Multiple GPU Questions.

[RoBi1475]

Hey everyone,


To say that I am not the most knowledgeable computer guy is an understatement, but I am the type of person that is willing to learn. Therefore I have a few questions. I recently brought an Aurora R3 and went with the standard SLI geforce 545 option mainly because I figured replacing the GPUs would be cheaper then buying the up grade should that become necessary.

Anyways my question is how does 2 mid-grade cards stack up against one top tier graphics card in pure graphics processing power? I really don't feel like I need to up grade right now as my computer runs everything smooth as warm butter. I was just interested in knowing the pro and cons of running multiple GPUs vs running one GPU.

Thank in advance.

 

[SWAT_Glock]

I am not expert either but in my experience it's the games you play that matter the most, depending on how well they take advantage of SLI/Crossfire setups. I play ARMA II, which is more CPU dependent. I ran a Crossfire setup, a dual GPU card, and a single GPU card with the same CPU/MB/MEM/SSD. I play at 2560x1600 res on a 30" monitor, and I had the best performance from a single EVGA GeForce 580GTX with 3GB of memory and slightly overclocked using their Precision tools.

 

[Dantheman221]

Most games that come out don't really depend on gpu, as tommy above has stated. Its more CPU dependent. The better the cpu, the better the frames. If you get a single hd7970 and a i7 2600k, you will no doubt, play any game max settings ^^ At least...On one monitor hehe...

 

[RoBi1475]

Thanks for the input that is pretty much what I was getting from what I read in regard to Multiple GPUs; they sound cool but are unnecessary. Well, when it comes time to upgrade I will probably just go with a top tier single card. Unless I want to flaunt my hardware epeen and go with two top tier cards, but that would be just for showing off. lol

 

[SWAT_Glock]

For the price of a 2nd top tier card, you can get an SSD and see the performance bump.

 

[Dantheman221]

Tom's right. If you want more speed, upgrade in this order:
1.HDD->SSD
2.CPU
3.GPU
4.RAM

 

[RoBi1475]

Interesting, the problem I have with SSD is size. I am greedy I like tons of space the last time my hard drive almost capped I was free disappointed.

If I were to get a SSD, I would also want a slave drive setup for extra storage. My questions is where would I need to store my games and "performance" based programs (slave or master) in order to get the best proformance out of the drive. Also what kind of increase how much in what type. I know SSDs improve DL speeds but how does that translate to improved game performance.

 

[SWAT_Glock]

OS and Apps/Games on SSD. Music, Photos, Backup Files/data on storage drive is how I do it. A 240GB - 256GB SSD would be a perfect size.

 

[Dantheman221]

I am also a space whore. xD I know what its like, even though I dont have an SSD, I only got 250gb of space on my PC. SO thats why I bought an external 3tb hard drive for all the games and files I don't play but, might play later and keep the files and games I need on my PC ^^

 

[Eirreann]

A question in concerns to SSD + HDD setups: how do you save stuff to one or the other? Is there like another drive dedicated to the SSD?

 

[Checkmate]

A question in concerns to SSD + HDD setups: how do you save stuff to one or the other? Is there like another drive dedicated to the SSD?

When you have an SSD + HDD, you assign a drive letter to each drive. For example, your SSD would be C: drive while your HDD would be D: or E: drive.