NVIDIA's 3-way SLI: Can we finally play Crysis?
by Anand Lal Shimpi on December 17, 2007 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
So, you wanna 3-way?
We ran the following games in their corresponding quality settings:
| Game | Resolution | AA | AF | Detail Settings |
| Unreal Tournament 3 | 2560 x 1600 | 0X | 16X | Highest in-game |
| Bioshock | 2560 x 1600 | 0X | 1X | Highest in-game |
| Oblivion | 2560 x 1600 | 4X | 16X | Ultra High Quality defaults |
| Call of Duty 4 | 2560 x 1600 | 4X | 16X | Highest in-game |
| World in Conflict | 2560 x 1600 | 4X | 4X | Very High Quality defaults |
| Crysis | 1920 x 1200 | 0X | 1X | High Quality defaults |
We tried to push the graphics settings as far as possible while still being playable, there's no point in showcasing incredible improvements if they aren't playable on 3-way SLI. Now onto the results:
| Number of Cards | UT3 | Bioshock | Oblivion | CoD4 | WIC | Crysis |
| 8800 Ultra x1 | 66.2 | 40.5 | 25.9 | 41.5 | 21 | 24.4 |
| 8800 Ultra x2 | 122 | 61.9 | 47.5 | 78.9 | 27 | 42.2 |
| 8800 Ultra x3 | 146.1 | 103.8 | 49 | 100.7 | 31 | 43.2 |
| Configuration | UT3 | Bioshock | Oblivion | CoD4 | WIC | Crysis |
| 2-way SLI Improvement over 1 card | 84% | 53% | 83% | 90% | 28% | 73% |
| 3-way SLI improvement over 2 cards | 20% | 68%* | 3% | 28% | 15% | 7% |
| 3-way SLI improvement over 1 card | 121% | 156% | 89% | 143% | 48% | 85% |
Overall performance scaling ranges from virtually nonexistent in games like Oblivion, to noticeable in games like Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 3.
We can't really explain why we saw such great scaling in Bioshock, but we repeated the test countless times only to see the same results. It doesn't exactly make sense that the jump from two to three cards would yield more of a performance boost than the jump from one to two cards, so take those results with a grain of salt.
You can't use the word value to describe the benefit of 3-way SLI, as increasing your graphics investment by 50% to increase performance on the order of 0 - 30% just doesn't make sense.
The other thing to keep in mind is that 3-way SLI also doesn't really make games like Crysis any more playable, which is exactly where we need the additional GPU power. There's supposed to be a Crysis SLI patch coming out in the near future that should improve SLI scaling, but given that we could only run the game smoothly at 1920 x 1200 with High Quality defaults, we doubt that 3-way SLI is the solution to perfecting your PC's Crysis performance.
Call of Duty 4 showed some excellent scaling, but the bang for the buck is the issue more than anything. A 30% increase in performance over a two card SLI setup is nice, but we'd put our money on being able to get that same performance increase by waiting for an updated G92 version of the 8800 Ultra and SLI-ing a couple of those together.
The other thing that this subsection of game tests shows us is that there are more games that scale poorly than games that scale well. We could make an argument for 3-way SLI if everything scaled like Call of Duty or UT3, but then there are games like World in Conflict, Oblivion and Crysis that just don't.
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kilkennycat - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - link
...it's far more likely to be used by a (nV) video card functioning as a GPGPU for either gaming --- or in the short-term --- professional desktop applications. nV is making great strides in the professional scientific number-crunching and signal-processing communities with their CUDA toolset running on their current GPU offerings. They currently own ~ 86% of the "workstation graphics" market, but in a rapidly-increasing number of cases, graphics is not the sole function of the current nV workstation hardware. Wait for nVidia's next generation silicon and driver software which will be far more focussed on seamlessly merging GPU and GPGPU functionality. Also, wait for their true next-gen motherboard chip-set and not the cobbled-together "780i" which will implement symmetrical PCIe2.0 on all 3 PCIe x16 slots. Arriving about the same time as their next gen GPU family. Mid-2008 would be my guess.aguilpa1 - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - link
Funny how your review doesn't address this blatant issue. yes it will run tri sli but don't expect it to do with the same Yorkfield used on the test board they used. Engineering samples of the QX9650 ran fine on the 680i SLI's but were changed with the retail versions. Whether it was Intels pissy way of getting back at Nvidia for not licensing SLI to them or Nvidia's way of making a buck off of selling an almost already obsolete board (nehalems coming next year). At this stage...who cares.ilovemaja - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - link
that quote: His response? "JESUS". "No", I said, "not even Jesus needs this much power".Is one of the funnyest things i heard in my live.
Thanks for another good article, you are the best.
acejj26 - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - link
In Crysis, you say that the third card offers a 7% performance boost over the 2 card configuration, however, it is only offering 1 fps more, which is just about 2%. Those numbers should be changed.Sunrise089 - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - link
Not complaining, but I've noticed the last several GPU articles have been written by Anand, which isn't his normal gig. On top of that we get a reference to another GPU editor from back in the day. What's up?compy386 - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - link
I'd be interesting to do a comparision between SLI and Crossfire once AMD gets some drivers out that actually support quad SLI. I saw a board on newegg that looks like I'd fit 3 3870s as well.AcydRaine - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - link
AMD doesn't support "Quad-SLI" at all. There are a few boards on Newegg that will fit 4x3780s. Not just 3.compy386 - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - link
The 3870s take up 2 slots so I only see boards that fit 3. Most of the boards will take 4 3850s though. Again, I'd like to see the performance number comparisons for scaling purposes.compy386 - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - link
The 3870s take up 2 slots so I only see boards that fit 3. Most of the boards will take 4 3850s though. Again, I'd like to see the performance number comparisons for scaling purposes.SoBizarre - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 - link
Well, I’m glad to see this evaluation of 3-way SLI. It just gave me an idea about overcoming performance issues in games like Crysis. There is no need for building ridiculously expensive machines which draws insane amount of power. I have a better solution (although it won’t work for all of you). I’m just not going to buy a game which I can’t play in its full galore on decent system, at mainstream resolution (1680x1050).I don’t expect the latest and greatest, “show off” kind of a game to be playable at 2560x1600 with highest settings, full AA and AF. Not on a system with Q6600 and single 8800GT. But if you can’t do it on a system like one used by Anand here? Well, then it’s becoming ridiculous.
I’m trying to imagine a proud owner of machine with QX9650 @ 3.33GHz, 3 (that’s THREE) 8800 Ultras and shiny 30-inch monitor, not being able to play a game he just bought. What would be his thoughts about developer of that game? I guess not the pretty ones…