PC Gaming Gurus...PCIE 16x or Crossfire 8x+8x?

[htismaqe]

Pretty simple question.

Friend's mobo will run 2 vid cards ATI crossfire, but at only 8x PCIE. With that in mind, is the cost of the extra card REALLY worth it, or would he be better off spending slighly more for a beefier single 16x card?

[Fish]

The performance increase isn't anywhere close to double. A single powerful 16x will do just fine unless he cares more about benchmark tests than he does money.

Tom's Hardware did some good benchmarks on the subject and concluded as much. I'll see if I can find it....

[Fish]

Compare some of these....

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q1-2008/3DMark06-v1.0.2-HDR-SM3.0-Score,538.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/dual-quad-vga-charts-q1-2008/3DMark06-v1.0.2-HDR-SM3.0-Score,494.html

[htismaqe]

Thanks man, that's what I was thinking.