The END for SLI & Crossfire.

penguin1

Distinguished
Jun 10, 2006
290
0
18,780
With ATI and Nvidia moving towards dual-GPU does it mean it's the end for SLI & Crossfire setup?

dual-GPU consumes lesser power and the results are almost equal to two cards. In fact everyone knows that SLI & Crossfire has never been too sucessful with only 5-30% improvement in most games.

Thats what everyone seems to be saying, that SLI and Crossfire will be gone soon..... ok maybe not gone but unprefered and not worth the money

edit: ok my main point is will dual chip Graphic card(7950) be the prefered choice over two Graphic(7900 x2) cards one day. Considering all the benefits.
 

prozac26

Distinguished
May 9, 2005
2,808
0
20,780
Dual GPU is the same as SLI. Just on one PCI-E slot. Yes, it uses little less power, but performance is about equal. It's little better in some cases. but dual GPU is SLI and Crossfire.
 

gomerpile

Distinguished
Feb 21, 2005
2,292
0
19,810
Its not supprising that SLI slots will be intergrated into one card that was spoken of by hardware vendors I cannot remember if it was toms or where but I did read of it a few months ago I believe it was ati and nvidia mentioning the sli dual graphic even quad. SLI was a new thing presented to us and like all hardware similar like the slot 1 processor something new comes. Thats the history of hardware in almost everything now. Refrase SLI it wont change but needing two graphic cards to use SLI will change
 

f1nal_0men

Distinguished
Feb 26, 2006
367
0
18,780
dual-GPU consumes lesser power and the results are almost equal to two cards. In fact everyone knows that SLI & Crossfire has never been too sucessful with only 5-20% improvement in most games.

Uh... I'm not 100% sure about crossfire, but I know in most games, sli is at least 50% performance gain over a single card when cpu is not bottleneck.
 

kwalker

Distinguished
May 3, 2006
856
0
18,980
Thats what everyone seems to be saying, that SLI and Crossfire will be gone soon.....

who's everyone? 8O

if anything
SLI and Crossfire have just begun.
the architecture may change.
but dont look for it to drop off the face of the planet just yet.
:wink:
 

prozac26

Distinguished
May 9, 2005
2,808
0
20,780
Uh... I'm not 100% sure about crossfire, but I know in most games, sli is at least 50% performance gain over a single card when cpu is not bottleneck.
Not quite. 1600x1200 resolution is the minumum you must play at to gain benefits from SLI. It's not guaranteed that SLI will give any performance boost. Most games don't see improvements.
 

kwalker

Distinguished
May 3, 2006
856
0
18,980
you bring up an interesting point.
ati's response should be quite impressive.
If anything the intoduction of the 7950 is more of an uternitive to sli than a replacement.
we shall see
in any case
waiting to purchase the next graphics solutution may be as antisipated as the wait for conroe.
 

hergieburbur

Distinguished
Dec 19, 2005
1,907
0
19,780
Yes the conroe is sounding real handsome I wont buy hardware yet I'm waiting for all this to be bugged out first

Yeah, but if you are always waiting for the next big thing, and there is always a next generation, when do you buy?

Myself, I don't game at high enough resolution to make SLI worth it, but I am hoping I can use another card in my crossfire board to go with my X1900 AIW for physics. I doubt it though, since the AIW is its own animal and never works in those types of combos.
 

Heyyou27

Splendid
Jan 4, 2006
5,164
0
25,780
dual-GPU consumes lesser power and the results are almost equal to two cards.
If you're comparing a 7950GX2 to two 7900GTXs which come clocked 150MHz higher per core, then yes it does consume less energy.
Not quite. 1600x1200 resolution is the minumum you must play at to gain benefits from SLI. It's not guaranteed that SLI will give any performance boost. Most games don't see improvements.
You're basing this off of what? Owning an SLI I can honestly say I see good performance increases in every game played other than Half-Life2. (Original, Lost Coast and Episode 1 get a pretty good improvement)

Nearly ALL games receive a boost from SLI and Crossfire. Does that mean it's worth it to pay the extra money for a second card? If it's within your needs, however most people should be fine with a single card.
 

gomerpile

Distinguished
Feb 21, 2005
2,292
0
19,810
I did buy just last week 805 and a 7800 because I know they performed well, also I bought the physx that I only used 6 times with the worst ever performance
 

penguin1

Distinguished
Jun 10, 2006
290
0
18,780
ok my main point is will dual chip Graphic card(7950) be the prefered choice over two Graphic(7900 x2) cards one day. Considering are the benefits.
 

kwalker

Distinguished
May 3, 2006
856
0
18,980
you didnt ask that.
but since you did now.
one grahics card that competes with either sli or crossfire for half the price can not be ignored.
I would opt for the winner over the next few months and leave my crossfire slot empty.
it only makes sense.
less power and double the performance.
 
ok my main point is will dual chip Graphic card(7950) be the prefered choice over two Graphic(7900 x2) cards one day. Considering are the benefits.

Well and really the GF7950 is only halfway there, it's still 2 PCBs on 1 slot. The dual X1600 and dual GF6200 are more like the cards that would be best where it's 1 PCB and 2 chips.

The cooling arrangement for the GF7950 is a hurdle, whereas the chips side by side allows better cooling, although may currently cause issue with the current power/heat of the top GPUs (putting two X1600 side by side is nothing like 2 GF7900s or X1800/1900s).

The whole benifit of doubling up is the lower cost per chip, more market segments per chip and the ability to suprass process shrink limitations as well as draw out the lifespan of chips.

There is little power benifit of dual chip versus more efficient core, but even that hits diminishing returns with process shrinks where you have to overcome crosstalk, etc by increasing voltage/power.
 

penguin1

Distinguished
Jun 10, 2006
290
0
18,780
to sum sum up everything u typed, the chances of dual chip GC being the mainstream in the market is possible but chances are low.
 
to sum sum up everything u typed, the chances of dual chip GC being the mainstream in the market is possible but chances are low.

Yeah, but only 'for now under current circumstances', who knows what happens one we start pushing up against 45nm, etc.

I've mentiond before that getting more transistors on a single chip/wafer is a situation where it might make more sense to have two 350mil trans chips on a single card, then trying to get a flawless 600mil trans (yes I know it's less but think SLi performance is less than 200%) chip on the same cards. That you could also sell a single one as you entry or mid-level means you can sell more chips (helps reduce cost/chip).

Alot of this depends on developments. If the transition to 90nm had been slow and bug frought, likely dual chip cards would be the way to go, and the focus for new chips would be features more than performance, and then you would simply double them up for the gaming cards. If we couldn't move to 90nm until mid 2007, I'd expect that both nV and ATi would have something like a dual chip GF7800 (110nm), but with added features. Anywhooo that's my personal take on it, really large chips aren't great unless you can get great yields and usually the larger the # of transistors the higher the failure rate, and it's likely more than 2X as much (probably a geometric progression of failure).