[SOLVED] In what scenairo would SLI be required instead of a top end video card?

[TheQuestionGuy]

I thought the SLI was something used a long time ago when the video games started becoming highly graphically intensive, but not since there are very powerful graphics cards, is SLI still needed?

In what scenario is SLI still required that a top end single graphics card couldn't accomplish?

 

[sizzling]

SLi is only required for gaming when there is no single gpu strong enough for the requirements. However game support for SLi has been dying for years and the games that do support it usually have limited performance improvements. Generally it’s advised not to consider Sli and is seen as a waste of money.

 

[cdrkf]

I thought the SLI was something used a long time ago when the video games started becoming highly graphically intensive, but not since there are very powerful graphics cards, is SLI still needed?

In what scenario is SLI still required that a top end single graphics card couldn't accomplish?

SLI (or Crossfire on AMD) was always a way to reach higher performance than the fastest single card at a given time - and when games are written to support it you can get pretty strong scaling (the second card adding an additional ~ 80% performance from the first).

The problem though is that the performance boost is only part of the story- the reason SLI has fallen out of favour is the phenomenon of micro stuttering - when running two cards the overall frame rate was much higher, however in many games the delivery of the frames from the two graphics card was not even. This meant that even though the FPS was high, the perceived smoothness was actually less with two cards than one.

It's also an issue that game developers have to actively add support for dual graphics cards into their games in order to get it running well (and with newer API i.e. Vulkan / DX12 it's almost entirely down to the game devs). That has resulted in the number of titles supporting it has gotten less and less over the years - end result SLI is pretty much useless these days aside from trying to set FPS records in benchmarks.

 

[TheQuestionGuy]

So basically pay the $$$ for a top end video card. 🆒

 

[cdrkf]

So basically pay the $$$ for a top end video card. 🆒

Well.. if there is a single card that can hit the performance targets you have, then you are better off buying that then getting two weaker cards.

One thing I should mention - multi GPU's are useful for other purposes (i.e. not gaming). GPU accelerated applications (e.g. rendering, video encoding, mining) don't have the same issues so for boosting performance in those type of applications multi gpu's can be used no problem.

You can also use multiple cards to add additional screens for desktop use (just note that when plugging displays into two cards, 3D applications like games can only be displayed on the screens connected to the card the software is running on).

 

[DSzymborski]

I thought the SLI was something used a long time ago when the video games started becoming highly graphically intensive, but not since there are very powerful graphics cards, is SLI still needed?

In what scenario is SLI still required that a top end single graphics card couldn't accomplish?

If you found a portal to another alternate reality in which the technology evolved in the opposite way of our own.

 

[geofelt]

If you are trying for record fps numbers using a synthetic benchmark, then sli will give you the best results.
Otherwise, a single strong graphics card will give you better gameplay.

sli is prone to stuttering and screen tearing.
More games do not support dual gpu.