3.7ghz Corei7 Crossfire vs. SLI review

[Tempered81]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardwa...rformance-on-core-i7/5

 

[Insomniator]

Overall its amazing how far xfire/sli has come over the years. Remember back with the 6xxx series? Lucky to get 50%, if any.

 

[Tempered81]

the average looks to be about 70% nowadays - with nv or ati.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I still don't like it. It works when it wants to, new drivers can break games and break all functionality, you have to wait for profiles for new games, suck up 2x the power and expel 2x the heat. To me, it's just bragging rights and really offers so little benefit in gameplay. Ya, ya, ya...benchmarks show 50%+ increases but that's benchmarks. If you play the game you can't count frames and if the game plays smooth with no slowdown or stutter, how will you notice the difference? Unless you just want to turn on 8xAA in everything which to my eyes doesn't make a huge difference over 4x at 1920x1200. My eyes aren't that good though

 

[PingSpike]

Its nice that it exists, for game developers and hardcore bleeding edge enthusists...but the various potential issues and power consumption increases are huge turn offs, and I can buy an affordable single card that runs my stuff on all high so I'm happy with that solution. The "buy a cheap one and then sli later" strategy for the masses has never made any financial sense when the rubber hit the road so it just isn't for me.

 

[Dkcode]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
I still don't like it. It works when it wants to, new drivers can break games and break all functionality, you have to wait for profiles for new games, suck up 2x the power and expel 2x the heat. To me, it's just bragging rights and really offers so little benefit in gameplay. Ya, ya, ya...benchmarks show 50%+ increases but that's benchmarks. If you play the game you can't count frames and if the game plays smooth with no slowdown or stutter, how will you notice the difference? Unless you just want to turn on 8xAA in everything which to my eyes doesn't make a huge difference over 4x at 1920x1200. My eyes aren't that good though

At least the option is there for people that want it.

But i agree with you and i dislike multi GPU for the same reasons you have posted.

 

[chizow]

SLI/CF still has a lot of problems, but the latest reviews with highly overclocked Core i7s just show what I've been saying for months, its not always scaling or driver problems at fault, poor scaling is often the result of CPU bottlenecks. This review shows CPU bottlenecking pretty well, even up to 2560 with AA.

Look at the Fallout 3 example for instance. All of the high-end parts (GTX 260/4870 or better) in CF/SLI are within a few FPS of each other through all resolutions with or without AA. There's only separation at 2560 with 8xAA!!!

Guru3D showed how heavily current GPU solutions are bottlenecked with their first i7 review, where they saw scaling with 3rd GTX 280 when a Core 2 on 680i actually resulted in worst performance.

While this review is pretty good at showing the different SLI/CF configs up to 2 cards, I'd love to see scaling with slower CPUs and more than 2 GPUs to see just how much CPU bottlenecking comes into play at the high-end.

 

[OCGuy]

I just installed my first SLI setup last night. Ran it through some benches and games, and so far I'd say it has gone smoother than I thought.