[Mac User #001]

How much of a performance increase could I see in games with another graphics card?

[jamil5454]

Macs don't support SLI currently. Not sure about Crossfire though (under BootCamp of course).

[Mac User #001]

I'm talking about for my PC.

While I'm at it...
I've got a new case for my PC (It was free) and it has a temperature gage on the front. Its working, but it says my processor is running at 180ish˚. Is that normal? Is it hot? Or is the temperature reader maybe not working? As far as performance goes, I've never had a problem.
The processor is my sigged one, 3.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

Also, just to brag, I got another 2 GB's of memory, and I've got it running now at full settings (except for Object Quality, couldn't change that in game) and 2x AA, but only at 800 x 600 resolution. It looks REALLY nice.

(And as you can tell, I'm in to upgrading my PC a bit.)

[jamil5454]

Ahh, I assumed you were referring to a Mac.

So, to answer your question, it really depends on the game. Some games see nearly double the performance with SLI while some games actually perform slightly worse due to the additional overhead of SLI.

180 degrees F for a CPU is extremely hot. Chances are that's incorrect... check the CPU temperature in your BIOS to verify.

Also, keep in mind you'll need an Nvidia chipset (with SLI support of course) to run an SLI configuration. Crossfire, on the other hand, works on pretty much any Intel or AMD chipset with 2 PCIe x16 slots.

[Mac User #001]

Alright, well I'm talking about newer ones, namely Crysis, Gears of War, UT3, and so on. They're the only ones I can't play at full quality. I can get another 8600 GTS for $90, and it comes with Company of Heroes, so I figured I'd try it out.

Do more games perform better or worse with SLI? Would it be worth it? Is it safe to assume that all newer games would see an increase with SLI, while older ones would see the hit in performance, or is it just random?

Alright, I'll check BIOS, thanks. I figured that was hot. EDIT- It was. I had the temperature reader in the wrong spot. Also, I realized I should have probably put this in the Consumer Hardware Components section.

I do have an Nvidia chipset that fully supports SLI.

Sorry for the list of questions, and thanks for your help.

Actually, two more questions...

Would I be able to easily turn on and off the extra graphics card from within the operating system so there would be no performance hit on those certain games?