Of memory and SLI/CF

My setup is starting to show its age so it`s time to do a little research for the next build.
The question is; Is it useful to use 2x1Gb cards in SLI/CF as opposed to 2x512Mb? I`d be looking at cards of the calibre of the 9800/GTS250/HD4850 for multi GPU or GTX280/285 for a single card. In all cases I`m using a 1920x1200 monitor.

Hi, Kubes, thanks, yes, should have given a bit more info
This will be an all new build, from the ground up, I`ll only keep the monitor, that way I an recoup at least a little of the cost by selling the ageing C2D.
The heavy load will be games but the build is still some way off so the final spec is barely pencilled in atm although an i7 and X58 should be within reason by the time I do it. Cooling will most likely be stock although I hear the i7 runs hot so maybe I`ll go water for the CPU.
I know one card of 9800/GTS250/HD4850 calibre can`t really use 1Gb fully but what about SLI/CF? Would it make sense to use 1Gb cards of that type here, where the extra rendering power can make use of the extra memory? Or have I missed something about SLI/CF?

So here's my take:

Knowing that your doing an x58 board I would know that It could support either crossfire or and sli setup. So I probally would tilt towards nvidia rather than ati.

I would probally start off with a single card solution. Maybe a gtx 280. Here is my reasoning behind that. A lot of games have problems with sli setups. Some games don't even have support for sli. So there's a good chance you'll run into bugs like I have doing a multi gpu setup (GTX 295 is considerd an multi gpu card). Another issue that I would keep an eye on is Power use and Heat. With a single gpu you won't need as big of a psu, and you'll create much less heat. When you start cramming a bunch of gpu's in a case it can be very difficult to keep them cool. Another note is that the GTX 280 will most likely be cheaper than buying two graphics cards. GTX 280 also uses 55nm techonlogy which will require less power and produce less heat. And one last note you won't be taking up two spots.

This also will leave you the ability to upgrade in the future to a second card if you feel your system needs a boost.

Now if you do decide to go sli/cf the i7 is the best cpu for that. It's benchmarks are pretty impressive with how well it handles sli/cf. So If you do go down this route Its not a bad choice but my thoughts say the other route is a better descion.


Some other notes:
You said the i7 runs hot. I can confirm that it is a warm processor, but I don't know if you want to go water cooling unless you do a multi gpu setup. The heat sinks that are now out for the i7 (v8, v10, TRUE ..ect) are very impressive and can allow you to do some impressive overclocking)

When asking about the Ram ammount for a graphics card. That isn't so much a factor to me unless your doing a dual monitor setup or have a huge honking monitor. Then the buffering of framerates becomes more apparent.

Nice reply Kubes,
Couple of points, first the PSU. It dosent make sense to get a lower powered PSU if you may C/F or SLI later. It wont use its full wattage unless it needs to so its not like you are wasting power, and its there if you decide you need it.
Secondly coozie already stated the intention to use 1920x1200 which in my book is firmly in "huge honking monitor" territory. With this in mind i would say that whichever way the build goes 1gb card/s will be required.

Personally i would go single card first for the very points Kubes mentions

Mactronix