Current state of Crossfire motherboards

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Rollo
It's a VERY fair comparison, I think you're misunderstanding me.

What I'm saying is SLI gives you more fps per buck than any other upgrade.

My example is that for $1100 for those four component (mobo/psu/2 7800GTs/3800+) you can outperform any single card computer, period. (including those with $1000 cpus, which are a REALLY bad buy)

Look at the difference on a CPU chart between a 3800+ and a FX57. Is the FX57 doubling the 3800+s fps? No- not even close.

Now look at some benchmarks for FEAR, COD2, or Quake4 at 16X12 4X8X. Is SLI coming close to doubling the framerate? Yep.

Will fast RAM double your fps? No.
Will a high end CPU double your fps? No.
Will a costly motherboard double your fps? No.

ONLY SLI can give you huge performance increases, so by definition it's the best deal.

Sure you "don't need" 4X16X, you don't "need" 10X7 0X0X, you could game at 800X600 0X0X like in the old days.

You are likely thinking "But there's a cheaper medium power solution out there!" and there is- the point is some people aren't will to settle for that level of performance.

There's no "right" answer, you pick the solution that suits your needs and wallet best. SLI costs more because it gives you more.

I generally don't like Rollo's ATI nit-picking, but I don't think anyone can argue against what he says above and make sense at the time. Anyone trying not to admit the above *facts* would look foolish.

Rollo, I think you should post more on NV's strength than on ATI's weakness. That's where your arguments shine.

lop

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: lopri
I generally don't like Rollo's ATI nit-picking, but I don't think anyone can argue against what he says above and make sense at the time. Anyone trying not to admit the above *facts* would look foolish.

Rollo, I think you should post more on NV's strength than on ATI's weakness. That's where your arguments shine.

lop

Thanks dude, I try to do both, but will try to do the nVidia more.

I just bought Q4 yesterday, so I'm going to do a Q4/SSII/FEAR review with 6800GT vs 6800GT SLI vs 7800GTX vs 7800GTX SLI. The rigs are pretty comparable, a 3800+ with 1GB RAM and 4600+ with 1GB RAM. (the 4600 is basically a tweaked 3800+ with two cores- both are 2.4GHz/512K cache)

I think this will show the value of SLI pretty conclusively.