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Xfire hate!?

Turb3k

Turb3k

Turb3k

Permabanned
Joined
27 Mar 2011
Posts
116
Why all the troll hate towards xfire and sli? People act like it only works 10% of the time, i dont know about others but in my life time ive had 3870 xfire - no problems, 5870 xfire - no problems, 6950 xfire - no xfire problems (card two over heated but that was my cases at fault) my friend has 6990 -no problems, and by other friend had gtx 480 sli - no problems, when i say no problems that includes no mirco stutter.

So my question is when any one asks/talks about/ considers xfire or sli setup people react like a vampire to sunlight, i guess some of which have never even owned an xfire or sli setup! Why the bad rep!? It seems simple to me, two 7970's are better than one! Two gtx 580's are better than one! Two of any card are better than one, and if u can get 7970 preformance from two 6950's for less cost and u have the mother board and psu to do it, then why not?
 
Cant say about xfire, but ive owned a few sli setups. Yes, in the early days there were a few issues, micro stutter, driver problems, long waits for game profiles. In recent years it's really improved. Increased heat and power consumption would be my main concerns theese days.
 
When it comes to multi GPU its more than just about the cards and drivers, the platform its all plunged into also plays a part so for some people it will always be a problem either for both types or one or the other.
 
It all comes down to what you want it for.

Benchmarks - great.
Certain games - great.

Some people faff around so much with their set up that they wouldn't even spot a issue with it unless it smacked them in the face. It just all depends on whether you actually intend to just use it and not want any headaches.

If it was about benchmarks, and if I didn't want to actually sit down with my actual friends and play actual games then no doubt I would speak a lot more highly of Crossfire.

Unfortunately I did want to just set it and forget it and I did expect it to work all of the time, and that was when I came to the realisation it was too much aggro.

One thing I will say though is that SLI is light years better than Crossfire. It still comes with issues like micro stutter as that is pretty much impossible to completely eliminate, but it does work far more often.

However, like Crossfire it does not work first time every time <- noting my emphasis. And if you are the sort of person who just wants it to work first time every time with absolutely no issues then it should be avoided at all costs.

Crossfire and SLI are like smoking. You either do it or you don't. It also comes with all of the traits that smoking comes with. A smoker will tell you he enjoys it, that he doesn't care and so on. Then you have an ex smoker (or ex multiple GPU user). They usually tend to be the ones who vehemently hate it and woe betide any one who tries to tell them otherwise.
 
I take it you didn't go the 7970 route then :p

I don't think people are hating on SLI/CF. I just think some find it a pain as not everything works out of the box. Heat/noise/compatability/power/room/energy. These things considered I would rather go for a single GPU set up rather than have any issues (driver updates on newer games needed).

If you are happy then thats all that matters bud.
 
Sometimes less is more. I buy my pc for it to work, I don't want to buy a new game only for it to run rubbish or not at all because there aren't suitable drivers etc.

It's just easier to have one card. Don't get me wrong they can be great, but for me a single card is more practical.
 
ALXAndy said:
It all comes down to what you want it for.

Benchmarks - great.
Certain games - great.

Some people faff around so much with their set up that they wouldn't even spot a issue with it unless it smacked them in the face. It just all depends on whether you actually intend to just use it and not want any headaches.

If it was about benchmarks, and if I didn't want to actually sit down with my actual friends and play actual games then no doubt I would speak a lot more highly of Crossfire.

Unfortunately I did want to just set it and forget it and I did expect it to work all of the time, and that was when I came to the realisation it was too much aggro.

One thing I will say though is that SLI is light years better than Crossfire. It still comes with issues like micro stutter as that is pretty much impossible to completely eliminate, but it does work far more often.

However, like Crossfire it does not work first time every time <- noting my emphasis. And if you are the sort of person who just wants it to work first time every time with absolutely no issues then it should be avoided at all costs.

Crossfire and SLI are like smoking. You either do it or you don't. It also comes with all of the traits that smoking comes with. A smoker will tell you he enjoys it, that he doesn't care and so on. Then you have an ex smoker (or ex multiple GPU user). They usually tend to be the ones who vehemently hate it and woe betide any one who tries to tell them otherwise.
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Even before i got my first multi GPU set-up i didn't expect it to work first time and every time because its dependent on to many factors that no single body has control of, so with that understanding i knew what to expect.

I don't use multi GPU because of benching and neither does the majority who use Multi GPU.

And finally the reason why you see woe betide is more to do with your comments about Multi Gpu, because you continually generalise your expectations, intentions and experience as if others would be the same as yours no matter how much people tell you otherwise, try speaking for yourself and not for others who you don't know.
 
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The only real issue is the frequency of application profile updates which can be a bit varied... both AMD and nVidia have some mainstream games that still don't have working profiles but these days that generally an exception rather than the rule. (PS RAGE doesn't count as it runs maxed out at high res on a single GTX470 at 60fps without going over 30% GPU usage so if you need SLI for that game you should probably be looking at updating your setup)

Microstutter for the most part isn't an issue, it does sometimes rear its ugly head but for the most part thats down to user error. Something people seem to ignore/forgotten is that the whole deal with microstutter blew up because early drivers for the 38xx crossfire exhibited it badly and some very vocal individuals decided to tarr all multi GPU solutions with the same brush to obfusicate that it was an AMD issue. There are isolated cases where its noticeable i.e. certain 4870X2 setups (also some 9800GX2 and 5970 setups) but for the most part its a non-issue even for very sensitive fps gamers.
 
Rroff said:
The only real issue is the frequency of application profile updates which can be a bit varied... both AMD and nVidia have some mainstream games that still don't have working profiles but these days that generally an exception rather than the rule. (PS RAGE doesn't count as it runs maxed out at high res on a single GTX470 at 60fps without going over 30% GPU usage so if you need SLI for that game you should probably be looking at updating your setup)

Microstutter for the most part isn't an issue, it does sometimes rear its ugly head but for the most part thats down to user error. Something people seem to ignore/forgotten is that the whole deal with microstutter blew up because early drivers for the 38xx crossfire exhibited it badly and some very vocal individuals decided to tarr all multi GPU solutions with the same brush to obfusicate that it was an AMD issue. There are isolated cases where its noticeable i.e. certain 4870X2 setups but for the most part its a non-issue even for very sensitive fps gamers.
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It does not matter who you claim to who introduced or got the issue noticed first, it exists on both platforms period, It existed before the 38xx on both ATI and NV setups.
What is important is about now and the future.
 
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In the two years I had my 5970 it was only recently that I had any issues with games - notably RAGE and Skyrim. Both were addressed, though not as quickly as they should have been. Overall it has been a seamless, hassle-free experience. Is it for everybody? Of course not. But it offers performance that simply isn't available without it. However, I would only suggest using it for top-end cards; if you're on a budget it's usually better to opt for a single high performance card, as it will be more consistent.
 
Final8y said:
It does not matter who you claim to who introduced or got the issue noticed first, it exists on both platforms period, It existed before the 38xx on both ATI and NV setups.
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Not sure on your point? most people who know anything about multi GPU know that microstutter always occurs on all GPU setups, when it becomes a noticeable difference is another matter.

Its something that a lot of people don't seem to realise tho, that the whole microstutter deal blew up not because it was actually an issue with multi GPU setups in general but a certain group of people trying to deflect attention from a specific problem. Tho its not entirely a bad thing as its a good idea to have some attention on it so that developers don't get lazy and let it get to a point where it is a common issue.
 
Rroff said:
Not sure on your point? most people who know anything about multi GPU know that microstutter always occurs on all GPU setups, when it becomes a noticeable difference is another matter.

Its something that a lot of people don't seem to realise tho, that the whole microstutter deal blew up not because it was actually an issue with multi GPU setups in general but a certain group of people trying to deflect attention from a specific problem. Tho its not entirely a bad thing as its a good idea to have some attention on it so that developers don't get lazy and let it get to a point where it is a common issue.
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It does not matter that it came to the limelight because of the 38xx and CODMW being really bad for Micro stuttering before the drivers sorted it, most have forgotten about it and neither cares, i ran Quad 38XX with CODMW and it was smooth and thats without Vsync.

There is always individual cases of bad MS on any Multi card/cards.

You could wipe that history from the books and it would change nothing as of how things are today, but you keep bringing it up as if it weren't for, MS is here and there are problems with it today.
 
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Final8y said:
It does not matter that it came to the limelight because of the 38xx and CODMW being really bad for Micro stuttering before the drivers sorted it, most have forgotten about it and neither cares, i ran Quad 38XX with CODMW and it was smooth and thats without Vsync.

There is always individual cases of bad MS on any Multi card/cards.

You could wipe that history from the books and it would change nothing as of how things are today, but you keep bringing it up as if it weren't for, MS is here and there are problems with it today.
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Your missing the point (or rather getting hung up on what you perceive as being an anti AMD/ATI slight) - this is by far the biggest reason why a lot of people associate multi GPU and microstutter whether they realise it or not regardless of where the truth may actually lie.
 
Rroff said:
Your missing the point (or rather getting hung up on what you perceive as being an anti AMD/ATI slight) - this is by far the biggest reason why a lot of people associate multi GPU and microstutter whether they realise it or not regardless of where the truth may actually lie.
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It does not matter, because if it was not then it would have been another time and it could have been on any brand as to when it came to the limelite with a particular game.
If it only existed back then and was only a problem on AMD back then and did not exist today then you would have a point.

Its not like the incorrect perception of the issue of mixed clocks and mixed cards between SLI and CF.
 
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Last 2 years on 4 PC`s have ran

5970
5970+5870 trifire
4890 xfire
4890 xfire diff machine
7970 xfire

Cannot recall ever having any problems or kids reporting any, on heavy games playing.
 
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