SLI vs. Single card

[Brett Williams]

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read this. I have been told that getting SLI nvidia 660 superclocked graphics cards (2) would not be as good as a single nvidia 670. I'm slightly confused about this. I would have assumed that since the graphics cards are doing half the work it would make it so that they could do a lot more. Which would be better?

 

[AMDRadeonHD]

Always go for the single fastest GPU, you will feel some stuttering in some games and the scaling isn't that good...

 

[getochkn]

Video cards in gaming don't fully scale or double for each card. 2 cards don't usually give 2x the performance in games. In GPU processing, then they do as it's processing but for gaming, they don't. Usually it can be anywhere from 0% increase from a crappy coded game to 80% for a well coded game and drivers but usually a 50% increase. I don't know exact benchmarks to see if 2x660 is faster or not against a 670, but figure on average 2x660's is really about 1.5x the 660's power. Running two cards might also mean a new power supply as two cards get greedy on power, good sized case and fans for cooling as the extra card right next to the first card creates a lot more heat. You need a good SLI board and not a crappy one that limits the 2nd slot to a 1x slot or anything.

 

[Brett Williams]

well this is disappointing but informative thanks guys! guess i pulled the trigger too early on the 660, was debating building a new computer while getting another 660 already in it. thanks again guys.

 

[Brett Williams]

so now i have two differing answers :/ guess i'm going to need a little more support maybe some where i can see benchmarks or something? idk who to take the advice of haha

 

[jdowdy10]

The reason people recommend single card rather than SLI is because of the problems that come with SLI, not the performance if it is working properly.

A single card will not have micro stutter issues or scaling issues, but you could run into this often with SLI. That is why people say get the strongest card you can afford. The SLI setup will be more powerful, but couldcause more headaches as well.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

sli doesn't really have the microstutter problems anymore, that's amd's crossfire. Recent reviews with FCAT have confirmed this. But still better to get the best single card you can get, and add another later when prices come down for more performance.