BF2S Forums Does a 320mb sli 8800gts beat or equal the 640mb version?

pretty sure the 2 in SLI=win.

another factor the 320mb version runs much cooler making it run more efficient

More VRAM doesn't make it faster.

All the VRAM does is hold recently used textures/models so that you don't have to load them the next time you see them.

For example, if you're playing BF2 and are sitting on arty island in Wake, and you look at the carrier it is going to load those textures and models into the VRAM. If you then turn around and look at the opposite side, it will load those textures and models. So now if you turn around again and look back at the carrier, it will be faster than it was the first time because the textures/models are right there.

Having less VRAM just means it processes new textures/models a little bit slower, because it has to get them from the hard drive instead of the VRAM. You won't see a higher FPS, but you might have less FPS variation depending on the situation.

OP: 2GPUs should be faster than one, almost whatever the amounts of vram, but the only way to be sure is to compare them in the same system - tomshardware would be a good place to start...

Drykill: if it's an 8x slot it will only run at 8x max, no matter what the card supports.

The#1Spot wrote:

I heard that when nvidia used in sli the 2 cards utilize the bit rate as one and memory is just memory and dosent change anything. Correct me if im wrong all i really know that sli is the cheapest way to get mass performance for the money. Yes i have checked online for performance charts between the 2 and havent found any.

Off course because the work load is distributed across 2 GPU's. Now the screen is all done by one GPÚ. In SLI the screen is divided, One row is done by GPU 1 and the row of pixels underneath is done by GPU 2. Then the third row is done again by GPU 1 and so on. So your GPU only has to do half the work, so therefore it can be used at higher settings etc. This is what was explained to me about SLI. (So I'm sorry if this is wrong! ) Anyway,  2 GPU's would outperform a single one.

Bell wrote:

Dont two of them cost more than a single 8800GTX?

Martyn

Probably yes

Scorpion0x17 wrote:

Drykill: if it's an 8x slot it will only run at 8x max, no matter what the card supports.

What I mean is that most SLI motherboards come with 2 x16 PCI-e slots but in SLI they only run at x8. I was wondering if there are any C2D motherboards that support SLI mode with both cards running at x16?

On the cost fornt, I guess the good thing about SLI is you can buy one card now and another later (when you can afford it)... although I've heard that sometimes you get two cards from different batches and they don't work too well together. Is that right?

Drykill wrote:

Scorpion0x17 wrote:

Drykill: if it's an 8x slot it will only run at 8x max, no matter what the card supports.

What I mean is that most SLI motherboards come with 2 x16 PCI-e slots but in SLI they only run at x8. I was wondering if there are any C2D motherboards that support SLI mode with both cards running at x16?

Ah, I see. That I don't know.

The#1Spot wrote:

Correct me if im wrong all i really know that sli is the cheapest way to get mass performance for the money.

no

ive dabbled with sli (2x 7800gt) and I wont bother again, its not been any cheaper (even waiting 6 months to buy the 2nd card) and the different in performance is trivial, even on a 23" TFT.

plus if you are talking about vista then sli is broken in places, if I was you id just get one big card and leave all the potential hassles behind you.