[SOLVED] Gpu cooling in tight spaces

[bryanc723]

I am thinking about buying a set of graphics cards to crossfire. My MoBo is a micro form with 2 PCI-e slots. I don't do any really serious gaming so I'm wondering if it would be better to use just 1 graphics card to help with heat? Or by having them crossfire, would they both run under less load and stay cooler compared to just 1 card? The cards would be very close together until I buy a new mobo.

 

[Gmoney06ss]

Very few games can actually use 2 cards these days. It's always a good idea to just use the most powerful single card that fits your budget.

Two cards will never run cooler than a single card.

 

[bryanc723]

Very few games can actually use 2 cards these days. It's always a good idea to just use the most powerful single card that fits your budget.

Two cards will never run cooler than a single card.

Well, my technology is pretty dated. Still on the am3+ platform. I'm just getting back into the hobby after like 8 years. I'm getting 2 r9 furys which is about the best my build can handle, and I think 2 would be needed for decent framerates on more modern games. But if 1 card would run more modern games without getting too hot I could re sell the other one.

 

[Gmoney06ss]

Dated hardware or not. 2 cards in sli just doesn't work well anymore. There's very few games that will take advantage of it. So when it's not using both cards, they'll still both be warm. Possibly overheating the card being used. As there is very little airflow to the top card.

There's list available that will show you what games will work with 2 cards.

I'd see how you do with one card, and save some cash for awhile to possibly do an upgrade when you can.

 

[bryanc723]

Dated hardware or not. 2 cards in sli just doesn't work well anymore. There's very few games that will take advantage of it. So when it's not using both cards, they'll still both be warm. Possibly overheating the card being used. As there is very little airflow to the top card.

There's list available that will show you what games will work with 2 cards.

I'd see how you do with one card, and save some cash for awhile to possibly do an upgrade when you can.

Thanks for the advice. A list of games was super helpful. Running 2 cards doesn't leave me a lot of headroom with my psu at any rate so I'll go with just the 1 until I build a new system.