ATI Crossfire vs NVIDIA SLI

[jdbnsn]

Hi everyone,
I was just wondering if there are any people who have tried the crossfire system and SLI system who could rate them or compare. The new ATI X1900 series is out and I was curious about it specifically. Thanks all!
Jon

[public_eyesore]

the 7800gtx 512mb seems to beat the x1900xtx in everything except fear. I wouldnt get a crossfire setup in the x800 seris cause u can only refresh 60 times per second

[jdbnsn]

So different games benefit more from one another depending on the system? Hmmm, what about stability and normal video playback like movies? ATI has been boasting of it's AVIVO tech. for some time. Any opinions on these? Thanks!
Jon

[Aero]

Despite my loyalty to ATI, it seems SLI has them beat in the dual card systems, but I would still pick ATI, just with a single card.

[public_eyesore]

^^^^yep x1800xt<7800gtx 512<x1900xtx for single cards

[Durrthock]

what if someone made a mobo with 4 pci-e solts and someone had to 1900 crossfires and the quad sli together on one mobo it would be great.

[public_eyesore]

are you saying they could choose if they wanted sli or crossfire?
Its not that hard to change cards out.

[jdbnsn]

^^^^yep x1800xt<7800gtx 512<x1900xtx for single cards

Really? I have never owned an NVIDIA so I am not knowledgable enough to compare, but I don't understand why if one X1900XTX is better than one 7800, why would 2 X1900XTX's not be better than 2 7800's. Is it just that SLI runs more smoothly than Crossfire, or just designed better? Thanks for all the help!
Jon

[shocker((o))]

SLI owns for duel cards.....
Not really too sure bout ati though, been hearing that theyre behind nVIDIA :-P

[Omega]

ATi, for the X1900XTX/7800GTX battle, wins.

however, Dual GPU, nV can't be beat. they took a technology that is YEARS old (SLi was often on Diamond Voodoo cards), whereas Crossfire is much newer, and still under development.

SLi is also more effecint, with up to a 100% gain, whereas Crossfire only gets like 50% gain max.

[public_eyesore]

SLi is also more effecint, with up to a 100% gain, whereas Crossfire only gets like 50% gain max.
100 percent gain? Please show me where you found it. And SLI now is different than it was with the voodoo cards(the acronym itself is different too, but i cant think of it off the top of my head). In voodoos sli there were negative lines and positive lines, one card did the positive and the other the negatives. In nvidias sli one card does the top half and one does the bottom half, but the trick is is that nvidias doesnt always 50/50 if 25 percent of the screen is just as hard to render as the other 75 percent(whether it be textures or somthing making it that way) one card will do 75percent and leave the hard part to the other making it very efficient. From the bench marks it appears sli is better, but i dont know how crossfire works so i cant debate it. I think if ati just got their drivers situated i think crossfire could as good if not better than sli.

[Omega]

Actually, there are different methods to SLi. there's the positive/negative thing, which is every other line or something like that, the top/bottom, then like two more kinds (which slip my mind)

the 100percent gain is from a friend, he has an application that will tell him how much of each card is being utilized, and they were both running at 100%, giving a 100% gain over a single card.

[public_eyesore]

Actually, there are different methods to SLi. there's the positive/negative thing, which is every other line or something like that, the top/bottom, then like two more kinds (.
Exactly the first is Scan-Line Interleave which voodoo used then there's scalable link interface which is waht nvidia uses, they are 2 completly different technologies

[onelegout]

Exactly the first is Scan-Line Interleave which voodoo used then there's scalable link interface which is waht nvidia uses, they are 2 completly different technologies
I dont think that this is what hes talking about - I read somewhere that you could set sli systems up work different ways, for example, card 1= top half of screen, card2= bottom half. Or, card1=even frames, card2=odd frames. etc. etc. is this the same thing? maybe im just confused!:D *shuts up*

[public_eyesore]

I think your confused. There are 2 sli's one from the voodoo cards and one from nvidia. Even though they are almost the same(same acronym, and both are 2 cards hooked together) they are different technologies.

Also im surprised and im sure you will be too. Ati's crosssfired x1900xtx does a better job in improving scores than an sli-ed pair of 7900gtx's.

[Jetty_200]

WHAT?....where'd you hear if you don't mind me asking?

[onelegout]

Nah I wasnt confused, I just looked it up and found this:

NVIDIA supports two main rendering methods: Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR) and Split Frame Rendering (SFR). As the names imply, AFR has each GPU render a separate frame (e.g. GPU 1 renders all odd frames and GPU 2 renders all even frames) while SFR splits up the rendering of a single frame amongst the two GPUs.

[public_eyesore]

Nah I wasnt confused, I just looked it up and found this:
that surprises me cause i know the old sli uses the even and odd method. Does the site tell you which is better to use? Maybe most people use the split screen(faster or somthing) and thats why i thought that. Thanks for correcting me tho.

edit: i think i still maybe right i said even and odd lines not screens maybe since theres 3 ways you were talking of 2 and i was talking of the other 2.

[onelegout]

As I understand it - SLI developers have to profile every single game that comes out to decide which method to use! Dont know if thats true though, it's just what ive heard....

[public_eyesore]

Ok stop for a second, do you understand the concept that there are two different sli's, one develpoed by nvidia and one by 3dfx? Forgetting about what you just said, i just want us to be on the same page.

[Omega]

actually, the nV variant on SLi is just that, a new, improved variant. same basic thing, but done much more effeciently.

[public_eyesore]

why are they different acronyms then? There has got to be somthing significantly different

[sylle]

atis crossfire is a little chield because it have more problems then nividias sli because nividea has made ship ready(and they had more experience with chips) before ati the first chip has already

[public_eyesore]

wtf i am so gay, i must have gotten somthing screwed up in my head when i said that the x1900xtx was better in xfire than the 7900. I swear i saw bench marks that said what i had. Sorry about that part earlier, but the sli thingy is still up on debate(but im 99 percent sure im right here).