SLI or Crossfire?

[aldernon]

I know this is such a debated topic... Ive been out of the computer market for about 3 years (used to be techie) soo I missed out on the whole multiple gpu scene...


Ive been reading around online a bit, but to me personal opinons are worth alot more.


If I go Crossfire, i'll buy duel 4870's @ 1GB
If I go SLI, i'll buy duel GTX 260's @ 896MB

Again, I understand this isnt a straight forward question, but for gaming now and the future, which would be the better setup? Ive read bad reviews of crossfire.

I have a P6T, so both options are available. Its an i7 920 build with 6 gigs of ram @1800mhz, 7,7,7,20

Edit-
I wish to only buy one card right now, this is mostly regarding a future upgrade.

thanks guys!

 

[Whirlwind]

I am really not sure if there is a best option. I think it is just more personal preference.

I also believe it will help more in benchmarking than in games.

It does help in games, it just does not justify the amount of money spent for the performance gain.

Most of the time when a top of the line new card comes out....it usually has more gaming power than an old crossfire or sli set-up

If you are gaming at extremely high resolutions like 1900x1200 and above....that is where it shines the best.

This is just my opinion of course and I know more people will be here to express their feelings.

 

[Evolv]

I would go for 260 in SLI. I see that more games favor SLI rather than Crossfire. Seems like Crossfire just doesn't scale well with some games. Also, 4870s in Crossfire consume more power compared to 260s in SLI.

 

[Whirlwind]

Also be aware that NOT ALL games support either Crossfire or SLI....there are instances where you will have to disable it.

 

[veedubfreak]

Sli is almost always supported the day a game comes out, where crossfire usually lags a little behind on profiles because ATI slacks. Personally i prefer SLI just because there are so few ATI partners that will stand behind their cards if something goes wrong. Although with XFX selling ati cards now, that might change. But atm, i think XFX only sells reference boards which are only going to be 512mb of memory.

 

[hikaricloud]

I vote 260s myself. Just make sure you get the core 216/55nm versions.