one powerful graphics card or 2 cheaper ones in Sli

I want to upgrade my pc with a more powerful graphics card and I have a bit of a dilemma.I am stuck betwen buying a gtx460 or 2 1 gb gt240's and use them in sli.I want some advice on that.what is the best solution?

asked Jun 30 '11 at 16:05

Andrei_Iurea
970●31●41●52

2 Answers:

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SLI doesn't fully utilize your cards. Neither does CrossfireX although it's slightly more effective. I'd go with a single card since there are many applications where SLI and CrossfireX can't be utilized, so it will only use one card instead of both. Generally SLI is used if you already have one card and don't want to buy a very expensive card to upgrade, instead you buy a similar card and dubble up. But if you really want two cards I would strongly advise you to choose two AMD cards because CrossfireX is just superior to SLI in just about every way shape or form.

answered Jun 30 '11 at 16:29

Thor Wiingaard
(suspended)

I already have an ati radeon hd 4650 1 gb and I want to upgrade from that.You think that buying another one and use 2 in crossfire would do the job?

(Jun 30 '11 at 17:25) Andrei_Iurea

that depends on what you're aiming for. It won't do ultra on every game but the increase in performance should be around 80%. Don't take my word for it though. The benefit of buying a new card instead of adding an old card is you get the newer technologies. If you want to run games on ultra high fidelity you have to get the newest cards (hd6870+, gtx580+) or else the older technologies just can't handle it. But if you don't need to have ultra high then crossfire is much more cost efficient. Remember to check if you have the power and space for them though.

(Jun 30 '11 at 17:37) Thor Wiingaard

The reality of the situation is that having two cards increases overhead, because they have to sync their actions. Therefore, if you have a card operating at 100% capacity, and you add another, with Nvidia you'll notice that it's only ~125% of original performance, a measly 25% gain. ATI is a little better, with a 33% gain, but it's still negligible. A single card will operate much faster.

answered Jun 30 '11 at 18:43

HHBones
4.1k●61●82●118

I would think it would be more efficient from a power point of view, and probably cooler in the machine to have only one GPU for a heat source.

(Jun 30 '11 at 20:27) Duodave

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