Noob question about crossfire/sli

[Robert_J]

what are the benefits of crossfire/sli?..... ive heard alotta wishy wash and just want some damn factual info.... so thank you all for reading my [H]ard ass noob question
been arguing with some **** *** ppl and need the facts...

 

[stateofjermaine]

. . . increased FPS?

 

[PlatinumPC]

I get around 60-80% extra performance on average.

 

[lillimon04]

I told you, if ya got a high res screen and ya not liking the fps your getting then crossfire/sli would be a good improvement mattering which cards they are.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Well, the point of it is to allow two similar GPUs to perform together and act as one more powerful GPU. And purely in that context, it works quite well. Scaling isn't perfect, but you should get between 60-90% scaling on most games. Of course, it isn't as good value for money as a single, better GPU because you are losing performance to scaling, and there are a few stuttering issues that still need to be ironed out, especially with SLI/Crossfiring dual-GPU cards, and you get increased heat and power. However, having said that, it is a very useful way to upgrade your system on the (relatively) cheap if you want some extra graphics horsepower.

 

[pandora's box]

another advantage is getting next gen performance now. take the 9800GX2 (2 9800GTX's), it can perform equal to a GTX 280, a next gen card. Looking at the leaked (supposedly) GTX 380 benchmarks; GTX 285 in SLi is performing just as well. The only downside to this thinking is when a game doesnt scale well with SLi/Crossfire.