Mistake building new machine for RF

R

RickinFL

New member
No real RF content here, except that getting RF made me decide to build a new machine to run it.

This is my first foray into gaming type hardware, and I'm looking to tap into the expertise of folks here that are probably well versed in the subject.

The short story is that I bought an Asus board that supports Crossfire and an EVGA GeForce video card that supports SLI. They play fine together, but I want to add a second video card and am guessing that two SLI cards on a Crossfire board won't go. Is this correct? When I was buying components, I wasn't aware that there is a difference, or I would have used an ATI video card.

Assuming that's the case, I'm now looking at buying a pair of Crossfire capable cards and selling the EVGA 9800GTX+ card.

In the midst of this, I've also realized that there are dual GPU cards that cost about the same as a pair of single GPU cards, and am thinking that going with the dual card will at least reduce the complexity of this mess.

Couple of questions:

How does a dual GPU card compare to two singles running on Crossfire, assuming that the GPUs are more or less of the same power? Better, worse, no difference? Any reason at all to select one setup over the other? If I go with a dual GPU card, is there a reason to select Nvidea over ATI or vice versa?

There are probably other questions I should be asking, but I can't think of them.

Any input or advice will be welcomed.

Rick
 
Yes you get the same performance out of a dual GPU card that you do out of a single GPU SLI or CrossfireX configuration.

Currently ( though that will soon change ) only motherboards with nForce chipsets can accept Nvidia SLI ( a poor marketting move on Nvidia's part! ).

However you can install a single board GTX 295, etc. on a non nForce motherboard.

CrossfireX and SLI work well BUT... ATI cards are

LOUD!

So much so that I removed my CrossfireX cards in favor of a single GTX 295 which is very quiet by comparison.
 
Don't forget about the x58-based motherboards and (wasn't it skulltrail?) other intel chipset boards that are licensing SLI capability. It's not nForce only anymore...

C
 
Correct-o-mundo!

However give that he already has an ASUS board and those SLI compatible chipsets are still hard to get a hold of, it is unlikely he has any chance at the moment of running SLI on his rig.

Nvidia fostered this all to seel their nForce chipsets... ugh...
 
There is one other solution- leave things as they are :)

I really am getting pretty good frame rates with the 9800GTX+ (80 to 200+ depending on what's going on), so there's no pressing reason to change out.

Plus, when I remind myself of the RF mantra ("It's about the physics"), I realize that things are fine, and I'm learning a lot. I've gotten to the point that I can fly the larger helis without crashing, and I can even manage an inverted hover for a short time. What a hoot.

Technology being what it is, in six months from now, something hotter than SLI or Crossfire will probably be along anyway.

Rick
 
I agree, you already have a very nice video card so until you start shooting for insane levels of AA and AF at very high resolutions you should be all set with that card.
 
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