Processor | Core i9-9900k |
---|---|
Motherboard | ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 6 |
Cooling | All air: 2x140mm Fractal exhaust; 3x 140mm Cougar Intake; Enermax ETS-T50 Black CPU cooler |
Memory | 32GB (2x16) Mushkin Redline DDR-4 3200 |
Video Card(s) | ASUS RTX 4070 Ti Super OC 16GB |
Storage | 1x 1TB MX500 (OS); 2x 6TB WD Black; 1x 2TB MX500; 1x 1TB BX500 SSD; 1x 6TB WD Blue storage (eSATA) |
Display(s) | Infievo 27" 165Hz @ 2560 x 1440 |
Case | Fractal Design Define R4 Black -windowed |
Audio Device(s) | Soundblaster Z |
Power Supply | Seasonic Focus GX-1000 Gold |
Mouse | Coolermaster Sentinel III (large palm grip!) |
Keyboard | Logitech G610 Orion mechanical (Cherry Brown switches) |
Software | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Start10 & Fences 3.0 installed) |
Where have you been? That was always it's biggest draw, in that someone without a lot to spend could get two cheap low or mid-end cards and get high end performance for less than the price of one high end card.Who the hell runs low-end cards in SLI/Crossfire?
Processor | Intel i5-12600k |
---|---|
Motherboard | Asus H670 TUF |
Cooling | Arctic Freezer 34 |
Memory | 2x16GB DDR4 3600 G.Skill Ripjaws V |
Video Card(s) | EVGA GTX 1060 SC |
Storage | 500GB Samsung 970 EVO, 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, 1TB Crucial MX300 and 2TB Crucial MX500 |
Display(s) | Dell U3219Q + HP ZR24w |
Case | Raijintek Thetis |
Audio Device(s) | Audioquest Dragonfly Red :D |
Power Supply | Seasonic 620W M12 |
Mouse | Logitech G502 Proteus Core |
Keyboard | G.Skill KM780R |
Software | Arch Linux + Win10 |
That was never its biggest draw, that was the marketing pitch. That's not what I asked.Where have you been? That was always it's biggest draw, in that someone without a lot to spend could get two cheap low or mid-end cards and get high end performance for less than the price of one high end card.
Processor | Core i9-9900k |
---|---|
Motherboard | ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 6 |
Cooling | All air: 2x140mm Fractal exhaust; 3x 140mm Cougar Intake; Enermax ETS-T50 Black CPU cooler |
Memory | 32GB (2x16) Mushkin Redline DDR-4 3200 |
Video Card(s) | ASUS RTX 4070 Ti Super OC 16GB |
Storage | 1x 1TB MX500 (OS); 2x 6TB WD Black; 1x 2TB MX500; 1x 1TB BX500 SSD; 1x 6TB WD Blue storage (eSATA) |
Display(s) | Infievo 27" 165Hz @ 2560 x 1440 |
Case | Fractal Design Define R4 Black -windowed |
Audio Device(s) | Soundblaster Z |
Power Supply | Seasonic Focus GX-1000 Gold |
Mouse | Coolermaster Sentinel III (large palm grip!) |
Keyboard | Logitech G610 Orion mechanical (Cherry Brown switches) |
Software | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Start10 & Fences 3.0 installed) |
I never said it was the marketing pitch. Indeed, neither AMD nor Nvidia ever really marketed their dual card setups very well.That was never its biggest draw, that was the marketing pitch. That's not what I asked.
I asked who actually uses such a setup. Because it's not actually cheaper than a faster card and it comes with all the SLI/Crossfire issues a single card doesn't have. It also won't actually reach the performance of the faster card because lower-end card come with less VRAM and SLI/Crossfire doesn't double the performance once you add a second card.
Processor | Intel i5-12600k |
---|---|
Motherboard | Asus H670 TUF |
Cooling | Arctic Freezer 34 |
Memory | 2x16GB DDR4 3600 G.Skill Ripjaws V |
Video Card(s) | EVGA GTX 1060 SC |
Storage | 500GB Samsung 970 EVO, 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, 1TB Crucial MX300 and 2TB Crucial MX500 |
Display(s) | Dell U3219Q + HP ZR24w |
Case | Raijintek Thetis |
Audio Device(s) | Audioquest Dragonfly Red :D |
Power Supply | Seasonic 620W M12 |
Mouse | Logitech G502 Proteus Core |
Keyboard | G.Skill KM780R |
Software | Arch Linux + Win10 |
Let's see.I never said it was the marketing pitch. Indeed, neither AMD nor Nvidia ever really marketed their dual card setups very well.
What I referred to is there really were, up until recently, many people that did do SLI or Crossfire. You say it's not faster than a faster single card, yet that is exactly what happens. I'm quite sure you've missed the many people over the years on here who give us their numbers, and they almost always beat or equal that generation's high end card. Your VRAM example only rears its head in larger resolutions. For most it isn't an issue.
The last time I had an SLI setup, I had 2 GTX 460's that combined, cost less than my GTX 580, yet performed nearly equally. So yeah, there is and always was a reason to do that, and it was for bragging rights and less spent income.
Processor | Ryzen 7 5700X |
---|---|
Memory | 48 GB |
Video Card(s) | RTX 4080 |
Storage | 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe |
Display(s) | 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024 |
Software | Windows 10 64-bit |
Processor | Intel i5-12600k |
---|---|
Motherboard | Asus H670 TUF |
Cooling | Arctic Freezer 34 |
Memory | 2x16GB DDR4 3600 G.Skill Ripjaws V |
Video Card(s) | EVGA GTX 1060 SC |
Storage | 500GB Samsung 970 EVO, 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, 1TB Crucial MX300 and 2TB Crucial MX500 |
Display(s) | Dell U3219Q + HP ZR24w |
Case | Raijintek Thetis |
Audio Device(s) | Audioquest Dragonfly Red :D |
Power Supply | Seasonic 620W M12 |
Mouse | Logitech G502 Proteus Core |
Keyboard | G.Skill KM780R |
Software | Arch Linux + Win10 |
Processor | Ryzen 7 5700X |
---|---|
Memory | 48 GB |
Video Card(s) | RTX 4080 |
Storage | 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe |
Display(s) | 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024 |
Software | Windows 10 64-bit |
Bah .. on it .. requesting yet another updated chart versionhe graph still shows other setting than what's described in the "test environment specifications" section
System Name | Waterfall | xe |
---|---|
Processor | Core i3-12100F | i5-1240P |
Motherboard | Gigabyte B660M-DS3H | HP laptop |
Cooling | Custom Watercooling | Stock laptop |
Memory | 2*16GB | 16GB DDR4 |
Video Card(s) | RX 5700 with WC blocks | Iris Xe |
Storage | Intel 660 1TB + Crucial BX100 500GB | 1TB SSD |
Display(s) | U24E850R+U2515H | Internal 16" |
Case | Be Quiet! Dark Base 900 | Laptop |
Audio Device(s) | Audio 2 DJ + Xenyx Q802USB | Realtek |
Power Supply | Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 750W | 65W USB-C Power brick |
Mouse | Logitech M330 |
Keyboard | Logitech G610 Orion Brown | Laptop |
Software | Gentoo + Windows 10 Pro | Gentoo |
Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that we updated the advertorial:
Let me give you a bit of insight into what happened and why.
- Played hardball with the PR agency to get an updated chart with proper bar lengths and typos fixed
- Title image shows "Sponsored"
- Page title changed to "Sponsored content by AMD"
During Computex a PR agency that's close to AMD emailed us, asking whether we would be open to doing a sponsored article RX 560 vs GTX 1050. Initially I thought this would be a proper review, conducted by me, with my own hardware, publishing my own conclusions. However, the agency claimed that time was of the essence and that content could be provided to us. I had a trip to Austin, TX for EPYC launch coming up after Computex, so doing my own testing would take at least several weeks, which is why we opted for the provided content.
The sole reason why this advertorial was posted in the reviews section is because that is the only way we can generate a preview link. Our news section, which now seems the more appropriate area, after reading your feedback, can only publicly post immediately, without any chance of preview or time scheduling control. Historically we had an articles and reviews section, but in recent years the separation between article and review became non-existant, so lots of different non-review content was posted in the reviews section, like interviews, system building guides, architecture analysis, tradeshow coverage, booth babes and more. I now lean towards posting sponsored content in the news stream, which is why I hammered out a big interface upgrade to the news section in the last two days, to add the proper capabilities.
I couldn't have imagined that some readers would think this single-page post was a proper review, conducted by us, even with the chart deliberately not made in our style (I had a version of that first), and with the big full-size, bold, "Advertorial by AMD" notice right at the start. If you did think it was a review, I'm very sorry for that, we never intented to deceive you, and we will try to make it more clear in the future. I am proud of you guys for spotting the issues in the chart (that I missed), and would like to thank you for the time you took to write the feedback. Sometimes I do wonder if these days visitors just come for their quick technology fix and then head off to watch more cat pics, apparently not so.
Some people theorized that we posted the article just to secure a Vega sample, which is not the case. As mentioned before, the advertorial came through a PR agency, with the numbers and chart provided by AMD, so I doubt the people who decide sampling are even aware of this whole thing. We also agreed on a fixed sum of money, so misleading anyone to click the article will not increase our revenue. I'm first and foremost a tech-guy, looking to play with hardware, and not a business person, maximizing profits. However, I'm always trying to learn and explore the business ways. Also, well before this was even posted, I had decided that all of the money will be going back to the community through a new sort of contest project I'm working on, so stay tuned for that.
Some people mentioned the dire financial situation of tech-media websites. Let me assure you that we are not bleeding money and that the site is on solid footing financially. We are doing very well in both traffic and advertising, and as you all see every day, I'm working really hard to keep our ads clean and simple, without any JavaScript, tracking cookies, autoplay videos, sound or similar junk. I can vouch for the impartiality of me and my team; we have closely worked with vendors before and are proud to be independent and fair in our reviews, and that's not gonna change. The numbers are always there for you to check anyway (and now I know that you do).
Still have questions? Post here, I'll answer everything.
Processor | Intel i5-12600k |
---|---|
Motherboard | Asus H670 TUF |
Cooling | Arctic Freezer 34 |
Memory | 2x16GB DDR4 3600 G.Skill Ripjaws V |
Video Card(s) | EVGA GTX 1060 SC |
Storage | 500GB Samsung 970 EVO, 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, 1TB Crucial MX300 and 2TB Crucial MX500 |
Display(s) | Dell U3219Q + HP ZR24w |
Case | Raijintek Thetis |
Audio Device(s) | Audioquest Dragonfly Red :D |
Power Supply | Seasonic 620W M12 |
Mouse | Logitech G502 Proteus Core |
Keyboard | G.Skill KM780R |
Software | Arch Linux + Win10 |
Let it rest. By now other sites know what this is about. And I think there have been enough suggestions about how to handle such articles going forward.The page title still seems to say "Introduction". The dropdown at the bottom does show "Sponsored content by AMD" though.
Also while there is the "Advertorial by AMD" message at the top, the fact that it's up in the right corner actually made me miss it entirely, so I didn't see anything about it being an ad until I looked at the disclaimer at the bottom.
Processor | Ryzen 7 5700X |
---|---|
Memory | 48 GB |
Video Card(s) | RTX 4080 |
Storage | 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe |
Display(s) | 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024 |
Software | Windows 10 64-bit |
alright .. i removed the headline and moved that text to the left. better?in the right corner actually made me miss it entirely
Benchmark Scores | Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :) |
---|
System Name | Office |
---|---|
Processor | Ryzen 5600G |
Motherboard | ASUS B450M-A II |
Cooling | be quiet! Shadow Rock LP |
Memory | 16GB Patriot Viper Steel DDR4-3200 |
Video Card(s) | Gigabyte RX 5600 XT |
Storage | PNY CS1030 250GB, Crucial MX500 2TB |
Display(s) | Dell S2719DGF |
Case | Fractal Define 7 Compact |
Power Supply | EVGA 550 G3 |
Mouse | Logitech M705 Marthon |
Keyboard | Logitech G410 |
Software | Windows 10 Pro 22H2 |
Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that we updated the advertorial:
<SNIP>
- Played hardball with the PR agency to get an updated chart with proper bar lengths and typos fixed
- Title image shows "Sponsored"
- Page title changed to "Sponsored content by AMD"
Still have questions? Post here, I'll answer everything.
Processor | Ryzen 7 5700X |
---|---|
Memory | 48 GB |
Video Card(s) | RTX 4080 |
Storage | 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe |
Display(s) | 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024 |
Software | Windows 10 64-bit |
Processor | Intel i5-12600k |
---|---|
Motherboard | Asus H670 TUF |
Cooling | Arctic Freezer 34 |
Memory | 2x16GB DDR4 3600 G.Skill Ripjaws V |
Video Card(s) | EVGA GTX 1060 SC |
Storage | 500GB Samsung 970 EVO, 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, 1TB Crucial MX300 and 2TB Crucial MX500 |
Display(s) | Dell U3219Q + HP ZR24w |
Case | Raijintek Thetis |
Audio Device(s) | Audioquest Dragonfly Red :D |
Power Supply | Seasonic 620W M12 |
Mouse | Logitech G502 Proteus Core |
Keyboard | G.Skill KM780R |
Software | Arch Linux + Win10 |
How do you know it was the chart that was wrong?Got tired of waiting for the agency to provide another round of fixed charts from AMD and fixed the details settings descriptions myself in Photoshop.
Processor | Ryzen 7 5700X |
---|---|
Memory | 48 GB |
Video Card(s) | RTX 4080 |
Storage | 2x HDD RAID 1, 3x M.2 NVMe |
Display(s) | 30" 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024 |
Software | Windows 10 64-bit |
Common senseHow do you know it was the chart that was wrong?
Processor | Intel i5-12600k |
---|---|
Motherboard | Asus H670 TUF |
Cooling | Arctic Freezer 34 |
Memory | 2x16GB DDR4 3600 G.Skill Ripjaws V |
Video Card(s) | EVGA GTX 1060 SC |
Storage | 500GB Samsung 970 EVO, 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, 1TB Crucial MX300 and 2TB Crucial MX500 |
Display(s) | Dell U3219Q + HP ZR24w |
Case | Raijintek Thetis |
Audio Device(s) | Audioquest Dragonfly Red :D |
Power Supply | Seasonic 620W M12 |
Mouse | Logitech G502 Proteus Core |
Keyboard | G.Skill KM780R |
Software | Arch Linux + Win10 |
Ballsy to apply common sense to marketing material...Common sense
Processor | 7800X3D |
---|---|
Motherboard | MSI MAG Mortar b650m wifi |
Cooling | Thermalright Peerless Assassin |
Memory | 32GB Corsair Vengeance 30CL6000 |
Video Card(s) | ASRock RX7900XT Phantom Gaming |
Storage | Lexar NM790 4TB + Samsung 850 EVO 1TB + Samsung 980 1TB + Crucial BX100 250GB |
Display(s) | Gigabyte G34QWC (3440x1440) |
Case | Lian Li A3 mATX White |
Audio Device(s) | Harman Kardon AVR137 + 2.1 |
Power Supply | EVGA Supernova G2 750W |
Mouse | Steelseries Aerox 5 |
Keyboard | Lenovo Thinkpad Trackpoint II |
Software | W11 IoT Enterprise LTSC |
Benchmark Scores | Over 9000 |
Let's see.
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_960_SLI/23.html - 960 in SLI not faster than a 970
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7750_7770_CrossFire/22.html - 7750 and 7770 in Crossfire not faster than 7950 (or 5970)
Ok, some combos may beat better cards (there are reviews on TPU attesting to that), but they're still not worth the headaches imho.
Just for kicks, I went on and read everyone's specs in this thread. In 6 pages I have only found RealNeil crossfiring 480s and DRDNA crossfiring 4870s (is that mid-range?). That's how popular pairing non high-end cards is on a tech site.
System Name | RPC MK2.5 |
---|---|
Processor | Ryzen 5800x |
Motherboard | Gigabyte Aorus Pro V2 |
Cooling | Thermalright Phantom Spirit SE |
Memory | CL16 BL2K16G36C16U4RL 3600 1:1 micron e-die |
Video Card(s) | GIGABYTE RTX 3070 Ti GAMING OC |
Storage | Nextorage NE1N 2TB ADATA SX8200PRO NVME 512GB, Intel 545s 500GBSSD, ADATA SU800 SSD, 3TB Spinner |
Display(s) | LG Ultra Gear 32 1440p 165hz Dell 1440p 75hz |
Case | Phanteks P300 /w 300A front panel conversion |
Audio Device(s) | onboard |
Power Supply | SeaSonic Focus+ Platinum 750W |
Mouse | Kone burst Pro |
Keyboard | SteelSeries Apex 7 |
Software | Windows 11 +startisallback |