SLI VS Crossfire: Which One is Better?

When considering which board to purchase one must pay attention to whether a mainboard is SLI or crossfire enabled. The reason that this is such an important aspect of a board configuration is that SLI only works with Nvidia based GPUs and Crossfire only works with ATI based GPUs. Furthermore these competing companies don't exactly agree with each other on driver installs either with each one disabling the others driver if found.

So the question is, which would you prefer SLI or Crossfire? In this article I will cover the basic design of each system and its flaws, so that you can make an informed decision. (Nvidia and ATI fanboys aside) To start this off right let's put together a small bullet chart that you can quickly reference.

Nvidia,

• * Requires two like cards to work in synch (8 series with 8 series 9 and so on)

• * Will only run both cards at the lowest common denominator(1 card with a core at 500 the other could be 600 but will run at 500 to synch)

• * Can use PhysX processing without any hassle or hacked drivers and any configuration.

• * Hybrid SLI available only on newer boards with integrated GF8 series chips

• * Onboard video chips GF8 and above can be utilized as separate PhysX processors

ATI,

• * Can run cards out of synch by using the north bridge to prioritize new processes to the least used card.

• * Can be run using any ATI X 1900+ cards mixed and matched if you like

• * Hybrid Crossfire available in nearly every form

• * No PhysX processing unless you have a 3 way Crossfire setup

• * Difficult to add a Nvidia based card for PhysX processing

So there is a basic rundown of what each platform is capable of and what it isn't. Both card manufacturers support on board processing using the shaders (or streams in ATIs case) and as of right now the primary advantage to an SLI based system is the ease of use of PhysX.

Perhaps a dream gamers system would include a four way SLI with a GF8 series PCI for dedicated PhysX processing. In all honesty however, even with the top of the line graphics available today; a single GPU system is more than capable of producing great graphics. You may also note that since the acquisition of ATI by AMD you will no longer see AMD chipsets supporting Nvidia SLI.

The real question here is how much are you willing to spend? A crossfire system will let you continue to use your old card until you can purchase a newer one, then continue to use it in crossfire to take some of the load off your new primary card. With an Nvidia SLI setup you would be better off buying a single new GPU then buying an older one just for compatibilities sake. Now that you have the facts go buy your card.