Is SLI/CF-ing ever better than a single card upgrade

[Mehta23]

I have a 670. In a great years would getting another 670 be a better deal than just getting a single card at that time?

Has anyone actually SLI'd and come out on top, better than if they just got a new single card?

[Colossous]

Multiple cards are certainly better than they used to be, i've had both sli and Cf in systems without too much issue but there is the extra power/heat and noise to take into consideration. The 670 has a good rep for sli if you believe the reviews.

[dacads]

Depends what single card you're talking about

[Mehta23]

In general and also my 670 - its an EVGA FTW Signature 2, at whatever clock its factory set to.

[scaryjim]

Depends when you're going to do it. During the same generation, you're probably good. Picking up a second card just after the new generation comes out is probably also OK, as long as you were at the upper end of the old generation. Going for CF/SLI to start with might also be viable depending on your games and resolution (don't forget that cheaper cards tend to have less VRAM so they'll struggle more at higher resolutions). But wait more than one generation and it's almost never worth it. I got a Q6600, SLI motherboard and an 8800GTX with the express intention of going SLI later. I eventually bought the components second hand to build an SLI watercooled rig, but didn't get it finished. And by the time I bought all that extra stuff, I could've just got a single card that would probably have been faster than my 2x 8800GTX.

Personally, I'd always maintain that your best bet is buying the best graphics card you can afford when you build a rig. But assuming you did that originally, you've now got money for a second card of the same type, and there's been no more than one new generation of cards since you bought yours, getting a second card is probably worth it. Otherwise you'll need to go back and look at reviews to compare how two of your cards will match up to a single card from the latest generation...

[Biscuit]

Have a read through some of the reports on this thread:

http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...crossfire.html

It has an interesting analysis of some of the problems encountered when running dual card systems.

I have a dual card system and i will be honest, i wish i had spent them money on a single high powered card because the stuttering is noticeable. You can tame the settings on different games to minimize it and make it more fluid, but its extra faff that you just don't have to go through with single card systems. Cooling is also an issue, i have had to change the perspex side on my case for the mesh one so that i could add another two fans blowing directly onto the cards as my soundcard (which is sat above the two GTX660s) was overheating and crashing my PC.

I suspect with reviewers actively looking at this now, things will get better but at the moment i would still recommend going for a single high end card for the best trouble free experience. Dispite what the raw numbers may say, you will probably have pretty much the same real world performance aswell.

[kalniel]

In general and also my 670 - its an EVGA FTW Signature 2, at whatever clock its factory set to.

We can't answer whether it would be a better deal in general even now, let alone for the future, it depends on the card/price/features.

In the past, it has often been the case that buying a single card with newer features/performance, using the money from the sale of an old card, works out as good value for the mid-high end range. There are some exceptions however - at the very top end SLI/CF gives a boost that can't be matched by a single card for example.

[scaryjim]

tbh I think the golden age for crossfire passed with the 4-series, which were incredible value in the UK due to exchange rate fluctuations (the 4670 was £50 on release - would be around £65 now). At that point both the 4670 and 4830 made reasonable cases for a straight up crossfire rig.

Of course, one other benefit of multiple card set ups that doesn't apply so much now is the flexibility they used to offer - back when cards usually only supported two outputs having a pair of cards was the only way to power 3 or 4 monitors (although you couldn't use them in SLI/CF for that). But it gave you the flexibility to have a more powerful set-up for gaming or a multi-screen set up for productivity. Now both manufacturers support 3+ monitors from the outset it's not so important though.

[Mehta23]

Depends when you're going to do it. During the same generation, you're probably good. Picking up a second card just after the new generation comes out is probably also OK, as long as you were at the upper end of the old generation.

Personally, I'd always maintain that your best bet is buying the best graphics card you can afford when you build a rig. .

I would probably do it to get a boost in performance when my computer begins to struggle, or as an alternative to buying a new single card.

And yeah, this 670 was the highest card i could get (that was nvidia and new)

I had a feeling the general feeling would be that Sli isn't a good alternative to a simple upgrade ^_^

[scaryjim]

Yeah, by the time your 670 is genuinely struggling a) 670s will be a lot harder to find, and b) there'll probably be a single new card with similar performance and better features than 2 670s.

[PawPaw]

I have 2 gtx 460 in sli and never had any issues but I am looking at getting 2 gtx 670 . I want to upgrade to take advantage of the extra cudas which will improve performance in the 2 NLEs I use....

[Willzzz]

SLI is only worthwhile if you do it early, it's not a long term upgrade route.

Plus it's a lot easier to sell a single 2 year old card than to sell two 4 year old cards.

[ZaO]

Depends when you're going to do it. During the same generation, you're probably good. Picking up a second card just after the new generation comes out is probably also OK, as long as you were at the upper end of the old generation. Going for CF/SLI to start with might also be viable depending on your games and resolution (don't forget that cheaper cards tend to have less VRAM so they'll struggle more at higher resolutions). But wait more than one generation and it's almost never worth it. I got a Q6600, SLI motherboard and an 8800GTX with the express intention of going SLI later. I eventually bought the components second hand to build an SLI watercooled rig, but didn't get it finished. And by the time I bought all that extra stuff, I could've just got a single card that would probably have been faster than my 2x 8800GTX.

Personally, I'd always maintain that your best bet is buying the best graphics card you can afford when you build a rig. But assuming you did that originally, you've now got money for a second card of the same type, and there's been no more than one new generation of cards since you bought yours, getting a second card is probably worth it. Otherwise you'll need to go back and look at reviews to compare how two of your cards will match up to a single card from the latest generation...

I like that analogy. I think I have more or less come to the same conclusion after years of experience. The amount of cards I have planned to "cf/sli later", only to work out it's not really worth it at the time I felt the need for an upgrade and never do it. The money I've wasted making sure I always have a good cf/sli mobo too, only to never need that functionality in the end...

Best thing to do is add up what you will get for your current card on ebay or whatever. Then add that to what you wanna spend. See what that total of cash can get you in a new card. Then compare to doubling up with what you have already. If you want a nice little boost but want to spend the least amount of money possible, well that's mainly when it can become a good option to cf/sli. But as I said - it sometimes just works out better to sell your old card and add the cash to what you would've spent on another one, then get something else newer. There are always benchmarks around to help you choose as well! anandtech and tomshardware are pretty good for that Just remember that having multiple gpu's can result in some nasty heat issues!