Dual Graphics Cards

[Pickel Surprise]

Hey everybody,

I'm still on my quest for a gaming laptop, and I've upped the price ceiling quite a bit, but I still have one more important question. Most of the computers I'm considering run a single GeForce 280M, which is, as far as I know, a pretty good graphics card. However, I've been hearing that all the best gaming laptops have dual 280M SLI graphics cards.

My big question to all of you is how necessary is the dual graphics card system, and is it worth the price? These dual things get pretty expensive, and I'm not sure if I'm willing to pay that much.

Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

 

[the_dancy_vagrant]

Dual cards aren't necessary to run anything, really. It will probably up the performance a pretty fair amount but I'm sure that it's also quite expensive.

FWIW, if you really care about how well your system performs you should just get a desktop. For the performance you'd get out of a gaming laptop you could probably get 2-3 desktops that would run your games better.

 

[Nova5]

I had an SLI setup with two 8600GT's (2 x 512 DDR3) a couple of years back. The hassle of configuring them for a marginal performance increase just wasn't worth it.

Rest of the system:
2.0Ghz Intel Core2Duo
4Gb DDR2 (@1066Mhz)

It was pretty fast for its time, and still didn't see a huge difference when playing Crysis, or even Counter-Strike: Source. Bumped up my framerate by about 5-10 on average, which doesn't make a difference when you're already in the 100-120 range >_>

 

[Teh_Doomage]

If you are running older cards I could see SLI working well, but most newer cards can run just about anything with just one.

Also....You are better off getting a desktop...gaming laptops just don't exist and those that do, the mythical things they are, are just way to expensive to be viable.

 

[Alex_P]

Adding a second graphics card to a laptop is not unlike adding a second story to a convertible.

-- Alex

 

[Bretty]

I bought a gaming laptop and regretted it.

They are prone to overheating, so make sure you get the best warranties you can.

If I were you spend it on a desktop. You will get alot more for your money (bigger than a 19" screen) and it will last a lot longer.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[auronvi]

Don't buy a laptop as your primary gaming machine. I personally have never heard of two graphics cards in a laptop and personally think it is a bad idea. 3 ghz, 4 gigs of ram and a single best video card will be more than enough.

My friend had a laptop with a single radeon 9800 in it a while ago. That thing would burn to touch on the bottom. I can't imagine two video cards being crammed into a laptop and it not overheating constantly without extra cooling (like those fans that fit under a laptop).

 

[Macgyvercas]

Just for the ultimate waste of money, I'm going to get a computer that has 3 Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 cards