

In the two-GPU configuration, the master card will, for example, process every odd frame while the slave processes every even frame. There are two main operational modes for dual graphics card setups: Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR) and Split Frame Rendering (SFR).Īs its name suggests, AFR assigns one card to produce one frame and the other card to produce the next frame, and so on. The cards are typically set up in a master-slave configuration, which means one card will have the position of a “master” while the others will have the position of “slave.” The master card is in charge of receiving the output from the slave card(s) and meshing it together into a coherent output. This means the image you see on your screen is created using multiple GPUs. The CrossFire technology operates the same way as NVIDIA’s SLI: it pairs up two (or more) graphics cards in order to produce a single output. Two main factors caused this sequence of events: the two graphics cards needed to be specifically optimized by the game developers, and, more importantly, these technologies never delivered anywhere near double the performance.īefore looking at what happened later, let’s start at the beginning. However, the drawbacks of both technologies persisted and ultimately led to their demise. Related: What Is SLI? List Of SLI Compatible Cards In 2004, NVIDIA was the first company to market this idea with its SLI (Scalable Link Interface) technology.

#4WAY CROSSFIREX PC#
The dream of having multiple graphics cards hooked into one PC and utilizing the power of those cards at the same time seemed like a crazy idea. Read on to find out what CrossFire is and what exactly went wrong. Since then, the list of CrossFire compatible cards has grown exponentially, but the technology ultimately hit a wall. AMD wasn’t willing to be left behind, so they released CrossFire. The concept of a multi-GPU setup was all the rage in the 2000s.
