AMD Crossfire vs NVIDIA SLI as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2014-05-07
·
1,028 words · ~5 min read
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so I could just be a total Butthead and say well I made a video about NVIDIA's
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SLI so go watch that this is the same
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except your cards from AMD and we call it Crossfire but that would be lazy and
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we strive for maximum professionalised
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around here and truthfully it's not that simple
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anyway there are some critical differences between SLI and Crossfire
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that I believe demonstrate a fundamental difference in philosophy between AMD and
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NVIDIA but first the basics both Technologies are pretty much a way to
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utilize more than one graphics card working in tandem in your PC to achieve
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nextg class performance that wouldn't otherwise be available with the current
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technology due to power thermal or other
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limitations think of it kind of like if you could buy two Xbox Ones bolt them
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together and actually run your games at 1080p burn anyway they both work with
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anywhere from two to three or even four compatible cards in one system and
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perform their best at high resolutions with graphically demanding games they
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also both dramatically increase the power consumption and heat output of
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your computer system without having a proportional impact on the performance
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you'll get in games in fact another thing they share in common is that if
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the game doesn't have a profile implemented they may not improve
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performance at all but with that said If
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you're looking for an experience that simply isn't available today by other
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means like butter smooth 4K or 1080p
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surround gaming then you're likely one of the folks that this solution was
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designed for all right so a moment ago I mentioned compatible cards this is
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differentiation Point number one for AMD
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while NVIDIA allows mix and matching of vendors and clock speeds you can SLI and
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EVGA reference card with an ASUS overclocked one they require you to use
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exactly the same Graphics process processor with the same memory
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configuration AMD on the other hand it's pretty Loosey Goosey you can mix vendors
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clock speeds RAM amounts and even the graphics processor as long as the cards
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are within the same architectural family so for example a
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7973 gig card can Crossfire with a 7950
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with 3 gig or even an r9280x with six gigs of RAM cuz they're
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all based on that same GPU differentiation Point number two for AMD
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is cost NVIDIA requires SLI certification for your cards to
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recognize your system as compatible and activate their Wonder Twin powers for
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that NVIDIA requires the qualifying PCI
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Express slots to run at 8X minimum even though these days a 4X PCI E gen 3 slot
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is plenty for pretty much any graphics card and they require the board
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manufacturer to pay a licensing fee you can find AMD Crossfire compatibility on
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product pages for like business business class boards basically anything goes as
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long as it's got a couple PCI Express 16x physical slots differentiation Point
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number three is something that's actually still a work in progress for
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AMD since the beginning of dual GPU Solutions with Voodoo SLI there's been
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some kind of connector attaching the cards with AMD r9290 series cards and
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presumably future ones as well all communication between the Cards is done
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over the PCI Express bus it's a higher
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bandwidth clean looking solution to the problem of how these cards can sync data
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with each other at high speed when they're working together finally
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differentiation Point number four is that AMD allows their cards their
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low-end cards to run in crossfire with the onboard Graphics of their apus which
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are CPUs that have strong onboard Graphics components although this
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solution still needs some work to be something that I'd really recommend and
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I guess that's it I guess that's the philosophical difference between AMD and
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NVIDIA NVIDIA locks things down which gives them tighter control over the
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consistency of the user's experience but AMD offers more flexibility and choice
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even if some of these options aren't the best thing ever at least you can pick
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the video description thanks for watching guys and just so you know I was
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actually kind of serious at the beginning there the SLI video I mentioned at the very start of this one
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has some great information about dual GPU configurations in general and this
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one was more meant to augment that one with a focus on the key differences for
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AMD users anyway like and share this video if you liked it dislike it if you
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disliked it leave a comment if you have something to say to me or the rest of
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the fastest possible team and as always don't forget to subscribe to Tech
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