Dual Video Cards, how much of an advantage?

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Sengirr

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If you were to get two video cards on your desktop how much does it actually help, with video games particularly?
For example if you were to get two identical low end cards could their working together theoretically equal the performance of one higher end video card?
Or what would the performance be with one low to mid capable video card paired with a high end video card?
Basically how much of advantage is having two video cards on your computer? And how should you pair them up?
 
I can't answer your questions about a low and mid-range card paired. But with my 2 x 5850's. Pretty much all my frame rates doubled in all games I played. (1920x1200 with maxe everything)
 
Not to be a dick, but there are a fuckton of reviews that answer all of your questions, google it.
 
Tolyngee said:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-x58a-ud9_11.html

I already linked to this article, but the odd part is that they didn't reach the conclusion you just stated, nor did their benchmarks show this...
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what it did say was that, SLI gave more consistent results, but either way, in other test, people have found SLI to scale better.

SLI tends to give about 90% bump in performance when 2 are paired.
Crossfire tends to give about 70% when 2 are paired.

Before fan boys start running there mouth, I have used both company's card, I get what I get based on features and performance, not because I try to justify why I made a purchase.
 
suiken_2mieu said:
SLI tends to give about 90% bump in performance when 2 are paired.
Crossfire tends to give about 70% when 2 are paired.
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I've seen reviews put SLI more at about 80%, but your CF number is about right. Really depends on what games are used, though, because some games simply don't scale. Both SLI and CF have games that just don't scale at all, or scale really poorly.
 
kllrnohj said:
Not to be a dick, but there are a fuckton of reviews that answer all of your questions, google it.
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Why bother with anything in life when someone's already done it and you can just search for it on google? Why do forums even exist anymore? Holy shit I think I just had an epiphany :rolleyes:
 
GotNoRice said:
Why bother with anything in life when someone's already done it and you can just search for it on google? Why do forums even exist anymore? Holy shit I think I just had an epiphany :rolleyes:
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Yeah. People go a bit too far with the "Jesus, use Google!" stuff sometimes. I mean really EVERYTHING is on Google so by that logic there's no point in asking any questions on these forums. Every question is already answered on Google. Might as well make asking questions against the rules. Every discussion has already been had, every point hashed and rehashed again.

Anyway, as to the advantage of running two-card CF or SLI, the advantage will be somewhere between 0 and 100%. Usually somewhere around 70-90%.
 
GotNoRice said:
Why bother with anything in life when someone's already done it and you can just search for it on google? Why do forums even exist anymore? Holy shit I think I just had an epiphany :rolleyes:
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Clearly you and I read a completely different OP. I read an OP where someone asked an extraordinarily broad series of questions that have been answered a bajillion times that even a poorly worded search would have easily answered. You seem to have read an OP where he asked a specific question that wasn't easily answered in 5 minutes on Google.

Forums don't exist so people can be lazy. The OP is being lazy.
 
mid range cards show just as much performance improvements as High end. I used both 7600gt, 8600gt, and 9600gt all in SLI. each one gained about 90%.

though the 8600gt was the worst card I have ever owned but got them for near free.
 
I'm still wondering if it makes sense to get a single GTX460 now and choose whether to SLI or replace later, or just get the SLI setup now.

Any ideas? FYI, I have sold the PC in my sig below, and will be building a new one before
 
noobman said:
I'm still wondering if it makes sense to get a single GTX460 now and choose whether to SLI or replace later, or just get the SLI setup now.

Any ideas? FYI, I have sold the PC in my sig below, and will be building a new one before
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I always get a single card first. You can get a single card now for 220, and in 3-6 months get a second for possible 100 bucks.

Also depends on your resolution, if you aren't pimping 30 inches then you probably wont even need sli.
 
I spent a fair amount of time googling before I posted and I found plenty of reviews and such but there was so much I thought I would put it on a forum to see if more advanced and specific answers would surface. I figure this is maybe not necessarily the fastest way to get the information I need but it's interactive and I have the ability alter the direction of discussion with follow-up questions such as this.

To be more specific would paying the money to put two Radeon 5770's into a computer boost performance above or equal to a Radeon 5870? Or same question for two GeForce GTX 460 with 768MB equal to the performance of a single GTX 480?

Thanks for all the links and comments, I'm new to the PC arena and just trying to figure everything out and learn as much as I can before I buy anything.
 
Sengirr said:
I spent a fair amount of time googling before I posted and I found plenty of reviews and such but there was so much I thought I would put it on a forum to see if more advanced and specific answers would surface. I figure this is maybe not necessarily the fastest way to get the information I need but it's interactive and I have the ability alter the direction of discussion with follow-up questions such as this.

To be more specific would paying the money to put two Radeon 5770's into a computer boost performance above or equal to a Radeon 5870? Or same question for two GeForce GTX 460 with 768MB equal to the performance of a single GTX 480?

Thanks for all the links and comments, I'm new to the PC arena and just trying to figure everything out and learn as much as I can before I buy anything.
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Buying 2 lower end cards to match a high end card is a complete waste unless there is a significant price advantage.

Buy the best Single card solution you can afford, then when that card halfs its value buy a second one. so If you can spend about 200 bucks get a 460gtx or 5850 and then watch for smoking deals for X-fire or SLi.

This is the only real way to gain cost effective value out of SLI.

SLI is intended for people who have money to burn for the best gaming rigs money can buy. SLI for the most part is not cost effective to buy both cards at the same time at the same price, but there are a few exceptions.
 
I used to own a GTX275 & it was pretty powerful, running most games on high settings at full 1080. I usually got 45-50 fps in games like Dirt2, Metro2033(dx9), BFBC2...I switched out to 2 5770 cards in crossfire & all those games jumped up to 60 fps(vsync on) with no stutters. Even GTA IV went from 30-35 fps to 45-50+ fps.
 
2x 5770 = (Roughly) 5870.
If the game optimises 2 cards you will see a benefit, if not you wont see any gains. In the case of the 5XXX card series i found the differences to be minimal. 2x 5770 = 280-300$
5850 = 280$
in the games that scale well the 5770's will beat the 5870, but the 5850 is only 6% slower clock for clock than the 5870. Is buying 2 low end cards now worth it? you make the decision. Do you want to deal with the possible issues of running multipule cards? what about the noise, the power draw? Does buying one card now and then popping in another down the road make more sense to you?

It comes down to you. The benchmarks will show that in certain games two good low end cards will roughly equal/beat a SINGLE top end card. its your call to make the decision.
 
Cat1yst said:
2x 5770 = (Roughly) 5870.
If the game optimises 2 cards you will see a benefit, if not you wont see any gains. In the case of the 5XXX card series i found the differences to be minimal. 2x 5770 = 280-300$
5850 = 280$
in the games that scale well the 5770's will beat the 5870, but the 5850 is only 6% slower clock for clock than the 5870. Is buying 2 low end cards now worth it? you make the decision. Do you want to deal with the possible issues of running multipule cards? what about the noise, the power draw? Does buying one card now and then popping in another down the road make more sense to you?

It comes down to you. The benchmarks will show that in certain games two good low end cards will roughly equal/beat a SINGLE top end card. its your call to make the decision.
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You also have to consider if you buy 2 cards from the start you next upgrade had to be a brand new card, where if you buy 1 card your upgrade options can either be another of the same card or a brand new card. buying a single card leaves your upgrade options more open.
 
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