What is the difference between the two? Other than the companies? Like whats the technical difference? Is one better?
SLI = Nvidia, requires nvidia chipset on motherboard (except for X58).
Crossfire = ATi, available on most chipsets, except nvidia.
inb4 Frank bashes ATi again and again and again and again and again and again.
You might have just started another Nvidia vs ATi war. Welcome to the forum.
I meant like whats the difference in the way it works. The bridge itself...
I hope this doesn't turn into a war thread. Serious answers only?
There is a good answer here:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/391
Good luck with expecting serious answers.
While SLI requires an nvidia chipset, it could technically be done with a motherboard with two PCIe slots, but it seems Nvidia wants you to buy their chipsets. SLI is however available to the Intel X58 chipset.
For crossfire, almost any board with two PCIe x16 lanes and an Intel or AMD chip can crossfire.
I dunno which one scales better, I think SLI is, but some cards like the 4850 I hear can scale with two cards magnificently.
[quote]Wikipedia Article on Scalable Link Interface
The basic idea of SLI is to allow two or more graphics processing units (GPUs) to share the work load when rendering a 3D scene. Ideally, two identical graphics cards are installed in a motherboard that contains two PCI-Express x16 slots, set up in a master-slave configuration. Both cards are given the same part of the 3D scene to render, but effectively half of the work load is sent to the slave card through a connector called the SLI Bridge. As an example, the master card works on the top half of the scene while the slave card works on the bottom half. When the slave card is done, it sends its output to the master card, which combines the two images to form one and then outputs the final render to the monitor.[/quote]
[quote]Wikipedia article on Crossfire
[b]Second-generation (Software CrossFire)[/b]
When used with ATI's "CrossFire Xpress 3200" motherboard chipset, the 'master' card is no longer required for every "CrossFire Ready" card (with the exception of the Radeon X1900 series). With the CrossFire Xpress 3200, two normal cards can be run in a Crossfire setup, using the PCI-E bus for communications. This is similar to X1300 CrossFire, which also uses PCI Express, except that the Xpress 3200 had been built for low-latency and high-speed communication between graphics cards.[4] While performance was impacted, this move was viewed as an overall improvement in market strategy, due to the fact that Crossfire Master cards were expensive, in very high demand, and largely unavailable at the retail level.
[b]Current generation (CrossFire X)[/b]
With the release of the Radeon X1950 Pro (RV570 GPU), ATI has completely revised CrossFire's connection infrastructure to further eliminate the need for past Y-dongle/Master card and slave card configurations for CrossFire to operate. ATI's CrossFire connector is now a ribbon-like connector attached to the top of each graphics adapter, similar to nVidia's SLI bridges, but different in physical and logical natures.[5] As such, Master Cards no longer exist, and are not required for maximum performance. Two dongles can be used per card; these were put to full use with the release of CrossFire X. Radeon HD 2900 and HD 3000 series cards use the same ribbon connectors, but the HD 3800 series of cards only require one ribbon connector, to facilitate CrossFire X.[6] Unlike older series of Radeon cards, different HD 3800 series cards can be combined in CrossFire, each with separate clock control.
Since the release of the codenamed Spider desktop platform from AMD on November 19, 2007, the CrossFire setup has been updated with support for a maximum of four video cards with the 790FX chipset; the CrossFire branding was then changed to "ATI CrossFire X". The setup, according to internal testing by AMD, will bring at least 3.2x performance increase in several games and applications which required massive graphics capabilities of the computer system, the setup is targeted to the enthusiast market.
A later development to the CrossFire infrastructure include a dual GPU solution with on-board PCI-E bridge that was released in early 2008, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 and later in Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards, featuring only one CrossFire connector for dual card, four GPU scalability.[/quote]
Circuit using Master card ideology:
[img]http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/2081/videocardparallel.jpg[/img]
Lets say we use "master card" method. Lets say the resistance is a video card, As you can see, the circuit starts in series which means that the last three work for the first one as "slaves" meaning if the first card doesn't work, the rest won't either because the current (API) for the last three (in parallel) came from the first resistance (video card) which was part of a series circuit.
Parallel circuit without using Master card ideology:
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Parallel_circuit.svg[/img]
In a parallel circuit, the resistances (in this case video cards) are working together on the same circuit (in this case the PCIE bus and the API like Crossfire) but are entirely independent also. The circuit continues regardless of if it is enabled or not.
Pretty much SLI, the first card is master regardless if you want everything to work independently, Crossfire on the other hand all the cards work interdependent of each other (which is better for games and video editing on multiscreen setups).
*applauds* for cup o joe
edit:and *applauds* for rice as well!!
We gotta another 8bit here.
The two technologies aren't that different. They both sync multiple graphics processing units (GPU) together. When rendering 3D objects, the two cards render half of each screen
i.e GPU 1 renders top half while GPU renders bottom half
This was how the early SLi technology was done. Now with the latest drivers, the SLi renderings are much more smooth and will mostly if not always give you a positive increase in frames during gaming.
Since Nvidia and ATi have different architectures of chips, the two brands released their own multi card rendering (SLi, Crossfire)
The downside of SLi is not being able to mix older cards with newer cards.
i.e you can't use an 8800GT with a 9800GT
You [b]can[b] however, use them both. The 9800GT will be your main display card while your 8800 acts as your dedicated PhysX card
With ATi, you can mix and match cards using Hybrid Crossfire (CrossfireX) The downside to this is the lack of driver utilization.
Also, I only troll because of the insane amounts of butthurt you guys give. It gives me a reason to wake up each day; just so I can yell, "ATi has no games!"
MeGotRice wrote 3 minutes ago »
The two technologies aren't that different. They both sync multiple graphics processing units (GPU) together. When rendering 3D objects, the two cards render half of each screen
i.e GPU 1 renders top half while GPU renders bottom half
This was how the early SLi technology was done. Now with the latest drivers, the SLi renderings are much more smooth and will mostly if not always give you a positive increase in frames during gaming.
Since Nvidia and ATi have different architectures of chips, the two brands released their own multi card rendering (SLi, Crossfire)
The downside of SLi is not being able to mix older cards with newer cards.
i.e you can't use an 8800GT with a 9800GT
You [b]can[b] however, use them both. The 9800GT will be your main display card while your 8800 acts as your dedicated PhysX card
With ATi, you can mix and match cards using Hybrid Crossfire (CrossfireX) The downside to this is the lack of driver utilization.
Also, I only troll because of the insane amounts of butthurt you guys give. It gives me a reason to wake up each day; just so I can yell, "ATi has no games!"
Its over, Frank is finished
MeGotRice wrote 1 minute ago »
Also, I only troll because of the insane amounts of butthurt you guys give. It gives me a reason to wake up each day; just so I can yell, "ATi has no games!"
It's not as much butthurt as it is annoying. I try to get some help with my ATi card and bam three of you are posting that I might as well cool a brick.
I don't mind a few troll posts but fuck I want some suggestions or help.
/rant
Don't mean to turn this thread around, basically SLI and Crossfire don't really work much differently and they both work fine.
>SLiBoy
>ATi
You should kill yourself for having the most ironic signature in the history of man.
The only differences pretty much is the compatibility of the two technologies. SLI the API starting in series and then going in parallel (limited to the number of screens and the types of cards working together because the first one is always in charge) and Crossfire, the API being completely parallel (virtually any recent ATI video card that works on the same generation of Crossfire Technology can be added to the setup and use all of its screens too).
I like to go with ATI because they now sell with budget in mind. Heck they're even selling a 320 processor video card for 95$! (Radeon 4670) My brother is actually playing Fallout 3 in full detail at 70fps in 720p with that small card :)
Edit: Thanks Ferman :-)
Frank, I made it, I didn't wanna put it there...he did. lol
According to Humorous, Nvidia cards run in Crossfire, so that must mean ATi cards run in SLI.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7kZeZSU5bM
That was pretty funny.
Wow Nvidia is really weird with their API.
[center][b]If you intend to go intense with multi-screen video editing or insane wide-screen gaming, I would consider ATI's Crossfire.[/b][/center]
This is what I was told about SLI on an other forum:
[quote]With SLI enabled, you can only have support up to 2 monitors. With Sli disabled and 2 cards connected to the system, you can have support up to 4 monitors. With Sli enabled and an independent 3rd card, you can have up to 4 monitors. With sli in triple format and an independent 4th card, you can have up to six monitors. [/quote]
As for the normal one or 2 screen setup, either one is good, [b]if[/b] you have the money for it. Price wise though, i'd be leaning more towards ATI.
>video editing
>ATI
MOTHERFUCKING LAUGH OUT LOUD
MeGotRice wrote 59 minutes ago »
>video editing
>ATI
MOTHERFUCKING LAUGH OUT LOUD
Lets look at how much a quadro costs and how much a FIREGL costs and look at their nearly equal performance and see then who would be laughing
ultracombo wrote 3 hours ago »
According to Humorous, Nvidia cards run in Crossfire, so that must mean ATi cards run in SLI.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7kZeZSU5bM
@UltraCombo
To bad you don't know why he said Crossfire, noob.
Also... "SLI_boy" should really change that signature to fit his name properly, SLI /= ATI nor AMD.
-To the ongoing stuggle between the two companiesis becoming less of a struggle as people are slowly beginning to comprehend that ATI just doesnt cut it. Before trying to flame me take note that I am a crossfire user (two 4870X2s) and the real reason I went crossfire was because I happened to upgrade when Nvidia tried to scam everyone 600-700 for a 280 and ATI sold the 4870X2 for 570 (take note that these prices are Canadian) which made Nvidia look like big gyps but they realized the error of their ways and since then their prices have been proper. When ATI had brought out the 3870X2 and 4870X2 in 2008, I can't lie they were on top but the rivals for the cards are now better because of Nvidia's much superior drivers. I have just about given up on ATI and now I'm just waiting for the next set of cards to make the transition to Nvidia because I don't even think ATI cards can keep that "Enthusiast" status AMD has really been pulling it together lately though.
^^
I was telling him the same thing, he should change that sig.
I think I still have the psd, it's up to him :P
God still waiting for the site :(