Maximum PC

Am trying to decide if multiple GPU's are the way to go. I play WoW, LotR and am waiting for Star Wars Old Republic. From my research the second GPU increases the FPS on some games significantly but not on others. I am also thinking of adding a third GPU as a Dedicated PHYSX Card. Again not sure of the postitive inpact but wanted to see what you all had to say on the matter.

The short answer: no.

Worry more about your internet connection.

n0b0dykn0ws

For your game selections as named, this is the answer.

I have a rock solid internet connection. That has never been a problem. That being said are you saying multiple GPU's would not help with the graphics of the listed games?

are you running multiple monitors? some games might need the extra horsepower to keep the fps up, but if playing on a single display, one card is usually good for most games out there. games listed will probably not warrant the need for an extra card.

could also play in windowed mode at a smaller resolution - can surf the net while playing, and it keeps fps up cause it isn't full screen.

Am going to run one monitor. Question then is what is a good FPS? Also does this hold true for running a dedicated Phsx card on the side?

60+ is ideal i think , but you can get by with between 40-60. it probably wont be noticeable unless it is maybe less than 30.

are you running an NVIDIA card already, or an amd radeon? i believe that NVIDIA cards support Physx out the box (i assume).

not all games scale well with multiple cards. if you are experiencing laggy gameplay, might want to look at other processes that might be running in the background as you play (ex. virus scans). most times one UBER card is better than multiple cards, depending on application.

60 is what you are shooting for.....since your eye literally can't process above that.

Ok 60 is the goal. This leads me to a question of why would anyone spend the extra money for a 2nd card if you can not see the difference?

probably for eyefinity (AMD) and surround (NVIDIA) gaming. did you happen to mention what card you are using now? 60 fps in world of warcraft is achievable for any recent card, if not, even last generation of cards and a single monitor.

i play at a resolution of 3412 x 1920...one card would probably be good, but i am trying to play through crysis 2 at that resolution with the DX11 HD gfx packs, and i need the extra horsepower. one card, i felt was not going to cut it, so i picked up a second one, and was well worth it.

in left 4 dead 2, my "input" fps reaches above 200+ with both cards running, but my actual "output" online and offline is 60 (cause my monitors are set for 60Hz, i suppose). when zombies come flying, the input fluctuates constantly with the massive hordes and action, but my output fps stays between 55 and 60. i imagine it would be a worse drop if i was using one card for this game, left 4 dead though does play really well on one card, so the extra is used and available for me should i come across more games that support and scale with crossfire.

smoother gameplay is always more satisfying, but the games mentioned in the OP are good with one card, so it would seem a waste to get a second card for more fps in those mentioned ones. if you are playing lost planet 2 in surround or eyefinity, it may be best to get a second one, but if playing on one monitor, what you have for now is probably good.

some games have a command line command that shows fps while you play. others might use something like FRAPs to monitor a game's FPS.

It really does depend upon the games you play. Some games really need the extra horsepower and are designed to use multiple GPUs. And many games don't. Some games make heavy use of PhysX. And many games don't.

In general SLI is vastly overrated. As is PhysX. Unless all you ever play are games that can make full use of either they're simply not worth the cost and effort.

And don't forget, you'll likely need a much larger power supply in order to run a second video card, so that's another expense.

The notion that you don't need more than 60 fps because "your eye can't process more than that" is dead wrong.

Aside from the fact that you can detect higher frame rates, you have to factor in I/O. The higher your frame rate, the less lag you experience between your input with a mouse and keyboard and the expected output on the screen.

If you don't want to believe this, play Quake Live online and set your maximum frame rate at something really stupid, like 60 or even 30 fps.

The use of multiple graphics cards is a marketing trick targeting people with more money than brains.

Sorry for barging in, but while we're on the subject I have a question for my new rig. Would SLI be good for me? I do heavy video editing, some gaming, and I will be running two monitors sooner or later.

Thanks!
jojoguy10

When you add a second card, you gain about an 80% performance boost. I run a crossfire configuration but I use a triple monitor set-up at 5700x1080 and play alot of hardcore FPS's. From the games you listed, I doubt you would see much of a performance increase in the addition of an extra card. Also, most of those games do not rely on Physx processing. The key is you monitor set-up and game requirements.

Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that you can add all the GPU's that you want, but if it's being bottle-necked by you CPU it won't do any good.

Man lot's of SLI/Crossfire hate here. While I agree that the games listed wouldn't benefit much from a second GPU, that's not all to consider. If you want your system to be able to play game coming in the years ahead, SLI/Crossfire can be a way to future proof your system to some extent. It can also be a great way to get more bang for your buck. Get two medium priced cards (lot's of which will have good rebates after a few months past release) to achieve the same horsepower as a high end card. Also two medium priced cards may make less noise than the higher end cards. Also some cases may not be able to handle the longer (greater than 9") high end cards, while two of the smaller cards work just fine. As for power, you will need more, but the power for high end cards is also exorbitant.

If you simply want to enjoy those games for the least amount of money and effort, by all means stick with a single card. But if you're an enthusiast (after all this is Maximum PC) then SLI/Crossfire can be fun to do.

whether sli/crossfire is worth it depends a lot on the specific cards. If you for example look at crossfire configs of a hd 6870 versus buying one card for the same price about $320 or so, the crossfire is generally better at least from the benchmarks i've seen. This isn't always true of course, but for certain cards at certain price points it can be a good option. On the other hand none of the games you've listed should need much in the way of graphics power unless you really have a terrible card already. You can use fraps if nothing else to find out your fps and some of the games you listed have fps options already included. Like mentioned earlier though you do need a decent cpu especially for the games you have listed because a lot of lag associated with those kinds of games comes not from having too high graphics settings but having thousands of characters all in the same place.

For mmo's and the similiar games you shouldn't need a card thats over $150 to $170 and thats probably overkill for them. If you are determined to spend say $250 to $300 on a card though you also might think about just buying a single card with good sli/crossfire performance and having that as an upgrade path in the next year or two if you get into high performance games.

To my experience WoW actually takes a hit in FPS with SLI unless you're running cards that are like 9800+ and below. with my two GTX 275 i was getting about 10% of a performance hit while actually using two cards in that specific game, So far every other MMO i've played actually works slower with SLI unfortunately. on the other hand other games like popular FPS or third person shooters get a significant boost in performance usually.
I personally only recommend a SLI/Crossfire in two situations, first one being for people who have had a card for over a year and want a performance boost cheap in which case they can buy a second card cheap, Second one being for people who money is no issue and want more performance than a single best card can provide.

Crossfire user here.

For the game's mentioned in this thread, I think SLI/Xfire is a silly idea, even with multiple monitors.
We're talking, WoW, Old Rep, MMORPGS... I wouldn't even be talking about top the line single GPUs, let alone multiple GPUs of any sort.

You wanna play games (that aren't MMO or RTS) with multiple monitors or at extreme resolutions? Yes SLI/Xfire is a fantastic solution, and it's cost effective despite what people say. Get one of today's cards, and next generation get that same card for 75% less so you can do SLI/Xfire. Same performance as the bleeding edge new $500 cards, but you saved money. You didn't have to trash you're old $500 card as quick, and you'll spend anywhere from $100-$199 to keep up with next Gen. Heck you may be able to pull another generation leap if you can rock 3 cards.

However, for the now and here. Don't be a fool. Unless you have a $2000 extreme resolution monitor, multiple monitors, or have a gigantic 40"+ display that you HAVE to run everything at x16, Xfire isn't for you.

2 cents: I personally run Xfire setup because I want the option to play some Eyefinity enabled games when I pick out some displays I like,

I am a crossfire user, as well. its nice to just have that extra oomph when i need it. i was playing crysis 2, and that second card saved me some headache and was able to help provide an enjoyable experience overall.

Anybody here go to the movies? See any slide-show type fps during fast action? Not on your life and that is running at 24 fps, and here is why and how it is accomplished:

http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_c ... ns_see.htm

Nasty