Simply wondering as I have been running a dual 970 set up for 6 months now. I can see the gains but is it really worth it in a future build with DX12
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Probably not, I've been having a lot of trouble with games not running well with SLI. I'm thinking of getting a single card instead.
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Exactly my reason too. While more and most games do support multi GPU I sort of regret buying these two (over the space of 6 months) instead of going for a single 980ti
Absolutely, but with the caveat of it being either a dual-GPU board, or simply two high-end GPUs only. Scaling is better than it used to be, but not enough to make triple/quad worth it. Games that support multi-GPU often make good use of the feature, games that don't usually don't require the performance of a second high-end GPU to perform well.
Obviously not everyone agrees with that.
I've had mixed experiences with it in the past. Not with my current setup and games though, everything just works.
I'd do it again, but only after making sure that it'll work in the games where I would really need it.
I had dual HD4850s that I opted to get instead of a single better card since from what I heard the crossfireX gains were HUGE (some being 100% gain), and crossfire support was a lot better than the past.
That said, it didn't seem as good in practice, and I know that's not too surprising. My computer would randomly get BSOD errors that I could never fix (and still sometimes happened even without crossfire though, I was never able to solve the problem) which occurred randomly with intervals of around 1 hour (very uncommon) to a few days (although it depends how often the video processor was used), usually not frequently enough for it to really bother me, except when crashing at an important time during a game.
That said, after some years one of the cards died, and I don't know if it was at all related to crossfire or not, or if the fact that I was running in crossfire was beneficial or not. If crossfire wasn't somehow the cause (I don't really see why it could be), I guess the crossfire part was nice since it means I still have a working video card to use despite a failure— sort of like RAID (but obviously different). I was also thinking that I'd get a slightly higher re-sell value by reselling two cards instead of 1 since generally video cards have a small intrinsic value alone, plus more value depending on how good the card is. That said, I might have lost money overall due to possibly extra power consumption, I don't know.
Also a question.. do full shroud dual-slot cards work okay for crossfire when they're almost touching each other? I was wondering if the air flow would be a problem, since one of the cards fan is blocked by the other. Obviously at least some airflow can still find a way, but I'm wondering to what degree it is a hindrance.
I didn't have a great experience with SLI in windows, but am currently & would use it again in Linux.
I just enabled alternative frame rendering 2 on x com 2 and my usage is at 90% on both gpu-s..
And the game i believe doesn't even support sli :D
So i guess that i will be using/doing it again with some future lower end cards.
GPU: GV-N660ti TOC -3GD
waiting for dx12 / vulcan to be more common place, then I shall buy another r9 390x and call it a day...
now lets see if reality matches with my plan :D
My first attempt at SLI was with two GTX 580s, one of which was a used ebay card that died almost instantly. Wasn't too happy with that. However, right now I have two 780Tis in SLI and I have had no issues with frame stuttering or drivers, I think the nVidia driver support for SLI has definitely improved in the last couple of years. That being said, stability is good and a more powerful single card will most likely give you that in a higher degree than an SLI setup. I've never ran an AMD card so I can't speak to the crossfire side of things but I do hear that it's getting pretty awesome.
I think the biggest question might not even be the stability though, if you don't know how to shop smart online you can end up paying more for a dual-card setup that still does not outperform a better card that costs less than your two cards combined.
I've had/used a few SLI and Crossfire setups. First was SLI with 7800 GTs (quite some time ago) and most recently was Crossfire with R9 270Xs. I had issues with frame pacing that would probably have been resolved by the release of newer drivers, but long before any of those updates I swapped the 270Xs for a single 290X. Single card (pretty thoroughly modded) provides better performance, better consistency with applications, and the added benefit of easy integration into my custom loop cooling.
TLDR: I would only consider a multi-GPU setup when you already have the highest tier of GPU from your brand of choice.
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I completely agree with this. Or if you've had a card for a while and it's significantly cheaper to get a second one than get a new card which is twice as fast.
I ran an R9 285 crossfire configuration a while back, and, overall, I was satisfied with my experience. The only reason why I did it was because, with the release of the 300-series by AMD, people started dumping their R9 285s on ebay for cheap.
The only problems I really experienced were with Alien: Isolation (Crossfire did not work) and Lichdom: Battlemage (frame stuttering). Since a lot of the current mainstream games are decently VRAM-optimized, the 2gb VRAM limit of my R9 285s was not much of an issue, and the only time it did become one was if I attempted 1440p or 4k Gaming with settings above medium.
Would I do it again? Probably, especially with DX12 and Vulkan just around the corner.
A few years ago, I built my computer with dual AMD 6870's. The performance at the time was generally better than any single gpu could give me at a lower cost, but it meant that I had to deal with all the driver headaches and microstutter associated with xfire. This was OK at first since the performance justified the extra headaches, but as time went along I was left with very little upgrade path. To get a meaningful upgrade, I would either have to purchase two video cards of a higher tier (lots of money), or spend a ton of cash on a dual gpu video card. I did eventually move to a GTX 770 which gave much more consistent performance and in most games was noticeably faster. However for my latest build, i started out with a 980 ti and in another year or two, i will pick up a second 980 ti (hopefully used) for a relatively cheap upgrade.
TLDR: I recommend starting with the strongest single card you can afford and then moving to sli/xfire as an upgrade choice.
As well as driver nonsense I think I am very certain I was getting thermal throttling when I was on crossfire :D (lower gpu utilization over time)
9370 + 2 r9 290's... my room was very toasty after half an hour of gaming.
since switching to a 4790k + r9 390x (gave the other two cards to friends) my thermals have been amazing and my gpu utilization has been much higher.
My room is no longer like an oven :D
No never again.
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Yes, probably. Crossfire works very well for me (might have something to do with the fact that I don't play games on release) and it scales surprisingly well. At the very least I'd add a second GPU later down the line after an initial upgrade, possibly even buy 2 from the get-go.
amd? yes.
I would do it again, gameworks titles are shitted most of the time - but still worth.
Not for an initial build but for an upgrade later on. Single gou that cost 400 will eventually hit 200 or 150 and makes a nice upgrade option.
When Vulcan is being used as the main API and I can have Nvidia and AMD running at the same time I will consider it. But thanks to Nvidia being a pain in the ass and locking out dedicated Phys x card and AMD as primary card no.
Running 2 AMD cards is not worth it unless you are running 4K or higher resolution. Same for 2 Nvidia cards price to performance is just not worth it at this time.