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Crossfire or SLi

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Soldato
Joined
9 Jun 2006
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Taking the individual cards out of the equation for the moment (fingers crossed for a flame free thread) does anyone have any info on if nvidia SLi or ATI Crossfire is the better multi card solution to go for generically?

Obviously it depends on the individual cards available, but say for example you were to compare an ATI crossfire system with a similar specced Nvida SLi jobbie (I dunno - say 2 x 7900s v 2 x 1800s or 1900s so that the actual individual card performance is about equal).

Just building up to a new system from top down towards the end of the year so trying to work out which platform is a good starting point.

I'm tempted by Crossfire at the moment as although I have an Nvidia card now I tend to prefer ATI and it sounds as if the ATI DX10 cards (for first gen anyway) may have the edge with unified fandangles etc.

Oops, meant to mention I'd expect to be using a 24" display, either the Dell 2407 or the new BenQ when it appears

Any thoughts ?
 
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Well, I've only got second hand knowledge about Crossfire, but I'm fairly familiar with SLi and I really like it. It's dead easy to set up and generally uses a lot less power than the ATI equivilant, which may not always means lower case temperatures, but it does mean that a humble hiper 580w is more than up to the task of running any 2 nvidia cards as well as a heavily overclocked CPU, 3 hard disks and 2 optical drives.

SLi also has a good number of options in terms of how the power is used. Some games like alternate frame rendering and some like split screen (very few benchmarks ever compare the 2 types, but getting the right one can give quite a significant boosts in some games). SLi also has something called "SLi anti-alising" which will almost always offer the worst performance of all profiles, but it does absolutely destroy all jagged lines. Until you've seen a game with absolutely smooth edges you won't realise how good it looks.
 
Well I am really pleased with my xfire setup - at the time the X1900 was the best card to have - especially for picture quality, and also the 7900's had a huge gpu issue (which I believe has been sorted now) so ATI was the only option for me.

Yes SLI does require a smaller psu , but I believe people are running xfire on 600w units so you cant really argue about a 20w difference - its more about the quality of the lines I believe

I also bought the X1900 standard card first and when I wanted to buy a 24" screen wasnt much point in selling that card to get a GX2 which wouldnt have had any better performance and it would have cost Me more than just getting a mastercard

In a few recent showings its been seen that one GX2 perfroms around 2/3 that of crossfire at high res - but as to the bias of the graphs and whether site in question is anti nVidia I dont know (as some are definitely pro nVidia)
 
FrankJH said:
...I believe people are running xfire on 600w units so you cant really argue about a 20w difference...
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You are of course right, but that extra 20w can cost upwards of £40 which is why the hiper 580w is such a good PSU for SLi but not for crossfire.
 
Considering a quad SLi rig w/ 2 Raptors, FX-62, sound card and 2Gb of RAM can be run without a problem on a 550W PSU, assuming they're more efficient than the Civil Service and have good 12V rails, a 430W PSU should be fine for either SLi/Crossfire duallies.

I have heard that Crossfire is something of a universal solution and will work with any game, whereas SLi may need driver profiles to ensure it runs correctly/efficiently.

Then there are the old chesnuts of HDR+FSAA, image quality, planetary alignment, cosmic rays and unified string theory that matter to those who take the time to research and watch for every single fluctuation but not to the average joe who just wants to play his/her game.
 
Well with the advent of the RD600 chipset id say that Xfire is the better looking now, as no more master cards are required, for me that was where the Xfire fell over, and put a lot of ppl off, having to buy a specific card (master), and it being more expensive than the slave, but now with the RD600 thats all gone, its any 2x cards just like SLi, and what with no profiles being needed, and Xfire working with everything, i see it as the more attractive. :)
 
My own experiances show that there is much better compatability running Crossfire on the Intel chipset than on the ATI chipset (which makes little sense really)

I think the biggest problem for me and a lot of Xfire users on the ATI Chipset was the buggy Uli chipset that shipped along side it.

I had so many problems it was getting beyond a joke (Graphical glitches, crashing etc) but the switch to the intel platform has cured all of that and boosted performance thanks to the Conroe's shear performance

It may all change with the RD600 or whatever surfaces but so far im loving Crossfire on Intel.
 
If a game isnt supported by SLI you can just make a new game profile. Basically all games are supported. Its much easier to use & more stable.
 
Hmmmm... Was sounding as if (allowing for individual crds performance obviously) that Crossfire was the better solution now with SLi taking the early ground...

I gues it's 6 of one and half a dosen of the other, the trouble is people always seem to back the solution they have already bought ;)

Just trying to get an independant opinion before I start on the speccing trail :)

Anyone heard anymore about the DX10 cards yet? Rumour seems to have it that the ATI R600 will be the first to appear and with unified shader could be the better option for round one of DX10 at least. Any informed guesses at dates etc yet?


Cheers all, I appreciate the advice
 
I don't think R600 is gona be the first to appear, its supposed to be coming around Vista time which is end of Jan/Feb, and G80 is rumoured to be October, but who knows now as Crysis is supposed to be coming with Vista, yet Crysis is now March, so has Vista been put back again, or is Crysis now not coming with it, so where does that leave G80. :confused:

I can't see G80 coming out in October if DX10 is not due for another 6+ months, it would be pointless it having DX10 as new faster DX10 cards will be out by then before you can even use it. :confused:
 
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Vista will be out in Nov for the volume licensing crowd (business, MSDN, OEMs) and Jan in boxes etc.

Don't think it's favouritism or anything, just that it's almost impossible to book substantial production at the CD/DVD fabs in the run up to christmas to get a world wide shipment of physical media ready.
 
Coolasmoo said:
My own experiances show that there is much better compatability running Crossfire on the Intel chipset than on the ATI chipset (which makes little sense really)

I think the biggest problem for me and a lot of Xfire users on the ATI Chipset was the buggy Uli chipset that shipped along side it.
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a lot of the problems were ironed out with the xpress 3200 boards I think. Anyone know if the crossfire dongle will still be required with the new RD600 chipset cards?
 
El Jimben said:
a lot of the problems were ironed out with the xpress 3200 boards I think. Anyone know if the crossfire dongle will still be required with the new RD600 chipset cards?
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Dongle is not required on the RD600, its like SLi, but its using a 2x bridge method to join the cards. :)
 
El Jimben said:
a lot of the problems were ironed out with the xpress 3200 boards I think. Anyone know if the crossfire dongle will still be required with the new RD600 chipset cards?
Click to expand...


It is the 3200 i was referring to, i had it for a good few months before making the switch.
 
LoadsaMoney said:
Well with the advent of the RD600 chipset id say that Xfire is the better looking now, as no more master cards are required, for me that was where the Xfire fell over, and put a lot of ppl off, having to buy a specific card (master), and it being more expensive than the slave
Click to expand...

This was true in the past however master cards on OCUK are as cheap or cheaper than some X1900 XT's and they can still be clocked to XT-X speed anyway (the Asus XT seems more expensive for some reason)

Even so there is now choice regarding the master cards where there wasnt before which is always a good thing :D
 
I had SLI, I now have X-Fire. I would not go back to SLI on the current crop of nVidia cards. In a nutshell, SLI is (currently) a neater solution physically, but I find X-Fire superior in terms of image quality and overall performance.
 
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