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CrossFire or Single Card?

5K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  BG-0 
#1 ·
I want to get a new video card, specifically an Radeon HD series card with DX10.

On Newegg, they have really cheap ones (As low as $35).

I only want to spend in total $100-$120 on a video card. Which is better, the 2 lower-end ones with CrossFire, or 1 better card?

Single card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102752

Or 2 of these:

CrossFire:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102799

Also, in the description for the single card, it says "Single Slot Fansink", and in the CrossFire cards it says "Low-profile with single slot active cooler". What do these mean?

Also, this is for gaming.

One more thing. Would it be better than my current card, which is a GeCube Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB PCI-E DX9.
 
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#2 ·
Single slot=single slot, not bloated into covering up part or all of a second slot
Active cooler=fan usually

Put it this way, you don't want to get lower-end video cards just to be able to afford Crossfire, if not immeadiatley disappointed, you will be shortly.

X1950 Pro with 512 megs is a fine card but if you're into the numbers game or there's one or two super high end functions that it just can't handle, that's what counts more.
 
#3 ·
I would go with the best single crossfire card you can get for your money and upgrade to crossfire later
 
#4 ·
Get the best possible single card that you can afford. Crossfire and SLI aren't really good for your money. Reason: two cards will perform at their best moments, which are really rare, like 170% of the original power. Reason 2: The two cards wouldn't even be better than a card costing as much as them, even if they would both perform at full power.
Make sure you have a powerful ebough power supply for the new card.

One more note.. You should really consider spending a bit more. The bang per buck ratio increases a whole lot when you go up to Radeon 4800 series. If you could just stretch 140 $, you would get a 4850, which beats the crap out of cards varying from Radeon 3870, to geforce 8800 GT, to geforce 8800 Ultra, to geforce 9800 GTX(+). Even 4830 beats 9800GTX.
 
#5 ·
I agree; get the single card. SLI is not new technology. It has been around since the late 90s. The old voodoo line of FX cards had one card with dual gpus and even one with four gpus on a single card.

BTW that four gpu card even came with its own power supply :eek::eek:
 
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