AMD Crossfire VS Nvidia SLI

[HURRIC4NE]

are the two multi-card features the same? can i hookup a 7850 with a 7950? or is it just like the nvidia jail system ?

 

[tviceman]

Nvidia needs the same model cards; AMD can work with different models.

 

[Skurge]

AMD can work with the same GPU. like Tahiti (79xx) + Tahiti (79xx). Nvidia Needs the same model 680+680.

I think it makes it easier for nvidia as their multi-card drivers are a little better at the moment. From what I hear.

 

[SickBeast]

Crossfire scales a little better but nVidia has better drivers.

 

[palladium]

SLI usually scales well most of the time, even for newly released games. CF,on the other hand, is more of a mixed bag. When it scales, it scales really well (can be better than SLI), but there are times when it doesn't scale much, or at all, or even worse, cause performance degradation. These are usually fixed with a driver update, but can occasionally be a longstanding problem.

In terms of compatibility, its like what tviceman and skurge said (of course you have the oddball exception like hybrid crossfire).

 

[BrightCandle]

My issue with crossfire is that the profiles for the most part come out after the game. Despite AMD splitting the crossfire profiles from the driver package they often lag the drivers and lag weeks after a games release, and sometimes we are waiting months for the release. However almost all games just need a profile rather than a patch in the drivers to work well with crossfire. So you if you set it up yourself it more than often works until AMD release the official profile (which normally just contains the same setup you came upon as well).

Now that isn't to say NVidia's SLI support system isn't by default better, I think it often is. But a large part of that seems to be they are ahead of the curve with the releases so the games have support when they are released, which is the way round it should be. But I don't think there is a universal truth that AMD's crossfire is bad and NVidia's is good, they both have problems which you can see in forums all over the place.

 

[ShintaiDK]

They are both broken concepts

 

[HURRIC4NE]

wait so i can use a 7850 with 7870 ???

 

[boxleitnerb]

You can. Wouldn't make much sense, though since afaik the faster card is "downgraded" to fit the slower card.

 

[BrightCandle]

You can. Wouldn't make much sense, though since afaik the faster card is "downgraded" to fit the slower card.

No that isn't how it works. AMD is something a bit cleverer such that the workload is spread between the two a bit more evenly, which is how they do the APU sharing with a discrete card.

But that isn't to say you should expect 7850 + 7870 performance, you may well not get any better than 7850x2 in some circumstances but equally it can outperform that.

 

[boxleitnerb]

Interesting. I knew there was something with the APUs and hybrid CF. Anyway, the best bet is still to get two equally fast cards for the optimal experience.

 

[blackened23]

My issue with crossfire is that the profiles for the most part come out after the game. Despite AMD splitting the crossfire profiles from the driver package they often lag the drivers and lag weeks after a games release, and sometimes we are waiting months for the release. However almost all games just need a profile rather than a patch in the drivers to work well with crossfire. So you if you set it up yourself it more than often works until AMD release the official profile (which normally just contains the same setup you came upon as well).

Now that isn't to say NVidia's SLI support system isn't by default better, I think it often is. But a large part of that seems to be they are ahead of the curve with the releases so the games have support when they are released, which is the way round it should be. But I don't think there is a universal truth that AMD's crossfire is bad and NVidia's is good, they both have problems which you can see in forums all over the place.

This is my impression as well, good post. Its hard to deny the benefits of being in the nvidia ecosystem, I have really enjoyed it myself lately. Nvidia puts a lot of money into software development and it generally shows.

I do hope AMD steps it up in this respect, because nvidia dedicates a lot of money to software development, AMD really needs to do the same.