Crossfire vs SLI vs Single Card Motherboard

[Shadow703793]

++++ Answer the poll after you read this post completely++++


I will be building a new PC for one of my friends (He is paying for the parts and i get $150 for building it ) he wants a Crossfire Enabled Motherboard. I was wondering if this is a good thing to do. He wants the absolute best gaming system btw. He has about a $8k budget. (Wish I had that kind of money )

So here are the questions i have for you all:

1. Which is better for gaming SLI or Crossfire?

2. What are some good SLI and Crossfire motherboards?

3. Is it better to go with one graphics card such as the 8800 or an X1950?

4. Will you notice any difference in performance?

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Here are the other parts:

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66GHz= $1000
Seagate Barracuda ES ST3750640NS 750GB= $400
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB 10,000 RPM=$230
NEC 20.1" 6ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor= $570
Thermaltake Armor Silver Aluminum ATX Full=$180
ENERMAX Liberty ELT620AWT ATX12V 620W(SLI Certified)= $150
ZALMAN 9700 LED 110mm= $55
OCZ FlexXLC Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) Kit = $264
Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Ultimate for System Builders= $200
*ALL PARTS MUST BE FOUND ON NEWEGG.COM*

That is what i plan to put in this system. I left the Motherboard and Graphics card blank because that is what i need to decide. SLI vs Crossfire vs Single Card.

All other suggestions are welcome.

He wants this PC finished by March 23. Please hurry.

 

[rammedstein]

ok, if he has a $8k budget i would wait quite some time (until Barcelona and the r600 come out), because what happens if they turn out to totally slaughter the competition? at the moment i think crossfire is better for gaming but sli is more compatible and it also supports the current leading gfx card (aka, 8800gtx) now, if the x-fire works as well as it did for the x1950xtx the r600 may be apocalyptic, because comparing dual x1950xtxs to dual 7950gtxs the ati card almost literally doubled in performance yet the nvidia cards only increased by about 70-80%. i would wait until then, that way you can get a good view of the situation and you wont end up blowing $8k. personally i think 2xx2800xtxs will perform about 40-50% faster than 2 8800gtxs and i think that the 2 x2800xtxs will have full driver support and will allow dx10 xfire.

so i am thinking:

1) wait till later in the year

2) sumise how well x2800xtxs perform compared to nvidias best cards at the time

3)compare Barcelona to c2d

i think the outcome will be this:

the 2 x2800xtxs will perform about 30% better than 2 x8800gtxs but the Barcelona will only just be on par with the c2d.

 

[BUFF]

if he wants it finished by Mar 23 then 2x8800GTX in SLI will slaughter any current Crossfire setup.
Whether he needs that power will also involve what he is displaying it on - if he isn't playing at seriously high res (2500x?) then he may not need it.

So, if we say that he's going 8800GTX SLI then he ought to go 680i (he has the budget).
Next decision is reference 680i mob (BFG, ECS, eVGA, Inno3D etc.) or non-reference - Asus Striker, abit IN9 32X, Gigabyte 680-DQ6 etc.
Currently I would go for the abit but preview rumours of the Gigabyte are good.

 

[killerlaxplayer0]

I use a single card but if i had to choose between SLI and Crossfire i'd choose crossfire because even though people say nvdia is better for gaming the higher end directx 9 ATI cards are much better than the higher end Nvidia Directx9 cards so the bottom line is if your planning on getting a direct x9 and have have a big budget go with the high end Radeon X1950 XTX ATI crossfire setup. Those will kill any directx 9 SLI setup that nvidia has out. Directx 10 is basicly the same story execpt ATI hasnt realeased their cards. my Sugestion is wait until ATI releases their high end DX10 cards and get 2 of those and set up a crossfire it will maal pretty much any nvidea SLI setup

 

[Shadow703793]

Ok, thanks for your help. He said he will wait until June/July for a new build.

 

[Heyyou27]

Nvidia currently offers the fast single and dual card solution on the market. One 8800GTX can outperform two X1950XTXs in most titles. Once the R600 hits, things should change a bit but we're still a few months from that.

 

[sailer]

Ok, thanks for your help. He said he will wait until June/July for a new build.

If he's waiting until then, the R600 should be out and it could very well beat whatever Nvidia has at the time. I also wish that both Nvidia and AMD/ATI would use the same board so we consumers could make a choice based on what's the best card at the time without having to buy a special motherboard to support that card

 

[wormy]

what about the 620watt power supply...is that enough to power 2 8800GTXs or 2 2800s...and still be somewhat future proof?

 

[sailer]

what about the 620watt power supply...is that enough to power 2 8800GTXs or 2 2800s...and still be somewhat future proof?

That depends; how much other hardware are you running? My computer would need a 850wt psu if I ran two 8800 GTXs. You may not have as much hardware, so you might get by with less. Then again, if you're really thinking future proof, you should be thinking of a psu of at least 750wt size. It doesn't make sense to me why so many people want to think about as much hardware as they can buy, yet want to skimp on the psu.