jonathanx54

If I crossfire/SLI with two video cards, how good will it actually be? What I mean is, will the fps be better, or do people just use two ore more video cards because they look cool. lol

For instance, if I crossfired two http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150441 will the graphics be any better than just one?

Also the same with this one, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150436

Matthew1990

Graphics won't be better. Graphics depend on a game. You would get more FPS, and could switch on AA which will make the imaga look smoother.

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jonathanx54

I'm confused. lol You said graphics wont be better, but it will be smoother. What do you mean?

spynoodle

This kind of thing has been happening to me all day: I talk about something, and then I see it right in my face somewhere. If you need more replies, feel free to look at any replies made to my thread, also on the front page, about crossfire as well.

Matthew1990

I mean you won't make old game look amazing...For instance COD will never look like Crysis.

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The Chad

The graphics won't be any better than what they can be if thats what you mean. When he says smoother it means that the edges of things will be a lot better, more realistic in terms of speaking.

Rather get a single high-end GPU now and in a year or so when more games support SLI/CrossFire put another card in.

bomberboysk

Well, it depends upon the game. If a single card cant run the game at high settings, and a crossfire setup can run it at the highest possible settings, it will look better.

However, games that are already maxxed out on settings and good frames per second will get no benefit.

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jonathanx54

So will one great graphics card be better than two good ones. For instance, will one 1gb 4870 graphics card be better than two 512mb graphics cards?

AcetheGamer

Depends on what 512mb graphics card we are talking about. If you already got a motherboard with crossfire, good psu, then getting two HD4850's is better than a single HD4870, price and performance wise ( that's based on the current pricing here in my place ). Though you have to consider, say a newly launched game may take a number of driver updates for it to run problem free on cf. Else, just get a single high end card.

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Aastii

Theoretically, 2 cards=twice the power. What you got to remember with a computer is it is a big calculator, it does calculations, your processor does calculations, your video card does calculations. If you have 2 cards, you have 2 chips, you have twice the number of calculations going on (theoretically). You never get double the power with crossfire or SLI though, you get pretty close to in most cases, but never double.

If you have an old game that would run no problems on full settings at a stable 60fps on a single 4850, getting a second would be pointless, you already have it on the best, you already have it on good frames per seond.

But, you get a more modern game and a single 4850 can only handle it on medium settings at 40fps, getting a second card would mean you could be able to put it at high settings at a higher resolution and get 60 fps.

It will increases performance over one card, but you can't really look at it as 2 512mb cards = same as 1 1gb card, it doesn't work like that.

The storage on a card is video memory, not processing power, it affects how good a card is, generally out of 2 cards in the same graphics card model, a 1gb card will be better than a 512mb, but it isn't only showing how good it is. If you were to use that logic, my 2 8600GTs that I have in my system make 1GB, those together aren't better than a single 512mb 4850, the 4850 blows it out of the water.

If you had 2 512mb cards that are of the same model as a single 1gb card, I would say 9 times out of 10 the 2 512mb cards will be better because there are 2 chips processing data about what to put on screen

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