What is your opinion on CrossFireX and SLI?

[Kain]

Please vote in the poll.

[bob saget]

The problem with SLi or with CrossfireX is that you don't double the performance with two cards, or triple the performance with three. I may be incorrect, and anyone correct me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding that every card you add "helps you out" less and less.

The decision comes down to personal choice, if you have the money, and one 480 or 5970 is not enough, the only way to increase performance is add another one.

Would I personally add a second card for a performance gain of less than %100, no. I am very pleased with what I have now.

[Bah!]

Originally Posted by bob saget

The problem with SLi or with CrossfireX is that you don't double the performance with two cards, or triple the performance with three. I may be incorrect, and anyone correct me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding that every card you add "helps you out" less and less.

While you are right that scaling isn't 100% all of the time, it can and does get close to that in many games.

The biggest issue with SLI in my eyes is that it's still not as polished as a single card solution. There are still plenty of games that don't play nice with SLI, and there are even others that have bugs or other issues not present when you use just a single card.

After my 295 I swore I'd never do SLI again. That lasted about a week after I got my first 480. Now I have a much better opinion of SLI, but I still won't ever do "low end" SLI again, due to the aforementioned issues.

[snowmanwithahat]

I haven't really used either... but I do have to say that SLI from what I've seen scales far better than crossfire in the 2-card space and used to much more in the 3-card area too... recently crossfire has been catching up though

[wheeljack12]

I have had both. and amd/ati as usual makes good hardware put still years later lacks in the software driver dept for even single cards. I have had crossfire with the 2900xt, 4870x2 in quad xfire and two 5970's in quad xfire. Every time, I felt like no one wanted to program for the damn cards because of so many driver bugs that would stop me from playing a game. I have had 6800 ultras, 7800 and 7900 gtx, gtx 295 in quad sli and gtx 480's in sli. And with sli, it seems that game programmers love nvidia cards more imo with almost no driver bugs from my experience.

[Viral]

Good enough for total high end performance-at-all-costs, stupid for anything else.

[newparad1gm]

Necessary if you want to do 3D Vision Surround, but then again, using a single card for something like that wouldn't be up to snuff performance-wise anyways.

Crossfire isn't necessary for Eyefinity though, although you have to use a DisplayPort adapter, so there are some trade-offs.

And apparently, SLI GTX 460s is the best high-performance deal right now. You get faster than single GTX 480 performance for less noise and price.

[HYBRID]

I'll chime in with the following and I have used both, its my conclusion in both of the currents states be it green or red that scaling has gotten better but not enough to justify the cost, heat and power draw and the nonsense regarding drivers.

I will always buy the best avialable single card.

[Madpistol]

I've always bought single card solutions, but both technologies have their place in the industry. I do wish that support for it was a little better, even if it has gotten better over time.

[snowmanwithahat]

Originally Posted by HYBRID

I will always buy the best avialable single card.

I agree and certainly think its the perfect strategy in most situations.... but I question the ability of my 470 for example powering games like Metro 2033 at 30" resolutions. I think the only time you can really justify SLI is at those super-high resolutions.

[darkrider01]

I'm currently using both, and found they both work just fine. Use Nhancer for SLi, use RadeonPro for Crossfire. nVidia gets a +1 because they will let you modify game profiles in the driver, whereas for Crossfire, you need RadeonPro to do it.

As far as "worth it", that's subject to your desires. Both options are great for upgrade paths, or as current high-end machines.

Just think about it - before SLi and Crossfire came along, the only option as an upgrade was to buy a new generation card. With Sli and Crossfire, you can buy a second last generation card and often get very close to or higher then a current gen setup, for less money.

My usual MO is that I buy the top of the line single card for the current generation - then I upgrade when a single card comes out that is faster than my current card in SLi/Crossfire. My previous card was a GTX 280 FTW - my 5970 is supposed to be faster than 2 x GTX 280's in SLi. My card before that was an 8800GTX, the GTX 280 was faster than 2 x 8800GTX's in SLi.

That's just how I roll

[lduguay]

Originally Posted by Viral

Good enough for total high end performance-at-all-costs, stupid for anything else.

Well I might be stupid, but I game on a 30in monitor. A single 480GTX is not enough for most games I play.