single vs dual cards

With modern gpu's getting excedingly faster by the minute are the days of needing xfire and sli systems realy important to run modern games at high res and detail levels?

I offer you exhibit A, I am the proud owner of a 1st gen m17x running dual 9800m gt's. Even with one card soley dedicated to physics I still record an avg of 55FPS on modern games like MOH tier One and resident evil 5.

 

I'd say if you want fast performance but not top of the line get a single fast card like the 5870 or 460 and you're good to go.

 

Multiple GPUs become significantly better when you increase resolution and detail (especially w/ multiple monitors).

 

Yeah, plus AA, my favorite setting.

 

Someone will always want more power for something.

 

Ive always been a single card fan, owned alot of laptops and upgraded their gpu to the best those can accept, but as someone said above im the type that wants more power.

So a couple of weeks ago i fulfilled my dream getting an xps m1730 with dual 8800m gtx in sli.
I was happy! But i was trying to replace my desktop. So i got the x9000,installed,clocked it to 3,8ghz and oced the gpu.
My gaming has never been so good. Playing @ 1200p maxing out everything i throw up at it with AA and vsync while keeping framerates above 55fps,sometimes well above 70fps its total awesomeness.

Im looking to further upgrade it with dual 9800m gtx, i found a good deal around 500euros,ill give it a shot maybe.

But now im really happy. Hell, even f1 2010 which is fully bloated gives me 60fps at ultra,1200p with 8xCsaa. I mean,wonderful. FO:New Vegas is the same thing...and im enjoying it.

Btw the xps is refurbished and i paid around 790euros for it, it came with the t9300.

 

This is similar to asking if you can ever have enough horsepower in a performance car. The answer is and always will be "NO".

 

I have dual 9800M GT and haven't really been using the second card much ._. I should really turn it on I forgot I even have a SLi setup

 

You'll always be able to use multiple cards, there will always be someone who's willing to pay for the performance increase and bigger e-peen. The only thing that's really been holding dual card setups back are the gains from having it in to first place, you rarely ever get 2x the performance and you also run into issues like microstuttering and driver support. For most people it simply isn't worth the hassle.