering everything, you are probably right, it does suck, it sucks that a £500 flagship GPU is in any way not enough to hold 60FPS in every game out at the time of release and some time after.

As I have said before several times, SLI should be an option for people who want 120hz 120FPS or multi monitor gaming, or perhaps they have an older card and want to bump up performance a good whack by adding a second down the line - these are SENSIBLE uses for SLI, as things stand now, game coding is so dire for PC and flagship GPU's are not even strong enough to hold basic 60FPS 1080p in a large portion of games.

OK I agree, it sucks.

It is the only way I can get a solid 60FPS 1080p in BF3.

I guess what I am saying is, it can make a HUGE difference, in some titles, however it should not NEED to - not for 60hz 60FPS 1080p gaming (STANDARD since 2011!)

However, as I have said before, if Nvidia released a card which could do this or had their collaborators (like gearbox etc) seriously optimize, then there sales would plummet, on account of FAR fewer people would need a second card.

As I say time and time again, Nvidia are the evil enemy and we are victims, anybody who thinks different is naive as a horse turd - period (cue 100 raging Nvidia fanboys)

 

Other than the rig in my profile doing CFX, I have another -
FX8120 @3.7ghz (may go Vishera FX8350, mentally masturbating over this)
Asus Crosshair V Formula
8GB RAM
2x GTX670 SLi
64bit Win7 Pro

Can't say I regret going CFX/SLi 'cuz both are doing a bang up job, the CF rig for EF surround gaming, the SLi for S3D gaming. I've had some driver related issue on both fronts, but nothing major or insurmountable. Something MUST be wrong with TS's config/setup....

 

beacause suckers are born every minute. Nvidia/AMD are screwing people. its completely not worth the money. why pay double for something that gives you only 50% more at best? 1 flagship card is enough, always has been always will be

 

Tell that to those wishing to play BF3/MOH WF/Metro 2033 in surround mode @5760x1080. You're going to need the rendering prowess of two top end single GPU's for it.....at the very least! That, or top end dual GPU cards like the GTX690 or HD7990.

 

Planetside 2 - SLI makes FPS worse
Red Orchestra 2 - SLI makes FPS worse
Need For Speed MW - SLI doesn't work
GTA 4 - Can't tell any difference with SLI, the game still runs like crap
ARMA2 - SLI makes it worse
f1 2012 - SLI makes no difference
Skyrim - SLI makes it worse.


Every game I play it either is broken or makes no difference. Such a waste of money I'm just gonna sell my second card...

 

Only GTA 4 and initially Just Cause 2 had issues with SLI for me. JC2 worked fine after a patch and GTA 4 was rubbish regardless.

 

LOL enough for what? I can tell youit is not enough for a solid 60FPS 60hz 1080p gameplay in a large portion of games.

It is not ALWAYS about being a sucker, it is about wanting a game to run at X frames per second, but you are VERY right about AMD/Nvidia screwing people - the SUCKERS are the ones who think they are not getting totally ripped off by AMD/Nvidia

I want to play BF3 on Ultra 1080p 60FPS - so, nothing to do with being a sucker, I just ave NO CHOICE - £860 on gfx alone that experience cost me - and BF3 was out LONG before the 680, but simply if Nvidia released a card powerful enough to run BF3 at a solid 60FPS on ultra, then as that is still one of the most demanding games, foresight told them almost none, or extremely few up coming games, would be demanding enough for people to need SLI - job done, release a 680 and make sure it is not TOO powerful.

People are morons, they see 'Nvidia the way it's meant to be played' on launch of a particular title, and think that means something good... (I am X-moron) what it ACTUALLY means is, they worked with Nvidia to make sure the game was demanding ENOUGH, to encourage UPGRADES, and also to try and make sure it runs better on Nvidia hardware, than AMD.

Anybody still doubting this ****, is honestly a true, TRUE horses ass.... well or a weirdo fanboy.

lol tell that to those who want to play 60FPS at 1080p - never mind 5760x1080 rofl

 

I've been running SLi since 2006 - I never had issues. Some games scale better than others !
If a game doesn't scale that great then you can easily just up the AA levels as much as you like and the game will still run fine - better image quality for "free".

 

Sli humming along here, no problems

 

Completely agreed. I've seen many people doubting my system when I tell them I game at 1080p, what they don't understand is I want high performance from my games, and there's no way a single GPU will do that (or at least for a year)

BF3 maxed out with 4xAA and 60FPS minimum @ 1080p is not possible with a 680 or 7970. But drivers still do need work, often times it does no below 60 with my 670s but the usage is around 40-70% at those times. Could be a problem with the game engine though.

 

well re the comments about sli and 1080 res not 2 sure about that as I am @1920x1200 and on a single 580 and it's doing fine.

Really a single 680/670 is enough for those kind of resolutions.

I run most @4xaa and 16xaf but yes i do tweak bf3 a bit. I do understand why some add another card to be able to really "max" it out though.

Tbh I was very tempted to go x2 580's but then thought well it would mean another waterblock etc and then thought I might as well wait and see the next high-end gpus where x1 card will def be plenty for single screen.

 

580sli here and no problems
-I don't mess with any game files
-I don't over ride any game settings in nvcp ,inspector.
-I do clean nv driver updates.
-I have a 900 mhz profile in msi-ab but never need/use it.
-I watch the msi-ab on my g13 lcd , if I see the cards not balanced ,it's usually a power setting/downclocking ,which nvcp has not picked up the right exe from steam.
-a few games I had set a 3d profile with msi-ab to lock the clock's.
-vista I think had a sli issue where I had to set windows basic in the games icon for STALKER COP with COMPLETE mod.for sli to work ,and do it with all game icon's from that time on.
-oh and I disable all the hdmi devices on my gpu's in device manage
-basic stuff really.

 

I had 3870 in crossfire. It was awesome. Moved over to a single 7850 a couple of weeks ago.