Quad SLI part deux: Build It Yourself

Extended Game Testing:

Along with the five games that we benchmarked, we played more games to find out how Quad SLI got on in some other games. Here is a ballistics report:

Call Of Duty 2: Call Of Duty 2 played quite well at 2560x1600 8xSLI AA 8xAF and the immersion levels were pretty incredible. However, we found that the game slowed down to some rather low frame rates when lots of smoke was on screen. We didn't experience any crashing or image quality issues after playing the game for around an hour.

NFS: Most Wanted: We found that we had to lower some of the in-game details to play the game smoothly with any anti-aliasing enabled at 2560x1600. However, the game was quite happy at 0xAA 16xAF and delivered a frame rate in the region of 35-40 frames per second, dropping to around 20 frames per second in the more intensive areas of the title.

This was another game that looked really good at 2560x1600, even though it doesn't natively support the resolution. In order to get the game running at 2560x1600, you need to head over to Widescreen Gaming Forum and search for the NFS: Most Wanted custom resolution hack. The only downside to playing NFS: Most Wanted on Quad SLI, was that it wasn't quite fast enough to play the game with some much-needed anti-aliasing enabled.

Tomb Raider: Legend: When we first reviewed Quad SLI, we encountered some rendering problems when Quad SLI was enabled. These are now fixed - we played Tomb Raider for about an hour and a half right from the start. We forced 2xAA in the driver control panel and enabled next-generation content. However, we had to disable depth of field in order to attain frame rates that were smooth enough to enjoy the game.

GTR 2 Demo: We were able to play the GTR2 demo at 2560x1600 with everything turned on, including 8xSLI AA and 16xAF - we drove around the demo track for around 25-30 minutes without any rendering errors. The frame rate dropped to around 20 frames per second during smoke, but the frame rate was in the mid-40's when driving around normally. The demo defaulted to the AFR of SFR rendering mode.

Unreal Tournament 2004: UT2004 is another game that we play on a regular basis in the office. However, it was a no-go at 2560x1600 when we fired it up without anti-aliasing enabled. Once we'd enabled 8xSLI AA though, the game played superbly at the Dell 3007WFP's native resolution. In fact, there is probably room to play the game with 16xSLI AA enabled with everything turned on. I was really impressed with how good this nearly 2 1/2 year old game looked at ultra-high resolutions with lots of AA and everything turned on. It's definitely no Oblivion beater, but it looks incredibly good with all things considered.

Final Thoughts...

Quad SLI has certainly come a long way since the start of May, when we first had a look at the technology. It can be an incredibly confusing technology in some ways, because you've really got to do your homework to find the performance sweetspot. We found that a lot of games were close-to-playable with 8xSLI AA enabled, and newer games performed well with 4xAA turned on.

One sticking point is the lack of support for HDR and anti-aliasing simultaneously. I know that this is something that we keep going on about, but it is something that really hurts Quad SLI, especially considering the problems with DirectX 9 not being able to support more than two back-buffers simultaneously.

The default filtering quality is still below what it should be too, in my opinion. However, performance with the high quality driver setting is acceptable and image quality is much better, despite not getting rid of shimmering completely. Having said that, ATI also suffers from some shimmering, but it is not as bad as what it can be with NVIDIA's default filtering quality setting.

Considering that the performance hampering problems with DirectX 9 will be fixed when DirectX 10 hardware arrives, it makes sense to wait for Quad SLI to migrate to NVIDIA's DirectX 10 product line whenever that arrives. Add this to the fact that Windows Vista is around six months away and it further enhances that thought path. Of course, DirectX 10 games are not going to fully utilise the new API for a few months at least, so it's not necessarily a particularly bad time to consider upgrading if you are one to upgrade fairly regularly. That is especially true if you're looking at something like EVGA's Step-Up programme. Those that are looking to make a long term upgrade should hold tight and wait for DirectX 10 hardware to arrive.

If we also factor in the cost, Quad SLI is expensive and not for everyone, as NVIDIA admits. Along with the two GeForce 7950 GX2's, which will set you back over £700, you're going to need to buy a large widescreen monitor like Dell's 3007WFP to see the full benefit of Quad SLI. Not only that, but you're going to need a fast processor too, which is going to set you back even more money. All in all, it is cost you a lot to get the most out of Quad SLI and there are still caveats that aren't just going to disappear overnight.

While Quad SLI is certainly better than it was three months ago, it is still an immature technology. However, it appears to work in more situations than it doesn't. It is safe to say that Quad SLI is alive and replenishing health at a fairly rapid rate after our first date with the technology.

The company has taken our feedback seriously and the driver team has worked hard to make things happen. I for one can't wait to see Quad SLI with DirectX 10 hardware - it should get rid of the major back-buffer caveat that is currently hampering performance, and I'm hoping that there will be improvements to anti-aliasing and texture filtering quality too...

Public Driver:

NVIDIA released its first publicly available Forceware driver earlier today - you can download it here.