SLI Compatibility

[Jackel]

Hello all,

I will make simple and fast here.

Is the game SLI compatible? If yes, how efficient is it?

Currently I'm owning a high-end PC configuration with a single EVGA nVidia Geforce GTX 780 Ti, thinking of fixing a twin!

Appreciate your feedback, please!

Performance scaling will almost certainly be dependent on the resolution you're running at as well. I run a single 680 (2gb launch) and average 60-85 in all the areas where I need performance to matter. This is stable at 1920x1080. Adding a secondary 780Ti would see minimal gains at this resolution even on max settings but if you're running a higher resolution you'll almost certainly benefit from the extra power and added Vram.

[Syx]

Performance scaling will almost certainly be dependent on the resolution you're running at as well. I run a single 680 (2gb launch) and average 60-85 in all the areas where I need performance to matter. This is stable at 1920x1080. Adding a secondary 780Ti would see minimal gains at this resolution even on max settings but if you're running a higher resolution you'll almost certainly benefit from the extra power and added Vram.

Unfortunately, the VRAM for both cards isn't pooled like when extra RAM is added to mobo, the VRAM in an SLI configuration works in parallel. So the assets to be rendered are sent to the respective card, which then only utilizes the VRAM available on board to store data. The GPUs cannot access data stored in VRAM on a different physical card. It's a damn shame. The benefit is that less VRAM it utilized, which means more room in VRAM to store computational data for graphical effects like supersampling, ambient occlusion, tessellation and more buffered frames.

[Jackel]

Unfortunately, the VRAM for both cards isn't pooled like when extra RAM is added to mobo, the VRAM in an SLI configuration works in parallel. So the assets to be rendered are sent to the respective card, which then only utilizes the VRAM available on board to store data. The GPUs cannot access data stored in VRAM on a different physical card. It's a damn shame. The benefit is that less VRAM it utilized, which means more room in VRAM to store computational data for graphical effects like supersampling, ambient occlusion, tessellation and more buffered frames.

Hmm, I apologize for giving the impression I was trying to make it sound like VRAM was a combined number - I re-read what I wrote and I'm not sure where the communication breakdown was though to be honest.

The point I was making was that my launch 680 (see 2 gig reference) exceeds expectations at a standard 1920x1080 resolution. The OP is most likely using a 3gig variant of the 780ti and thus unless they're playing at a resolution exceeding 1080 they probably won't see a performance increase specific to FFXIV. Other software titles may benefit or even when the DX11 client comes out with new potential features - but as it stands right now a single high end card within the last couple of years is more than enough to get by on max settings based on popular resolutions.


As to what "Shoaib" is referring to I'm not sure. My wife plays on my old i7-930 rig sporting 2x GTX 460 (1gig) cards and the client clearly takes advantage of the extra card. Even the original 1.x client when duped using the old crysis profile worked. The SLI scaling isn't 100% but it's enough to take her machine from a 34fps average to just a hair under 60.