Do PC Specialist set up crossfire for me?

[dangro474]

My biggest grievence with multi GPU's is the inevitable micro-stuttering.

You can argue that the performance increase is worth it as much as you want, but the moment you are forced to play games with below 60 FPS you will run into microstutter.

This leads 30 FPS on a single GPU to be far smoother and more playable than an SLI/xfire setup with 59 or less fps. And yes, I do say this from experience (SLI 285M's, SLI 460M's).

My personal opinion: avoid multi GPU's at all cost.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Micro-S...e.57232.0.html

[keynes]

My biggest grievence with multi GPU's is the inevitable micro-stuttering.

You can argue that the performance increase is worth it as much as you want, but the moment you are forced to play games with below 60 FPS you will run into microstutter.

This leads 30 FPS on a single GPU to be far smoother and more playable than an SLI/xfire setup with 59 or less fps. And yes, I do say this from experience (SLI 285M's, SLI 460M's).

My personal opinion: avoid multi GPU's at all cost.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Micro-S...e.57232.0.html

Thanks again for the info, read the article enclosed. What is your advice on someone wanting to play in 3D surround?

[dangro474]

Thanks again for the info, read the article enclosed. What is your advice on someone wanting to play in 3D surround?

When considering multiple screens and 3D it becomes a completely different scenario

Given the serious toll playing games with 3D enabled on multiple monitors takes on your GPU many people opt for multi-GPU solutions, but it does depend ont he level of performance you receive and the level of performance you personally find acceptable.

I find 30 FPS perfectly playable, however others kringe if its below 60. If 30 FPS is fine for you I would recommend sticking to a single GPU solution if you are able to maintain 30 FPS in the games you want to play (using Alternate Vsync (half refresh rate) with 3xx nvidia drivers). If not, multiple GPU's and hope you don't get micro stutter, or splash out in 3-4 GPU's :/

Realistically experiencing microstutter won't be a huge problem as it is more noticeable at lowish framerates, so as long as you can maintain say 50+ you won't notice it too much. Using say 3 monitors for 5760x1080 or 3240x1920 with SLI/Xfire 680s/7970s should give you 50+ in most games even with 3D enabled so the micro stutter wouldn't be massively noticeable, however say a month down the line when newer games result in average framerates of 30 you wo uld be better off playing single monitor only with 3D off (sli/xfire disabled if FPS is still well below 50/60).

At the end of the day you need to tailor your GPU choice to the resolution and your decision to use 3D. I personally find 3d to be garbage and multiple monitors immersion breaking and unnecessary :/

... although this does look pretty cool :P

[keynes]

Given the serious toll playing games with 3D enabled on multiple monitors takes on your GPU many people opt for multi-GPU solutions, but it does depend ont he level of performance you receive and the level of performance you personally find acceptable.

I find 30 FPS perfectly playable, however others kringe if its below 60. If 30 FPS is fine for you I would recommend sticking to a single GPU solution if you are able to maintain 30 FPS in the games you want to play (using Alternate Vsync (half refresh rate) with 3xx nvidia drivers). If not, multiple GPU's and hope you don't get micro stutter?

I personally find 3d to be garbage and multiple monitors immersion breaking and unnecessary :/

Right now I have GTX 680 SLI, so far with only a few games on 3D I tried (Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, Devil may Cry 4, Batman Arkham City) the 3D surround is good, has not tested the fps but there is no lagging or micro stutter. The game will downgrade any of my settings automatically when necessary (ultra to high for example), I do enjoy 3D gaming and I guess it is just a matter of opinion but having attempted 3D gaming on PS3 and TV 3D , I can assure you that with a good 3D monitor it is a good experience.

[baron75mk2]

GTX 580 SLi no issues whatsoever & huge performance gains in all of my games (40+ games) , true the micro stuttering & poor scaling i did encounter with the two crossfire setups i had (also splitup in video sequences in 3 or 4 games) , but none of it with SLI

& a GTX 680 (on its own) will not max out every game ( 60fps at all times + 1080p ) , it cant with battlefield 3 for a start , so there has to be other games where this is the case also , but with GTX580s in SLI it will comfortably render it up maxed out with no issues , i will agree that Dual chip graphics cards should be avoided at all costs , i had the GTX 590 & the radeon HD 6990 & they were both full of issues - but with two single chip GPUs in SLI great performance gains can be achieved with little or no issues , sure some games will not run in SLI , i have 2 games like this , simple way around this , just instruct the driver to turn one card off for that particular game (its usually older less demanding games so 1 card is plenty enough)

As far as 3D / multi monitor gaming i dont know anything about it & wont pretend i do - possibly these SLI issue do surface , but i only speak from a single monitor standpoint , a lot of things can effect how well an SLI or crossfire setup performs - drivers , overclocking , game support , where the links are placed ( i have seen them on the wrong connection & even some with both of them hooked up on only a 2 card setup).

But lets face it no matter what your GPU solution is (single or duo) issues are always going to be present in certain games due to shoddy programming & QC , im not going to mention them but i can think of at leasd 4 off the top of my head that no matter what setup you throw at them the performance is still bad & the issues are still pesent & even sometimes worse with better hardware.

Maybe i have just got lucky but i have been very pleased with the SLI , but on the crossfire front not so pleased , nvidia seems to have the SLI/games profiles more in hand from what i can see.

You can argue that the performance increase is worth it as much as you want, but the moment you are forced to play games with below 60 FPS you will run into microstutter.

As far as this is concerned , i can only speak for myself , the whole point of pc gaming in general for me is to achieve 60fps anyway , if i want 30 fps ill just play consoles , i would rather turn some things down to get the higher FPS , for general smoothness & the actual feel of solidness when playing in 60FPS vs 30FPS. (not that i have had to do this for a long time indeed , apart from witcher 2 with only one GTX580 , Not after SLI though ,only thing i have turned off is ubersampling , as its just over the top AA for a game that has a jagged free look to it anyway & does not require much in the way of AA at higher resolutions - just kills performance with hardly any noticable visual benifit even on a 56" tv)

[dangro474]

I apologise for forgetting to mention this; Microstutter is not present while vsync is enabled and your monitors refresh rate is reached. Microstutter is most noticeable at lower FPS, which is why i made an example of multi GPU solutions comprised of lower end cards (such as the OP's example of Xfire 7870 vs single 7970).

If you intend to game at 60 FPS no matter what then dual GPU solutions are indeed your best option, however you may need to upgrade as often as once a year, and that's a big money sink on two flagship GPUs that can trypically cost up to £450 each.

Whether or not 3D is a decent product is indeed a matter of opinion. I don't enjoy 3D movies, 3D games usually end up being a mind**** and the 3DS made me feel physically sick (bad example i know).

[baron75mk2]

I apologise for forgetting to mention this; Microstutter is not present while vsync is enabled and your monitors refresh rate is reached. Microstutter is most noticeable at lower FPS, which is why i made an example of multi GPU solutions comprised of lower end cards (such as the OP's example of Xfire 7870 vs single 7970).

If you intend to game at 60 FPS no matter what then dual GPU solutions are indeed your best option, however you may need to upgrade as often as once a year, and that's a big money sink on two flagship GPUs that can trypically cost up to £450 each.

Whether or not 3D is a decent product is indeed a matter of opinion. I don't enjoy 3D movies, 3D games usually end up being a mind**** and the 3DS made me feel physically sick (bad example i know).

Same here my freind has a 3d tv & a 3ds , both of them made me feel sick & gave me a headache after about an hour - guess 3d just isnt for everyone i suppose.

Strangely enough he is always complaining about headaches , but when i suggest it could be the 3d stuff doing it , he wont believe me at all - nevermind i suppose