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Loading ...Do we need Crossfire and SLI motherboards?
combatus
I’ve built a few PCs recently where the owners have specifically stated they will not be delving into dual GPU setups and would prefer a board with extra features or space. I didn’t think this was a problem but when I looked for motherboards that were “high end†practically everything had SLI or Crossfire capability and a maximum of 3 PCI slots which seemed a bit of a waste.
The Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. One of the best motherboards ever made and one of the first to include SLI technology.
One of the best overclocking Socket A boards for AMD the Epox 8RDA6 Pro
the lack of SLI means more space on the board for PCI slots.
Then I upgraded to socket 939 and had my shiny new Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard with its dual PCI-E slots, I thought “This is great! When my 6800GT starts to show it’s age I’ll just buy another one for far less than a new high end card.†In theory this could have worked quite well – 6-12 months down the line the retail price for most PC hardware, especially CPU’s and GPU’s is cut in half, and SLI did appear to give significant performance boosts in many games.
However this is where the fairy tale ends and there are several reasons for this:
1. Availability of cards
The 6800 series cards for example were all discontinued before I found the need for a second card. The only choice was to get a second hand card of Ebay.
2. Cost effectiveness
If you do the maths, it’s often clear that when your current card is showing it’s age, its more than likely that by selling it and getting a newer card, you’ll end up no worse off than getting a second card for a dual setup. You’ll also have the benefit of a warranty on the new card as well as being able to use any new features that card might have over your old one.
3. Two heads are not always better than one
While SLI and Crossfire do work, they only work in a select catalogue of games. Many games don’t benefit at all or have stability issues. Even when they do work, the benefits are no way near 100%. Time has shown that even the best results give around 70% performance increases and this is usually at very high resolutions which few gamers actually use.
Edit{4. SLI and Crossfire linked to memory loss!
See Gareth Ogden’s Post on:
 memory loss in dual card setups -
Yet another reason to stick to single card setups, especially in 32bit OS’s
This leaves me thinking when are dual card setups worth it? Well there is an answer to this and no it’s not “neverâ€. The answer is if you have the money to get two of the fastest cards around and whack them into a dual card setup, then you will probably have a lightning fast PC.  Two 8800GTX’s or Ultras at the time of writing for example which I know a few people have.
Unfortunately Nvidia and AMD/ATI have never made it possible to buy two cheaper cards resulting in a faster system for less dosh than a single more expensive card. Nvidia even went out of there way to do this with the 6600GT – two cards of the 256MB model could outperform a more expensive 6800GT so the card was withdrawn and soon became as rare as Dodo eggs.
So from a mercenary point of view, if you’re looking to get the best bang per buck it’s best to avoid dual card setups. But where does this leave us with regards to motherboards? After all, I may want to stick to single GPU setups but I sure as hell want to overclock the nuts out of my system!
Unfortunately manufacturers don’t seem to cater for this point of view as all high end boards since the Asus A8N series first came out in late 2004 have ditched a PCI slot in favour of 2x PCI-E graphics ports.
Yes there are a few boards around that can overclock quite well which don’t have dual graphics slots but I reckon a vast majority of people out there don’t have dual card setups. This suspicion is confirmed if you look at the very interesting Steam’s system stats survey carried out by users of Counterstrike and Half Life’s distribution software.
Out of just over One million entries, only 13,000 have dual card setups. “So what†I hear you say – “they could be the high end users with decent graphics cardsâ€. Well unfortunately there are over five times more 6600 card users for example than the number of dual card users, not to mention any other popular card like 6800, 7800 or 8800 and I haven’t even mentioned ATI yet!
What I’d like to see is a return to high end- single PCI-E slot boards or at least a few more of them. At the moment that second PCI-E slot is a complete waste of space for a majority of people that own them.
Antony Leather
Good point and I don’t have to blog about it now. Whatever your thoughts on SLI first time round, with Voodoo 2s crashing to £50-80 per card, at least it was affordable to give it a go.
Modern day SLI is just good for the card company’s balance sheet. The sole advantage would be an extra card to flog on eBay to a single-card upgrader out for a bargain when you wanted your next card(s).
For me, multiple graphics cards with never be needed. I can see a use in industry, where three or more monitors are needed. At home I find it a bit pointless. That’s why I bought a motherboard based on the nForce 4 Ultra chipset rather then the nForce 4 SLi chipset. The problem with using none SLi chipsets is that the board manufacturers often restrict options in the BIOS. This effectively forces overclockers to buy the more expensive SLi/Crossfire board even though they have no intention of using two graphics cards. As the 7950 X2 showed the best way to have two GPU’s is to have them on one card. That way people don’t have to waste money on motherboard features they don’t need.
i was planning to use SLI, but after some research and general clear-headedness (and the uninspiring look at the slizone forums, where almost all of the posts were saying “SLI NOT WORKIN FIX IT MUMMY” as opposed to “SLI IS THE BOMB”) I have decided not to. Which means i can go for the maximus formula, and not the striker extreme (and not have to worry about the 780i).
you’ve just reaffirmed my decision, so thankyou!