Does Skyrim support SLI well?

[whateveryouwant]

Specs:

 

Intel Core I7 4700MQ, 2.4Ghz, 

Nvidia GT755m GDDR5 2GB,

8 GB DDR3 RAM,

1 TB HDD 5400 RPM,

 

You may wonder why I'm asking this? Because my laptop has an ultrabay! I can put another identical GT755! My question is does Skyrim work well with SLI? TES VI will likely do well with it, and I'll need the extra card in the future, but I'll still play Skyrim, so does it work well or not?

[Neovalen]

It does increase FPS, however there are a few minor technical glitches with water ripple effects. Not too noticeable if you use a good water mod though.

[whateveryouwant]

I use pure waters. I just got my Skyrim running beautifully at a constant 59 fps with rare minor stutters, the game still looks pretty too. You sure there's gonna be no fps loss? I've heard bad things about Skyrim and SLI.....

[Neovalen]

I've had nothing but positive gains in FPS.

[DanielCoffey]

Were the main issues with combining 2xGPU and an ENB?

 

Past comments implied that 2xGPU worked fine with no ENB but that there were some issues when an ENB is added.

[Neovalen]

The main issues are with the vanilla game. At one point there was problems with ENB, but not any more. I think the only feature not supported is TAA.

[Sniflheim]

I run two GTX 460's in SLI at the moment. They crunch numbers quicker than a 680, but their real issue is only 1GB VRAM per card. I get my fair share of stuttering during texture swapping, but I can render the scene with all of the ENB post processing eye candy no problem - given I'm not moving around. Recently I've reduced all of my texture sizes to save VRAM and make up the quality with AA and post processing.

 

With my gameplay settings I get 25-35 FPS on one card, 50+ with both. Needless to say, makes a huge difference for me.

 

If you get another 2GB card I think you will be fine. You can then reasonably call it 4GB of VRAM, even barring extra processing overhead for load balancing.

 

Also: Don't build for Skyrim. Build for the Witcher 3. =)

[Aiyen]

"You can then reasonably call it 4GB of VRAM"

No you cannot. VRAM is not shared, only one cards VRAM is used.

This is the main reason why multicard setups are not cost effective, you pay quite a bit for something you are never going to use.

[Neovalen]

"You can then reasonably call it 4GB of VRAM"

No you cannot. VRAM is not shared, only one cards VRAM is used.

This is the main reason why multicard setups are not cost effective, you pay quite a bit for something you are never going to use.

Incorrect. The memory is mirrored on both cards so they are using local copies of the same data.

[Sniflheim]

"You can then reasonably call it 4GB of VRAM"

No you cannot. VRAM is not shared, only one cards VRAM is used.

This is the main reason why multicard setups are not cost effective, you pay quite a bit for something you are never going to use.

Incorrect. The memory is mirrored on both cards so they are using local copies of the same data.

Oops. My bad. Well then with that in mind if you were looking for a lot of VRAM headroom something like the new AMD 290 or 290x would be a good choice, at 5GB.

 

Also, my SLI cost was quite effective, I bought the second one two years after the first, at great discount. I don't know if that's the case for many others (I'd be interested to know) but I've been very happy with my purchases and the performance they've given me.

[deathneko11]

Ok I have a quick question here. If we are going to sli, does the 2nd card have to match the first EXACTLY or does it just have to be the same model i.e. evga gtx 760 SC edition 4gb and gigabyte 760 4GB, or evga gtx 760 Sc edition 4gb X2?

[EssArrBee]

If they don't match you can use the second card as a PhysX card.

 

In another couple generations I suspect that the whole memory thing will get solved. CUDA 6 is going to be able to combine system and video RAM into one, so the next logical progression would be to figure out the whole SLI memory usage. Very exciting times for GPUs. Only hope I can afford to experience it.

[deathneko11]

I'm getting ready to upgrade my mobo, cpu, and hard drive for faster speeds all around. So when i'm ready to get a new card I thought I'd just get the gtx 760 and do a sli setup since the price is dropping...

[Sniflheim]

Ok I have a quick question here. If we are going to sli' date=' does the 2nd card have to match the first EXACTLY or does it just have to be the same model i.e. evga gtx 760 SC edition 4gb and gigabyte 760 4GB, or evga gtx 760 Sc edition 4gb X2?[/quote']

Cards must have identical GPU's, (i.e. a GTX 250 can SLI with a 9800 GTX+) and memory totals.

[DanielCoffey]

Remember too that with the new AMD R9 cards you don't need the Crossfire cable any more as the cards finally talk across the PCI-e slot.

[Aiyen]

"You can then reasonably call it 4GB of VRAM"

No you cannot. VRAM is not shared, only one cards VRAM is used.

This is the main reason why multicard setups are not cost effective, you pay quite a bit for something you are never going to use.

Incorrect. The memory is mirrored on both cards so they are using local copies of the same data.

Ah yes, my bad, should have wrote total VRAM amount is used. You are correct of course! They are mirrored.