To SLI, or not to SLI?

[Reaper 392]

*edit*
ok, been looking around, and have decided that the ultima mosasaur is way better, except in 1 way - the graphics.

first off, its using a radeon HD6950, which benchmarks a lot worse than the 480X, but someone said it was actually better for gaming.

however, the crossfireX support is only x16, x8.

my questions are:
- how many games actually support crossfireX
- what kind of a boost could you expect from crossforex in x16, x16 format
- what kind of a boost will you expect from x16, x8 format

 

[jigger]

Tell him to go for a Sandybridge based rig.

 

[Reaper 392]

i fear you are right there. that gives me and my mate one big headache though

 

[Rexton]

Knowing what type of games he will be playing would help. A single 480 will handle most games nicely. Tell him to stick with the single for now, and if he feels it doesn't perform well enough he can simply get another one.

E: Also, a SandyBridge system would be more ideal.

 

[Reaper 392]

thanks for the info.

also, OP updated

 

[Sycho]

If he uses the new system builder he can use SLI gtx570s with a 850w psu using a decent case for about £1500 which would also be quieter, more powerful and less noisy.

That's with a quadcore 2500k Sandybridge cpu too.

 

[Reaper 392]

If he uses the new system builder he can use SLI gtx570s with a 850w psu using a decent case for about £1500 which would also be quieter, more powerful and less noisy.

sadly, there is no overclock option there, so he'd be missing out on 1.2Ghz per core. i assume this is quite a big difference

 

[Sycho]

Not really, to be honest the system will be so powerful as it is and you do not notice the fps increase really as you will be hitting 60+ every game even in Metro 2033/Crysis most of the time with those.(i am talking with high AA too and maxed.)

Overclocking them isn't hard anyway, some very useful information on the forums here plus you can just ask since there's plenty here who are good at it.

However Gibbo will probably add the overclocking stuff to the system builder section sometime very soon so he may aswell wait if he wishes.

Also SLI GTX560/570 or CF 6950 are really good choices.(CF6950 being best value for money offering about 40% more performance over a GTX580 but the SLI GTX560/570 are great aswell especially if you want 3D in games to perform at great fps.)

 

[kristmace]

AFAIK a 16x 8x crossfire/sli setup won't limit current generation of graphics cards and a 16x 4x will only reduce performace by <10%.

 

[Mojo]

If you want the extra performance, go for a second 6950. Crossfire scaling on the 6 series cards is better at points than sli, and will certainly give you the best performance for your cash. As was said above, its only at 16x and 4x when you see any palpable loss in performance, with plenty of people on thede forums using 16x 8x or 8x 8x. Go for it!