Single Gpu And Dual Gpu

[thirdworldking]

hi guys just wondering what are the differences between a dual gpu card and single gpu apart from the obvious one which is that one has 2 gpu's and the other has one. what are each pros and cons and which one is essentially better?

 

thanks in advance guys

[tp95112]

Pros: More performance

Cons: Not all games support it, most of the time its not better then a single gpu solution. The heat and noise output goes up and vram is shared not added

[xxbrock88]

Hello.

 

Both dual gpu and single gpu configurations have advantages and disadvantages.

Single gpu configurations are good because they are usually less expensive than dual gpu. Another benefit of single gpu is that they use less power. A third benefit of single gpu is that they take up less space and create less heat. 

Dual gpu configurations perform better in games, however they create more heat, use more power, and take up more space. Another disadvantage of dual gpu is scaling. Scaling is how well the dual gpu performance will increase. For example, you may get double the performance with dual gpus in one game. This is good scaling. However, you may only get a 50% increase with a dual gpu configuration than a single gpu. This is bad scaling. Scaling depends on your gpu as well as the game. 

I reccomend going with the best single gpu that you can get because you don't have to worry about scaling.

 

Hopefully this information was helpful :)

[nishank93]

In addition to what is already mentioned, another thing to note about dual-GPU cards (or SLI/Crossfire) is that the vRAM does not add up. If a GTX 690 says it has 4GB of memory, it actually has only 2GB per GPU. The same textures, etc are loaded up on each of the 2GBs for each GPU to access separately.

 

If you are in the market for a graphics card, remember: single powerful GPU > Dual GPU card >/= SLI/Crossfire. Obvious exception is when single GPU performance is not enough. Other "exceptions" are some cards like the 660Ti, which scales incredibly well in SLI (still not double performance, but pretty fantastic).

The reason why a dual GPU card might be better than SLI/Crossfire is that drivers are usually better optimised, and you use less power, generate less noise, and use one less PCI-E lane.

[unidentical]

For basic users, and frankly for most users, I recommend single GPU always, they deliver consistent performance and they do so with much less hassle.

 

In my experience any Dual GPU configuration requires much more time spent tweaking settings, updating drivers, rolling back drivers when the new ones are worse, etc.

 

Keep it Simple: One Card, One GPU.

[thirdworldking]

thankyou guys this has been a lot of help