Thoughts on multiple gpu setups

[righteousbae]

Looking to do a new gaming build with multiple gpus, and figured I'd see what other people have run and how well they work. not looking for an AMD vs nvidia comparison, just what cards you guys use in sli or crossfire and how they work for you. 

[ShadySocks]

It depends if you want to make the Titanator or two gt 8600s

[righteousbae]

2 minutes ago, ShadySocks said:

It depends if you want to make the Titanator or two gt 8600s

was looking more in the lower/midrange, something like two rx 480s in crossfire or two 1060s in sli. but ive heard that there's sometimes issues with different setups so Im just curious how well or how bad it works for others before dropping the cash on two cards

[ShadySocks]

It's better to get a single more powerful card; in the future you could upgrade to SLI

[Legolessed]

8 minutes ago, ShadySocks said:

It depends if you want to make the Titanator or two gt 8600s

or in my case, i thought about putting two gt 420's in sli  i thought it would be more cost effective than getting a new gpu. i ended up getting a gtx 760 oc which should be arriving soon.

[Legolessed]

5 minutes ago, righteousbae said:

was looking more in the lower/midrange, something like two rx 480s in crossfire or two 1060s in sli. but ive heard that there's sometimes issues with different setups so Im just curious how well or how bad it works for others before dropping the cash on two cards

mid range........ im running a gt 420, like a champ  

[Mooshi]

A strong single gpu will always be better than 2 mid range gpus. While you can get gains in theory to equate to a flagship card, it will never get 100% consistent performance.

 

It's wasted power for some games to not even support it. Unless you're doing some crazy OP build with 1080 Ti's in SLI, don't even bother.

 

GTX 1060 doesn't even support SLI fyi.

[Megah3rtz]

GTX 1060 doesn't support SLI....

16 minutes ago, righteousbae said:

was looking more in the lower/midrange, something like two rx 480s in crossfire or two 1060s in sli. but ive heard that there's sometimes issues with different setups so Im just curious how well or how bad it works for others before dropping the cash on two cards

 

[MrJoosh]

14 minutes ago, Legolessed said:

mid range........ im running a gt 420, like a champ  

I see your GT420, and raise you a GTS250

[.:Wumbo:.]

It all depends on your budget... For a low end pricing, I would say multiple 1060s or 970s or 960s. If u want to be the big man on the block.... I think u should go with SLI 1080s or 980s. If u want to get the TI varients, that is up to you. I have a 1080ti and I love it. Single card works just fine for me. 

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

there is no cost benefit to sli. you are better off saving money and upgrading card every year. I would only sli if i was rich like a saudi prince

[Guest]

As someone who ran crossfire (on old cards granted), I think I can contribute. I hated it.

More noise, more heat, and more power draw. 

Barely any games I play can support it (Black Ops 2 does but games like Assetto Corsa don't). GTA V stuttered to the point of being unplayable. 

Things may have changed with newer cards though those are my 2 cents.

TL;DR: Crossfire was crap for me, get 1 expensive GPU instead of 2 mid ranged ones. 

[Frankenburger]

I've been a multi GPU user for nearly a decade. My first multi GPU setup was CFX HD4870. I since then moved to the HD5970, SLI GTX 980, SLI GTX 1080, and now SLI GTX 1080Ti. Being more of a graphics enthusiast than a frame rate enthusiast, both CFX and SLI has worked fairly well for me.

 

Before I owned my first multi GPU setup, I my rigs typically used low end to mid range video cards. This was back in the day where tweaking drivers and editing .ini's gave considerable performance and IQ boosts. I'd spend hours tweaking games to make them run just right. When I got my CFX HD4870 system, I quickly realized how important tweaking drivers is for CFX and SLI. While most of the games I played worked with CFX/SLI out of the box, it was through trial and error that I found out many games that don't work with CFX/SLI can be configured to be more conducive to a multi GPU system.

 

That being said, there are a few things to consider about multi GPU systems. First, not every game will work with multiple GPUs. Second, tweaking drivers often yields positive results in non conducive games. Finally, multi GPU systems scale progressively better the higher your resolution. It's very easy to bottleneck a multi GPU system, especially now that PCs have outgrown the requirements of modern games. This is a testament to how little most multi GPU systems scale at anything lower than 4k.

 

If you're someone who prefers to simply plug and play, perhaps change a few video settings in game, and doesn't care for tweaking drivers, then a multi GPU system is not for you. But if you prefer IQ over framerates, don't mind tweaking your drivers, and can accept that not every game will work with a multi GPU setup, then I'd definitely recommend it.