Pros and Cons of Crossfire/SLI
 

I've read a bit into crossfire and SLI but I'm a little confused with all the different opinions from different people.

Is anyone running SLI/Xfire that could shed some light?

I understand the basics of it, but more interested in whether it's reliable or whether it tends to cause more headaches or crashes.

From what I gather Xfire I just need to buy the same series card, SLI needs to be the exact same card. Does that mean it needs to be by the same manufacturer?

I'm thinking of getting a Z68X mobo and possibly two GTX460 or HD6850 eventually. I would rather get one card first, then figured if I want an upgrade I could just buy another card later. Or possibly use my existing 9800GTX+ and just find another for $60. Budget is a little tight. Is directx 11 worth the upgrade? I youtubed some vids but it's really hard to tell the diff between dx10 and dx11 with the shitty vid quality.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be awesome.

Thanks again RS guru's.

To be honest, it's completely not worth it. You could save your money and get a cheaper mobo that doesn't support SLI/crossfire and use it towards a better video card now. Usually by the time you want to get your second card, all the other parts in your computer are already obsolete so there's really no point in upgrading it.

brands do not matter as long as its the same chipset, same memory.. pretty the same card.. if not, there would be some compatiblity issues... most people would recommend to get the same brand to avoid any issues...

Few year ago I was planning to Crossfire too when my old card not able to handle stuff smoothly.

But then by the time I wanted to upgrade the card was not availablefor sale anymore.
Didnt really want to get a used.

So I just got a much more expensive card and hope it would last longer than the old one.

imo, spend the money of 2 cards on 1 really high end one. having crossfire/sli really heats up your system, also the cards get really hot and have a higher chance of dying early.

Crossfire - no windowed mode allowed so if you plan to play some games and multitask you cannot do window mode in crossfire
Sli - finally supports windowed mode, however I heard that scaling isn't good as it requires nvidia to have a profile set up for SLi in order for it to worker properly and see gains as to a single card


Either way it's a good alternative to upgrade. Some people prefer to have 1 single card even if they lose marginal % of performance but won't have to face these cons

Personally, I was always tempted to Xfire my 5850s but instead I sold that on craigs and forked out 100 for a 6950 (flashed to 6970) whereas I had to fork out 130 - 150 for a used 5850
If it's cheap go for it
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The only time CF/SLI is worth it is if you're building a new top of the line system using two high-end cards.

Unless your motherboard already supports CF/CLI, no point in considering it at all.

Yeah it's only worth it if you are doing ultra high res (over 2000 pixels) AND 3D (because 3D requires twice the power).

Otherwise don't bother. Even a GTX 460 is enough for 1920x1080 gaming on most multiplatform games.

as far as the dx 11 x dx 10 thing you mentioned..its a HUGE difference, the quality of objects / stone walls etc is amazing

There have been times where getting 2 cards in SLI was more economical than buying the equivalent single card with similar performance. Of course, there are issues with heat - but I remember back in the day (not even that long ago) that buying two 8800GT's in SLI was cheaper and faster than buying a single 8800GTX.

Personally, I got an SLI board, and a single GTX460. I was going to buy a second GTX460, but ended up buying a tv/ps3... so maybe in a few months?

+1

Got the GTX 460 and plays all of the games I've played thus far at 1920x1080 very well at the highest possible settings.

Its overclockability also provides a bigger bang for the buck.

Anyone with feedback on the HD6850?

The 68xx series are marginally slower than their 58xx counter parts, so I would rather you get a gtx460 as it performs very close to the 5850 and costs less than the 6850 ($100 with $20mir 768mb version) when I purchased one 2 months ago for my gf's rig
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560Ti gets my vote. Less power required, cheaper, and similar performance to the 6950. Depending on the game it's either a few FPS behind or a few FPS ahead. DX11 support, CUDA and PhysX is nice. I really want CUDA for Premiere; as it is with my 4890 it's painfully slow to scrub due to lack of CUDA.

The Zotac 560Ti at NCIX is a heck of a steal at 215$ right now. I'm wanting the MSI Twin Frozr one though because I want a quieter PC.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...c&promoid=1339

I'm running 2x5770's in crossfire in my gaming PC, only because I got one of the cards for free. Haven't really had any problems with it.

id suggest a 560 or 6950 as well but since he chose a 6850 im assuming is budget is $130 - 150, hence the suggestion of 460

Hmmm decisions. I was hoping to keep the price down. I was originally gonna get the GTX 460 months ago, but seems like alot has changed since then.


I was using this benchmark testing so I thought the 6850 would be the best band for the buck.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Not worth it. I did it before years ago on a previous system and it's just headaches. Unless you're getting the cards at an enormous discount, put the money toward something else.

motherboard with no SLI/CF supports are usually stripped down barebone board , I wouldn't recommand anyone unless it's going to be used for office/internet/email stuff.


I can't say anything for CF but there is nothing wrong with SLI
I've been using GTX460 SLI for over year now, no problem, double the performance.

My next setup will be 560 ti SLI, faster than 580 and $100 less

Xfire/SLI is unnecessary even for high-end gamers. If you get a single high-end card you won't notice a difference with two. (unless your resolution is going to be way high..)

Keep your 9800 for now and save up for a 560ti or 6870. You will need dx11 for future games as well.