• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

SLI/Crossfire Uncertainty

S

Sesquipedal

n00b
Joined
Feb 2, 2011
Messages
12
Hey hey,
I finally got around to upgrading my system.
I am about to purchase a great computer, new everything, going to overclock the i52500K as much as I can (now that overclocking is silly easy), all excited.

What confuses me right now is SLI/Crossfire.
My current IPS is 1920 x 1080.
I may upgrade, but by the time I justify spending more money on computer equipment, I will probably get a new MoBo/RAM/CPU/GPU setup then anyway.

So now that is my native res on my monitor.

I will only game on this computer really.
All my school stuff us on my laptop, and movies are usually viewed via the house media server.
So games. Current games as as High as I can go in detail etc.

Will SLI/Crossfire help me at this level?

I hear this and that, and I see some sites, but god reviews are like 2 years old. Maybe drivers have come out since then. I don't know!

I'd be playing a lot of low-key games, sc2, wow, d3 (when it comes out) and NS2 (which is not even ready for multithreading yet). Dragon Age 1 and 2. and a ton of other games that ran perfect on lower end cards before I decided to play games again.

I could SLI two 560Ti's, or get a higher-level single GPU for the same price, or a bit more.
I know about the over-clock of some radeons, etc. but it still doesn't really answer the question, of will 2 cards in SLI/crossfire actually contribute a whole lot at that res playing everything on nice and high?
 
SLI/Crossfire do work reasonably well. If you play demanding games, they're highly recommended.
 
Thanks! However I have heard that at 1920x1080, SLI doesn't really improve things all that much.
Or, is it when AA and the like get to the top, that SLI becomes favorable?

Example 2x GTX 560 Ti w/SLI
OR
1x GTX 580

Does it matter at that point, in my resolution?
 
Wow, tough crowd around here. Like, the bronx of computer forums lol

CPU is 2500K i5, noted above.
Games are noted above. I will probably play Metro and Crysis, but I have so much to catch up, will be awhile before I get to the big guns. Probably Dragon Age 2 and D3 will be as big as I get for latest games.
FPS is 60fps as a likeable low-range.

See, ^Strike says 2 cards beats 1 in that case. but others say things like stability game compatibility etc means 1 card overall in this case would be better than the 2.
 
Stability/compatibility are still issues for SLI/Crossfire but not as much as they used to be. You might find a brand new game doesn't perform that well for the first couple of weeks before it's profiled, but usually after that you're set, and not too many games suffer this problem any more thankfully, the majority of them now seem to work from the outset. The enormous gains from using two smaller cards render this issue, for most people anyway, an almost moot point. Two GTX560Tis are a good 40-45% faster than a single GTX580, and two unlocked HD6950 2GB cards are almost 75% faster.

SLI/Crossfire allow you to turn themselves off. You can't turn on extra performance if you don't own the extra GPU!
 
if it means anything, I've been using a crossfire setup of 6870's and games were excellent... And I hear the preview 11.4 driver really helps alot too...
 
1080p is more than high enough to see gains from SLI. However, a single 570 will crush pretty much anything in that range. A single 6870 is going to be fine too. Really a pair of 570s is enough to push 3x1080p if you're willing to turn AA down from 8 to 4.
 
I don't think that multi-GPU with single high-end GPUs is worth it on a single 1080P display unless you have a specific game that you need the power for. More is generally better of course but I think you get more out of multi-GPU with either >1200P or multiple monitors and 3D.
 
Games like Crysis will probably see improvements in SLI on 1080P, but most other games won't. Many games are not capable of pushing cards like the 570 and 6950 to their limits on 1080P, much less SLI GTX 560's. It really comes down to what games you're playing.
 
There's a bit of a disconnect happening here. SLI/Crossfire works just fine on 1080p, however it is unncessary for most games. Meaning, running a single 300$ card is easily going to yeild 60FPS on most games maxed out. Adding a second one will increase your frame rates from 80-90%. However going from 60 to 104FPs is pointless.
 
vengence said:
There's a bit of a disconnect happening here. SLI/Crossfire works just fine on 1080p, however it is unncessary for most games. Meaning, running a single 300$ card is easily going to yeild 60FPS on most games maxed out. Adding a second one will increase your frame rates from 80-90%. However going from 60 to 104FPs is pointless.
Click to expand...

care to explain why its pointless??? Im sure 99% of the people here will disagree with you on that comment... if 104fps can be had, why would i want 60fps... that sux!
 
... If your monitor is 60Hz ... then yes... going from 60 to 104 is pointless because your monitor will only work at 60's fps ... :)

But if you have a 120Hz monitor... not that pointless anymore ;)

People tend to forget that what is enough today ... tomorrow will not be enough ... for sure ... so if a user is spending money on a new card... why not get an extra power ? Then, tomorrow, a new game appears and he just has to go to game settings, put everything on max ... and play ... period ...

Now depends on the OP if he wants to spend money or not! :)
 
Postmodum said:
... If your monitor is 60Hz ... then yes... going from 60 to 104 is pointless because your monitor will only work at 60's fps ... :)

But if you have a 120Hz monitor... not that pointless anymore ;)
Click to expand...

Agreed. I know people are in love with IPS screens and I can understand that but I really love having 120 Hz panels for gaming.
 
Last edited:
Yeah... the flow is amazing :) I have an IPS but i must admit... 120Hz just rule when you are thinking about a monitor for gaming purpose ...
 
for 1080p I would get a single high end GPU, Multicard is indeed alot better now then it was many years ago. You should get a single card due to no multi gpu issues to deal with and then you could always add a second one in the future if the performance is needed.
 
Thank you all very much for the really helpful posts.
Now I see why this type of thing is hard to answer, because it depends on a number of variables. How you use it, and how it CAN be used.

So one important thing to take form this is the Hz of the monitor that one plans to use.

Example, a DELL U2311H is a 60 Hz monitor. Thus, running games at really high (read: over 100 FPS) FPS via bigger GPU will not make things more amazing to my eyes than a card that could run the games I want to play at 60 fps.

The trick to that is what will I be playing. Like the first few people said.

If I want to play Crysis on high, probably I will need SLI/Crossfire, as it is integrated very well. Crysis 2 more-so, and most likely without some not-yet-announced GPUS, I will nto even make it to the high-end of that game. Metro, along with a few other titles as well.


This all changes with a sexy 120Hz monitor. Bigger is better with most recent titles, esp when we get even bigger 120Hz monitors, and they make em IPS style.

For me I will stick with the DELL for at least a few months. So, what I think is best is to grab a 6950, OC it, and see how I fair. If I think "aww man, I need dem graphics..." when I play crysis 2 and my experience is not as nice as developer screenshots, then I can upgrade to a couple 7K's of whatever. OR, simply add another 6950 and go form there.

I hear the 570s can be OC for a bit, so I may go that route as well.

Which GPU is another topic though and highly researchable via google.

In Summary:

- SLI/Crossfire is much more stable than reading prior reviews may lead one to believe.
- Buying 2 GPU's won't inhibit an older/SLI incompatible game, rather, as long as just one of those can play that game at the settings you wish.
- Buying one can be cost-effective if that is what you are going for.
- Waiting will get you faster cards, but new games will most-likely just require an equivalent of what top-end games do now.
- WoW is not a top-end (GPU eating wise) game.
- NS2 currently does not support SLI.

...annnnnndd.....

- If you gots da cash, buy two of the TOP-end GPU's (now 6990, soon {if they work together in marketing} maybe 590, soon after, either new line), link em up, and just forget about all of this for a while.

Thanks again!
 
A single HD6950 is probably the best buy for that resolution at highest settings.

Crossfire and SLI are more benefical at higher resolutions or with multimonitor setups.

Now if you have the money it doesn't hurt to run 2x6950 or 2xGTX570, but its probably not worth the extra cost to most.
 
newls1 said:
care to explain why its pointless??? Im sure 99% of the people here will disagree with you on that comment... if 104fps can be had, why would i want 60fps... that sux!
Click to expand...

Check your refresh rate, then google what refresh rate is, then come back and we'll talk.
 
GORANKAR said:
@1080p, on a 60Hz monitor, playing console ports, who would notice?
Click to expand...

yeah who would.
wink.gif
lol
 
Dragon Age 2 maxed out definitely does not run on low end systems. According to users as well as online reviews, a single GTX580 only averages ~24fps with the details on Very High with the his res texture upgrade.

And remember SLI or Crossfire's load balancing is completely done by the CPU. If you plan on going multi-GPU you will likely need to overclock your CPU a bit. I found it had a huge improvement in Crossfire performance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top