SLI Support for FSX Steam Edition

[Jordan_King_]

Hello DTG,
Nvidia will soon be releasing a new driver that will include SLI support for P3D which is really just a commercial/academic license of FSX. Would it be possible to bring this support to FSX Steam Edition? I am sure that with your request and the support from the immense FSX SE community that you have fostered this is something Nvidia may be able to bring to us. http://prepar3d.com/forum-5/topic/nvidia-driver-support-request/page/4/#post-107597

[barnstormer1]

Never felt a need for it . Bedside's, even P3D remain a CPU intensive graphics engine. The engine really needs to support SLI also. Ya, ya may get a little boost with high resolution multi monitors. But, I'm not the wealthy who can afford 2000.00 worth of video cards either. :)

[side-fish]

barnstormer has a point, but if P3D is getting NVIDIA support, then I don't see why we shouldn't have support as well. Imagine GeForce Experience for FSX Steam Edition.

[TU 114]

Originally posted by side-fish:

barnstormer has a point, but if P3D is getting NVIDIA support, then I don't see why we shouldn't have support as well. Imagine GeForce Experience for FSX Steam Edition.

+1
That would be great!

[Kosta]

I personally see no need for SLI in FSX. With all sliders right, you are CPU bound in any scenario with even a mediocre card. Given the availability of Titan X, GTX 980 and similar, there is virtually only ONE scenario in which multiple cards would be of benefit: 2048x2048 or higher resolution clouds, full overcast, multiple layers AND insane amounts of anti-aliasing (talking about 8xS + 4x SGSS or higher). Such configuration is not even viable in modern titles, like Elite: Dangerous. It kills the FPS extremely, way below it does in FSX.
So you see, FSX actually performs better than modern games, provided you don't use NGX and/or extreme amounts of clouds with high amounts of anti-aliasing.

BESIDES:
SLI does work in FSX, it just doesn't work in cockpits like NGX. In spot view, if you do load the single GPU so that it does 100%, SLI will be of benefit (I did a test 2 years ago I believe...). However once you switch to NGX, SLI becomes negated. Reasons back then were some gauges maybe or simply the fact that high-res cockpits are not GPU-heavy, but rather load the CPU to 100%.

And honestly, getting the 2nd card so that you can run higher levels of anti-aliasing?

In other words, forget SLI in FSX(SE). P3Dv2 is a WHOLE another story. Shadowing and shader system takes a HUGE load onto GPU, if you turn it on. Due the monstrous amount of rendering area, shadows take a big toll on the GPU, here 2nd and even 3rd card might scale quite well...

[Jordan_King_]

Originally posted by Kosta:

And honestly, getting the 2nd card so that you can run higher levels of anti-aliasing?

That is largely one of my reasons. Many folks are moving to UHD or QHD monitors and in DX10 the 4x or 8x Anti Aliasing can eat up significant amounts of performance or if one is using DSR.

[Kosta]

Indeed it can. However, GTX 980, in 2560x1440, with 8xS and 4xSGSS runs 5 layers of 2048 overcast cumulus clouds at 33fps. Titan X does better.

And that AA setting is an overkill - I am using it because I can. With 2x SGSS I achieve 55fps.
SGSS = DSR btw. (performancewise)