Is SLI helping performance of RTW/BI?

[Aged One]

Have you guys with sli rigs seen improvements on performance during custom battles, such as, increased frames, ability to play with larger numbers of troops, and/or increased video settings at higher resolutions 1280 and up without noticable lag?

[Hadrian]

Have you guys with sli rigs seen improvements on performance during custom battles, such as, increased frames, ability to play with larger numbers of troops, and/or increased video settings at higher resolutions 1280 and up without noticable lag?

I have experienced all of the above during custom battles utilizing SLI. RTW wasn't optimized for SLI so the average FPS increase is only about 10 or so, but what SLI really does is allow you to play on higher resolutions (1280X1024 and 1600X1200) and have more men on the battle before you reach the lag threshold.

I have played SPQR battles (a mod far more demanding graphically than the original RTW) of 16,000+ men on maxed out settings including AA, grass, etc. with absolutely zero lag.
I've played 20,000+ man battles on the same settings with immediate lag from the start until about 4,000 men were killed (about 1 minute into the battle) and then the FPS jumped up to over 35 and the rest of the battle played out just like the 16,000+ man test battle before, with the FPS increasing as the battle went on and more men were killed.

I personally think that the original RTW engine wasn't designed to have that many men on the battlefield and that the engine itself limits FPS after about 16,000 men. Since it wasn't conceivable to play with armies that big when the game was designed, they purposefully, or by chance, set a hypothetical limit of about 16,000 men (4 big armies of 4,000 or so men) which they figured was unattainable by any one system anyway! Sort of like having the road disappear over the hill and end, who's gonna know? JMO

Imagine if they actually effectively optimize games for SLI. M2TW is optimized for SLI, so I hope we will see the performance increase that was originally invisioned by the designers of SLI since it has never performed as well as originally expected. Hopefully, SLI's inability to perform to the potential of the concept has been limited by games that were not designed to utilize the technology.....

[Aged One]

Hadrian i believe you are 100% right about the game limiting the fps above a set # of troops on the field I have dual 7900gtx's and four gigs of ddr2 667mh ram on a oc'd pent d set to 4.26g it s not top of the line but it does play oblivion on max settings with no noticable lag outdoors during combat with multiple foes. At 20,000 men max settings 1280x1024 resolution there is lag and when i lower settings it appears not to speed up. During the same battle at max settings there comes a point where the game begins to zoom, not ramp up as you would expect, as if some how the game decides that at a certain # of troops there is no lag and one unit over that magical # there is lag? When I get back home i will test the fps with fraps.

[Hadrian]

@Aged One,
In my SLI setup I have 7900GTX's too, and on 1280X1024 with 20,000 men I experienced the exact same thing as you are describing. Test 16,000 men on your system, it'll be flawless. Once you go beyond 16,000, the wall.....