Nvidia, anyone?

[PA_Willy]

Originally Posted by Flyby

seems inefficient. I wonder if SoW will benefit from a single card with 2mb of ram versus two separate cards with 1mb each? I'd better read up on how SLi and Crossfire work. maybe the ram is shared as in a series circuit?
FLyby out

VRAM is not shared. Each GPU needs its own VRAM to load information. In SLI and CF, you get two GPU (doubled computing power). That's the advantage.

There are two ways to work:

- SFR (split frame rendering): Each GPU renders half frame (frame generated in half time than with one only GPU).

- AFR (alternate frame rendering): Each GPU renders a frame, and the next is being rendering by the other GPU (you get 2 frames in same time you got one only frame with one GPU).

In both ways, each GPU needs its VRAM to read/write and generate the new frame.

Of course, all is in theory. You don't get double of frames with SLI/CF. But in some games with decent drivers you can get upto 80% more (usually, the figure is near to 40-50% more).

I have got two dual GPU systems (SLI, Nvidia).

[Flanker35M]

S!

Waiting for the updated 2Gb 5870HD, later CrossFire when SoW is released Was interesting to read that the 5850HD in CrossFire beat the crap out of both 480GTX and ATI 5970HD! And the XFire setup costs about the same as one 5970/480GTX, uses less power than either of them and runs cooler too..huh! Interesting times!

[JG27CaptStubing]

Yeah cearly Nvidia missed the boat on this one... Their DX 11 part comes out six months after ATI launched their card. To boot it requires a ton of voltage it runs very hot and it's marginally faster than the 5870.

The only thing that has me interested at this point is the fact Nvidia supports 3d gaming much better. I tested in it out on a buddies rig and it has a lot of potential for games especially if SOW supports it. I had a chance to use it with FSX and wow it really adds to a game.

Meanwhile it looks like I will have to wait for a refresh from Nvidia. This round is a loss.