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I realize that people who use two or more graphics cards in a distinctly small minority, but I am looking at purchasing a pair of GTX 970s or 980s, and after doing some research, I am wondering how much of an issue it will be for my gog library?

Thoughts?

*Yes, I realize I can disable a second GPU to play the old games, it just seems like a waste to get the second graphics card if that is the case, which is why I'm trying to get some feedback. :)
Most of the game son GOG were obviously not built with SLI or Crossfire in mind (some probably had a Glide version that could make use of multiple Voodoo cards) - as to whether they'll work is a different matter, but beyond The Witcher 2 and perhaps a couple other recent titles, I quite doubt they'll make use of it.
Post edited April 19, 2015 by Maighstir
I wonder why you need the extra "juice" for your GOG games?

I'm having one GTX 970 and I'm not experiencing any kind of quality reduction or framerate drop with any game of my library.

Most modern titles who need more computing power support SLI or Crossfire and hopefully both, but the good old games here don't, probably also because they are not needed.
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Khadgar42: I wonder why you need the extra "juice" for your GOG games?

I'm having one GTX 970 and I'm not experiencing any kind of quality reduction or framerate drop with any game of my library.

Most modern titles who need more computing power support SLI or Crossfire and hopefully both, but the good old games here don't, probably also because they are not needed.
Because I want to play Witcher 3 on a144 hz 1440p monitor with max settings.... And wondering if that is just over kill for older games. Or I can save a bunch of money, not get new monitors and just get a single GTX 970. Trying to figure out my priorities.
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mnevill: Because I want to play Witcher 3 on a144 hz 1440p monitor with max settings.... And wondering if that is just over kill for older games. Or I can save a bunch of money, not get new monitors and just get a single GTX 970. Trying to figure out my priorities.
Aah, yes. basically: overkill
From what I know about SLI / crossfire, here's my advice:
If you have a graphic card installed already and you need an upgrade, it's a cheaper to buy a second card and connect via SLI / crossfire than to replace your old card.
Buying 2 cards from the start is rather costly and I think you would be better investing in one super strong card instead. Less heat and less power consumption.


Also, if it's more power you want, there are other things you can do like investing in more/faster RAM.
Post edited April 20, 2015 by Saberwolf_Prime
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Khadgar42: I wonder why you need the extra "juice" for your GOG games?

I'm having one GTX 970 and I'm not experiencing any kind of quality reduction or framerate drop with any game of my library.

Most modern titles who need more computing power support SLI or Crossfire and hopefully both, but the good old games here don't, probably also because they are not needed.
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mnevill: Because I want to play Witcher 3 on a144 hz 1440p monitor with max settings.... And wondering if that is just over kill for older games. Or I can save a bunch of money, not get new monitors and just get a single GTX 970. Trying to figure out my priorities.
I have one GTX 980 and it is more than overkill for old games of course. You get frame rates that make the card squeal. However, if you have enough money go for it. If I had enough money for a second 980 I would buy one for the modern games. Second however, SLI does come with it's own problems.

Anyway, as far as your question in the topic goes, SLI support will be the same as everywhere else, the drivers and game developers tweak it.
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mnevill: I realize that people who use two or more graphics cards in a distinctly small minority, but I am looking at purchasing a pair of GTX 970s or 980s, and after doing some research, I am wondering how much of an issue it will be for my gog library?

Thoughts?

*Yes, I realize I can disable a second GPU to play the old games, it just seems like a waste to get the second graphics card if that is the case, which is why I'm trying to get some feedback. :)
No issue at all. And it's not the developer or gog.com that needs to support Crossfire/SLI, it's the driver maker, i.e. AMD or nv.

So if your driver supports game X in Crossfire, then no problems. If your driver does not, then only one GPU will be used. A game never sees more than one GPU, its on the driver to distribute the work between GPUs.
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Saberwolf_Prime: From what I know about SLI / crossfire, here's my advice:
If you have a graphic card installed already and you need an upgrade, it's a cheaper to buy a second card and connect via SLI / crossfire than to replace your old card.
Buying 2 cards from the start is rather costly and I think you would be better investing in one super strong card instead. Less heat and less power consumption.

Also, if it's more power you want, there are other things you can do like investing in more/faster RAM.
Except, there is no "super strong card" to use in place of "the most powerful card on the market, times two". Well, so the GTX 980 isn't the most powerful (though it IS pretty damned good), there are the GTX TITAN cards as well which should be more powerful, if I'm not mistaken the GTX TITAN X is currently the top-of-the-line, question is if one TITAN X would win over two 980's in SLI (two 980's seem to be cheaper than one TITAN X though).
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Saberwolf_Prime: From what I know about SLI / crossfire, here's my advice:
If you have a graphic card installed already and you need an upgrade, it's a cheaper to buy a second card and connect via SLI / crossfire than to replace your old card.
Buying 2 cards from the start is rather costly and I think you would be better investing in one super strong card instead. Less heat and less power consumption.

Also, if it's more power you want, there are other things you can do like investing in more/faster RAM.
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Maighstir: Except, there is no "super strong card" to use in place of "the most powerful card on the market, times two". Well, so the GTX 980 isn't the most powerful (though it IS pretty damned good), there are the GTX TITAN cards as well which should be more powerful, if I'm not mistaken the GTX TITAN X is currently the top-of-the-line, question is if one TITAN X would win over two 980's in SLI (two 980's seem to be cheaper than one TITAN X though).
Two R9 290X are more powerful than a titanx. titanx is just a simple test to see whether or not a person has more money than good sense.
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Saberwolf_Prime: From what I know about SLI / crossfire, here's my advice:
If you have a graphic card installed already and you need an upgrade, it's a cheaper to buy a second card and connect via SLI / crossfire than to replace your old card.
Buying 2 cards from the start is rather costly and I think you would be better investing in one super strong card instead. Less heat and less power consumption.

Also, if it's more power you want, there are other things you can do like investing in more/faster RAM.
avatar
Maighstir: Except, there is no "super strong card" to use in place of "the most powerful card on the market, times two". Well, so the GTX 980 isn't the most powerful (though it IS pretty damned good), there are the GTX TITAN cards as well which should be more powerful, if I'm not mistaken the GTX TITAN X is currently the top-of-the-line, question is if one TITAN X would win over two 980's in SLI (two 980's seem to be cheaper than one TITAN X though).
Doesn't a Titan X cost like $3K? If that is the case then 2 GTX 980 would be the better choice, but I would also check:
1) Your case has the space.
2) Your PSU can handle the load.
3) You have good ventilation to dissipate all that extra heat.
Dunno if two 970s are a good idea from a cost standpoint, but I'm going to assume there might be other reasons like a certain efficiency requirement, or preference for Nvidia drivers, or that you just have done your own research, and I haven't looked into SLI because I'm one-card person. I'm not playing at 4K so I don't need two 980s or two 290Xs.

That said, one 970 will pretty much play every old game gog has at 4K with some heavy AA. Pretty much anything that released up to the last console generation should play 40+ fps at 4K with MSAA. Gog doesn't actually hack the games' binaries much, and certainly not to the point of adding multi-gpu support. Aside from that, most games' multi-gpu support comes from code branching in the driver when the driver determines what game is running. Nvidia will likely not have written SLI profiles for old games. You can ask them if you want to be sure.

As I don't use dual-cards, I have no idea if you'll have to toggle one card off before you play an old game to avoid a crash, if it'll just go with both cards in a default profile that will cause some stuttering, or if one card will just get used and the other will idle. Best email Nvidia support about it and check on forums.

But rest assured, from the great majority of releases, and even for the ones that gog has more of a hand in themselves, there is no SLI or CrossFireX support in these old games. Not that you'd ever need it, even at 4K, with a GPU like you're thinking of buying.


Ohh ok I see now that you have a 144hz monitor. My 40+ fps estimate was a bit conservative because I don't know how newer, middle-indie, less-optimized games like Starpoint Gemini 2 or Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms will run, and wasn't comfortable saying 60 fps. I was also assuming 4K. But at QHD, I'm pretty sure one 970 will run every gog game at 60+ fps with AA, excepting The Witcher 3.
Post edited April 20, 2015 by johnnygoging
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Saberwolf_Prime: Doesn't a Titan X cost like $3K? If that is the case then 2 GTX 980 would be the better choice
That's the Titan Z. The Titan X is at $1300 or thereabouts while the 980 is at about half that (a bit more or less depending on brand).
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Saberwolf_Prime: Doesn't a Titan X cost like $3K? If that is the case then 2 GTX 980 would be the better choice
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Maighstir: That's the Titan Z. The Titan X is at $1300 or thereabouts while the 980 is at about half that (a bit more or less depending on brand).
Fair enough.
I would still make sure the PSU can handle two GTX 980s, otherwise that's another expense.
In which case I would recommend getting a brand with 80+bronze efficiency (gold/platinum would be better).

I think somewhere around 850W-1000W would do nicely.
Post edited April 20, 2015 by Saberwolf_Prime
Wow, and SLI, Crossfire PC Gaming Master Race Thread, right here at gog. Color me impressed...
But then again times have changed, especially in this forum.

I never experienced much trouble with two GFXs but the AMD Crossfire setup was a bit more unstable.
Some games flickered a lot, making them unplayable and I had to tell the Catalyst Control Panel to suppress one card.
I still have my Old ATI HD5970 which I couldn't sell yet, because I'm so fond of it. With my gaming laptop, having two SLI Cards, I ran into fewer problems, occasionally some unoptimized games stuttered, but at the moment I'm happy with a single GTX 970 and at some point, I might buy another one, Maybe even just a stronger one and keep this one for PhysX to play Batman.