Who's gone back to single card setups

single gpu vs multi gpu poll

  • single solution for me : if it works to fix it

    Votes: 82 70.7%

  • multi gpu solution : FPS is what im about kid

    Votes: 28 24.1%

  • hybrid gpu solution: i want the best of both worlds

    Votes: 6 5.2%
  • Total voters
    116
the_real_7

the_real_7

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 10, 2007
Messages
1,406
I'm having a debatable issue with myself. For the last 6 years I've only run dual card configeration setups 9800gx2 , 4870x2 , 5870CF ,6970CF ,7970CF. . . And suddenly grown tired of the driver problems , micro shuttering , heat . So I bought myself a GTX 670 FTW and was planning buying two , but now playing with this single card I'm getting back smoothness I haven't experienced in years , frame rates that are beyound reasonable , not a single driver issue , and my room is just so much cooler . The only thing that bugs is that empty pci space I have now which soon I'm planing to add a EVGA GeForce GTX 650 2GB for physics to help out with the few games there are like borderlands 2 . . My question is is there any other [H]ard enthusist that have gone down this road and how do you feel now would you ultimately go back to a multicard setup or just buy a beefed up gpu in the future . .
 
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i went back to single card solutions after the 6800/7800 SLI setups.. i decided it was better to just buy the fastest single card available and i haven't looked back.. very little problems and i just play now rather than driver hunt. (ugg the nvida beta driver crap - never go back to that)
 
H-street said:
i went back to single card solutions after the 6800/7800 SLI setups.. i decided it was better to just buy the fastest single card available and i haven't looked back.. very little problems and i just play now rather than driver hunt. (ugg the nvida beta driver crap - never go back to that)
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Same here, if this stuff was a serious hobby to me then yeah I'd still fool with it but as far as I'm concerned theres not enough product to support the worth to it.
 
LoL @ your room being so much cooler. Ive never gamed on my crossfire 7970s, i use a single GTX 470 for gaming and quite happy with it. Maybe someday when its not profitable to mine with my 7970s ill try a game or two on it, but im not planning on keeping both since they are WAY overkill for my gaming needs.
 
Back to single for me as well. Having had the 9800GX2 and the 295GTX...the power was great but game play was not always smooth.
 
I know what you mean about that open PCIE slot. It just feels like you're missing out on performance by not having anything in there. LOL!

I had thought of dropping a 2nd 5870 on my board but all you ever seem to read about are horror stories with drivers and compatibility and all that. So I'm just gonna play it safe and save up for a 7970 instead.
 
It really depends what resolution you're playing at, if it's just single screen then it's plausible that a single 670 feels smoother than 7970CF and also doesn't have the driver issues. But for people like me who game at 5760x1080, no single card can give you good enough framerates so CF/SLI is a necessity.

But if the choice is between a 680/7970 or a mid range SLI/CF setup then of course the single card wins every single time.
 
I'm on the side of never letting it go. Its much better than it used to be for sure, and hopefully continuing on that trend. Borderlands 2 for example was pretty much flawless. Even with all the tweaking and frustration and questions its still enjoyable to have two cards whose cost is much better than an equal power single card solution.

Coming from CF 3870x2 where the "4th" card was essentially unused the entire time i owned it then to CF 6970s (clearly i don't upgrade as often as i want to) games eventually all come around, and mostly by the time i buy them or getting around to playing them all the BS has been figured out.

So more work? 1000% yes. I still think its worth it. Especially if you have a game backlog or don't NEED to play day 1.
 
I've never had good luck with multiple cards for gaming (Nvidia or AMD/ATI).
However when I had some bitcoin mining rigs, ATI worked alright as long as the cards were identical.
 
My asymmetrical crossfire setup still works fine (5870+5830 and no the 5870 does not need to downgrade with ATI)), but I only use it when 1 card isn't enough for decent fps, I'm not picky, but staying above 60 is nice.
 
Went from 560 ti SLI to 670 then to 660 ti. I decided that though more FPS was nice, everything I play now and will play for the foreseeable future is already 60-70FPS. Smoother gameplay and quieter operation won out in the end, and I saved quite a bit by downgrading slightly.

EDIT: Still, if SLI/Crossfire does improve in the future, I would be on board. It is just so much cooler nerd tech in my eyes. 8D
 
I ran a 6950 (unlocked)/6970 in crossfire for a while, but between the two cards and my monitors it turned my man cave into a sweat lodge, so I went with a single 7950 this time around.
 
I have never been interested in taking on the problems associated with multi-GPU gaming. You get enough performance from a single GPU.

I'm an engineer. I deal with complex in-house-designed test systems all day, and every time I use them I'm amazed they work at all. And every time they don't work, it's a pain figuring out the cause. The LAST thing I want to do is bring my work home with me, and complicate my home gaming PC.

With some rare exceptions, my experience on single-GPU has been nearly trouble-free.
 
I'm thinking of going with Crossfire simply because I like occasionally playing in 3D and I hate turning things off to do so. For example Guild Wars 2 is killing me in 3D. I go from 50 fps with all options on max to 22 fps in 3D mode or less in some areas. If I turn everything to low I can get to low mid 30's in 3D and of course this dips into the high 20's in trouble areas. I'd like to get a second 7950 just so I can get better fps when in 3D mode. Otherwise I wouldn't care as my 7950 runs everything perfectly fine today.
 
Strictly speaking, I went from Crossfire (4870x2, one card) to Single GPU (7950, also 670). However, I never had issues with Crossfire, I just went single card this gen because I don't need the power Multi-GPU brings right now.
 
Although technically I never had 2 cards, I did have a GTX 295 which still is a SLi of 2 GPU.

I got tired of having to manually set the SLi profile for many games (Test Drive Unlimited 2 required me to use a 3rd party tool because none of the driver setting work) and yeah, the heat too. If I can achieve similar performance or more with a single chip, I can significantly reduce the heat (and any driver's issue)

My chance came to switch back to a single GPU solution with some reasonable performance upgrade when GTX 680 was released, and I'm very happy I did. I don't think I'll ever go back to multi GPU solution
 
I went form 7900GTX SLi, to 8800GTS 512 SLi, to GTX 480 SLi.

Currently I now use a GTX 680 single card and like it more than my 480 SLi setup or any of my past SLi setups.

I don't think i'll be going back to SLi anytime soon.
 
slh28 said:
It really depends what resolution you're playing at, if it's just single screen then it's plausible that a single 670 feels smoother than 7970CF and also doesn't have the driver issues. But for people like me who game at 5760x1080, no single card can give you good enough framerates so CF/SLI is a necessity.

But if the choice is between a 680/7970 or a mid range SLI/CF setup then of course the single card wins every single time.
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very good point when your talking about multimonitor setups , 5760x1080 need s plenty muscle and im sure because of the load on the gpu you get alot less hitching . .
The 670 is night and day from the crossfired 7970 I had , haven't seen a hitch since , but my single 7970 was also very smooth ,but didn't do physics so I sold a it

I know what you mean about that open PCIE slot. It just feels like you're missing out on performance by not having anything in there. LOL!
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Yea man , it like all motherboard now :( except for my xfi that ill move up a slot , definately make you wanna buy another lol

I have never been interested in taking on the problems associated with multi-GPU gaming. You get enough performance from a single GPU.

I'm an engineer. I deal with complex in-house-designed test systems all day, and every time I use them I'm amazed they work at all. And every time they don't work, it's a pain figuring out the cause. The LAST thing I want to do is bring my work home with me, and complicate my home gaming PC.

With some rare exceptions, my experience on single-GPU has been nearly trouble-free.
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I so agreed I felt like i was fixing more problems a tweaking than enjoying my games , cause if drivers aint a problem next is heat and adjusting fans for hours , it be optimal if we all had the cashed to have it all watercooled , but that take a bunch of other systems to take care of
 
Thanks guy for all the great input , I dont feel like a loner on a deserted island now . I see we all pretty much agree on the same things , I do undertsand there or times its needed , but for me I enjoy 1080p more than 1440p , and these cards seem to be able to handle they're ground . I feel like i just got a boulder off my shoulder . . Ill finally sit down tonight , and not worry about drivers , about turning my room into a spa , or the worse microstutter . . and I can worry more about playing my game . . . and maybe even going back to oc my cards a bit to make some more headroom and fun
 
I feel like the only person on this forum that has run dozens of CF/SLI setups with no issues. People always complain about a myriad of topics; heat, drivers, tweaking settings, etc. Never had one single issue from my first whack at it back when you had to have a Master card for ATI until now, with many setups of 2, 3, and even 4 GPU's in between. I've had the odd game here and there that didn't support multiple GPU's but thats about it. Until I tried SLI GTX 670's I never experienced microstutter either, and that was due to a faulty card that I RMA'd.

Currently using a single 680 as thats all my budget would allow and thankfully it is fast enough to play everything I want the way I like it, but I will undoubtably go SLI again in the near future.
 
I've never had a dually, but I've considered it once upon a time. But with all the available GPU power from a single card these days, I don't ever see myself getting one.
 
all my rigs are ITX, therefore all my rigs are single gpu. :)
 
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LigTasm said:
I feel like the only person on this forum that has run dozens of CF/SLI setups with no issues.
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Sometime's i get the same feeling :)

I have run 9800GT SLI, 4890 CF, 5970, and 580 SLI. Over the years i can only remember one or two scenarios where i had problems and those problems were never anything more than poor scaling that was fixed with drivers.

I plan to continue using SLI / CF as i upgrade my rig, the scaling and support seems to keep improving every generation.
 
done dual and tri X-fire and now back to single. It's just simpler. However, I do plan on finding a 640GT SFF once play money starts stacking up again to try some hybrid fun.
 
I'm an idiot and keep "trying" dual cards and then realizing I made a huge mistake and downgrading back to single card. Have done this maybe 5 times now!
 
I am selling my pair of 570s and have a 680 GTX arriving tomorrow.

I am done with SLI. Over the years I keep getting involved with it, but it occured to me the other day that my best gaming was done whilst one of the cards has been off on RMA. :D

Before I did this, there was even a strong urge to go 670 SLI but then a swift reminder of why im bailing was presented whilst looking for an SLI profile that didnt exist.

So many trashy console ports that we get lumped with, forever waiting for an SLI profile that may or may not come.

I work full time and have a young son. I don't have the luxury of time to piss about sorting out SLI related issues.

It's going to be nice being able to run a new game and not have to worry about waiting for updates before I can appreciate it "in all it's glory".
 
I went from dual gtx 460's @ 5040x1050 to a single gtx 680 @ 2560x1440. Got tired of the pain in the ass lack of support for multi-mon setups and picked up one of those awsome auria 27" ips monitors at microcenter. I got karma points from the wife too for giving her a second monitor to surf while shes watching hulu ;) She almost wasn't mad about the 900$ I spent between the card and the monitor!
 
The only issues I've ever had with SLI profiles were related to largely unknown games that were eventually supported on the next driver update, apart from that my two GTX670 FTW's are cool, quiet and ridiculously fast.

And I've never had an issue with the fabled microstutter.

SLI all the way for me.
 
I went from 7970 CF, to single 7970 to a GTX 680.

Also had 680 SLI for a while.

though I hear multi-gpus calling my name again! :)
 
I've tried multi-GPU with almost each generation since the 8800GTX's, but I've always been disappointed with the experience and ended up going back to a single card. I actually stayed with water cooling because it allowed me to clock a single card higher to maintain decent framerates @ 2560x1600. This was more of a problem before, but once I got my 7970, single card performance has been excellent and I have no motive to try 79xx CF or 6x0 SLI.
 
flu!d said:
The only issues I've ever had with SLI profiles were related to largely unknown games that were eventually supported on the next driver update, apart from that my two GTX670 FTW's are cool, quiet and ridiculously fast.

And I've never had an issue with the fabled microstutter.

SLI all the way for me.
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microstutter is far from fabled now , actually most sites understand how to see it now . well start seeing new benchmarks based on this study by tech-report . nvidia and amd admit to it being a problem with multigpu setups but not to say a single cant happen it just happens not even a quarter of the time . it was the final nail in the coffin for me
feel free to read this
http://techreport.com/review/21516/inside-the-second-a-new-look-at-game-benchmarking
 
I went from 4870x2(dual gpu on one card) to 6950 crossfire and now 680GTX.

The 4870x2 was powerfull but had terrible microstutter that made CS:Source unplayable, I always had to disable catalyst AI to get some to work. I intended to move to a single 6950 and had one for about a month when I got another as a present and decided to try it out in crossfire and it worked flawlessly, a little microstutter but other than that all games worked great.

Earlier this year I moved to a 680GTX and am pretty happy with it. Some of the latest driver releases seem to have solved the few little issues I was having.
 
I was on a 6990, and just this week went to a single Galaxy gtx680 4gb and a Asus VG278HE, and honestly, with the VG278HE and its 144 hz refresh rate, i dont misss the 6990 at all:)
 
IMO, these days the best gaming performance is with a the fastest single GPU and a high resolution monitor.

Just buy a high end of GPU of your choice and a 2560 x1600 (or 1440) IPS monitor to go with it and you're good.
 
Hooked on Eyefinity. While it is more than possible to play at 5760x1200 with fairly decent settings in many, if not most games, on a single high end gpu, multi gpu really gets you over the hump in a lot of games when it comes to AA and other graphics settings.
 
I tried out multi-gpu once just to get some experience with it. It performed pretty well, but it was hot and noisy. But the microstutter was the worst. It absolutely killed for it for me. When 60fps felt like 40, or 40 felt like 25... it made it all just feel like a complete lie.
 
I tried multi-GPU on 2 occasions. Once with two 8800GTs, and said screw it after a very short while. Second, last years with Eyefinity and 2 6950s. Playing BC2 on Eyefinity...2 cards felt worse than 1. While the FPS was substantially higher, the smoothness and fluidity was better with one card. I dont believe ill ever be investing in a dual GPU setup again. While Eyefinity is also pretty neat and nice with games that run well on it, overall id like to "downgrade" to a single 30in.
 
microstutter is far from fabled now , actually most sites understand how to see it now
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I haven't experienced it since I ran two 6600GT's in hacked SLI.
 
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