Date:
Tuesday , November 23, 2004
Author:
Brent Justice
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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NVIDIA SLI Upgrade Guide

Thinking about upgrading to a gaming rig powered by NVIDIA's Scalable Link Interface? We tell you what you need to know by showing you what type of gaming experience you can expect in Half Life 2, DOOM 3, and FarCry with focus on where your SLI upgrade path will lead you in terms of image quality.

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DOOM 3

(OpenGL)

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We are using the full retail version of DOOM 3 and leaving each video card’s driver control panel to “Application Preference” for AA and AF. We have graphed the DOOM 3 in-game quality setting and resolution that played the best on each card. We utilized the in-game DOOM 3 AA setting to change AA level.

For our manual run-through we chose the “Enpro” level and used FRAPS to capture the framerate every second and started our run-through from the beginning to half way through the mission. We played the game in a normal fashion, which means each run-through on each card will be a little different, but still represents the same course through the level and truly measures a real gaming experience.

SLI Rendering Mode:

For DOOM 3 we found that with all video cards Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR) was the SLI rendering mode in action.

6600GT/SLI compared to 6800GT/SLI

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This is one of those times you will realize that average framerate numbers are almost totally useless, as this game will only run at 60FPS max. NVIDIA’s SLI combined DOOM3 is truly about delivering the best Image Quality you can get at very playable framerates.

To start off our evaluation we are going to compare the GeForce 6600GT in Single and SLI configurations and compare it to a GeForce 6800GT Single and SLI. If you are in the market for GeForce 6600GT you are probably wondering if you should go with a single 6600GT now, and upgrade to another one later in SLI, or spring for the 6800GT Single.

In our results above we achieved a playable quality setting of High Quality 1280x1024 NoAA/8XAF with a single GeForce 6600GT in DOOM 3. This provided very smooth gameplay and only slightly dropped below 30FPS in the most intense scenes. We managed to run a single GeForce 6800GT at High Quality 1600x1200 NoAA/8XAF, with much smoother performance, dropping to only 36FPS.

When we upgraded the GeForce 6600GT single to a SLI configuration we were able to go from 1280x1024 to an incredible 1600x1200 2XAA/8XAF, clearly beating a single GeForce 6800GT! What is probably even more incredible as you will see below, is that a 6600 GT SLI configuration also bested ATI’s flagship X800XT-PE! You can see that we did have a spike of 26FPS towards the end at this setting, but it was not problematic. If you absolutely did not want any spikes below 30FPS we found 1600x1200 NoAA/8XAF was smooth as butter, and stayed at the maximum framecap of 60FPS most of the time.

When we upgraded from a single GeForce 6800GT to a SLI configuration we were able to move from 0XAA to 4XAA at 1600x1200 resolution in DOOM 3.

So if you are wondering whether to invest in a 6600GT or a 6800GT, keep in mind that a GeForce 6600GT SLI setup is able to achieve a higher playable quality setting in DOOM 3 than a single GeForce 6800GT. Remember that the DOOM 3 engine will likely power more games than any single engine we have every seen in gaming history, so certainly your SLI decision will likely have an impact for a good while.

6800GT/SLI compared to X800Pro and X800XT-PE

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In our second comparison we are looking at how a GeForce 6800GT single and SLI setup compare to an X800Pro or X800XT-PE. Some of you may be thinking whether to go with a GeForce 6800GT or an X800Pro for example.

Well, in our evaluation we found that the single GeForce 6800GT is already keeping up with the Radeon X800-XT PE at High Quality 1600x1200 NoAA/8XAF. The X800Pro is slower than a single GeForce 6800GT in this game. When we upgraded to a GeForce 6800GT SLI configuration we were simply able to achieve a much higher and faster playable quality setting compared to the X800XT-PE. We achieved 1600x1200 4XAA/8XAF on a GeForce 6800GT SLI setup and the performance is of still faster than a Radeon X800XT-PE.

6800Ultra/SLI compared to X800XT-PE

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In our last comparison with this game we will look at the high-end setup offered from both ATI and NVIDIA. Here we match up a Radeon X800XT-PE to a single GeForce 6800Ultra and a GeForce 6800Ultra SLI setup.

Already the GeForce 6800Ultra achieved a higher playable quality setting in DOOM 3 at High Quality 1600x1200 2XAA/8XAF compared to the Radeon X800XT-PE at High Quality 1600x1200 NoAA/8XAF.

When we upgraded the single GeForce 6800Ultra to an SLI configuration we were able to run DOOM 3 smoothly, without hitches, at Ultra Quality 1600x1200 4XAA/8XAF. Even though we only have 1GB of system RAM, and 256MB video cards we were able to run in Ultra Quality and did not experience hitching, performance was smooth, and gameplay was incredible at this high setting.