Crossfire vs Sli

[Melanie]

ok yes call me noob or what ever i could care less

but im lost at the sli /crossfire onthe different boards /cards

like with AMD board can which is only corssfire. can "geforce" cards or "ati" cards work ... again for "AMD" only boards 780 chip set

and is it worte running crossfire at this point . like support or setup . or realy just a is there a bonus ?

 

[sandorski]

You can use Single Nvidia Vidcards on AMD Crossfire Motherboards, but not SLI'd Nvidia Vidcards.

 

[Borealis7]

as long as you have two PCIe slots (long ones) you can crossfire on any board with 2 ATI (now called AMD) cards.
SLI can only be done on SLI certified boards, with 2 nVidia cards.

note that in both methods there are restrictions on which cards you can CF/SLI.

 

[gammaray]

Correct me if i am wrong but, with SLI you need a nforce/nvidia certified chipset, and obviously AMD video cards in crossfire will not work on those motherboards.

Same with "crossfire" MoBo, you can't put 2 nvidia cards and SLI them....

You can use nvidia video cards on AMD/ATI chipset mobos though, and use ATI video cards on nvdia chipset mobos....

...
and is it worte running crossfire at this point . like support or setup . or realy just a is there a bonus ?

You certainly have an advantage or bonus like you call it to run 2 cards in crossfire or sli, it's all about cost. For example you crossfire 2 cards and check the price and performance you could get, over one more expensive video card. OR,

If you're rich, you can simply crossfire 2 ultra expensive video cards together.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Correct me if i am wrong but, with SLI you need a nforce/nvidia certified chipset, and obviously AMD video cards in crossfire will not work on those motherboards.

It's not about needing a physical Nvidia chipset in the mobo. The board just needs to be certified by Nvidia for SLI to run. By certified it means you pay money to Nvidia for that board series for SLI to run. Why is it that way you ask? Because that's the way Nvidia is.

There are hacks to get around this with AMD boards but those are a hassle and not for the non-technial. There are also AMD "Fusion" boards that contain Hydra chipsets that will let you get around this. But that's a whole other issue.

 

[nenforcer]

This is what makes the Intel platform so appealing is you have the choice of either Crossfire or SLI.

AMD Chipsets naturally only support Crossfire while nVidia chipsets will only support SLI.

nVidia chipsets are also pretty much legacy now as well.