SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - SLI- graphic cards

Arclight · 01-02-12, 07:11 PM

Depends on the cards. 550-650 is plenty for a good gaming rig, add the draw for the extra cards on that and your looking at 700-800 for dual-GPU, close to a KW or more for tri- and quad-setups. There's plenty of cheap ones out there but a good one will cost you, even a "small" one.

Another thing is the extra heat. Really need a good case for gaming anyway, especially true if you plug in more cards. Some aftermarket cooling for the CPU and cards themselfs wouldn't hurt.

Really agree with the "too much hassle" argument to be honest. For most people it means a new case, power supply and possibly upgraded cooling and a new motherboard: the average board doesn't have enough PCI-E lanes to give each card the full 16 they can use.

It's a lot of extra cost for a performance boost that can range from a low 20% to almost double, if it works at all. So it means research as well: figure out which games benefit from it and which simply refuse to work.

01-02-12, 07:11 PM	#11
Arclight Navy Seal Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Land of windmills, tulips, wooden shoes and cheese. Lots of cheese. Posts: 8,467 Downloads: 53 Uploads: 10	Depends on the cards. 550-650 is plenty for a good gaming rig, add the draw for the extra cards on that and your looking at 700-800 for dual-GPU, close to a KW or more for tri- and quad-setups. There's plenty of cheap ones out there but a good one will cost you, even a "small" one. Another thing is the extra heat. Really need a good case for gaming anyway, especially true if you plug in more cards. Some aftermarket cooling for the CPU and cards themselfs wouldn't hurt. Really agree with the "too much hassle" argument to be honest. For most people it means a new case, power supply and possibly upgraded cooling and a new motherboard: the average board doesn't have enough PCI-E lanes to give each card the full 16 they can use. It's a lot of extra cost for a performance boost that can range from a low 20% to almost double, if it works at all. So it means research as well: figure out which games benefit from it and which simply refuse to work. __________________ Contritium praecedit superbia.