Crossfire / SLi - new rig questions

[wanderica]

Hi all,

It's time for a new build, and I've spent the past several days getting myself "back in the loop" and spending my tax money! At first, I was convinced that I wanted a crossfire setup in the way of 2 6950s, but as I read and do more research, I'm not so sure.

It is primarily a gaming rig, but it is my intention to turn my current X3 rig into an experimental HTPC, so who knows? I might be doing some encoding too. Also, I plan to run a dual monitor setup.

As for budget, the lower the better, not to exceed a total cost of ~$1500. I had planned on buying 2 6950s for 244.99 each, so for the upper range of my budget, I'll stick to $490.

When last I bought a card, $500 was what I paid for a single 8800 GTX, so less for a current gen crossfire setup seemed too good to be true. Has pricing just become more competitive?

I'm sure that I don't need crossfire or SLi, so I was thinking I'd be better off performance-wise putting that extra 250 buck towards an SSD, but I'm still torn.

My questions:

Does price vs, performance gain justify SLi or Crossfire? A few years ago, it did not, but pricing seems to be better overall now.

Are the drawbacks of running 2 video cards (increased power usage, microstuttering, 2 cards = twice the chance one will fail) worth it for the performance gain.

And as always when faced with these decisions, what are your thoughts on longevity? One card now means I get to upgrade sooner.

Thanks in advance. I know you "regulars" get asked these things a lot, but know that you are an invaluable resource to us part-timers.

 

[Rifter]

I would get a single card if buying today. The only reason im running SLI 460's not a 6970 or 580 is because when i purchased them the ATI6xxx series and Nvidia 5xx series did not exist.

 

[Elfear]

What resolution do you game at? There is no single card out that even comes close to Xfired 6950's. If you don't need the horsepower, then you'll just be wasting money and dumping more heat into your room. But if you play the latest games at max details and at 1920x1200 or above, I'd say going Crossfire/SLI is worth it. At 2560x1600 there is no question.

 

[wuliheron]

Yeah, for full HD maxed out gaming crossfire/sli is the way to go. BUT! Unless you really have to max out everything NOW! its much cheaper to buy the single best video card you can afford now and add a second one later. In a year or two the price of a good video card can come down over a hundred dollars or more.

For your budget I'd recommend building an i5 2500k crossfire system and then getting the best single gpu you can afford with the money left.

 

[happy medium]

What resolution do you game at? There is no single card out that even comes close to Xfired 6950's. If you don't need the horsepower, then you'll just be wasting money and dumping more heat into your room. But if you play the latest games at max details and at 1920x1200 or above, I'd say going Crossfire/SLI is worth it. At 2560x1600 there is no question.

Hows the microstutter with your rig?

 

[SolMiester]

If you only have an X3, then you are going to be somewhat CPU bound in your decision. I would say single card. I dont see multi gpu setups req'd for anything but 25x16, and would be bottlenecked with that CPU anyway!
Edit - maybe read the thread wrong, are you using a X3?

 

[Elfear]

Hows the microstutter with your rig?

I really haven't noticed any as of yet. I plan on restarting the Stalker series and Crysis which will be the most likely to exhibit microstutter. I'll report back after I've had a chance to play those games.

OP- I didn't notice you were using an X3. That probably isn't enough to power a pair of 6950s or 560s.

 

[MentalIlness]

Not sure when the troll posts will ever stop. OP...if you do decide a multi-gpu rig, microstutter is more of a thing of the past. Im not saying it isnt there, but to my eyes, on my monitor it isnt. At least to me. "IMO". I don't notice it at all. And apparently games "so far" Elfear hadn't/hasn't noticed it either.

Other than that, if you plan on running dual monitors, The 6xxx series would probably be a better choice. Especially if you run a single card. Why not just go with a single card for now aka 6950 for example ?

What resolution do you plan on running ?

 

[happy medium]

Not sure when the troll posts will ever stop.

Me?

I was asking because of this thread. I also thought it was a thing of the past.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2144748

 

[Castiel]

X3 will bottleneck a Xfire/Sli setup

 

[wanderica]

Sorry about the long time for a response. Work and all that . . .

Anyway, to answer a few questions:

First, this will be a complete new build. I'll be going with an i5 760, and not a 2500k only because my buddy has a brand new, unopened, upper end Gigabyte board that he is giving me for free.

I currently have a single Dell 2405 FPW with a native resolution of 1920 x 1200. I love this monitor, but as it is getting up there in age, I want to buy a newer monitor and run a dual setup. Originally, my build included two new monitors.

(btw, is it recommended to run one monitor at 1920x1200 and the second at 1920x1080 or is it better to run both the same? Never had a dual monitor setup before.)

Anyway, my main concern is that a dual monitor setup running 1920 x 1200 or 1920 x 1080 would be too taxing on a single card, and for the difference in price versus what I paid for my 8800 GTX when it was new, Crossfire seemed like a good choice.

Thanks again for all the great responses.

 

[happy medium]

You want to run games with 2 monitors?

 

[Rifter]

You want to run games with 2 monitors?

this is such a bad idea. Having your aim point cut in half by monitor bezels makes this unuseable imo.

 

[wanderica]

You want to run games with 2 monitors?

I don't think so. I'm not sure I could put up with my display stretching across 2 screens. Forgive my ignorance here, but I was thinking more along the lines of windowed mode on one screen, leaving desktop open on the other.

Again, I've never had a dual monitor setup before and it's new territory for me. I'm still researching this. Any input is appreciated though!

 

[CaptCanada]

I was also thinking of going with a Xfire based rig, namely using two 6970's paired with a I5 2500K processsor, and 8G DDR3 ram.

I game at 1920x1200 and mainly play flight sims, such as IL2, FSX, HAWX, DCS Warthog
and Black Shark. I also play STALKER Clear Sky, Bioshock2 and plan on playing Crysis 2, Metro 2033 as well as DNF.

Thoughts on my vid card selection for Xfire?

 

[happy medium]

Thoughts on my vid card selection for Xfire?

Overkill came to mind. I'd go with 1 6950 first (it should be enough) if not grab another.
6970's are way overpriced.

 

[CaptCanada]

I was thinking of 6950's as well.

 

[wanderica]

After much deliberation, I think I've finally decided. I'll go with a single 6950 for now and leave myself a cheap upgrade path for later with Crossfire as a possibility. Also, I've decided to forgo the new monitor. I just can't part with my 2405 FPW. Best monitor I've ever owned, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

This should leave me well within my budget and allow for two 128 SSDs in Raid 0 and a nice new mid-tower to replace this old p180 that has become an eyesore for me.

Thanks again for the suggestions. Now to spend the money and start building!

 

[CaptCanada]

Overkill came to mind. I'd go with 1 6950 first (it should be enough) if not grab another.
6970's are way overpriced.

Would dual 6870's be a good alternative to dual 6950's?

Thanks!

 

[12andy]

As an alternative, consider a pair of Sapphire 6850s and o/c them. Their stock coolers are fairly nice and can be tweaked (via Afterburner's adjustable fan curve) for fairly silent gaming, not to mention supposed combined lower power consumption than the 580.

As for microstutter, this has been a huge worry of mine since the incarnation of SLI/ CF. My fears have been put to rest, however.

On my NEC EA231WMi @ 83hz, FPS remains fluid (BF: BC2, Black Ops, Quake Live thus far). No discernable input lag in Quake Live either (Steel Xai @ 1000hz).

Personally, once you've experienced playing a game at a constant 120+ FPS, there's no going back. The fluidity and input response is unmatched, thus to get as close as you possibly can to those levels would be ideal.

 

[gr8erimage]

This should leave me well within my budget and allow for two 128 SSDs in Raid 0 and a nice new mid-tower to replace this old p180 that has become an eyesore for me.

SSDs in Raid offer almost no increase in performance. Use the savings for an SSD + pair of 1TB HDD in Raid 0.

 

[alcoholbob]

Well isn't the load balancing for multi-GPU done by the CPU?

In that case, OCing the CPU should be a way to alleviate of microstutter.

I've never had problems with microstutter...I've had STUTTER problems with Multi-GPU though. In some games it would just lock up in a scheduled pattern, like every 7 seconds it would lock up for a moment...but that's with only games that are programmed like sh!t and don't run well on a single card anyway.

 

[betasub]

What load-balancing? Both SLI & Crossfire use AFR = alternate frame rendering.