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    SLI Questions

    Ok I ordered a 2nd GTX580 to run SLI instead of buying a new 900 as it was a much cheaper option.

    My question is with the cards in SLI is there any advantages aside from full-screen gaming? I usually play games in windowed full screen and I've read SLI doesn't work in full screen windowed.

    I run dual 27 inch monitors so I was wondering if for general processing of things if SLI helps. If not would be be better to run non-SLI and hook one monitor to each card?

    Ty

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    a single 580 consumes twice the wattage of a 970 and preforms a decent bit worst than it across the board. I know you wanted to do better with a second 580 and the mythical SLI but the reality is SLI doesnt always increase the power you can get to the game, in fact in most instances (like FFXIV) it doesnt properly work at all and can actually cause slowdown.

    If you can cancel that 580, I would do so, unless it was obnoxiously cheap and even if it was, you would get a bigger boost from a single 970 (like the gigabyte one that has insane overclock power) than trying to double up on the 580s for a chance at it looking a little bitter
    the only real advantage I can think of is if you want to offload physix onto one card and use the primary card as the gaming unit, otherwise Im not honestly sure youll see enough of a difference to make it work

    http://www.hwcompare.com/18079/gefor...force-gtx-970/

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    I couldn't find a list of advantages of SLI, only that it is good for full-screen gaming. Is there any advantage to it outside of that? Would it be better to not run SLI and just hook a monitor to each card since I don't run shit in true full screen?

    Edit: The SLI is in place already, I just want to know more about it and if there are any advantages for me or if running without SLI is even useful in any way.

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    best bet would be to use the second card to handle physics and that will let you use the primary card to get better clocks, you could overclock the primary card as well.
    use it to handle your second monitor yeah, but I would also put out there the option to sell both cards and buy a 970

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    So is there no advantage to SLI outside of full screen gaming? Does it not offer any other benefits? For example playing a game full screen windowed on one monitor, watching a full screen video/stream on the other monitor. Would that be any smoother in SLI?

    Also is there any benefit to hooking one monitor into each 580 and running non-sli instead of running one card with 2 monitors? Like does each card process individually what is on its own monitor?

    I'm not really in need of a gaming boost, just interested in a general performance boost. I typically will play games full screen windowed while having a video or show full screen on the other monitor, however I tend to notice video slowdown and such when I do this. I do plan to buy a 980, just not right now as they are pretty expensive. The second 580 only cost $100

    Edit: Sorry not trying to be dense I just want to know the answers to those questions and I can't seem to find any concrete answers from using google.

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    It works for windowed mode too, rumors of it only working in fullscreen are false. In fact, running windowed/borderless windowed for some games will get you better performance than fullscreen, even though it shouldn't work that way. You'll get between 40-90% of the second GPU depending on the game's SLI scaling efficiency. It's normally worth it when working with old, cheaper hardware, but 2 580s are weaker (on avg) and consume more power/generate more heat than a single 980. I suggest 2 770s or 970s if you want to SLI.

    you'll gain no reasonable benefit adding a second GPU for just desktop and non gaming/3D rendering applications, one card will always be enough. Multimonitor setups will only ever take 5% at most of your GPU's power, so that isn't an issue.

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    Thanks that helps a lot. I wonder why I see video slowdown sometimes when running videos on my secondary display. For example I can be watching a video stream on my primary and it is smooth, when I move it to secondary it kind of gets jerky and looks unnatural.

  8. #8

    SLI support is also sadly game specific, and performance varies by engine architecture.

    Honestly, I'd ALWAYS guy the best single card in your budget, before ever considering SLI. You'll get better performance across EVERYTHING, as opposed to better performance in "some" situations.

    Also, as pointed out, you're not actually saving much money depending on how long you use this config, due to the 3-4x electricity cost of your solution vs a single 970.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Arximiro View Post
    Thanks that helps a lot. I wonder why I see video slowdown sometimes when running videos on my secondary display. For example I can be watching a video stream on my primary and it is smooth, when I move it to secondary it kind of gets jerky and looks unnatural.
    it may be a problem with the display itself.

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    I was watching a video about V-sync and G-sync and screen tearing is kind of what it looks like when it happens. Since there is no way to enable V-Sync for like a small in browser video playing that I know of I'm not sure what one can do if that is the and my monitors refresh rate is out of sync with the card.

    Maybe it was just the GTX580 being a POS and it will be fixed when I get my new card, because it's done it on multiple displays.

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    You mentioned 27 inch monitors but you never mentioned the most important factor, resolution. What resolution are you using?

    You also bring up fullscreen gaming, SLI is going to give you better FPS on most games on higher/Ultra settings, fullscreen or not. You have a better chance at a CPU bottleneck though, so if you're experiencing issues streaming or doing things on your other monitor than that's probably it. Running SLI or a superior card is for better performance at higher resolutions at higher settings for gaming, not for video playback.

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    Well it's actually like I will have a VLC video in fullscreen or a streaming video on one monitor. Then when I switch to browse the web on the other monitor the out of focus video gets choppy. Once it is the primary window again it is fine. I've had this issue with multiple cards on multiple monitors and from reading it appears to just be an issue everyone has. Nobody seems to have a real solution to the issue.

    I've seen some suggest hooking one monitor onto the onboard CPU powered graphics and the other monitor into the graphics card. Some people have said disabling AERO fixes the issue, but then your windows looks like shit. Apparently running video on an out of focus window is just a global problem.

    My monitors are both 1920x1080 and are identical models. I sold my 580's and bought a 780 (Since good 900 series cards were sold out everywhere) The same thing happens with the 780, so it's just something I have to live with. Thanks for the info on the SLI though guys.

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    Next time you watch a video, right click on it and open your flash settings. set local storage to unlimited and disable hardware acceleration, see if it helps.

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