SLi vs Crossfire motherboard question

[mysticrider92]

Well, thanks to some extra money right now and Newegg price drops, I think I am finally going to upgrade to a dual core processor. I picked out an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition (65watt, plus excellent overclocking ability), but am now trying to decide on a good motherboard.

I currently run an nVidia Geforce 7600 GT video card, but since ATi has some new cards that are cheap and fast, I might switch at some point. My question is, should I opt for a Crossfire motherboard, in case I do decide to get an ATi video card? Would an AMD Crossfire chipset allow the nVidia card to be used to its full potential?

Any comments would be appreciated, and motherboard recommendations within the ~$100-$150 price range.

Also, does anyone have any experience with the Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 motherboad and Ubuntu (or any other Linux for that matter)? I like the features it has, and the price is a little high but not too bad.

[hessiess]

you dont need 2 graphics cards unless you want to run 4 monitirs. i have read the proformance ganes arent worth the price

[igknighted]

you dont need 2 graphics cards unless you want to run 4 monitirs. i have read the proformance ganes arent worth the price

2 Radeon HD's in Crossfire can challenge an 8800, for about the same price. Plus, when one dies cause you pushed it too hard, it's cheaper to replace.

I know SLI can work in linux, but I have no idea if AMD's drivers support Crossfire. I would look into that (try phoronix?) before investing.

What games do you plan on playing? This would also make a big difference. As well as what OS (XP/Vista/Linux) you will game on. Certain games ATI runs better, other Nvidia does. If you use Vista, bear in mind that Nvidia's drivers are terrible. ATI is a safer bet there. For XP, I might go with a higher-end 7xxx series card or a Radeon x19XX, or if yours is SLI capable, buy another and try that (you wont be using dx10 on XP). For linux, while ATI can out benchmark Nvidia in some games, as a general rule Nvidia is better supported, especially by the various compsiting WMs (xfwm4, compiz, kwin4).

[mysticrider92]

I don't have Windows installed on this computer anymore, so any gaming would be on Linux (Americas Army or whatever I can run in Wine).

I have found that nVidia cards work much better on Linux, but I want the newer AMD chipsets that only work with Crossfire. The new ATi HD 3000-series look like a much better price/performance ratio than any of nVidia's cards, plus there are more AMD motherboards designed to work with these cards. ATi's Linux driver support seems to have improved a good bit, and by the time I go for a graphics upgrade, they should be pretty good.

The only reason I ask is that my current nVidia card does most of what I need and is SLi ready, but even then, by the time I look at SLi, I won't be able to find a matching card (the way of electronics...). At this point, I am probably going to get the AMD chipset and maybe get a decent ATi card in the future. Crossfire does not appear to be supported in Linux yet, but I might as well get a motherboard that gives me that option.

[esaym]

I am thinking about getting a GA-MA790X-DS4 also. It uses some new kind of ati motherboard chipset. Seems to work in linux though.

[forrestcupp]

Only go ATI if you don't care about Compiz at all.

AMD has released their 3D specs and data for open source developers, but they have not released 3D data for the HD series yet. Things are looking better, and they claim to be releasing HD data soon. But even so, that's no guarantee that open source developers will be able to quickly get great drivers out and fix the problems that AMD hasn't been able to fix.

That's a pretty big investment risk, and honestly, nvidia has been faithful to the Linux community all along. For me with ATI, I'll believe it when I see it.

[hhhhhx]

you dont need 2 graphics cards unless you want to run 4 monitirs. i have read the proformance ganes arent worth the price
best way to think of it is that the first card you get gives all of its power, then the second gives half and the third gives 1/4, etc...

[el_ricardo]

I think crossfire wins, because with the new ati drivers coming up (in windows at least) crossfire supports mix and matching with cards, I have an HD 2900 already, and im thinking of getting a 3870 to squeeze a bit of extra juice out of it, much more useful than SLI because it means you don't have to spend double the price for what at the end of the day isn't double the performance

[regomodo]

2 Radeon HD's in Crossfire can challenge an 8800, for about the same price. Plus, when one dies cause you pushed it too hard, it's cheaper to replace.



I guess where you live must either be cold or has cheap power.