Does anyone have dual video cards (Crossfire / SLI)?

[sdsean]

I'm thinking of buying a new machine, and setting up ATI crossfire.

Basically I use my media pc as an all in one unit, playing games, watching videos/tv, burning/ripping, and playing music. I don't do the server setup thing.

Anyway I'm wondering if anyone here has a dual video card setup and if there are any performance gains as such in SageTV or with HD video rendering?

For example:
I already have the Cyberlink codecs, so my current setup with an HD3870 512MB ATI Diamond single card is able to playback HD video pretty well with only minimal CPU assuming that I use "Overlay" mode.

Would dual cards / crossfire allow me to do VMR?

I'm still debating it anyway simply b/c I play games and such on the same machine, but I'm wondering if anyone has any insight?

thanks. . .

[sdsean]

(bump)

No one here uses a cross fire or sli setup?

[S_M_E]

It's overkill for Sage but OK for gaming. Somebody around here might use it but it's kind of a waste.

[Taddeusz]

IMHO, it's still overkill for gaming.

[Striker:WG]

I've used it for gaming, then split my crossfire setup so that I'd have an extra video card to us in my latest HTPC build.

It worked OK for gaming, but I had some issues with it. I'd ratherly just spend more money and get one very powerful gaming card rather than two mid-range ones. From my experience there was no benefit that Sage would experience.

In Sage you are primarily playing back video files and doing some basic UI rendering. If your video card supports hardware accelleration for video playback it will not be splitting the work between the two cards, thats only when DirectX is being utilized for things like gaming.

You mentioned that you are also going to be gaming on this machine so there is definate benefit there, especially if you are running a large screen and want to game at a high resolution (1920x1080), just no benefit in Sage.

-Striker-

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by Striker:WG

I'd ratherly just spend more money and get one very powerful gaming card rather than two mid-range ones.

Agreed...

You mentioned that you are also going to be gaming on this machine so there is definate benefit there, especially if you are running a large screen and want to game at a high resolution (1920x1080), just no benefit in Sage.

I'd say definite (which is why I say it's "OK" for gaming) but slight enough to not be worth it, imo.

[craigap]

Just get yourself one of these and call it a day.
http://www.diamondmm.com/4870X2PE52GXOC.php

[Chriscic]

As Striker suggests, at best it will do zero for your video-rendering. At worst, it might cause problems if the dual-card drivers are flaky.

I love the concept of dual-cards for awesome gaming power, but the reality IMO is they've lived up to the promise, at least since the old Voodoo2 SLI. Just not worth the hassle unless you really must run one of those 30" monitors at 2560x1600 or whatver that rez is. Just doesn't seem like they're every mainstream enough for ATI/Nvidia to do justice on the driver side.