Curse

Stellar SixTen · Oct 12, 2007, 03:22 PM // 15:22

I got a new computer w/ 2 NVidia 8600GT's in SLI mode. I'm getting around 75 FPS at max settings and 2x anti-aliasing, at an average ping of about 250.

Thing is, a friend of mine is getting the same FPS at the same ping, running max settings, with only one 7000 series card. His processor is worse than mine, RAM & MB about the same.

Is anyone else running SLI? What FPS do you get?

Thanks!

Tachyon · Oct 12, 2007, 03:33 PM // 15:33

Do you have V-Sync enabled by any chance?

You should be getting more than 75fps! I've only got a single 7900GS 512MB in this system and I get well over 100fps constantly with 8x FSAA and 16x AF enabled!

Darko_UK · Oct 12, 2007, 03:58 PM // 15:58

1) Check vertical sync
2) No 2 parts will perform the same, Also - If he has a 7900 the 7900 is faster than the 8600 in the majority of games. The 8600 comes with a core clock of 450MHz while the GDDR3 memory is clocked at just 1320MHz. Despite the average memory clock frequency the 7900 has a memory bandwidth of 42.2GB/s thanks to a 256-bit memory bus. Furthermore the 7900 GS can come loaded with either 256MB or 512MB of memory, the 8600 on the other hand is limited to a maximum memory configuration of 256MB and the memory bandwidth is limited to 32.0GB/s

FlameoutAlchemist · Oct 12, 2007, 04:17 PM // 16:17

Dangit, wish I'd known all that about the 7900s before I bought two 8600s.
I've noticed, though, that you really don't seem to get all that much greater performance in GW on an SLI setup. I think I've topped out at about 175 fps, but at the same time I have having some nasty graphics corruption issues that I wound up sending one of the cards back to NewEgg for replacement.

Anyone actually done some sort of performance analysis of GW runnign an SLI versus a stand-alone card of a similar quality?

Stellar SixTen · Oct 12, 2007, 04:27 PM // 16:27

Hrm. Yeah, I kinda thought I should be getting better performance. I do have Vertical Sync enabled, I'll have to try turning that off. I thought SLI mode was always better than a single card, but I guess I'm mistaken. I haven't overclocked anything yet, I'll have to try that too.

iridescentfyre · Oct 12, 2007, 04:30 PM // 16:30

If you seem to be locked at 75 fps, clearly your framerate is being synchronized to the refresh rate of your monitor (which, with modern hardware, is usually 60hz, 72hz, or 75hz at high resolutions). Turn off Vertical Sync in Graphics options and you'll start pulling fps in excess of 200 probably.

That said, why would you want framerates that high? Vertical sync is on by default for two reasons:

When FPS exceeds monitor refresh rate, the screen tears and makes the animation look weird.
Lets not forget, 75fps is a lot. Your monitor, at 75hz, can only show 75 new frames in a given second. Anything over that is wasted power and excess heat.

And by the way, your friend's 7-series machine likely can also achieve framerates into the 150-range as well without vertical sync. I can get as high as 120fps with my single 7800 GS, first generation AMD 64 processor, and 2GB of mere DDR-400 RAM.

Anyway, that is most likely the reason you're limited to 75fps right now. Nothing is wrong with your hardware.

Personally with your setup I would bump Antialiasing up to 4x and then add some more Anisotrophic filtering in the Forceware control panel since texture filtering sucks by default in Guild Wars.

iridescentfyre · Oct 12, 2007, 04:37 PM // 16:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlameoutAlchemist

Anyone actually done some sort of performance analysis of GW runnign an SLI versus a stand-alone card of a similar quality?

Probably not, since not many people care whether they have +/-200 or +/-250fps

While we all know it would be faster, there would be absolutely nothing startling, groundbreaking, or relevant about such a test, really. People test SLI on things like F.E.A.R., Bioshock, and Doom III that still actually stress modern video hardware.

lordpwn · Oct 12, 2007, 05:34 PM // 17:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by iridescentfyre

That said, why would you want framerates that high? Vertical sync is on by default for two reasons:

When FPS exceeds monitor refresh rate, the screen tears and makes the animation look weird.
Lets not forget, 75fps is a lot. Your monitor, at 75hz, can only show 75 new frames in a given second. Anything over that is wasted power and excess heat.

Actually, it'll usually display some tearing with vsync off no matter what the frame rate and refresh rate are. Some people like to play with vsync off anyway since having the video driver wait for the next screen refresh before refreshing/flipping the display buffer(s) causes slight input lag. An "overpowered" video card usually reduces this lag since it'll always have a frame ready to display in time. Doesn't make a big difference in Guild Wars, though - the network-related lag is usually much higher than that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iridescentfyre

People test SLI on things like F.E.A.R., Bioshock, and Doom III that still actually stress modern video hardware.

Doom III hasn't really been video hardware-limited since high-end GeForce 7 cards. I don't think it can run fast enough on most CPUs to make a modern gaming video card work hard unless you run it at 1920x1080 or something like that, with insane antialiasing + anisotropic filtering settings.