Performance of SLI / Crossfire?

[Uncle Julian]

Hi there, I was curious if dual GPU's are actually worth the investment. A few years ago I had a desktop computer with 2 gtx 460's in them in SLI, and I seem to remember I didn't notice much if any fps increase in my games, and it was more of a headache than it should have been. I don't want to have to fiddle with settings too much, and just want it to work.

The games I play are battlefield 3, planetside 2, diablo 3, skyrim, and a whole crap load of Steam games. I can have the option of 2 x gtx 680m vs 1 gtx 680m. In all the reviews and graphs on the net, they all show like 90% increase in graphics power or performance or what ever, but I just don't see that to be the case when I had 2 460's (which back then were some of the best cards to SLI, I had read).

Thanks for any input in the matter. Any source references to learn more info about this would be greatly appreciated also. <3

[Deleted]

I had 460's in SLI they were incredible, The gains from SLI/X-fire really depends on what games you are playing as it's the games that determine the performance of a dual card setup.
Games like BF3 will certainly favour dual cards...weather or not dual cards are needed falls on other factors like screen res and how many monitors you use etc.

[Uncle Julian]

1080p, 1 screen. 12gb of 1600 mhz ram, i7-3630qm, and 256gb crucial m4 ssd.

[Deleted]

In that case a single 680 should be more than enough. But if you feel like you need a second card you could always add one later on no worries

Added: Erm sorry just noticed we are talking about a laptop here right, What laptop is it? last I knew was you cannot change Laptop graphics cards

[Cyanotical]

1080p, 1 screen. 12gb of 1600 mhz ram, i7-3630qm, and 256gb crucial m4 ssd.

that looks like a laptop, the only dual gpu laptop using current tech im aware of uses the x79 chipset, your's is HM77

[Masterec]

There some HM77 laptops with dual gpus, one would be the lenovo ideapad Y500 using 2 650m in SLI.

[Cyanotical]

There some HM77 laptops with dual gpus, one would be the lenovo ideapad Y500 using 2 650m in SLI.

i can only find them with a single GT650m, maybe one of the latest alienware laptops, but dual GPU configurations for laptops are not very popular, people generally dont like having to lug around dual power bricks

hmm, after looking at it, it looks like a few HM77 builds are out there with dual GPU configurations, Origin has one, but i would not want to be the one looking for a new laptop GPU individually on the consumer market

[Masterec]

Not to prove you wrong or anything, but:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/idea...li-review.html

But indeed power and heat are always issues with laptops.

[Cyanotical]

Not to prove you wrong or anything, but:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/idea...li-review.html

But indeed power and heat are always issues with laptops.

+ Nvidia GT650M 2GB D5 External Graphic Card

thats not really a true dual gpu laptop is it?

[Uncle Julian]

it was a sager/clevo NP9370 chasis, was going to order it from Xotic.

[Milkshake86]

Hi there, I was curious if dual GPU's are actually worth the investment. A few years ago I had a desktop computer with 2 gtx 460's in them in SLI, and I seem to remember I didn't notice much if any fps increase in my games, and it was more of a headache than it should have been. I don't want to have to fiddle with settings too much, and just want it to work.

The games I play are battlefield 3, planetside 2, diablo 3, skyrim, and a whole crap load of Steam games. I can have the option of 2 x gtx 680m vs 1 gtx 680m. In all the reviews and graphs on the net, they all show like 90% increase in graphics power or performance or what ever, but I just don't see that to be the case when I had 2 460's (which back then were some of the best cards to SLI, I had read).

Thanks for any input in the matter. Any source references to learn more info about this would be greatly appreciated also. <3

BF3 = Yes if you play on a sexy resolution say 2560x1440???

Planetside 2 = NO you really won't make that game look any better lol.

Diablo 3 = Same as planetside

Skyrim = Yes it can run a bit smoother cleaner etc especially w/ modded games, but can also have detriment to modded games etc.

Crysis(ALL) = Yes other than C2 all crysis games are made to melt your GPU

Metro 2033 = Hell yes

Ideally you want or can use SLI/CFX best on intensely graphical games, this does not apply to TF2 and sub say MW quality graphics.

[Masterec]

It is run in SLI, the second GPU goes in the Optical bay.
I am not sure how this would differ from any other SLI configs? (this is me being ignorant)

[Cyanotical]

it was a sager/clevo NP9370 chasis, was going to order it from Xotic.

thats the same chassis that Origin is using, and would be very good, it's the replacement for X79 chassis snafu

if you are getting it with dual 680s it will run very well, games that scale well with SLI usually double the performance

---------- Post added 2012-12-21 at 11:01 AM ----------

It is run in SLI, the second GPU goes in the Optical bay.
I am not sure how this would differ from any other SLI configs? (this is me being ignorant)

it really depends on how they implement it, i doubt the drive bay is going to allow too much in terms of cooling, as well as PCIe connection

but it's still only a GT650M, thats like me saying my laptop is dual GPU because is has both HD4000 and a GTX675m

[Deleted]

Hi there, I was curious if dual GPU's are actually worth the investment. A few years ago I had a desktop computer with 2 gtx 460's in them in SLI, and I seem to remember I didn't notice much if any fps increase in my games, and it was more of a headache than it should have been. I don't want to have to fiddle with settings too much, and just want it to work.

The games I play are battlefield 3, planetside 2, diablo 3, skyrim, and a whole crap load of Steam games. I can have the option of 2 x gtx 680m vs 1 gtx 680m. In all the reviews and graphs on the net, they all show like 90% increase in graphics power or performance or what ever, but I just don't see that to be the case when I had 2 460's (which back then were some of the best cards to SLI, I had read).

Thanks for any input in the matter. Any source references to learn more info about this would be greatly appreciated also. <3

I run a crossfire setup with two 7950's, the performance is great but the drivers and support can be a problem. Some games don't support Crossfire and don't have a Crossfire driver profile. And AMD seems to have some crappy drivers with gives me glitches and artifacts in some games. If I run WoW whilst starting Windows Media Player, the drivers crash. Stuff like that.

So I'd say that getting a single, dualcore card is preferable.