Please help me understand SLI and Crossfire

ibex333

ibex333

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
Messages
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This stuff is very confusing.. You have 8x/8x boards, 16x/8x, and 16x/4x. So which do I want to go with for best performance and raw speed? I am planning to use only one card for now, but I know for sure I will go SLI or Crossfire later, and I dont want to upgrade down the road just to have that option.

Do I want to get a Z68 board even if I am using a dedicated card? I read an article online saying that both nVidia and AMD have some sort of a "boost" technology that allows you to distribute GPU processing jobs between onboard video and a dedicated card. Sounds pretty awesome in theory, but ho is it in practice? and does it even apply to Sandy Bridge integrated GPUs or only motherboard built in GPUs?

Is it still possible to use an AMD card together with an nVidia card for PhysX? Are there any major drawback or difficulties in such a setup?

Yes, I know.. Many questions, but please try to address each one.

Thanks.
 
On the p67 and z68 platform, most board are 8/8, witch is enought even for sli gtx 580. Officially you can't have ati+nvidia for physx, yoj need hacked drivers and patience. For most games 2 560 is faster than one 580 but the game has to have a profiles. Personnally a prefer nvidia because their profile are updated faster, and now with the latest driver, profiles auto update..
 
With P67 / Z68 you are going to be limited to x8/x8 for 2 cards, which will be fine.

Z68 isn't going to give you any kind of GPU boost in games. It applies to the IGP onboard the CPU, not the mobo.

Not sure if it is possible, but sure to be a hassle.
 
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