[oldrailroadgeek]

What are SLI & Crossfire?  Are they primarily used for gaming or do they serve a function that could be beneficial to an ordinary keyboard puncher that does mainly documents, spreadsheets and some graphic design work on the PC?

Oldrailroadgeek

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Being an Oldrailroadgeek sometimes means you don't always go searching for information the right way, first! Most of you modern PC users probably have never used an old IBM Key-punch card reader called a computer nor used a Radio Shack T 1000 computer in your home.  Having begun my computer life on both these machines, so forgive me asking about SLI/Crossfire instead of going to Wickapedia and finding out I have no use for either of these features on my Mobo on my new {DIY}PC even though my Mobo {MSI A88X-43 ATX} supports both features.  A friend emailed me after reading my original post, with "laughing out loud" in the subject line with the simple question of "Did you actually post that question?"  Wickapedia can explain it in a paragraph was his answer.  So I am a little red in the face.  Put it down as a SENIOR MOMENT!!!

Oldrailroadgeek

[oldrailroadgeek]

Being an Oldrailroadgeek sometimes means you don't always go searching for information the right way, first! Most of you modern PC users probably have never used an old IBM Key-punch card reader called a computer nor used a Radio Shack T 1000 computer in your home.  Having begun my computer life on both these machines, so forgive me asking about SLI/Crossfire instead of going to Wickapedia and finding out I have no use for either of these features on my Mobo on my new {DIY}PC even though my Mobo {MSI A88X-43 ATX} supports both features.  A friend emailed me after reading my original post, with "laughing out loud" in the subject line with the simple question of "Did you actually post that question?"  Wickapedia can explain it in a paragraph was his answer.  So I am a little red in the face.  Put it down as a SENIOR MOMENT!!!

Oldrailroadgeek

[admin]

SLI and Cross fire simply allow 2 video cards to be used at the same time. Performance is almost doubled (there is some overhead).

To get maximum performance you'd use 2 high end cards. However very few people can utilize that kind of performance, or justify the cost. The other primary reason is to upgrade. However usually by the time comes to upgrade you can buy a single card with the same performance as the 2, for the price of one.

Good marketing, but really hard to justify the use in the the real world.

[oldrailroadgeek]

SLI and Cross fire simply allow 2 video cards to be used at the same time. Performance is almost doubled (there is some overhead).

To get maximum performance you'd use 2 high end cards. However very few people can utilize that kind of performance, or justify the cost. The other primary reason is to upgrade. However usually by the time comes to upgrade you can buy a single card with the same performance as the 2, for the price of one.

Good marketing, but really hard to justify the use in the the real world.

Thanks for the informative reply, I am really not that avid a video junkie and decided I would not avail myself of Crossfire or Sli features in this PC build.  Oldrailroadgeek.

[Lemurian]

I could never imagine what having two super-productive cards on a parallel is for. All the decent games run well on a single top-card.

Paying twice several extra fps and increasing the heat production drastically? I'm out of it:)  

[oldrailroadgeek]

Lemurian,

     I see from your reply, that we came to the same reasonable conclusion;  Why waste money on heat generating cards that will provide very little benefit to me in the use of my computer.  If in the future I find a reason to incorporate SLI or Crossfire on this PC, I can always add the cards to the Mobo.  Thanks for your input.  The PC is now built and up and running with only one problem, the operator is having difficulty learning the new OS [Win 8.1].

Oldrailroadgeek