No way !

SLI and the UPGRADE that comes with it is absoLUTELY Expensive/and not needed.

I took mine back and got what I have now but let's even say you buy it all, Ok WoW look at this Figuire :/

2 x 6800U PCIe 700.00+ US Each !! WOW ! If u can get one. :/

Then The Mobo is 250.00US thats alot in itself.

Then a NEW PSU, WHAT you say !! Yep no kiddin a New eATX PSU is Now gonna be common.. add another 150.00+

CPU - 300.00US + (upto 700.00 +)

Just those 3 is a WHOPPING !

2100.00+, Simply Mind Boggling when they just came out with the AGP 6800 Ultra then now they want ya to get this stuff ? NO WAY !!!!!!!

If u have a current system with a AMD64 setup and a(Good card like 6800NU,U,GT) AGP, PCIe is not worth it in any way. It's just simply a hype which I found out the expensive way. !

it doesn't make sense if you just logically think ...


1. 2x 6600GT ... LOL just get 1 6800
2. 2x 6800 ?? LOL just get an ultra
3. 2x ultra ... come one ... who does really need that ... actually i know NO game that won't run on my setup ....

not to mention the wast of power you produce ...

I'll only go for SLI if money is no object.

I'd like to be able to be in the same room as my computer, so no dual dustbuster for me

I've got an 6800GT (single)
and all current games play full detail no problems (with an AMD64 3500+)

so why spend so much money at the moment and get an SLI setup ??

to get all the latest and "fastest" and expensivest shit coming out from those moneyback busters :-)

i use my 9800pro for 2 years
no really probs in new games, so why should i upgrade?


to go with mainstreem?
to have the latest and fastest stuff?

nope

i go with my 3200+XP and 9800pro almost perfect for years

indeed ... compared to past times the games devellopment is far behind the hardware devellopment ...
HL2 totally missed it due its massive delays
Doom 3 required a bit more power but was perfectly playable with a 9800PRO
riddick worked well with my setup, too

up to now I don't know any game that is not running on my machine with highest detail

I do not even feel the need to overclock my setup cause there is no profit ...

and LOL ... te average + in SLI setup without exaggerating with AF or AA will profil 10% from it ... for doulbe cost, more problems and double power power needs

as GPU producers said ... a single GPU solution is always better then 2 guess why it took so much time from Voodoo SLI and rage MAXX to another SLI solution .... only because of PCIe ???

Why the hell you run and bought it a SLI 6800GT then ??

With all these money u could build something better

Like a AMD FX 55 PC with one 6800
Sli is not needed but many guys wants the FASTER out there and get fooled by the Hype of the companies

Anyway ATI is creating a better sollution for the SLI as i heard
but You do not have so much patience i guess
from the other hand i have

Yeah, but isn't it worth getting an SLI mobo, so you can fit one card (i.e. a 6800 Ultra), and then another some time if you're feeling flush, and rig it up to SLI?

A good SLI board is able to work in non-SLI mode, isn't? Surely then that's the best thing to do.


Mark.

Well?

Does an SLI board run ok with one card?


Mark.

yes

And how do so-called "non-sli" games run if sli is enabled?


Mark.

they will run, its game independant, but very few games may crush with broken drivers

go here for some more info http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzQ3

I dont know what you guys smoke, but I have a 6800GT too, clocked to Ultra speeds, and if I want to play games like HL2 or Doom3 at the highest quality (that includes highest AF & AA) at 1280x960/1024 I get slowdowns everywhere. In HL2 I used that resolution with 8x AF, no AA and in situations with many enemies and explosions it got really, really hard to aim because the game slowed down that much and made the controls spongy. HL2 only uses 70 degree FOV too, when not in an vehicle!

SLI may look stupid to people who dont care if a game runs at 20 fps or 60 or never use AF and/or AA. But I go rabid if it goes below 30-35 fps. In multiplayer I actually need at least 50 fps or I will suck at that game.

If I had the money I would certainly go for an SLI system. I actually have the money, but I rather use it for my other hobby...

maybe u should just reduce AF and AA
if you do look at the results
the change from 0 to 2x AF is visible BUT no one will see that in action but OK come for little performance
from 2x to 4x is very little change at the cost of performance
from 4x on its simply invisible to the human eye
sure you can make screenshot or get some cool AF tools but in real world there is no difference at all
some with AA
2x is huge step ... not always positive but clearly visible
4x is very less effect
and anything above is wasting performance and money

maybe you should do some screenshots and compare them then think about how useful max AF / AA is
with my setup I had no problems at all and even on very old PCs HL2 runs fine
btw HL2 is bad example since the engine is simply bugged in various situation you can see FPS jumping from 100 to 40 and back which is the case for anybody I know the engine is just badly coded even after all that time