What's faster? SLI or Crossfire?

[steve695]

Hey all.

Currently I am planning on only running one GTX 670 but I may want to go with SLI one day.

I can get an equivalent AMD graphics card for roughly the same price as a GTX 670, I'm not really too fussed with which one I end up going with as the difference will hardly be noticable. I know the GTX 670 is slightly better but if I ever want to run 2, what runs better? SLI or Crossfire?

I have read a few things about SLI being noisy and having problems running, can anyone elaborate?

Either way I will probably end up only using one card but you never know, I will probably change my mind in future and I'm just trying to find out who has the better multiple-card system.

 

[axew]

None is faster,that depends on the cards you are going to use.
A single GTX 670 will be plently for any game on 1080p or even higher.
Both Crossfire and SLI produce bigger amount of heat and noise since there are 2/3/4 cards running instead of one. You also need a sufficient PSU, something like 600-700W quality banded min. for two cards.

 

[fantastik250]

As axew stated, it depends on the cards and how well they scale together meaning it will either perform stronger or minimally. That's why you see Tom's Hardware do benchmarks with SLI or CFX configurations and if it's worth doing it.

 

[dudewitbow]

depends on the game, driver versions at times, and specific card

 

[steve695]

Ok thanks for the info.

So there's no specific answer, that's cool and makes sense. I will probably stick with Nvidia then.
I will run one GTX 670 for now and add another if I ever feel the need.

 

[steve695]

Best answer selected by steve695.

 

[steve695]

1 670 will do fine for a long while, i doubt you would need SLi

Thanks.

Yeah true, BF3 is the most system demanding game I want to play at the moment and the GTX 670 at 1080p runs that on an average of 60 FPS which is plenty.

However, when games come out in the future that are more demanding I may need to buy another one.

 

[axew]

Yay, my first time as best answer!

 

[steve695]

Yay, my first time as best answer!

haha