Sli hardware Worth it or not?

I keep seeing the Sli certified stuff thrown around on hardware specs and sales pitches. I can see having an Sli cert mobo, power supply, and of course graphics cards. but all the other stuff, is it really necessary? Like RAM is there actually a need for Sli ram or is it just another marketing ploy to get people to buy the more expensive stuff. I am a little confused.

 

Well, since SLI is really only worth it if you get two of the top end cards, and even then is more for bragging rights, it is not all necessary. You need an SLI mobo to run SLI, and two graphics cards that support it. That is all. "SLI Memory" means it has EPP which is an additional SPD that 680i boards detect and auto use, but you can always set memory yourself in the BIOS anyway. Any good power supply can run SLI, even if it isn't "certified" for it.

 

so all that hullabaloo about Sli is just a big marketing ploy trying to sell the more expensive stuff to you. That is kinda retarded. I have always been confused what exactly EPP is.

 

Any PSU with adequate amperage on the rails can run SLI. "SLI Certified" merely means the PSU company submitted (and paid) Nvidia to test it.

 

I don't think it is really a need for SLI other than bragging rights

 

Not really retarded as it sells products well with the confusion over what parts you need to have "SLI Certified".

 

SLI is only useful if you are running a high resolution like 1920x1200 or higher.

 

Even at 1920x1200 an 8800GTX/Ultra can max out Oblivion, and should be able to pull high to maximum settings on all DX9 games at that res, DX10 isn't really used much at the moment, so performance for it comes from very few games and drivers for DX10 probably need work.

 

I found sli very useful in bulking up a dying system. Bought one 6600gt when i build my sytem then a year or two later added another from ebay for £30 and i gave the sytem a new lease of life for much less money than a new gfx system. It also helped that i could spec a lower gfx when i was building the system which kept inital costs down and meant i could afford the next cpu up.

To answer the op question my sli certified psu comes with two six pin connectors for two beefy graphics cards. This isn't why i bought it but try and get a psu with out all the little badges, its only cheap ones. All the good ones get all the certificates they can on the premise it will sell more units.