Performance with older generation SLI/xfire

[taltamir]

Back in the day, I was unwilling to purchase an x2 version of either AMD or nVidia cards because I Assumed that support for them will be effectively discontinued very quickly in favor of newer implementations... a single GPU seemed like a much safer card.

Is this really the case? does anyone here have an AMD or nVidia x2 card from a couple of years / generations ago? how does it perform? how is driver support in the most current drivers for the most current games?

 

[taltamir]

so, anyone knows?

 

[Skurge]

so, anyone knows?

people who spend that kinda money on video cards upgrade pretty often. As far as I know the 4870x2 and GTX295 are still faster than a 5870.

 

[taltamir]

people who spend that kinda money on video cards upgrade pretty often. As far as I know the 4870x2 and GTX295 are still faster than a 5870.

this is true, which is why I asked specifically about the x2 cards. using two separate cards, you probably upgrade and sell the cards to be used individually.
but an x2 card cannot be split up, since they don't poof out of existence just for being old, someone must have bought them (used) after the original owner upgraded. And I am sure some original owners still own theirs.

So if anyone can tell me about its performance as well as stability and compatibility I would be much obliged.

 

[KyleGates]

Well, personally, ever since the 7800's I have always gone in favor of true SLi over an x2 card. My bro has a 9800GX2 though and it still games just fine. Plays New Vegas well enough...seems like its still supported. Dunno if that helps. Me...I go SLi....then when i upgrade to new cards, the old ones get separated and put in other machines on the LAN!

 

[taltamir]

thanks for the info kylegates. anyone else has older SLI/xfire experiences to share?

 

[Sylvanas]

My 2 3850's and 4870X2 are still at home somewhere, with or without cooling still mounted on them. It might be good to bring them back to life again oneday to see if things have changed. Generally though, if AMD/Nvidia produce a SLI/CF profile for their latest and greatest in the latest drivers, and if those same drivers are available to older cards (have not discontinued support) then older cards will benefit from the improvements AMD/Nvidia make in recent drivers just as much as current cards do.

Given how well the 68** series scaled in Xfire compared to their predecessors there could be some inate under the hood changes to Xfire/SLI that improve scaling that older cards cannot achieve but it's hard to quantify given the many new factors involved in comparing an older gen card to a modern archietecture (intenal latencies, different unit pathing, clockspeeds etc).

 

[nenforcer]

I'm still rocking 2 X 8800 GT (9800) in SLI and this has to be the most common SLI platform out there and probably ever.

Some people complain about microstuttering, etc. but this has never been an issue for me in the games I've played.

Heat and noise is definitely an issue but alot of this depends on the cards you choose and the case.

My setup is still competitive in the games I play so I am holding off on upgrading until early 2011.

Only game out I can't play that I want to is BF:BC2 in DirectX 11 mode.

 

[betasub]

8800GT SLI may be old, but not as old as your sig. Is that your current everyday rig?

 

[nenforcer]

8800GT SLI may be old, but not as old as your sig. Is that your current everyday rig?

Yeah thats the machine I am using now to type this.

I only break out the 9800GT X 2 rig to play games because it produces so much heat and uses more than enough power than I need just to surf the web.

 

[betasub]

Yeah thats the machine I am using now to type this.

I only break out the 9800GT X 2 rig to play games because it produces so much heat and uses more than enough power than I need just to surf the web.

That made me smile, because I guess an Aegia PhysX card doesn't affect heat/power too much if it is (permanently?) idle

 

[Rhoxed]

I have 2 3870's crossfired since feb of 08, and they still work great with any games i have tried with them.

I also have a 4850x2 + 4850 in crossfire (triple crossfire, but only 2 physical cards) as my everyday rig, still works great with all games also - just update drivers every 3-6 months.

I haven't seen the need to upgrade yet, not much i have ran into that i cannot play at 1920x1080 with moderate AA - when the time comes, the 4850's will move to the 2nd compute and the 3870's will probably be retired (with so many other parts lol)

 

[manimal]

The Xfire rigs in sigs still game very well at 1080P and even play crysis well enough at that res...

I have a basic rule of thumb....vsync and minimum frame rates....does it matter that a new card plays a certain game at 200fps vs 130?


Only reason I upgraded to a 580 was my 30 inch dell....