Crossfire and Quad-sli questions and comparisons.

[TommyD]

From my understanding for games to take full advantage of Quad-sli the game itself must be coded to support it. I have read that if in fact the game does not support quad-sli you will still get a performance boost but not exponentially.

I was wondering if Crossfire works the same way or if there is a general performance boost overall without having to have specific support for it.

Also how would performance be between Quad-li system with dual XFX 7950 gx2 520m extreme editions and a Crossfire system with X1950XT 512 mb and X1950 Pro 512mb.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: TommyD
From my understanding for games to take full advantage of Quad-sli the game itself must be coded to support it. I have read that if in fact the game does not support quad-sli you will still get a performance boost but not exponentially.

I was wondering if Crossfire works the same way or if there is a general performance boost overall without having to have specific support for it.

Also how would performance be between Quad-li system with dual XFX 7950 gx2 520m extreme editions and a Crossfire system with X1950XT 512 mb and X1950 Pro 512mb.

Firstly, Quad SLi support is non existant. The performance benefits from quad SLi doesnt justify the cost. There were some games that did take advantage, e.g F.E.A.R, but generally a 7900GTX SLi setup would be faster most of the time.

Secondly, you cannot pair up the X1950pro with the X1950XT because one supports Crossfire through internal connectors like nVIDIA, and the latter support crossfire through a dongle (and must be a cross fire edition card).

ATi did boast about not needing profiles and such, but in the end they needed the profiles and super tiling didnt really do the job. The performance increase on variety of the games were pathetic, and most users had to tinker with the profiles and things to get the performance that they wanted. (not for all games though).

Although quad SLi sounds nice, but one 8800GTX rapes all that setup across the board and probably cheaper as well.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Only Viable multi-gpu option now IMO is:
8800GTX SLI
or
8800GTS SLI

 

[TommyD]

Well I currently have Quad-sli and I am thinking about putting Crossfire into my main pc if it did perform better and did not need profiles.

As for the 2 cards I chose not being compatible, will these work together?

HIS Hightech H195CF512-R Radeon X1950 CrossFire Edition 512MB GDDR4

HIS Hightech H195XTQT256DVN-R Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: TommyD
From my understanding for games to take full advantage of Quad-sli the game itself must be coded to support it. I have read that if in fact the game does not support quad-sli you will still get a performance boost but not exponentially.

This is incorrect. Crossfire and SLI are done at the driver-level and the game is not aware of it. What is an issue is how well the drivers are able to split up the graphical work, which so far has been not that great.

 

[tuteja1986]

Things that don't work in VISTA WELL AT ALL !!
Quad SLI 7950GX , Quad SLI 7900GX , SLI 8800GTX , SLI 8800GTS
Things that still don't work on XP to mature level !!
Quad SLI 7950GX , Quad SLI 7900GX , SLI 8800GTX , SLI 8800GTS

Owner of SLI 8800GTX :!!

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: TommyD
Well I currently have Quad-sli and I am thinking about putting Crossfire into my main pc if it did perform better and did not need profiles.

As for the 2 cards I chose not being compatible, will these work together?

HIS Hightech H195CF512-R Radeon X1950 CrossFire Edition 512MB GDDR4

HIS Hightech H195XTQT256DVN-R Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3

1 8800GTX would be faster than those 2 cards in crossfire.

 

[BFG10K]

Well I currently have Quad-sli and I am thinking about putting Crossfire into my main pc if it did perform better and did not need profiles.

Crossfire needs profiles too but they're internal.

The best advise is to forget about SLI and Crossfire and just get a single 8800 GTX. Trust me, you'll have far less headaches.

 

[nitromullet]

The best advise is to forget about SLI and Crossfire and just get a single 8800 GTX. Trust me, you'll have far less headaches.

Agreed. I went from 7900GTX SLI to a single 8800GTX, and I have not had any regrets.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Well I currently have Quad-sli and I am thinking about putting Crossfire into my main pc if it did perform better and did not need profiles.

Crossfire needs profiles too but they're internal.

The best advise is to forget about SLI and Crossfire and just get a single 8800 GTX. Trust me, you'll have far less headaches.

Greatest Advice : )