Crossfire

[JimiP]

The title of the thread states it all. Is Crossfire worth it? Will I face issues?

I am thinking about selling my P5N32-E SLI (680i) and purchasing the P5K Deluxe (Intel P35). Not only that but thinking about selling my Sapphire HD2900XT 1GB and picking up two 3870's and putting them in Crossfire mode. I could do this without spending much more extra than what I currently have and I feel I would definitely notice a large FPS jump in games like COD4, Crysis and the like.

What do you all think?

 

[taltamir]

I would recommend just buying two GT cards and sliing them.

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: JimiP
The title of the thread states it all. Is Crossfire worth it?

Generally, no, but I'll probably end up playing with it someday.

If you want to play with it, 3870+3850 combo would be very interesting, and the single-slot cooler on the one card may prevent the heat buildup from two 3870's close together. But I would not recommend this as a performance setup. We still have little data on how CrossFireX (i.e. different 3800-series GPU's working together) performs and what issues may be in the drivers.

Will I face issues?

Yes, CrossFire (CF) might not work in some games, there may be some driver bugs related to v-sync, and the airflow of the second card may be severely limited due to the way the coolers are designed (and lack of space between the PCIe 16x slots). Overclocking may also be more difficult. Basically, with Crossfire, you will have all the single-GPU issues plus all the special multi-GPU issues (and twice the heat output).

I am thinking about selling my P5N32-E SLI (680i) and purchasing the P5K Deluxe (Intel P35). Not only that but thinking about selling my Sapphire HD2900XT 1GB and picking up two 3870's and putting them in Crossfire mode. I could do this without spending much more extra than what I currently have and I feel I would definitely notice a large FPS jump in games like COD4, Crysis and the like.

You will definitely get better overall performance that way, but multi-GPU solutions are still hit-or-miss. If your favorite game is not supported for CF, performance may actually slightly decrease. Different drivers may fix/break CF for different games.

What do you all think?

I would go for it (out of curiosity), but an 8800 GTX/Ultra would probably be a better value, CF headaches considered.

 

[Demoth]

The advantage of crossfire is not needing to match card models. If someone was building a new system now with a single vid card, I'd recommend spending an extra $20 for a crossfire capable P35 and a single 3870. This gives the option of getting in a close to equivalent CF card for around $100 in a year (either a new low end card or a discounted 38XX).

In your case, I'd hold off and see what's available for $400 after Feb. Your single card is good for most games and Crysis issues should be improved with some more updates. The next gen high end should pan out to be faster then 2 CFed 3870s. The upcoming Nvidia Teraflop beast should be a better investment, even at $550, if your looking for future DX10 heaven.

Not to say 2 3870s is bad by any means, but since you asked for opinions...