Consigliere
Am i right that nVidia's multi-GPU technology still leads the way? And i would benefit far more by going the nVidia route? 
Only a quick thread.
Only a quick thread.
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Sli > Crossfire?
- Thread starter SideWinder
- Start date
Well I think the main benefit to Crossfire is that you can go for either an AMD or an Intel chipset, whereas with SLi you have to go with an nVidia one.
Beyond that there's not a lot of difference, although I think Crossfire still scales a bit better than SLi, and also it can use multiple monitors whereas I don't think SLi can.
Hopefully someone who has used both will pop along soon to give their input.
Beyond that there's not a lot of difference, although I think Crossfire still scales a bit better than SLi, and also it can use multiple monitors whereas I don't think SLi can.
Hopefully someone who has used both will pop along soon to give their input.
Technological wise, crossfire is ahead of SLi in my opinion. You need to have a motherboard with nfarce chipset, which is fine if you've already got one, but if you haven't, is just another un-necessary cost. SLi also doesn't scale as well as crossfire. SLi, in my opinion, just seems unpolished, you can't use more than 1 monitor with SLi enabled, whereas with crossfire you can use all your video outputs with crossfire enabled. Something I've been noticing lately too is that G92s seem to have more of a performance hit with AA than ATi 3800s, so crossfire may be a better option when you're wanting high res + AA. Another thing is that you can mix and match cards with crossfire, like a 3850 crossfired with a 3870 and a 3870X2 for 4 way crossfire. Overall, it just seems to be more impressive tech at the moment, I still don't get why SLi can't do multi-monitors, but that's an important feature to me now, not so much to others.
I have multiple monitors setup with sli and have got used to turning sli off when i stop gaming to use the extra monitor . It does feel like an unnecessary hassle but it's not a deal breaker. sli drivers scaling much better for me now than when i first set it up in Jan
Caporegime
No, crossfire is leading the way, SLi is outdated.
Soldato
Crossfire is a much better technology. More efficient and allows the use of multiple monitors.
Most places will say crossfire scales better really. It's just because NV's card individually are more powerful.
Caporegime
They really need to give SLi an overhaul, get the Dual Screen support and mix and matching of cards added, i bet those issues put a lot of people off, i suppose having to use an Nforce board as well does to, as its a crap chipset by all accounts.
Id choose the Crossfire, as the other features are more important than just pure speed imo.
Id choose the Crossfire, as the other features are more important than just pure speed imo.
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not most places, but most people on this forum say crossfire scales better but there is no proof out there to show that it does.
take 2 cards for example a 3870xt and a 9600gt, 3870xt vs a single 9600gt, the 3870xt shoudl be a tad bit quicker, but use a dual card config of 2 x 3870xt's vs 2x9600gt's and the benchmarks show that the sli setup of the 9600gt is faster.
how is this possible when in single card config the 3870xt is a tad quicker, and with crossfires allegedly superior scaling over sli its impossible for the 9600gt's to ever be quicker.
what this must mean is that crossfire is not as efficient as people make it out to be.
edit: here is one example of this: http://firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_9600_gt_sli_performance/
Soldato
Caporegime
I think Crossfire did scale better until the 9600 GT's came out, as they get a boost from some other way to, which i now forgot, but i think it may have been mobo related. 
Soldato
I think Crossfire did scale better until the 9600 GT's came out, as they get a boost from some other way to, which i now forgot, but i think it may have been mobo related.
Overclocked PCI-E when plugged into an Nvida mobo.
i believe it was guru3d review which even showed 8600gt's and even 7600gts to show massive improvements over a single card.
reason why its hard to compare against ati and nvidia is because they dont have cards which have similar performance to begin with.
cant compare 8800gt sli vs 3870xt crossfire since the single 8800gt already has a 15-20% performance advantage over the 3870xt.
can really compare 2900xt crossfire to 8800gtx sli either, will be a slaughtering for ati there too.
8600gts in sli vs 3850pro crossfire is not much use either since 3850pro is a fair bit faster than a 8600gts.
closest 2 cards have come single card performance wise is 9600gt vs the 3870xt and 9600gt has huge advantage over 2x3870xt.
goes to show that crossfire deffo does not scale better than sli when 2 cards are concerned. going beyond 2 cards into 3 or 4 card setups may reveal different results. need to look further into that though.
reason why its hard to compare against ati and nvidia is because they dont have cards which have similar performance to begin with.
cant compare 8800gt sli vs 3870xt crossfire since the single 8800gt already has a 15-20% performance advantage over the 3870xt.
can really compare 2900xt crossfire to 8800gtx sli either, will be a slaughtering for ati there too.
8600gts in sli vs 3850pro crossfire is not much use either since 3850pro is a fair bit faster than a 8600gts.
closest 2 cards have come single card performance wise is 9600gt vs the 3870xt and 9600gt has huge advantage over 2x3870xt.
goes to show that crossfire deffo does not scale better than sli when 2 cards are concerned. going beyond 2 cards into 3 or 4 card setups may reveal different results. need to look further into that though.
Soldato
This has been posted many times before & you seemed to have missed it every time by your statement that no one here has ever posted any proof. so here it is http://en.expreview.com/2007/11/26/hd-3870-crossfire-vs-8800gt-sli/
Caporegime
thats just 1 review which is fairly old. more recent reviews at firingsquad, hardocp, anandtech, and guru3d show sli having much greater efficiency than that of crossfire.
it must also be a platform issue since that review you posted shows the crossfire setup using intel X38 chipset and the SLI setup using the nforce 680i chipset.
newer reviews use nvidias newer chipset for sli.
Hmm, how about this one then? Shows Crossfire scaling far better than SLI. My point being, anyone can dig up sites to further their argument.
The 3 inescapable facts however are, there is no multi-monitor support with SLI you cannot mix and match different cards and you need a nVidia board to run it, which many people consider the worst failing point of all.
Edit: Just noticed this review uses X38/680i combo too, so you have a point there.
The 3 inescapable facts however are, there is no multi-monitor support with SLI you cannot mix and match different cards and you need a nVidia board to run it, which many people consider the worst failing point of all.
Edit: Just noticed this review uses X38/680i combo too, so you have a point there.
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