If you were to take a trip back in time (say 10-15 years ago) you would’ve noted that people who ran multiple graphics cards (in a gaming context – not mining) was far more common than it is today. Yes, both Nvidia SLI and AMD CrossFire were quite popular for those looking for a graphical boost while not having to pay the prices required for an updated model.
Well, for those looking to make the upgrade to the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (and XT) platform should be made aware that Team Red has officially dropped CrossFire for this graphics card. In fact, they’re likely going to do it for all the cards released in the Navi range. Why? Well, quite frankly, hardly anyone is using it!
AMD CrossFire
In a report via PCGamesN, AMD has said that they are ditching the platform for their new graphics cards. Why? Well, their own research found that less than 1% of consumers are currently using it in their setups.
“I think the latest numbers that I’ve seen is that less than 1% of people are doing multi-GPU configurations because obviously, a single GPU is still much better performing than getting the diminishing returns of multi GPU.”
Admittedly, it’s unclear whether this 1% is reflective of both AMD and Nvidia. The latter being far more common for multiple GPU set-ups. Either way, however, I think most would agree that it’s significantly less common than it used to be.
What Do We Think?
In fairness, around a year ago I did a rather substantial article on if there was any point in going for a dual-GPU set-up any more. You can read more about that via the link here! – The short version is, however, that with graphics card prices remaining stubbornly high, the returns seen in going dual-GPU are largely just too minimal. Well, at least from the standpoint of making it worthwhile. As such, I can’t really fault AMD for making this decision.
In fairness, however, AMD has been shying away from CrossFire for well over two years now. As such, while this isn’t necessarily the final nail in the CrossFire coffin, the writing is almost certainly on the wall.
What do you think? Do you have a dual-GPU set-up? Is ‘dropping’ CrossFire a smart move for AMD? – Let us know in the comments!
