Double is better?
- Thread starter ^RabbiT^
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,454
If you motherboard can support crossfire or SLI then you can do it. They both have to be the same cards. When both the cards are in, an SLI or Crossfire bridge is used to connect the 2 together. Crossfire is for ATI cars and SLI is for Nvidia cards. The way it works is that one card takes the load of a task, then the other takes the load of another task which equals better performance.
SLI:
Crossfire:
SLI:
Crossfire:
Last edited:
It is better, although unless you're running Crysis or some top end game, it doesn't help that much.
A 4870 can run TF2 with everything maxed out, so using two 4870s is pretty much overkill.
Also, it takes up much more power to run it in SLI/Crossfire configuration, so you'll need a more powerfull PSU.
A 4870 can run TF2 with everything maxed out, so using two 4870s is pretty much overkill.
Also, it takes up much more power to run it in SLI/Crossfire configuration, so you'll need a more powerfull PSU.
- Joined
- May 21, 2008
- Messages
- 955
LoL... a 3870 512mb will run TF2 maxed out and never flinch.... even with my 22" flat screen... if I ever get bored of that... crossfire 2x3870 will take care of anything else.
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2008
- Messages
- 408
yeah Crossfire and SLI were pretty much invented for people that run at crazy high resolutions 2000+ x some other crazy high number.
for those that can almost play a game maxed out it would be cheaper to buy say a second *insert mid/low end card* and use SLI/X-Fire then it would be to go out and buy a *insert high end $$$ card here*
for those that can almost play a game maxed out it would be cheaper to buy say a second *insert mid/low end card* and use SLI/X-Fire then it would be to go out and buy a *insert high end $$$ card here*
- Joined
- May 18, 2008
- Messages
- 600
SLI stands for Scan Line Interleaving. (Crossfire is just ATI's name for essentially the same thing) It basically means that each graphics card takes half of the load of drawing a particular frame. In theory, it should double the maximum frames per second your graphics subsystem can generate. The 'actual' benefit tends to be somewhat less. Also, in order to gain any benefit, your graphics subsystem has to be the bottleneck. So, you should have a very high-end rig otherwise before you consider SLI.
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2007
- Messages
- 1,573
do what im doing buy one card of your choice what will do x-fire or sli depending on the mobo then in a year of 2 buy anotherone then x-fire/sli it to get a preformance bost for like 60$ lol
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2008
- Messages
- 101
i was woundering about a double ati for my next pc, i'm running at2024x768, 2screens. i just never knew about that... can i use my radeon 1450 with one other?
i've got shells and power so i'm just woundering if it's better to buy a new single or get another one... ty for the explanation!
i've got shells and power so i'm just woundering if it's better to buy a new single or get another one... ty for the explanation!
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2008
- Messages
- 137
I'm not positive, but I think crossfire (and I know SLI) won't support multiple monitors in Crossfire mode, also if you want multiple video cards to run under vista they have to use the same driver.
i googled some answers and well most people said no sli/crossfire will not support dual monitors, how ever some people said you could easily disable and enable sli if really needed so that you could run each monitor on a seperate card OR connect both monitors to 1 card and then disable sli when you want to play games on a single monitor. If you wanted to play games on multiple monitors...then get an xbox 360 and forza 2 with 4 lcds lol, i have no answer for you.
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2008
- Messages
- 1,253
If you're talking about SLI for Nvidia, then you're wrong.
SLI = Scalable Link Interface.
~Gooda~
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2008
- Messages
- 2,666
SLi works pretty well for me. I have 2 9800gtx's in SLi, and it annihilates every game, except, you guessed it, Crysis. It's playable, but still manages to be just laggy enough to piss me off. I'm now convinced it's a horribly coded engine. As far as source games, I only play at 1680 x 1050, so I could donate around 80 FPS to the clan, and still be perfectly playable. 
The only reason I went out and bought the second cards, is Far Cry 2 is coming out soon, and it looks awesome. I really want to run it well. That, and I shouldn't have to upgrade for a while now, which is nice to not have to do. It's true, SLi does use quite a bit of power, but I'm running my full rig with a Thermaltake Toughpower 650, so you don't need to buy a kilowatt PSU like so many assume. As far as heat, get a well ventilated case and up your fans speeds on the cards manually and you'll be fine, I mean your box will still keep you warm in winter, but it's not putting out puffs on smoke. Okay, enough of my SLi rant. Hope this helped.
The only reason I went out and bought the second cards, is Far Cry 2 is coming out soon, and it looks awesome. I really want to run it well. That, and I shouldn't have to upgrade for a while now, which is nice to not have to do. It's true, SLi does use quite a bit of power, but I'm running my full rig with a Thermaltake Toughpower 650, so you don't need to buy a kilowatt PSU like so many assume. As far as heat, get a well ventilated case and up your fans speeds on the cards manually and you'll be fine, I mean your box will still keep you warm in winter, but it's not putting out puffs on smoke. Okay, enough of my SLi rant. Hope this helped.Similar threads
