Need new graphics card just wondering what setup would be best for gaming on my 24" monitor.
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Need new graphics card just wondering what setup would be best for gaming on my 24" monitor.
A very strong recommendation for the 8800GTS rather than trying to use crossfire from me - you can get much more reliably good performance from a single card. Using linked adapters (ie. Crossfire) gets improvements in some cases, hardly any change in others and depends massively on the game - whereas the 8800GTS 512MB (the new ones) are good value and really well performing cards!
I disagree.. both 8800GTS and 3870 in crossfired mode are good choices..
SLI and Crossfire are not as bad as they used to be.. most games will see improvements while only a very small proportion now sees lower performance..
Currently Crossfire are scaling better than Nvidia SLI for that matter (with alot of occasions where Xfire reaches the magic 2x scaling).. This makes 3870 Xfire quite a tempting choice.. worst off you're only going to be doing 1.2-1.4x faster but if you can get these 3870 for cheap (maybe 120-130quid a piece), you're in Ultra territory for overclocked GTS prices..
I have 8800GT SLI and I was quite dissapointed only because I paid up my neck for them.. If Palit have those 130 quid ones when it was launched (than those inflated 200 quid), I would have been so much more satistied.. Nonetheless, I have yet seen one top rating game that didnt see benefit from SLI..
I've been using NVIDIA SLi since they re-introduced it, and haven't had problems with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by sawyen
Crossfire "scaling" is getting better press than it really deserves lately. What I've seen for benchmarks may show the percentage of scaling for Crossfire higher in some instances, but the actual framerate the same or lower than 8800GT SLi.Quote:
Originally Posted by sawyen
This is very important - because you're always better off to have the higher performing single card in a multi-card setup as not all games scale. (especially with Crossfire)
No need for disappointment- every big game that comes out you'll have a working profile for, and Crossfire users wait months for game profiles.Quote:
Originally Posted by sawyen
Also, you have the ability to create and edit your game profiles, which Crossfire users do not have. While they do have a fallback AFR mode now, from what I've read on forums from actual users it's hot or miss whether it works. You can set AFR1, AFR2, and SFR as your default fallback- so you have more flexibility.
As for the OP:
What motherboard and PSU do you have? If you have a Crossfire based motherboard and sufficient power supply, two 3870s will be faster than a single 8800GTS for games that scale with CF. If you need a motherboard to do this, SLi is a better choice.
I suppose its partly true that ATI CF is getting much better press than it deserves, but it does burrel out of the woods being the laughing stock for multi-GPU solution..
Having seen a pair of 3850 running CF does give me more confidence. They're cheap, fast and crispy on the FPS.. but you're dead-on about the AFR.