A (hopefully) simple question regarding SLI. 1Gb Card + 1GB Card = 2Gb Card?

[Mysticpuma]

That's the question.

I currently have a 1GB MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II/OC which runs virtually everything beautifully. CoD runs okay upto 1680x1050 with a few settings ramped down but I understand that CoD likes video memory.

So I assume that putting another 1GB MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II/OC into my system would give me extra speed but would it effectively make the system have 2Gb of video memory (as-well as very fast!).

I'm not quite sure how SLI works other than it splits the drawing of the screen up between the cards (in different ways) but do the cards see wach other and become 2Gb of memory or does each still only see 1Gb of memory but because they are working together they only have half as much processing to do so there is more room for the data to flow?

That's my 'simple' question, cheers, MP

[SsSsSsSsSnake]

hi MP. no it wont give you 2 gig of vid ram unfortunately.hope your well :). All SLI does is double the amount of CUDA cores to render graphics

[BMCha]

The usual way of SLI/Xfire is AFR, or Alternate Frame Rendering. As you may be able to deduce, this requires that each card have the entire set of data in VRAM. It just gives each card more time to render each frame, which increases overall framerate. Similarly, a split frame approach where the screen is divided in two still requires each card to have all the data in VRAM.

[Mysticpuma]

Thanks chaps, so I am now wondering; would having an SLI setup (when it is fully active and working) improve the rendering of CloD significantly as there is still only 1GB of VRAM to load the textures into?

Cheers.

[335th_GRAthos]

Thanks chaps, so I am now wondering; would having an SLI setup (when it is fully active and working) improve the rendering of CloD significantly as there is still only 1GB of VRAM to load the textures into?

Having SLI will do you more trouble than good.

SLI may prove its worth when flying very high resolutions (3000 and higher).

And your problem is the 1Gb VRAM, this will not go away until you buy a new card with bigger RAM.

Sorry for the bad news.

~S~

[dash2099]

check your motherboard specs as well, the board needs to have two x16 or x8 pci express lanes WHEN running SLI for good performance.

a lot of boards out there advertise SLI/crossfire support or two x16 pciex lanes. But when you read the fine print some of them unfortunately run x1 speeds in one slot and x8 in the other while running in SLI or crossfire modes. your wont see much of a load of difference when running x8 speeds on both pciex slots vs 16x/x16. but you will feel the pinch when one of the slots is running in x1.

[droz]

Having SLI will do you more trouble than good.

SLI may prove its worth when flying very high resolutions (3000 and higher).

And your problem is the 1Gb VRAM, this will not go away until you buy a new card with bigger RAM.

Sorry for the bad news.

~S~

The general consensus (or hope) is that with the graphics reqrite they are doing, the need for more than 1GB of vid memory will be removed.

We hope.

[335th_GRAthos]

We hope.

I agree, when logic ends, faith starts ;)

The detail of this game is insanely huge, even if they make a new version, it will be a pity to lose such great detail work so I presume it will stay hidden somewhere as optional.

Subsequently, 2Gb VRAM (per single GPU) is the minimum I will be going for when the time for the new GPU purchase will come.

Let's hope the new graphics solution will make the game work well with SLI and crossfire.

~S~

[Skoshi Tiger]

I agree, when logic ends, faith starts ;)

The detail of this game is insanely huge, even if they make a new version, it will be a pity to lose such great detail work so I presume it will stay hidden somewhere as optional.

Subsequently, 2Gb VRAM (per single GPU) is the minimum I will be going for when the time for the new GPU purchase will come.

Let's hope the new graphics solution will make the game work well with SLI and crossfire.

~S~

+1

And even if they do reduce the texture size it will only be a matter of time until a 'must have' mod comes out that bumps it back up again.