Benefits of a dual graphics card?

[Mathew Steel 151]

So today I ordered my first PC (I've stuck to laptops my whole life) it's a nice rig. AMD Processor with a turbo boost of 4.1GHz, 8GB of RAM and a single Nvidia GTX 960 graphics card all for just ?500 (including the rest of the components of course, not including any monitor).

 

But along my adventures of searching for a PC, I decided to take a look at the very high priced PC's, not with any intention of purchasing them, but just to see what they came with (because I'm a little nerdy like that). I noticed a lot of computers had dual GTX 980 graphics cards or even quad GTX 980's. So I wondered, what are the benefits?

 

Can you set more than one GPU to run a certain application with double the power? Does it allow you to set 1 to the application and keep 1 spare for background programs? Or do the 4 GPU's give you nothing but bragging rights and the authority to say the very enjoyable and impressive sentence, "I have quad core Nvidia GTX 980 GPU's?" :D

 

EDIT: I don't know why I didn't google this to begin with. For those of you who are wondering. This page is pretty clear on the benefits of dual GPU's - http://lifehacker.com/5994276/is-it-worth-it-to-run-two-graphics-cards-in-my-gaming-pc

Edited May 3, 2015 by Mathew Steel

[Sir DavidSpy 25]

Usually PCs setup for 2, 3 or 4 way SLI (or crossfire if you are using ATI cards) make use of the additional cards by having them each take a turn rendering a frame instead of forcing one card to render them all. Unless you are planning on playing games on either multi-monitor setups or at 4k resolutions a gtx 980 will handle anything you can throw at it currently. I myself have an ASUS STRIX GTX 970 in my PC and it's a champ.

[Mathew Steel 151]

I myself have an ASUS STRIX GTX 970 in my PC and it's a champ.

 

Yes, the GTX 970 is a great graphics card. Sadly I couldn't find a PC with that card, within my budget. I hope to upgrade to the GTX 970 in a few years time though :)

 

Really for me, I just want to be able to play all games at 60FPS in the resolution, 1920 x 1280. Any high graphic settings are a bonus, of course I would love to be able to play all games at high, and keep that resolution and stay at 60FPS. I tend to disable all the AA & PP settings because they don't really make much difference in my opinion, other than lower your FPS.

[TemplarMERC 7]

The main benefit of having 2 Graphics cards is not actually the performance. It is the advantage of having more ports to plug monitors into. If your didn't already know when your run a SLI (or crossfire) Setup you will only see a 30-40% increase in performance. 50% AT MOST. I would suggest as a cheap option to use one of your old graphics cards (if you have one) shove it in don't sli it or a time fracture will occur and the world will end (not really BUT DON'T DO IT) Then go into the nvidia (or amd) settings and set the lower card to Physx only, This will put some of the load on the lower end gpu and let your new gpu have some breathing room to increase framerate and settings. This works especially well on multi monitor setups like my own (see topic for example http://forums.stronghold-nation.com/topic/430-christmas-gaming-setups/). Anyways this is my advice. If you want more information drop me a message and I will respond as soon as I can.

[Mathew Steel 151]

I personally won't be using SLI or Crossfire. I purchased the PC with a single GTX 960, for now it will do just fine. I will only be upgrading my GPU as games advance and require more demanding hardware, but I appreciate your knowledge and input. Thank you! :)

[TemplarMERC 7]

Also if there is a better card than yours get that before you run an SLI or Crossfire configuration this will give you a bigger performance increase and leave you with a redundant GPU to do what ever you want with it.