SLI/Crossfire, is it worth it?

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synergyID

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Folks I have a dilemma on my hands. I am about to start upgrading my computer to an Core 2 Duo E6400 based system. Now my original plan was to purchase an SLI/Crossfire board and buy one video card and then plan to add another one in about 2 years. But is it really worth it? I mean first off there are no SLI /Crossfire Conroe boards available for a decent price for the Conroe. Second of all the progress of video cards is amazing, so in 2 years the video cards on the market will probably be twice as fast as the eVga GeForce 6900GT KO 512MB I am planning to buy now. So do you guys think its just better to buy a Crossfire/SLI board and plan to upgrade or just stick with a regular motherboard and just buy a new video card replacement in 2 years? Also I do not really have much time to wait for new motherboards to come out, I need to build this computer ASAP. Thanks in Advance

PS. I do realize that in 2 years I would have to purchase the same video card if I go the SLI route.
 
Just wait.
RD600 conroe boards are coming out.
You need to be patient, conroe JUST came out so boards need to catch up.
 
If you can't find a Conroe SLI/Crossfire board right now don't sweat it....unless you run games on a 20-24" lcd at 1600x1200 or above and don't like to scale down then a single higher end card will tide you over for a while. Don't worry about DX10 cards unless you plan on buying Vista on launch day (probably 6 months or more away) and a game that takes advantage of the new DX.
 
psychot|K said:
Just wait.
RD600 conroe boards are coming out.
You need to be patient, conroe JUST came out so boards need to catch up.
Click to expand...
Yeah I understand that. There will be always something better coming out, I can't keep waiting.

My question lies with the problem of SLI/Crossfire. Let's say I buy an SLI or a Crossfire board right now but I only buy one card. Now fast forward two years, I would buy a second card. But would I really want to do that? I mean is there any sense with going SLI or Crossfire if I am planning to upgrade to a second card in the far future?

I mean right now I have a 6800GT. The 7900GT KO 512MB I wanna purchase is probably 3 times as fast as my single card. If I could/would buy a second 6800GT right now it would probably still be slower then that one 7900GT.

So if the same situation happens in two years then what is the point of SLI/Crossfire? I hope I am not being too confusing. Your input would be awesome.
 
2 years is too long to wait. You could end up like alot of 7800gt owners who complain they can't find one anywhere to team up with their existing card. And they have barely been out a year. And then I don't think the pair would even equal up to whatever the single high-end card would be at that time. So I would say get the top-end card of the moment and then buy whatever is best in 2 years.
 
synergyID said:
Yeah I understand that. There will be always something better coming out, I can't keep waiting.

My question lies with the problem of SLI/Crossfire. Let's say I buy an SLI or a Crossfire board right now but I only buy one card. Now fast forward two years, I would buy a second card. But would I really want to do that? I mean is there any sense with going SLI or Crossfire if I am planning to upgrade to a second card in the far future?

I mean right now I have a 6800GT. The 7900GT KO 512MB I wanna purchase is probably 3 times as fast as my single card. If I could/would buy a second 6800GT right now it would probably still be slower then that one 7900GT.

So if the same situation happens in two years then what is the point of SLI/Crossfire? I hope I am not being too confusing. Your input would be awesome.
Click to expand...
From what I've seen...SLI/Crossfire is only really worth it if you plan on buying 2 cards at the same time or at least within 4 months...otherwise you run into the issue of availability of a discontinued card as well as being outclassed by a single card of the next generation.
 
Just play paper rock scissors... it's better than any game out there that wants you to spend 1000's to play it. LoL
 
noobtech said:
Just play paper rock scissors... it's better than any game out there that wants you to spend 1000's to play it. LoL
Click to expand...
wtf? :confused:

Yeah, i am going to say that you should buy one single high end card, unless you can buy 2 at once, and then when something new and excitig coems a long you have one card to sell not a pair, and then you can just go to the next thing, however long you can manage with the one higher end card. i say get a 7950 or X1900xtx
 
Ok let's do a bit of math. Assuming you really just buy a 2 cards outright, and you get some kind of a deal, let's say you spend $700 on 2 cards. And you see about 60-70% better fps (assuming you need those fps because you are at a high res or maxing a card in other ways).

In 6 mo you can often buy a card that will do 40% or so better fps on its own. Memory gets faster, features grow, and you have 2 cards that still cost you too much to upgrade 6 mo later.

Let's take it to the real world. If you bought 2 6800 ultra's 18 months ago, would you want to be using those or a single 7900GTX now? If you'd bought a single 6800 ultra and you just waited past the 7800 generation you could have had a card in 13-15mo that would have put 2 6800's to shame. So really, SLI is about what you "need" to drive what you want to play right now. It is about sheer raw fps horsepower on very high res displays. If you don't need it strongly for things you play right now on a high res monitor, there is a very strong argument for just getting the fastest card you feel comfortable buying now, and just upgrading every 6-9mo to the next generation. It comes to about the same money spent, and the newer cards always manage to dust the old ones given a generation or two change.

$.02
 
I understand that you could 'keep waiting forever'
But what I'm talking about is waiting for the new generation of cards.
Buying hardware at the end of its life cycle is not smart.
Wait a few weeks, get a really good DFi motherboard which will cater to the DX10 stuff, and you have a solid investment which will last longer than being impatient and just buying one of the early boards out without the new chipsets.
 
psychot|K said:
Wait a few weeks, get a really good DFi motherboard which will cater to the DX10 stuff, and you have a solid investment which will last longer than being impatient and just buying one of the early boards out without the new chipsets.
Click to expand...
How does one have a 'solid investment' in a product (DX10) that doesn't and won't exist for months?

I'd do my planning in regards to what I want to do with it NOW, rather than what I MAY do with it in 8 months to a year.
 
psychot|K said:
Just wait.
RD600 conroe boards are coming out.
You need to be patient, conroe JUST came out so boards need to catch up.
Click to expand...


RD600 Boards? Motherboards? If I buy a motherboard in the next month and buy a 7950GX2/1950XTX for it...I will have to buy a whole new motherboard to run a next generation ati/nvidia video card?
 
DarkfallFan said:
RD600 Boards? Motherboards? If I buy a motherboard in the next month and buy a 7950GX2/1950XTX for it...I will have to buy a whole new motherboard to run a next generation ati/nvidia video card?
Click to expand...


You won't need a new motherboard to run a new video card. He's talking about a specific chipset for Conroe.
 
I find SLI/Crossfire useless.
They should make faster GPU, instead of just adding more(and increasing the powerusage) GPU's.
And when you compare the price of multi-GPU...to the next gen cards....it dosn't add up at all...and not now with DX10 cards on the horizon...

Terra...
 
Thanks to all of your suggestions, I think I am going to go with a single Radeon X1900XT 512MB.
 
synergyID said:
Thanks to all of your suggestions, I think I am going to go with a single Radeon X1900XT 512MB.
Click to expand...

Just make sure you get a 975 chipset motherboard and you can always add a second X1900 for Crossfire down the road! The Asus P5W DH is the ticket as long as you can find one.
 
Apallohadas said:
How does one have a 'solid investment' in a product (DX10) that doesn't and won't exist for months?

I'd do my planning in regards to what I want to do with it NOW, rather than what I MAY do with it in 8 months to a year.
Click to expand...

Because you're buying at the beginning of a generation rather than at the end of one. Therefore the useable life of the product should (theoretically) be greater. Therefore, for the amount you spend on it, you should get more use, therefore a greater return. That's what I mean by 'investment'.

I'm not saying that this is a perfect world and that it will happen exactly like that, but I for one am not going to buy a X1950XTX simply because R600 is supposed to be such a huge leap forward. Am I willing to wait several months to have a card which will be used for the next generation rather than for the old (DX9)? You bet I will.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Just make sure you get a 975 chipset motherboard and you can always add a second X1900 for Crossfire down the road! The Asus P5W DH is the ticket as long as you can find one.
Click to expand...

Or just upgrade to a single DX10 card down the road...

Terra...
 
From all the benchies I've seen over the past few years, SLI or Crossfire as an upgrade path doesn't seem to work. A single new card seems to be always faster than 2 older cards in SLI.

SLI is for pushing super-high rez/settings on big displays, now. As a future upgrade path, it doesn't seem to cut it.

When I bought my PCIe socket 754 board I considered one of the SLI boards for another $35 or so and decided it wasn't worth it as an upgrade path for this very reason.
 
GreenMonkey said:
From all the benchies I've seen over the past few years, SLI or Crossfire as an upgrade path doesn't seem to work. A single new card seems to be always faster than 2 older cards in SLI.

SLI is for pushing super-high rez/settings on big displays, now. As a future upgrade path, it doesn't seem to cut it.

When I bought my PCIe socket 754 board I considered one of the SLI boards for another $35 or so and decided it wasn't worth it as an upgrade path for this very reason.
Click to expand...

I purchased my SLI motherboard for "upgrade path" possibilities. Currently I'm satisfied with the performance of my single graphics card. Later, provided I'm not trying to run DX10 "only" titles, I may need more performance. While it's true that the latest high-end and some mid-range solutions would be faster than my current selection in SLI, purchasing a used card off of ebay for a bump up in performance over my existing solution will be very affordable.

Also in the event that I go with a single video card upgrade in the future, I still have another x16 slot available for some non-GPU peripheral. A slot that doesn't exist on a non SLI or CrossFire edition mb.

So the upgrade path works for the low-mid range upgrade owners with a limited graphics budget. If you are a high-end enthusiast, it doesn't make since as an upgrade path.
 
I don't think sli or crossfire is worth it... Unless you own 20"+ monitors...
 
HighTest said:
I purchased my SLI motherboard for "upgrade path" possibilities. Currently I'm satisfied with the performance of my single graphics card. Later, provided I'm not trying to run DX10 "only" titles, I may need more performance. While it's true that the latest high-end and some mid-range solutions would be faster than my current selection in SLI, purchasing a used card off of ebay for a bump up in performance over my existing solution will be very affordable.

Also in the event that I go with a single video card upgrade in the future, I still have another x16 slot available for some non-GPU peripheral. A slot that doesn't exist on a non SLI or CrossFire edition mb.

So the upgrade path works for the low-mid range upgrade owners with a limited graphics budget. If you are a high-end enthusiast, it doesn't make since as an upgrade path.
Click to expand...

1 newer card is almost always faster. 1 7600gt is faster and cheaper than 2 6600gt in SLI. Etc. You're almost always better off ebaying your old card and getting a newer one. Add in the extra cost to get an SLI motherboard and the 1-single newer card solution is always a better approach.
 
The thing about SLI is that you can upgrade your card later when it's not as godo and it's alot cheaper. Now I bought my 6800GS right when it came out for $400NZ. Now it was fine when it came out and is fine enough now but with new games like Oblivion (Not that new ok...) and Quake Wars: Enemy Territory (Which looks so fucking amazing). I want to upgrade my graphics so it's alot beter but don't want to pay the extra for the better single card right now. So the cheapest 6800GS is $270NZ. Now would you rather buy a $550NZ 7800GT or another 6800GS and get better preformance? (In FPS's which is what I play mainly and where graphics matter more over RAM or CPU, ex. RTS's) Now this is where my purchase of an Asus A8N-SLI mobo really comes in handy.

If you think you might need SLI/Crossfire, imagine yourself in this position, ok?

Hope that helped :)
 
Since I buy at the high end I'll add a bit more to this issue.

Buying a 2nd 7800 would have gained you more performance than moving to the 7900. Similarly buying a 2nd 7900 would gain you more than moving the the 7950. Getting the latest works (I know I charted out a ways back, but i works when there is a generation change, 6800-7800 and probably 7800-8000(G80), or else on a two step basis, such as the 7950 being generally better than two 7800's (this varies as some super high end 7800's were very good as you know).

Moral fo the story is that SLI does benefit in certain generations. However, the offset to this is the cost (1), the loss of alternative generational improvements such as memory speed or features, and the requirement of an SLI motherboard (which has been a stability issue for anyone trying this from the Intel side of the fence).

It's not a perfect world. But do remember that as we move forward we are not going to see a doubling of shader power every generation. The incremental speed increases are going to slow (somewhat, not entirely) and thus if you start to see a 20-30% increase in speed with a generation change, an SLI card that offers a 60-70% improvement might actually be an effective improvement over as many as 2 subsequent cards. It remains to be seen if this is true. But on the high end there is some possible logics in having SLI.

So for me, the jury is still out. I remain adamant that whomever is at fault for not making SLI work on the 975 chipset is an idiot. Having the "option" available, even if only 10% of the owners make use of it, would make both companies money.

Oh well /rant off :)
 
GreenMonkey said:
1 newer card is almost always faster. 1 7600gt is faster and cheaper than 2 6600gt in SLI. Etc. You're almost always better off ebaying your old card and getting a newer one. Add in the extra cost to get an SLI motherboard and the 1-single newer card solution is always a better approach.
Click to expand...


Since I already have an SLI motherboard, I don't need to factor in the additional cost. Part of the reason I purchased an SLI motherboard was for the possible ability to do SLI if desired, the other was for the additional featureset on the motherboard itself.

For example, my MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI has onboard Creative Labs Live! 24-bit sound. To get this level of sound quality, you'd need a $40.00 sound card on a lower end nForce4 Ultra motherboard. I also needed the additional SATA ports, dual LAN, Firewire and optical SPDIF outputs. Sure I could have added these features onto a lowerend motherboard, but all together the cost would have been higher than the premium I paid for my SLI capable motherboard. Some of the features were not even available on competing SLI motherboards, so I feel very good about this particular purchase. I use my system for more than just gaming and these extra features, while bells-n-whistles for some were very important for me.

So excluding the $ saved by purchasing my SLI motherboard instead of additional add-on cards, the upgrade model works for me.

Granted, I may not be the example that matches the majority, but I can state that it's not worthless.
 
boomheadshot45 said:
Because we all know a 7900 GT can play every game over 50 fps @ 25600 x 1600 right?
Click to expand...

What monitor runs at 25600 x 1600?
Talk about a MINORITY if it even exists :rolleyes:
 
2560x1600 you mean I think. That would be the Dell 3007 and the Apple Cinema display, and soon to be followed by the Benq 30" and the Samsung 30". Before you go calling these displays "minority", think back about a year and a half and you'll recall that 1920x1200 24" displays were pretty rare as well.

Again, that doesn't mean everyone needs SLI, but as the prices fall 30" monitors won't be out of the reach of as many folks as you'd think.

:)
 
Anemone said:
2560x1600 you mean I think. That would be the Dell 3007 and the Apple Cinema display, and soon to be followed by the Benq 30" and the Samsung 30". Before you go calling these displays "minority", think back about a year and a half and you'll recall that 1920x1200 24" displays were pretty rare as well.

Again, that doesn't mean everyone needs SLI, but as the prices fall 30" monitors won't be out of the reach of as many folks as you'd think.

:)
Click to expand...

Okay:
http://steampowered.com/status/survey.html

16:9 Aspect Primary Displays (22364 of 711282 Total Users (3.14% of Total) )
Over 24" 953 4.26 %

That would be 4.46% out of the 3.14% that have 16:9

MINORITY!!!
 
Anemone said:
Given 4 million Wow users, I'd call Steam a minority but hey, to ea their own :)
Click to expand...

4 millions are sufficient to make a claim.
You think polls in real life ask 4 mio. people? ;)
Ball in your court...
 
What does majority or Minority matter when you are the person with the 30inch?
SLi and CrossFire and just other options and their is nothing wrong about that. If it werent for the fact that X1800XT CF Edtion cards costed 300+ Dollars I would gladly put one in my rig if I start to feel dated.

4 millions are sufficient to make a claim.
You think polls in real life ask 4 mio. people?
Ball in your court...
Click to expand...

So Then what about your steam report? Is 711282 suffcient to make a claim?
 
Anemone said:
So for me, the jury is still out. I remain adamant that whomever is at fault for not making SLI work on the 975 chipset is an idiot. Having the "option" available, even if only 10% of the owners make use of it, would make both companies money.

Oh well /rant off :)
Click to expand...
I would say this issue will be fixed very soon....the recent AMD/ATI marriage didn't go unnoticed by Intel and Nvidia.;)
 
{NG}Fidel said:
What does majority or Minority matter when you are the person with the 30inch?
SLi and CrossFire and just other options and their is nothing wrong about that. If it werent for the fact that X1800XT CF Edtion cards costed 300+ Dollars I would gladly put one in my rig if I start to feel dated.
Click to expand...

I would get a faster next gen-card /shrugs...

So Then what about your steam report? Is 711282 suffcient to make a claim?
Click to expand...

Actually it is..learn about polling and margin of error.
The poll you se on TV are based on around 2000 people(if they did their work..some use fewer people)...
 
i would wait for DX10 cards to come out, i was going to go Quad-SLi for my display but it's not worth dropping over 1000 now than getting new cards in a few months. Just hang tight till DX10 cards are out
 
And so you understand I see both sides of this argument, do realize that once a single card can drive 2560x1600, much as the days when a single card couldn't drive 1920x1200, you'll once again find that either he resolution will go up, or single cards will be the only logical choice again.

The answer has been back and forth here so I'll try to summarize both sides.

1 Do you need to drive 1920 or higher res? If so, SLI "can" be useful in the short term but not longer when single cards get more powerful, UNLESS

2 Do you fancy both high res AND super mode AA or extreme AF? If so, SLI, currently and for a few more generations is going to offer superior modes

3 Are you benching? When nothing less than the fastest will do, dual cards are the fastest option

4 Do you try to buy every other or every 3rd card cycle? SLI can make "holding out" easier, but can cost you the same money as upgrading regularly.

5 Do be aware, that, unless you are very savvy about your card purchases cost wise (and that sauvite could be used to buy just a single card for a great price too, mind you), it is likely that buying 2 cards over several generations, even skipping a few, would let you instead buy the newest and fastest of every card out there for the same cost. The continuous upgrade option can be VERY satisfying, and pays off in other features besides framerate.

6 A lot of this has to do with how much you spend on tech items, beyond "need"

7 Not everyone will agree on the value gained for the money spent

8 Currently, few folks have extreme resolution monitors and, as more folks do have them, cards will be out, often cheap ones, that will be capable of driving them at that time.



We'll see from others if I've missed any pts in this summary.

:)
 
SLi - worth it

CrossFire - not worth it

Reasoning: SLi provides a much better gaming experience, and it's easier to use

And you don't really need to worry about powering a large monitor...I'm running a GX2 on a 17" CRT, and the eye candy is quite nice, not to mention my high framerates.
 
DoomRulz said:
SLi - worth it

CrossFire - not worth it

Reasoning: SLi provides a much better gaming experience, and it's easier to use

And you don't really need to worry about powering a large monitor...I'm running a GX2 on a 17" CRT, and the eye candy is quite nice, not to mention my high framerates.
Click to expand...

So have you owend a Crossfire system and SLi system and compared them hand in hand games to games for you to say that Crossfire is not worth it?

Personally (I'm running crossfire) unless you have high res 1920x1200 or higher I don't think it's needed. Current highend cards hand handle just about anything w/ eye candy enabled. Just my .02!!!
 
DoomRulz said:
SLi - worth it

CrossFire - not worth it

Reasoning: SLi provides a much better gaming experience, and it's easier to use

And you don't really need to worry about powering a large monitor...I'm running a GX2 on a 17" CRT, and the eye candy is quite nice, not to mention my high framerates.
Click to expand...
I'm running a 7900GT SLI and I doubt I have a "much better gaming experience" than someone running X1900GT Crossfire. However Crossfire is more stressful to power supplies.. and the external dongle and need for a "Crossfire edition" card make it a less attractive option in it's present form.
 
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