Why Do Few Games Properly Support Crossfire & SLI?

Im really curious about this, i meen.. we're in 2011 for god's sake, it's not like its a brand new technology and most games these days dont work well with crossfire and SLI. Only a few months after the release of the game do they patch it for proper support... WHY!!?? Are they really that lazy? Or dont they have enough time? Or is it really THAT hard to do??
By now it should be a standard in games to fully support crossfire and SLI.

I know that, but that doesnt allways help. Like in Shift 2..

Not a big enough market/interest to make more devs take advantage of 2 video cards me thinks

Not a big enough market/interest to make more devs take advantage of 2 video cards me thinks

ChubbyGuy40

My question is: Is it that hard to support sli/crossfire in games? Just curious.Elann2008

[QUOTE="Elann2008"]My question is: Is it that hard to support sli/crossfire in games? Just curious.-GeordiLaForge-

Wouldn't the engine have to be coded to be able to take advantage, or even USE 2-4 GPUs though? And I'm pretty sure SLI/Crossfire render in different ways so it'd be tough getting it to work for both technologies.

[QUOTE="-GeordiLaForge-"][QUOTE="Elann2008"]My question is: Is it that hard to support sli/crossfire in games? Just curious.ChubbyGuy40

Wouldn't the engine have to be coded to be able to take advantage, or even USE 2-4 GPUs though? And I'm pretty sure SLI/Crossfire render in different ways so it'd be tough getting it to work for both technologies.

This was what I meant to say in my original post. I'm well aware of the sli profiles you could create and all that jazz. Evga's sli profile I've used for recent games like Crysis 2. Bulletstorm's lack of sli/crossfire support for 1200p resolution clearly proves this point. Runs fine at 1080p, 60fps without a hitch, but at 1200p, it dips into the 40's and the frame rate is all over the place. So this does mean that the developer has to code it in order for it to even work properly in the first place.

A single GPU's getting more FPS over the superior sli/crossfire setup is a clear indication that a game doesn't support sli. And making your own profile doesn't always fix it.

[QUOTE="-GeordiLaForge-"][QUOTE="Elann2008"]My question is: Is it that hard to support sli/crossfire in games? Just curious.ChubbyGuy40

Wouldn't the engine have to be coded to be able to take advantage, or even USE 2-4 GPUs though? And I'm pretty sure SLI/Crossfire render in different ways so it'd be tough getting it to work for both technologies.

[QUOTE="ChubbyGuy40"]

[QUOTE="-GeordiLaForge-"]Nope.. All that you need to do is either use evga's SLI profile update, or make an SLI profile yourself.. Making one yourself only takes about 2 minutes ;) And I have no experience with crossfire, but I know that it's not the devs responsibility to make SLI profiles...-GeordiLaForge-

Wouldn't the engine have to be coded to be able to take advantage, or even USE 2-4 GPUs though? And I'm pretty sure SLI/Crossfire render in different ways so it'd be tough getting it to work for both technologies.

But what if the game isn't coded to use alternate frame rendering?

It should be both drivers and engine. Only way to explain why some games like WoW and as Elann said, Bulletstorm, perform better with a single video card instead of 2 forced. Also explains why some games like BC2 have problems with 3 monitors (With Nvidia SLI) at extreme resolutions. Could be an engine limitation or SLI profile from the sounds of it, as not even Nvidia knows why. Yet it works perfectly fine with Crossfire.

sigh.. why cant nvidia and amd/ati just merge and make it easier for eveyone=P i cant see the wrong in that, they would either earn the same or more then they do now..

sigh.. why cant nvidia and amd/ati just merge and make it easier for eveyone=P i cant see the wrong in that, they would either earn the same or more then they do now..

Zedrake

Because thats stupid, lets see you pay $1500 for a mid-range GPU, I want another GPU manufacturer like Intel or someone, more competition is always the best for the consumer.

true i guess=\ forgot that companies only care about money..

This is making me scared to get another GTX 460.D=

even when sli dont work well in a game u CAN disable one of the cards in the driver menu and itll run fine. but yeah.. sometimes u have to wait a while to playa game with both gpu's... i have a 5970 card and absolutely love it. mostly i run all games on the highest with 60 fps, but every oncein a while a game is released that have problems with crossfire/sli. but they do get fixed sooner or later.

I want another GPU manufacturer like Intel or someone, more competition is always the best for the consumer.

GTR12

This is making me scared to get another GTX 460.D=

mitu123

Na dont worry about , Ive been running SLI since 2008 , I have only ran into one major problem with SLI and one game and that was The Witcher, which was an easy fix by disabling SLI before going into the game.

[QUOTE="mitu123"]

This is making me scared to get another GTX 460.D=

04dcarraher

Na dont worry about , Ive been running SLI since 2008 , I have only ran into one major problem with SLI and one game and that was The Witcher, which was an easy fix by disabling SLI before going into the game.

[QUOTE="GTR12"]

I want another GPU manufacturer like Intel or someone, more competition is always the best for the consumer.

swehunt

Hopefully Intel will more, now that they H chipset for SB, and it has on-board graphics, maybe just maybe they will do something awesome for IB, and that will kickstart them, also wouldn't mind another CPU manufacturer, maybe Nvidia with Tegra3 will be good for ULV machines. They are pretty good in the mobile market already (mobile phones).

Sli sucks, might aswell spend a little more and get a dual gpu card.SPBoss

[QUOTE="SPBoss"]Sli sucks, might aswell spend a little more and get a dual gpu card.-GeordiLaForge-

[QUOTE="SPBoss"]Sli sucks, might aswell spend a little more and get a dual gpu card.-GeordiLaForge-

true i guess=\ forgot that companies only care about money..

Zedrake

If a company did not care about money they would quickly be put out of business by a company that did. Man, this is America where capitalism and innovation are the engines of prosperity...just saying. Obviously AMD-Nvidia would jack up prices if their was no competitor; they would be foolish not to. Additionally, advances in technology would slow significantly.

[QUOTE="-GeordiLaForge-"][QUOTE="SPBoss"]Sli sucks, might aswell spend a little more and get a dual gpu card.mitu123

[QUOTE="mitu123"][QUOTE="-GeordiLaForge-"]Eh? If you've got a decent CPU, SLI provides an amazing jump in performance...04dcarraher

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"][QUOTE="mitu123"] What's good enough ghz to achieve that? Doesn't it depend on what kind of cpu it is?mitu123

The Athlon X4 is a fast little cpu, my father and one of my buddies has one. My father has a 635 and its only like 10% slower in encoding video vs my Phenom 2.

I've been pretty good at creating my own SLI profiles. This is with a combination of the nVidia control panel, nVidia Inspector, and the GeForce SLI Profile tool. Most new games will have an SLI profile when using updated drivers anyway.

Sli has it issues but in the months i have had it. I have only had a few issues. And most of those were caused by poor ports, or could be fixed quickly.

It is nice i have the power of a 580 for a 350 dollars. Plus if you can't fix it, evga has been semi good on putting out profiles

[QUOTE="mitu123"]

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"] Id say any up todate 3 GHz+ Dual core CPU. Or 2.6 ghz+ quad core. Before you see any real cpu limiting factors04dcarraher

The Athlon X4 is a fast little cpu, my father and one of my buddies has one. My father has a 635 and its only like 10% slower in encoding video vs my Phenom 2.

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"]

[QUOTE="mitu123"] Ok, thanks, I'll see what I can do in the future, I have a Athlon X4 645 as well though I'm doing a new build but reusing parts.

mitu123

The Athlon X4 is a fast little cpu, my father and one of my buddies has one. My father has a 635 and its only like 10% slower in encoding video vs my Phenom 2.

If it was me I would hang on to that Athlon X4 and pick up an AM3+ motherboard and upgrade to a bulldozer when you need too.

[QUOTE="mitu123"]

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"]

The Athlon X4 is a fast little cpu, my father and one of my buddies has one. My father has a 635 and its only like 10% slower in encoding video vs my Phenom 2.

04dcarraher

If it was me I would hang on to that Athlon X4 and pick up an AM3+ motherboard and upgrade to a bulldozer when you need too.

its not a waste. unless ur a person that likes to play games below 60 fps...