SLI Technology and Its Practical Applications in Gaming Laptops
In this article, we'll explore the world of SLI technology and its practical applications in gaming laptops. We'll dive into the synthetic benchmarking tools used to test SLI performance, discuss the limitations of these tests, and examine the real-world results of using SLI in different games.
Synthetic Benchmarking Tools: A Limited Indicator
The synthetic benchmarking tools we've been using are designed to provide a clear picture of SLI performance. However, they're not as useful in real-world scenarios. In synthetic tests, multiple GPUs can be used to create a theoretical maximum performance level that's often much higher than what's actually achievable with SLI. This means that the results may not accurately reflect the actual performance benefits of SLI.
To illustrate this point, let's consider two examples from the article. First, we're told that in Heaven benchmark, with quality set to ultra tessellation and anti-aliasing on 8 at 1080p, a single NVIDIA GeForce 1070 averaged 91 frames per second. With the CPU overclocked and SLI enabled, the average was 152 frames per second - an increase of about 67%. However, in Valley benchmark with default settings, the single 1070 still averaged 90 frames per second even with the CPU overclocked and SLI enabled. This tells us that while SLI can provide some benefits in certain games, it's not a silver bullet for performance.
Real-World Results: A Mixed Bag
When we look at real-world results, the picture is more nuanced. In Valley benchmark, both 1070s managed to average 112 frames per second with SLI enabled and 123 frames per second with per-CPU overclocking - a difference of about 9%. This tells us that while SLI can provide some benefits in certain games, it's not as effective as we might hope.
However, things improved significantly when we looked at more complex games like Five Strike. In this game, the single 1070 averaged a score of 14,546 with SLI enabled and 21,207 with per-CPU overclocking - an increase of about 46%. Similarly, in Times New Roman, both GPUs averaged scores of 10,776 with SLI enabled and 12,307 with per-CPU overclocking - a difference of about 15%.
The results varied from game to game, but overall, we saw an average improvement of around 17.2% with SLI enabled and no CPU overclocking. However, when we overclocked the CPU, the increase was around 23.3% in games tested.
Limitations and Considerations
So what does this tell us about using SLI in gaming laptops? While it's clear that SLI can provide some benefits in certain games, there are also significant limitations to consider. For example, the article notes that relying on game developers to implement multi-GPU support is a key factor in achieving decent performance with SLI.
Additionally, not all displays are created equal when it comes to supporting high refresh rates and 3D gaming. If you want to take full advantage of SLI's benefits, you'll need a display capable of handling higher frame rates - something that may not be feasible for everyone.
Conclusion
So should you consider paying more for an SLI-based laptop? It depends on your priorities. If you're someone who values performance above all else and is willing to spend the extra cash, then SLI might be worth considering. However, if you have a budget in mind or are more interested in getting a better graphics card than relying on SLI, there are other options available that may provide similar benefits without the added cost.
Ultimately, it's essential to do your research and weigh the pros and cons of SLI before making a purchase decision. By understanding the limitations of SLI technology and how it performs in real-world scenarios, you can make an informed decision about whether or not it's right for you.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys Jarrod here and today we're going to find out if paying extra for a second graphics card and your laptop is worth it will perform some gaming benchmarks with and without a second graphics card in use and find out how much extra performance and videos SLI actually gives us in various games Nvidia allows us to run multiple graphics cards together in order to get better performance this feature is known as SLI and is available in laptops while this sounds great SLI does have some drawbacks SLI is not perfectly scalable for instance if you get 50 fps in your favorite game adding a second graphics card will not increase you up to 100 FPS the real result will depend on many factors including how well the game developers implemented multi GPU support not only do you have to pay more for a second graphics card which physically requires more space in your laptop an additional card will increase power usage and heat output as well as create extra noise due to the extra cooling not only will the additional graphics card also add additional weight to the laptop but the additional cooling will also add further weight to these various aspects need to be carefully considered in a laptop environment as you only have as much power as the battery installed unless you're always plugging in or have a spare battery ready to go in order to determine if the extra performance is actually worth it or perform some benchmarks so we can get an idea of how the laptop performs with a single graphics card and with 2n sli this particular laptop as jewel in video 10-7 is installed and i've done a full review on it previously if you're interested we'll start with some real world gaming benchmarks and then move on to some synthetic benchmark tests the laptop also has an Intel 7700 K desktop CPU I've over collected to 4.9 gigahertz in order to help reduce the CPU as a potential limiting factor as much as I possibly could for reference I've also included the non overclocked results as well however I didn't actually record the CPU maxing out at all during any of the tests anyway additionally I also didn't experience any thermal throttling throughout my testing in grand theft auto 5 I've disabled vsync and tested with fxaa on and MSAA set to 8 with a 1080p resolution with SLI disabled we averaged 75 frames per second and then with the CPU overclocked this remained the same with SLI enabled and the CPU back on stock speeds we averaged 86 frames per second and then with the CPU overclock this one up to 101 frames per second in Witcher 3 I used the ultra preset disabled vsync and NVIDIA head works and again rented the full 1080p resolution with these settings and with SLI disabled we averaged 78 frames per second and then with the CPU overclock this actually dropped slightly to 77 frames per second with sli enabled I was able to get an average of 108 frames per second with the CPU on stock speeds and then with the CPU overclock this increased a little to 115 frames per second in shadow of mortal with ultra settings at 1080p a single 1070 averaged 151 frames per second and then 150 frames per second with the CPU overclocked with SLI enabled we averaged 169 frames per second and this result did not change even with the CPU overclocked from these tests it appears that the difference with and without CPU overclocking with the single graphics card is basically the same the difference isn't within the margin of error however it does appear to make a more noticeable difference with SLI enabled I suspect that because with more graphics power available the fastest CPU may be of more use it will also depend on other variables such as how much does the particular game rely on the CPU in my opinion these real world gaming benchmark tests that I've covered so far of what you should mostly consider as they share how much practical difference you would actually expect with and without SLI the synthetic benchmarking tools that I'll be using next aren't as useful as a practical indicator in real games adding a second graphics card doesn't scale perfectly whereas in these synthetic tests they're designed to perform very well with additional resources making it appear that SLI is a larger boost than it really is so take them with a grain of salt in heaven benchmark with the quality set to ultra tessellation set to extreme and anti-aliasing on 8 at 1080p a single 1070 average 91 frames per second and then 92 frames per second with the CPU overclocked with SLI enabled the single 1070 averaged 152 frames per second and then with the CPU overclock this increase to 161 frames per second in valley benchmark with default ISA to ultra and anti-aliasing on 8 at 1080p a single 1070 averaged 90 frames per second and it stayed exactly the same even with the CPU overclocked with SLI enabled both 10 seventies managed to average 112 frames per second and then when we ever called per CPU this Inc - 123 frames per second next server in both the fly strike and times by benchmarks from 3dmark and in five strike got a score of fourteen thousand five hundred and forty six with a single 1070 and a score of twenty one thousand two hundred and seven with sli enabled then with the cpu ever clocked I got a score of fourteen thousand five hundred ninety with a single ten seventy so a small improvement and a score of twenty two thousand one hundred and forty seven with SLI enabled a slightly higher improvement in comparison as the times by I got a score of five thousand three hundred and eighty four with a single ten seventy and a score of nine thousand and eighty two with SLI enabled with the CPU overclock the single card score increased slightly to five thousand three hundred and ninety four while the score with SLI enabled grows slightly to nine thousand one hundred and twenty nine based on my results without performing any CPU overclocking on average having a second ten seventy in SLI improved the average framerate of the games tested by 17.2% while the synthetic benchmarks are an improvement of approximately 33% with both types of results combined we saw a 26.2 percent improvement on average over all tests with SLI enabled with no CPU overclocking as mentioned overclocking the CPU did not appear to change things with a single tone 70 in use however as we've seen with SLI enabled we did actually see a small boost in all the results with the 7700 K over clubs to 4.9 gigahertz we saw an average improvement with sli enabled of 23.3% in the games tested and an improvement of 36.2% in the synthetic tests but these results combined together we saw an overall improvement of 30.7% with sli while the CPU was overclocked after considering the results of these tests I find it pretty difficult to recommend getting a laptop with us-ally unless you really want the small extra increase in gaming performance you may get a better bang for your buck by simply getting a better graphics card for example well this laptop has 210 70s it also has the option of the single 1080 which is actually cheaper and may perform better in various games I can't actually say for sure is I've not personally tested a 1080 ax in general getting a better graphics card instead of SLA is usually a better choice with SLI you're relying on the game developers having implemented multi GPU support well in an efficient manner which will vary based on each game essentially the additional card just doesn't scale that well for me to think it's what's spending hundreds of dollars on with that said if the extra wait hate noise and cost aren't issues and you're still interested then by all means go for it however if these other factors matter to you then you may need to think twice before buying an SLI based laptop also don't forget that if you're getting an SLI based laptop make sure that you pair it with the display capable of a higher refresh rate a standard 60 Hertz panel for instance is probably not going to be a good idea if you actually want to be able to take advantage of those higher frame rates that you're paying for so what do you guys think about getting SLI and a laptop is it something that you'd consider paying more for to get extra performance or would you just get a more powerful single card be sure to let me know your thoughts down in the comments and leave a like on the video if you found it useful thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe for future tech videos like this onehey guys Jarrod here and today we're going to find out if paying extra for a second graphics card and your laptop is worth it will perform some gaming benchmarks with and without a second graphics card in use and find out how much extra performance and videos SLI actually gives us in various games Nvidia allows us to run multiple graphics cards together in order to get better performance this feature is known as SLI and is available in laptops while this sounds great SLI does have some drawbacks SLI is not perfectly scalable for instance if you get 50 fps in your favorite game adding a second graphics card will not increase you up to 100 FPS the real result will depend on many factors including how well the game developers implemented multi GPU support not only do you have to pay more for a second graphics card which physically requires more space in your laptop an additional card will increase power usage and heat output as well as create extra noise due to the extra cooling not only will the additional graphics card also add additional weight to the laptop but the additional cooling will also add further weight to these various aspects need to be carefully considered in a laptop environment as you only have as much power as the battery installed unless you're always plugging in or have a spare battery ready to go in order to determine if the extra performance is actually worth it or perform some benchmarks so we can get an idea of how the laptop performs with a single graphics card and with 2n sli this particular laptop as jewel in video 10-7 is installed and i've done a full review on it previously if you're interested we'll start with some real world gaming benchmarks and then move on to some synthetic benchmark tests the laptop also has an Intel 7700 K desktop CPU I've over collected to 4.9 gigahertz in order to help reduce the CPU as a potential limiting factor as much as I possibly could for reference I've also included the non overclocked results as well however I didn't actually record the CPU maxing out at all during any of the tests anyway additionally I also didn't experience any thermal throttling throughout my testing in grand theft auto 5 I've disabled vsync and tested with fxaa on and MSAA set to 8 with a 1080p resolution with SLI disabled we averaged 75 frames per second and then with the CPU overclocked this remained the same with SLI enabled and the CPU back on stock speeds we averaged 86 frames per second and then with the CPU overclock this one up to 101 frames per second in Witcher 3 I used the ultra preset disabled vsync and NVIDIA head works and again rented the full 1080p resolution with these settings and with SLI disabled we averaged 78 frames per second and then with the CPU overclock this actually dropped slightly to 77 frames per second with sli enabled I was able to get an average of 108 frames per second with the CPU on stock speeds and then with the CPU overclock this increased a little to 115 frames per second in shadow of mortal with ultra settings at 1080p a single 1070 averaged 151 frames per second and then 150 frames per second with the CPU overclocked with SLI enabled we averaged 169 frames per second and this result did not change even with the CPU overclocked from these tests it appears that the difference with and without CPU overclocking with the single graphics card is basically the same the difference isn't within the margin of error however it does appear to make a more noticeable difference with SLI enabled I suspect that because with more graphics power available the fastest CPU may be of more use it will also depend on other variables such as how much does the particular game rely on the CPU in my opinion these real world gaming benchmark tests that I've covered so far of what you should mostly consider as they share how much practical difference you would actually expect with and without SLI the synthetic benchmarking tools that I'll be using next aren't as useful as a practical indicator in real games adding a second graphics card doesn't scale perfectly whereas in these synthetic tests they're designed to perform very well with additional resources making it appear that SLI is a larger boost than it really is so take them with a grain of salt in heaven benchmark with the quality set to ultra tessellation set to extreme and anti-aliasing on 8 at 1080p a single 1070 average 91 frames per second and then 92 frames per second with the CPU overclocked with SLI enabled the single 1070 averaged 152 frames per second and then with the CPU overclock this increase to 161 frames per second in valley benchmark with default ISA to ultra and anti-aliasing on 8 at 1080p a single 1070 averaged 90 frames per second and it stayed exactly the same even with the CPU overclocked with SLI enabled both 10 seventies managed to average 112 frames per second and then when we ever called per CPU this Inc - 123 frames per second next server in both the fly strike and times by benchmarks from 3dmark and in five strike got a score of fourteen thousand five hundred and forty six with a single 1070 and a score of twenty one thousand two hundred and seven with sli enabled then with the cpu ever clocked I got a score of fourteen thousand five hundred ninety with a single ten seventy so a small improvement and a score of twenty two thousand one hundred and forty seven with SLI enabled a slightly higher improvement in comparison as the times by I got a score of five thousand three hundred and eighty four with a single ten seventy and a score of nine thousand and eighty two with SLI enabled with the CPU overclock the single card score increased slightly to five thousand three hundred and ninety four while the score with SLI enabled grows slightly to nine thousand one hundred and twenty nine based on my results without performing any CPU overclocking on average having a second ten seventy in SLI improved the average framerate of the games tested by 17.2% while the synthetic benchmarks are an improvement of approximately 33% with both types of results combined we saw a 26.2 percent improvement on average over all tests with SLI enabled with no CPU overclocking as mentioned overclocking the CPU did not appear to change things with a single tone 70 in use however as we've seen with SLI enabled we did actually see a small boost in all the results with the 7700 K over clubs to 4.9 gigahertz we saw an average improvement with sli enabled of 23.3% in the games tested and an improvement of 36.2% in the synthetic tests but these results combined together we saw an overall improvement of 30.7% with sli while the CPU was overclocked after considering the results of these tests I find it pretty difficult to recommend getting a laptop with us-ally unless you really want the small extra increase in gaming performance you may get a better bang for your buck by simply getting a better graphics card for example well this laptop has 210 70s it also has the option of the single 1080 which is actually cheaper and may perform better in various games I can't actually say for sure is I've not personally tested a 1080 ax in general getting a better graphics card instead of SLA is usually a better choice with SLI you're relying on the game developers having implemented multi GPU support well in an efficient manner which will vary based on each game essentially the additional card just doesn't scale that well for me to think it's what's spending hundreds of dollars on with that said if the extra wait hate noise and cost aren't issues and you're still interested then by all means go for it however if these other factors matter to you then you may need to think twice before buying an SLI based laptop also don't forget that if you're getting an SLI based laptop make sure that you pair it with the display capable of a higher refresh rate a standard 60 Hertz panel for instance is probably not going to be a good idea if you actually want to be able to take advantage of those higher frame rates that you're paying for so what do you guys think about getting SLI and a laptop is it something that you'd consider paying more for to get extra performance or would you just get a more powerful single card be sure to let me know your thoughts down in the comments and leave a like on the video if you found it useful thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe for future tech videos like this one\n"
