Video card comparison between 2 nVIDIA's

[rajuj13]

Hi I have a question. I was looking at the Alienware m17x and m18x.

M17x r3 is selling video card 2gb nVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M

M18x r1 is selling video card nVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M SLI (Dual video cards)

Which video card setup would have more power compared to each other? Would it be the single 2gb gtx 580m, or the dual gtx 560m?

Which would be best overall performance?

Thank you all for your help in advance.

[Karamazovmm]

the gtx 580m. Not to mention it avoids the hassle of dual card setups.

[Tsunade_Hime]

A single 580M will outperform 560M SLI. But it will also depend on the games you are playing, games like SC2 and Civ 5, your CPU will be your bottleneck, not the GPU.

[rajuj13]

Yes games I play is sc2, crysis 2, left for dead 1 and 2 and NFS games. But in general is dual video card better than single video card?

[Karamazovmm]

depends on the power of the said card, and if the games that you play support for real the tech

[yknyong1]

Solution: Close your eyes and buy single 2gb gtx 580m configuration... BUT you are sure gonna regret buying when new Kepler highend is offered.

[Tsunade_Hime]

Yes games I play is sc2, crysis 2, left for dead 1 and 2 and NFS games. But in general is dual video card better than single video card?

Dual mid range GPU's very rarely will outclass a top of the line GPU.

[MidnightSun]

There are sometimes some issues with dual-GPU setups where only one GPU is utilized, but that's less of an issue with most modern games.

GPU performance is not additive over the number of GPUs: there's significant diminishing returns when you add more GPUs. A 560 SLI system will have approximately equal performance to a 580 system, all else equal.

[rajuj13]

Ok thank you very much everyone. I will go with the single card then and get the alienware m17x r3.