Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Now if you asked me honestly, whether it was really worth it to go the multi-GPU route. Well, yes and no. For me I have to look at it from a cost perspective. Do I pay for single powerful graphics card or do I get two cards that may offer better performance. I’ve created a simple table below to show the price comparisons between a Radeon Crossfire setup and the rest of the GeForce GTX cards.
| Two Radeon RX 480 (in Crossfire mode) |
Single Radeon RX 480 | Single GeForce GTX 1080 | Single GeForce GTX 1070 | Single GeForce GTX 1060 | |
| Price (Oct 2016) | USD $540-$598 total | USD $270-$299 | USD $640-$699 | USD $400-$450 | USD $260-$299 |
| Multi-GPU Capability | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| VRAM | 8GB GDDR5 per card |
8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDDR5 |
| PCIE Power Connectors | 2 x 8-pin | 8-pin | 2 x 8-pin | 2 x 8-pin | 6-pin |
| Power Consumption (at full load) | 150W per card |
150W | 270W | 220W | 120W |
NOTE: The GeForce GTX 1060 does not support SLI multi-GPU configurations – Only the higher models such as the GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 are capable of SLI configurations.
The results from our benchmarks prove that having two Radeon RX 480 in Crossfire mode, can improve your graphics performance on most benchmarks, but not all. Bear in mind, I have to say … this does not necessarily equate to better performance in games. Most games I’ve come across so far, have not taken advantage of multi-GPUs. However, having said that you may find a significant boots in applications such as video editing, 3D animation, rendering and CAD.
At the end of the day, the decision boils down to you. If you currently already own a single Radeon RX 480 graphics card, and later want to go multi-GPU, then why not? It’s definitely worth considering, especially when the price of having two Radeon RX 480 is still cheaper than a single GeForce GTX 1080.
Related articles:
- HIS Radeon RX 480 IceQ X² Roaring Turbo 8GB GDDR5 Review
- Gigabyte Radeon RX470 G1 Gaming 4GB Video Card Review
- EK Thermosphere GPU Waterblock Review (For Radeon RX480)
6 comments
Pc perspective found Crossfire was a stuttering mess due to frame time variations. Fps does not tell the whole story.
I wonder what games they were testing ?I have tested over 20 CF supporting games in the past couple months and havent found any of them to be a stuttering mess (including some of the latest tittles like Deus Ex ,black ops 3 ,shadow warrior 2 ) ,infact they ran nothing short of an excellent .Of course CF/mGPU will not work on all the games but AMD is working its backside off to make sure as many titles as possible do .
The testing was kind of wrong. First of all, why stock cpu? A powerful gpu setup, especially AMD, need more power from the cpu. Then, CF worth much more within a higher resolution (1440p scales ok, 2160p scales best), not 1080p. And “Monster Hunter Online, NVIDIA and Crytek have joined hands and accomplished this stunning benchmark program.”… no wonder is not scaling well on AMD since are NVIDIA’s hands in it…
I agree… we need more support for AMD!
Re: conclusion of author. The other thing to consider is that you buy one card now and down the line you buy a second (and then cheaper) card as a solution that likely meets nicely your performance needs. Also consider that at higher resolutions, CF can make it playable.
Re: “Stuttering”. This is a bit a red herring. They use apps to measure micro stuttering that you the user don’t notice. It’s irrelevant. Gameplay experience is what matters.
Re: CF support. Here’s the Achilles heel of the solution. Your drivers have to have a CF profile for a game and be supported properly for you to see any benefit.
Crossfire rocks!