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Pros and Cons of Dual GPU

WilliamC

WilliamC

WilliamC

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Joined
1 Jan 2013
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255
Location
England Rugby
Could any help me out in going through the pros and cons of dual graphics cards? I was looking at the EVGA GTX 680 OR A 7970 but then I was considering possibly getting two 7950's so what I want to know is which would be better the single card or the two. It's not an issue of money just whats going to be best for me. I'm not to familiar with a dual GPU set up and do all games use the power behind it?

If the dual GPU setup isn't worth it do you guys think I should go for a 680 or 7970.

Thanks in advance.
 
Cons as far as I am aware are that Dual GPU is not as smooth as Single GPU. Additionally, Dual GPU is not supported by all games.. Apparently there are some driver issues and occasional stutters (perhaps hardly noticable).

William?! is that you? from lifeprojectrpg?! Hope all is well buddy!
 
Are you on LP mate? and oh right so you may be getting more power on the face of things but they don't actually run as smooth as you'd like to think?
 
Haha I played with you, ben and TVLGaming or whatever his name was :)
The thing about Dual GPU, is unfortunately the VRAM doesn't stack up so if you get two x 4GB GTX680s then you only get a total of 4GB Vram not 8GB. I've experienced Dual gpu before and although I like the power, I just could not put up with the driver issues and micro-stuttering.
 
I run SLI 680's and have found them to be fantastic (My first SLI experience). The 310.xx drivers caused me nothing but a head ache but the latest 313.95 drivers are awsome.

The Cons = Noise/Heat/Power requirements/SLI needing support (Not always immediately released with game release).

The Pros = Almost double the performance of a single card/future proofing/looks good.

I water cooled my system because of the noise. with 2 GPU's running in games resulted in a fair bit of noise and I am anti noise, so water cooled.

Would I do it again? Yes Sir :)
 
Hmm, if there is complications maybe not then as I'm building the system for someone who wants to game etc but doesn't know a thing about computers so I don't want there to be problems and he not be able to sort them out and issues start coming back to me about the computer. Should I just leave it and go for a 7970 or 680...decisions decision, any sort of ruff estimate about what sort of frame jump I'd see between a single 7970/680 to two 7950's? Would it be significant and future proof?
 
To be safe 800w+

Ive had 2 sli systems 1 with a 7950gx2 and a 9800gx2, they are like the 690 but older, much older lol.

Back then i had trouble with a few games and the stutter was bad, i think its better these days but youll still notice it over single card.
 
weehamish said:
Yeah thats fine, grab a single 7950 they cheap and decent, new drivers fix everything nearly too :)
Click to expand...

No if I don't get a 7950 CF ill get a 7970 OR 680. I just don't know what is better :/ the 7950 has bettter performance but more problems is what I'm getting so far and the CF doesn't work on everything :/ so I don't know. Ill have to talk to the person who's computer it is going to be and see what he would prefer but he doesn't know a thing about computer.
 
LOL dude wtf is going on?

What has problems?

The AMD cards are basically fixed in most games since the new drivers now.

680 way overpriced still and is a lesser card then the 7970 for the future.

7950 sweet spot.
 
I am very pleased with my sli setup. If I were building for someone else I'd go for a single card though. Many fewer things to go wrong :)
 
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