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Old 12-06-2010, 09:13 PM
Les Les is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2009
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For me, dual GPU solutions are too potentially problematic to bother with. Either dual GPU cards or SLI/Crossfire setups. Yes, they'll give you the highest frame-rates at any given time, but not necessarily the best overall experience.

In terms of waiting for the next big thing, I read an article just the other day describing the difficulties and time-frames that can be expected for that, particularly for nVidia. I won't link to it because I can't be bothered finding it and it was just well-informed speculation. But essentially, what it added up to was, it'll probably be a year or more before there are cards out there significantly faster than the current GTX580. Yes there'll be new models coming out before then, tweaking the current technology to make it just that bit faster enough to sell as a new product, but the really new tech won't be out for a while yet. Which suggests, if you don't want to go with a dual GPU setup, and if you want to make your nVidia purchase last (and if you have a use for it!), now would seem to be the time to buy. If they mess up the first release of the next gen tech like they did with the GTX480's and it's then better to wait for the refresh after that, a GTX580 could last you quite a while.

I don't follow the AMD tech so closely, because I use the CUDA features exclusive to nVidia cards, so I can't really speculate on what they might be betting up to, but I haven't heard about anything beyond the up-coming top-end 69** cards, the release of which I think got delayed a little bit recently.
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