Which do you feel is the more efficient solution?

Zardon · Apr 17, 2006, 04:18 PM

Vote and Discuss!

pr0digal jenius · Apr 17, 2006, 04:22 PM

crossfire....yes, SLi works better at the moment, but it's been around longer.

Remember all the pitfalls when it was released? How it only supported, like, 15-20 games? How it crashed doing this and that and only supported monitors if they were configred just so?

ATi had a MUCH smoother launch, even if you take the "availability" issue into account, which seems to be getting much better now.

Props to ATi for being remotely competitive with an idea nVidia has had what, 2 years now, to master.

Judas · Apr 17, 2006, 04:32 PM

Efficient? I'd have to say SLI to start with, being able to combine any 2 cards, from different manufactures... into a system in any order, and just hooking up a little connector between the 2 to get it is imo, much much more efficient. With ati's Mastercard and slave card solution, it's quite troublesome, people just consider that alone and run to nvidia.

Also, there appears to be more problems with crossfire then with sli. I don't blame ati specifically for it, as they are still working on this whole idea. SLI's been around for years, nvidia aquired 3dfx the orginal creators, and finally adapted it to nvidias own designs. So they've got a serious head start.

IF ATI can get things arranged that there is no master cards, no slaves and no special cable to hook everything up. ATI has a damn good chance.

[hobo]eclipse · Apr 17, 2006, 04:44 PM

i dont believe anyone building a crossfire or SLI rig even considers effiency. could be wrong though as using the lower end cards is gaining popularity and catching on.

Sandok · Apr 17, 2006, 05:12 PM

SLI.... more support, easier install method (no dongle) and very easy to implement (no need for a special card).

NV really played well in this domain

And it's also cheaper than Xfire

CDsDontBurn · Apr 17, 2006, 08:50 PM

As far as efficiency, I believe that nVidia's SLI solution is much more efficient than ATI's crossfire. The reason why i believe so, was stated above by what Judas had to say about there needing to be a master and slave card. In a single card solution, I would definately choose an ATI over nVidia card, but that's a different story to be told.

Richie-b · Apr 17, 2006, 10:07 PM

SLI seems to me to be the more efficient solution.
An SLI setup has 2 cards sharing the work load where as a crossfire setup has a master and slave card, the master card doing the majority of the workload.

blackdog · Apr 17, 2006, 11:23 PM

First lets remember SLI is a borrowed (hijacked) solution from 3dfx(r.i.p) so the head start was there. IMO quality of image reigns above speed

calidan · Apr 18, 2006, 12:12 AM

Wow! This poll is pretty close.

LeanWolf · Apr 18, 2006, 01:37 AM

close indeed! Didn't it used to be possible to see how individuals voted?

IamLakota · Apr 18, 2006, 01:56 AM

SLI,.....Simple Logical Intellgent,...Cudos to NV on this,..Ati has a lot of catching up to do.

Judas · Apr 18, 2006, 01:59 AM

only if that option is enabled when the poll is made....

Lowfat · Apr 18, 2006, 03:30 AM

SLI. Likely because its being around longer.

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · Apr 18, 2006, 04:07 AM

at this point SLi is more effective IMO. crossfire is coming along, but in its first gen it hasn't displayed good results and was more tricky to setup. a master card, a secondary card then dongle. SLI was more straight foward 2 cards and a connector and your set.

but BOTH were a bitch to setup i hated it....

Judas · Apr 18, 2006, 04:42 AM

i never had troubles setting up... just knowing more can go wrong quite easily....

Vikingod · Apr 18, 2006, 04:42 AM

I'd honestly have to say both are pretty equal. I certainly don't think either have a clear advantage tech-wise. SLI is obviously leading in sales, but that is something completely different. Neither have really impressed me, though my mobo is sli capable. I still seems the best way to get pbetter performance in the newest games is to just have one really fast card.

BWX · Apr 18, 2006, 05:11 AM

Voted SLI, just on a hunch and from what I have seen and read over the past year. I would never use a dual card solution though, I would always just upgrade to a faster single card.

Leekay07 · Apr 18, 2006, 10:49 AM

What if you have the fastest and you want to run Oblivion or Call Of Duty 2 at 50FPS on a 1600x1050 monitor or larger? Your then stuck with having to go to 2 cards like myself.

Falstaff · Apr 18, 2006, 11:36 AM

SLI at the moment, crossfire is still buggy from what I have been told. Nvidia just works almost all of the time. I purchased three 7800s for my father, my son and daughter on their machines, they work flawlessly with the latest zeropoints or any driver. ATI is a pain in the ass sometimes, I own one myself and upgrading to a 1900 soon, but Nvidia is what my kids prefer, and they use my machine for their college studies and occasionally gamingl etc.
Nvidia is on the right track, but either technology is going to be replaced soon with onboard chipsets featuring what we see now, rather than on a card...
Cards will eventually go away for mainstream I predict.

~~Alien1~~ · Apr 18, 2006, 11:48 AM

I voted SLI
SLI are more stable sollutions

but when Crossfire matures with ATI chipset sollutions beeing less buggy(maybe buggy is not the exact word for them...bad compatibility with a variety of hardware and games perhaps ?) things may change

Sandok · Apr 18, 2006, 12:05 PM

What I think is more efficient is the installation method of SLi over Crossfire. I mean, for one you just go and order two cards and hook em up but for the latter, you must go buy the card you want and then a more expensive MASTER card and hook em up with a dongle. It works, but no way near as easy and simple as SLi

BWX · Apr 18, 2006, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leekay07

What if you have the fastest and you want to run Oblivion or Call Of Duty 2 at 50FPS on a 1600x1050 monitor or larger? Your then stuck with having to go to 2 cards like myself.

See I think I would just get the absolute fastest card on the market and OC it before going to a dual card solution. No question dual cards are faster overall, but to me just not worth it at the rate new cards are coming out and the speed boosts the new cards always seem to have.

bug77 · Apr 18, 2006, 02:02 PM

Voted for SLI. You can use SLI for any game as long as you define a profile for it; you can't do that with ATI. And support... Mobos with ATI chipsets are expensive and plagued by problems.

Sandok · Apr 18, 2006, 05:49 PM

NV is exactly 60 votes ahead

Very close pole once again

Judas · Apr 18, 2006, 07:11 PM

Crossfire automatically defaults to the super tiling method when a game is loaded that no specific ati profile is available...

crossfire works on everything... it just depends if it works properly... (there will always be problems)

i've load up some fairly old games and see a massive different between non crossfire...

i mean, Darkplaces Quake 1 most likely has zero profile... defaulting to super tiling = Massive difference...

ronnn · Apr 19, 2006, 04:14 AM

I have no real opinion, as can't imagine wanting 2 cards of either solution. Ati seems to use exorbatant power and produces lots of heat, but has the better IQ. Nvidia uses only lots of power and has more mature drivers, but just can't see spending that money and settling for inferior IQ. So maybe next gen will produce 2 cards that can work in a more efficient manner than 1 card, as single cards do seem to be reaching a ceiling of feasable results versus cost of production and heat issues.

classic_leon · Apr 20, 2006, 11:46 AM

SLI is more easily installed rather than Crossfire that is designed for duo-card design. When it process Alternate Frame Rendering, the workload of two cards are not exactly the same...powerfull master card of crossfire composes the graphic image but SLI which are two same cards makes a few resources wasted.

Partizan · Apr 20, 2006, 12:00 PM

I wonder if two crossfire cards could work in crossfire mode in nvidia sli based motherboard

Judas · Apr 20, 2006, 04:48 PM

that's be kinda neato if it did...

atm, i can get a crossfire master card for 100 bucks cheaper then a x1900xtx card

mkk · Apr 20, 2006, 05:19 PM

Crossfire is shaping up and that SLI has had the lead so far is perhaps not too surprising considering the earlier introduction. The advantages of SLI are small but numerous like currently better cards on the mid-range segment, independant of clunky control software, better mobo availability (if only we could ever get boards that support both variations...) and Linux support. Ask again in 6-12 months and we'll see. By then I hope to be running SLI.

Apr 17, 2006, 04:18 PM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	Which do you feel is the more efficient solution? Vote and Discuss!

Apr 17, 2006, 08:50 PM	#6
CDsDontBurn Lurking DriverHeaven Join Date: May 2003 Location: Southern California Posts: 22,805 Rep Power: 235 System Specs	As far as efficiency, I believe that nVidia's SLI solution is much more efficient than ATI's crossfire. The reason why i believe so, was stated above by what Judas had to say about there needing to be a master and slave card. In a single card solution, I would definately choose an ATI over nVidia card, but that's a different story to be told. __________________ Her First Day \| A year later

Apr 17, 2006, 11:23 PM	#8
blackdog HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Frozen North of 49 Posts: 104 Rep Power: 0	First lets remember SLI is a borrowed (hijacked) solution from 3dfx(r.i.p) so the head start was there. IMO quality of image reigns above speed Last edited by blackdog; Apr 18, 2006 at 01:27 AM.

Apr 18, 2006, 12:12 AM	#9
calidan Frozen in Carbonite Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 1,409 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Wow! This poll is pretty close. __________________ Steam Community :: ID :: calidan "Don't try to be like Jackie. There is only one Jackie.... Study computers instead." - Jackie Chan

Apr 18, 2006, 01:37 AM	#10
LeanWolf alpha male Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Skyrim Posts: 5,714 Rep Power: 84 System Specs	close indeed! Didn't it used to be possible to see how individuals voted? __________________

Apr 17, 2006, 04:22 PM	#2
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	crossfire....yes, SLi works better at the moment, but it's been around longer. Remember all the pitfalls when it was released? How it only supported, like, 15-20 games? How it crashed doing this and that and only supported monitors if they were configred just so? ATi had a MUCH smoother launch, even if you take the "availability" issue into account, which seems to be getting much better now. Props to ATi for being remotely competitive with an idea nVidia has had what, 2 years now, to master.

Apr 17, 2006, 04:44 PM	#4
[hobo]eclipse ...just bummin 'round Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 2,907 Rep Power: 112 System Specs	i dont believe anyone building a crossfire or SLI rig even considers effiency. could be wrong though as using the lower end cards is gaining popularity and catching on.

Apr 17, 2006, 05:12 PM	#5
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	SLI.... more support, easier install method (no dongle) and very easy to implement (no need for a special card). NV really played well in this domain And it's also cheaper than Xfire

Apr 17, 2006, 10:07 PM	#7
Richie-b In the corner Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: In the corner Posts: 106 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	SLI seems to me to be the more efficient solution. An SLI setup has 2 cards sharing the work load where as a crossfire setup has a master and slave card, the master card doing the majority of the workload.

Apr 18, 2006, 01:56 AM	#11
IamLakota HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Viriginia Posts: 552 Rep Power: 0	SLI,.....Simple Logical Intellgent,...Cudos to NV on this,..Ati has a lot of catching up to do. __________________ Harley Davidson: If You Have To Ask You Wouldn't Understand!!! System Specs: Mobo:Asus P6T Deluxe V2,intel i7 920,2x BFG GTX 250 oc in SLI,Corsair 6gigs tri channel pc12800CL8 2xWD Velociraptor's 2x74gig WD Raptor , X-Fi Fatal1ty Titainium,HANNS-G HG281HD 1080p 28" monitor,Coolermaster HAF/922,PC-PWR&Cooling Sliencer 750,CoolerMaster V8 HSF

Apr 18, 2006, 03:30 AM	#13
Lowfat Xtreme Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Grande Prairie, AB, Can Posts: 4,254 Rep Power: 101	SLI. Likely because its being around longer. __________________

Apr 18, 2006, 04:07 AM	#14
BiGBrOwNPimpsta HH's #1 Hustla and Pimp Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Dirty Dot Posts: 7,717 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	at this point SLi is more effective IMO. crossfire is coming along, but in its first gen it hasn't displayed good results and was more tricky to setup. a master card, a secondary card then dongle. SLI was more straight foward 2 cards and a connector and your set. but BOTH were a bitch to setup i hated it.... __________________ Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music \| Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers \| 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners \| Logitech G700 Mouse \| Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard

Apr 18, 2006, 04:42 AM	#16
Vikingod Int'l Fish Liaison Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: By the light of lamp I sit and type... Posts: 16,197 Rep Power: 112 System Specs	I'd honestly have to say both are pretty equal. I certainly don't think either have a clear advantage tech-wise. SLI is obviously leading in sales, but that is something completely different. Neither have really impressed me, though my mobo is sli capable. I still seems the best way to get pbetter performance in the newest games is to just have one really fast card.

Apr 18, 2006, 05:11 AM	#17
BWX unplugged Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: USNY Posts: 19,669 Rep Power: 110 System Specs	Voted SLI, just on a hunch and from what I have seen and read over the past year. I would never use a dual card solution though, I would always just upgrade to a faster single card. __________________

Apr 18, 2006, 10:49 AM	#18
Leekay07 DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 180 Rep Power: 0	What if you have the fastest and you want to run Oblivion or Call Of Duty 2 at 50FPS on a 1600x1050 monitor or larger? Your then stuck with having to go to 2 cards like myself. __________________ [COLOR=black]Cooler Master Stacker Case, 600Watt OCZ Powerstream PSU,Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi Ed. Bios 1042, Intel E6700 Core 2 Duo, X1950XTX + Crossfire, Plextor 755 DVD/RW (sata)[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]320GB Seagate Drive, 2x 150GB WD Raptors, Liteon DVD/RW, Mitsumi Floppy with card reader, Creative X-Fi Soundcard Xtreme Gamer, Asus Silent Square CPU Cooler, Realtek 3 port USB card, 2x1GB Geil 1Ghz 4-4-4-5[/COLOR]

Apr 18, 2006, 11:36 AM	#19
Falstaff Old Codger Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: USAFA Posts: 19,048 Rep Power: 207	SLI at the moment, crossfire is still buggy from what I have been told. Nvidia just works almost all of the time. I purchased three 7800s for my father, my son and daughter on their machines, they work flawlessly with the latest zeropoints or any driver. ATI is a pain in the ass sometimes, I own one myself and upgrading to a 1900 soon, but Nvidia is what my kids prefer, and they use my machine for their college studies and occasionally gamingl etc. Nvidia is on the right track, but either technology is going to be replaced soon with onboard chipsets featuring what we see now, rather than on a card... Cards will eventually go away for mainstream I predict. __________________ "Inspiration is always a surprising visitor."

Apr 18, 2006, 11:48 AM	#20
~~Alien1~~ Banned Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Europe Posts: 365 Rep Power: 0	I voted SLI SLI are more stable sollutions but when Crossfire matures with ATI chipset sollutions beeing less buggy(maybe buggy is not the exact word for them...bad compatibility with a variety of hardware and games perhaps ?) things may change Last edited by Alien1; Apr 18, 2006 at 11:55 AM.

Apr 18, 2006, 12:05 PM	#21
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	What I think is more efficient is the installation method of SLi over Crossfire. I mean, for one you just go and order two cards and hook em up but for the latter, you must go buy the card you want and then a more expensive MASTER card and hook em up with a dongle. It works, but no way near as easy and simple as SLi

Apr 18, 2006, 02:02 PM	#23
bug77 DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: around Posts: 792 Rep Power: 0	Voted for SLI. You can use SLI for any game as long as you define a profile for it; you can't do that with ATI. And support... Mobos with ATI chipsets are expensive and plagued by problems.

Apr 18, 2006, 05:49 PM	#24
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	NV is exactly 60 votes ahead Very close pole once again

Apr 19, 2006, 04:14 AM	#26
ronnn DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 617 Rep Power: 0	I have no real opinion, as can't imagine wanting 2 cards of either solution. Ati seems to use exorbatant power and produces lots of heat, but has the better IQ. Nvidia uses only lots of power and has more mature drivers, but just can't see spending that money and settling for inferior IQ. So maybe next gen will produce 2 cards that can work in a more efficient manner than 1 card, as single cards do seem to be reaching a ceiling of feasable results versus cost of production and heat issues.

Apr 20, 2006, 11:46 AM	#27
classic_leon HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Wu Han, Hu Bei, P.R.China Posts: 1,238 Rep Power: 0	SLI is more easily installed rather than Crossfire that is designed for duo-card design. When it process Alternate Frame Rendering, the workload of two cards are not exactly the same...powerfull master card of crossfire composes the graphic image but SLI which are two same cards makes a few resources wasted. __________________ Fashion keeps us alive. YouP-PAX Please visit http://www.A-PAX.co.uk to discuss the computer mods. The latest YouP PAX modded drivers are provided on the site. Last edited by classic_leon; Apr 20, 2006 at 12:26 PM.

Apr 20, 2006, 12:00 PM	#28
Partizan Fun loving criminal Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Slovenia Posts: 1,182 Rep Power: 62 System Specs	I wonder if two crossfire cards could work in crossfire mode in nvidia sli based motherboard __________________ Live and let live!

Apr 20, 2006, 05:19 PM	#30
mkk Cthulhu/Dagon 2012 Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 4,495 Rep Power: 132 System Specs	Crossfire is shaping up and that SLI has had the lead so far is perhaps not too surprising considering the earlier introduction. The advantages of SLI are small but numerous like currently better cards on the mid-range segment, independant of clunky control software, better mobo availability (if only we could ever get boards that support both variations...) and Linux support. Ask again in 6-12 months and we'll see. By then I hope to be running SLI.