SLi 16x Vs. SLi 8x

[ELGoku]

I have an ASUS A8N-SLi Mobo, with a 7800gt 256mb, altho after I bought it, I found out that only 8x SLi mode was supported. *should have got the Deluxe...* ahem Cheap! lol, I was out of cash :roll: Thinking of getting the second 7800gt, but wondering, is there REALLY a difference between 8 & 16 ? if so, in what exactly does it show?

 

[crazywheels]

the current games don't really support 16x right now, but they next G should

 

[the_guru]

There is no difference between SLI 16x and SLI 8x. There isn't even any big difference between AGP 4x and PCI Express x8.

 

[moparman390]

Running one card you will get 16X speeds as that is on it's own 16X channel. If you run SLi, on that board, your two cards will share that 16X channel, resulting in each recieving 8X bandwidth. On one of those expensive boards you will get two 16X channels, one for each slot resulting in each card recieving 16X bandwidth when running SLi.

So what does this all mean???

Not a whole lot. Two current cards cannot exceed the bandwidth of one 16X slot, so for now there is no benefit two channels. Future cards are said to take more advantage of the two channel SLi motherboards, so maybe some day it will help.

As to SLi over all, not worth it. 2X the price for 1.3X the speed, sometimes less. Two 7800GTs will cost more then one 7800GTX and the 7800GTX will be faster.

Bottom line, your 7800GT should serve you just fine, I think you will be happy with the results. I know I'm very happy with my 7800GT. Forget about SLi, atleast until the technology improves.

 

[Heyyou27]

That's not really true always.
But yeah, one 7800GTX doesn't even come close to beating two 7800GTs.

 

[ELGoku]

Well I'm seeing at newegg that my card is at $285 Not that bad to show off!, infact I may consider it just to re-sell my whole PC, and go for an X2 4400+ or higher, simply because from there they have 1Mb L2 Cache x2. Hehe.. Here In Mexico They Pay twice as much as in the US :twisted: they still drool at a 9600 PRO :lol:

I've lighty tested the SLi on a friends PC, before I finished setting up mine, he has the same mobo, but not a dual core cpu, he's got a 3500+; still, they showed almost twice as much in 3DMark's. So I guess it just comes to a matter of WANTING rather than needing... ^_^

 

[Aids]

The only diffrence you are going to see between 8x and 16x in sli is price at the moment. Asus released that just so consumers would spend more money. We can barley tell the diffrence now between agp and pci express let alone 16x pci express. Its just a marketing strategy, consumers see that the new product came out and therefore think they have to buy it. I would keep the board you have and in time, lots of time, it might require an upgrade. until then enjoy your motherboard because dual 8x pci-e is all you need right now.

 

[the_guru]

A single 7800GT can handle al games at max easy.

Not really, it can't handle Serious Sam 2 with HDR-Rendering and at max settings. And it can't handle F.E.A.R at max settings.

 

[yourbestfriend]

A single 7800GT can handle al games at max easy.

not true @1680x1050 I could run BF2 only at medium went SLI to run at max with x2 aa running 60 avg fps

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/22/sli_is_coming/page11.html

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1843629

I think SLI is worth it with one 7800gt I was getting 7000+, with two I Am getting 10000+ and when you overclock two cards its awsome. I think I can hit 12000 with better cooling