Skip to main content
PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • Hardware
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Video
  • Forum
  • More
    • PC Gaming Show
    • Software
    • Movies & TV
    • Coupons
    • Magazine
    • Newsletter
    • Community guidelines
    • Affiliate links
    • Meet the team
    • About PC Gamer
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$32.49
View
Popular
  • Essential Hardware
  • PC Gaming Show
  • AI
  • Dune: Awakening
  • Nightreign
Recommended reading
The Nvidia FX 5800 Ultra graphics card on a dark surface
Hardware These are the 5 most ridiculous GPUs of all time (or rather 4 GPUs and one genuine leaf blower)
Maxsun's Intel Arc Pro B60 dual-GPU graphics card on show at Computex, 2025.
Graphics Cards I'm actually jealous of the workstation that gets to use this Maxsun graphics card containing two Intel Arc GPUs and 48 GB of VRAM
a picture of retro Graphics cards
Graphics Cards Amassing over $10,000 worth of retro GPUs over 14 years, this avid collector says they were astounded it started with a $28 purchase
Pages examples of Overclocked: An Archive of Graphics Card Box Art
Hardware If you fondly remember the wonders of terrible graphics card box art like me, there's now a book available with a collection of some of the greatest hits
A Doom: The Dark Ages inspired RTX 5080 Astral shown off at Computex 2025.
Graphics Cards There are only 666 of this ROG Astral RTX 5080 Doom Edition being made and I'd go to Hell and back to get one if it wasn't $2,000
The backplate of the Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 OC DOOM Edition
Graphics Cards This Doom-themed Asus RTX 5080 is here just in time for some medieval ripping and tearing in Doom: The Dark Ages
The AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT graphics card on a red gradient background
Graphics Cards A new report indicates Intel's latest Battlemage GPUs are a total failure and AMD's gaming graphics market share fell to just 8% but overall graphics cards sales are up
  1. Hardware
  2. Graphics Cards

A Quick History of Multi-GPU Video Cards

Features
By Alan Dexter ( Maximum PC ) Contributions from Maximum PC Staff published 2 June 2014

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Join us as we look back at the storied history of multi-GPU cards

The Voodoo-line of graphics cards might be long gone, but their impact is still felt today. They ushered in a new era of consumer PCs with relatively powerful video cards that could power the ultra demanding games of yesteryear like Quake and Unreal. It all started with the 3Dfx Voodoo2 and has continued on with modern cards like the Titan Z and R9 295X2.

Some of these boards were more important, popular, and successful than others, but they're all important in the history of consumer graphics cards.

Before we run down the list, it's important that we explain what exactly a GPU is. The term was first coined as part of Nvidia's marketing for the GeForce 256. The company defined it as "a single-chip processor with integrated transform, lighting, triangle setup/clipping, and rendering engines that is capable of processing a minimum of 10 million polygons per second." For our purposes we're sticking with the idea that a GPU is any processor that's specifically made to render pixels.

Do you own any dual-GPU cards?

3Dfx Voodoo2: This is the card that started it all for the gaming scene. Released in 1998 as the successor to the original Voodoo Graphics chipset, the card packed not two GPUs, but THREE on a single card. The Voodoo2 also introduced SLI capabilities to consumer PCs. Two Voodoo2 boards could be linked together to split the task of drawing the display.

Specs: Year: 1998; Price: $240/$300; Core: 90MHz; Memory: 8/12MB 90MHz; Bus: PCI

Page 1 of 17
Page 1 of 17

Quantum3D Obsidian2 X-24: The reference Voodoo2 had two Texelfx2 chips for simultaneous texture rendering, but Quantum3D's take on the card went even further. The Obsidian2 X-24 utilized Voodoo's SLI tech to include the guts of two Voodoo2 boards on a single card. Depending on who you ask, this could top the reference Voodoo2 as the first ever dual-GPU card.

Specs: Year: 1998; Price: $600; Core: 95MHz; Memory: 2x12MB 92MHz; Bus: PCI

Page 2 of 17
Page 2 of 17

Page 3 of 17
Page 3 of 17

Gigabyte 3D1: Although the ATI Rage Fury Maxx was largely considered a failure, the allure of dual-GPU cards was undeniable. So much so that Gigabyte decided to make their own dual-GPU card. The 3D1 is essentially two GeForce 6600GT cores slapped onto a single card.

Specs: Year: 2005; Price: $600; Core: 500MHz; Memory: 2x128MB, 600MHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 4 of 17
Page 4 of 17

Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2: The 7950 GX2 was a great card for its time. For a dual-GPU solution, it had low power requirements and a fairly quiet cooler. Although running it in SLI wasn't very effective, as a standalone card it shined.

Specs: Year: 2006; Price: $550; Core: 500MHz; Memory: 2x512MB, 1200MHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 5 of 17
Page 5 of 17

GeCube Radeon X1650 XT Dual: With AMD taking a break from dual-GPU cards, some manufacturers like GeCube decided to pick up the slack by making their own spin-offs. GeCube's hacked solution was called "Self-Crossfire" and tricked the software into thinking that the single card with two GPUs on board was actually two separate graphics cards.

Specs: Year: 2006; Price: $300; Core: 525MHz; Memory: 2x256MB, 700MHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 6 of 17
Page 6 of 17

AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2: This card was a real doozy. At a time when AMD was falling behind in both CPUs and GPUs, the HD 3870 X2 was a glimmer of hope. The card outperformed competing single-card solutions and was priced to sell. It was joined a couple of months later by its baby brother, the HD 3850 X2.

Specs: Year: 2008; Retail Price: $450; Core: 825MHz (1650MHz total); Memory: 2x512MB GDDR3, 900MHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 7 of 17
Page 7 of 17

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2: It may have been the fastest card in 2008, but the card wasn't without its problems. In some benchmarks, the $600 graphics card would barely outpace the far cheaper 8800 Ultra. It earned the award for best performance, but it just wasn't economical for most gamers at the time.

Specs: Year: 2008; Price: $600; Core: 600MHz (1200MHz total); Memory: 2x512MB GDDR3, 1000MHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 8 of 17
Page 8 of 17

AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2: Soon after the 9800 GX2 topped the GPU performance charts, AMD answered back with the 4870 X2. It became the fastest single card solution with a budget version available in the form of the 4850 X2. It was priced reasonably for what it was, but as always, the top cards have a premium price.

Specs: Year: 2008; Price: $550; Core: 750MHz; Memory: 2x1GB,900 MHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 9 of 17
Page 9 of 17

Nvidia GeForce GTX 295: With great cards like the 3870 X2, 4870 X2, and even the GTX 260 and 280 available, the GTX 295 occupied a weird spot in the graphics card marketplace. It passed the 4870 X2 as the top performer, but wasn't a reasonable purchase for anyone that wasn't running anything higher resolution than a 1080p monitor.

Specs: Year: 2009; Price: $500; Core: 576MHz; Memory: 2x896MB, 999MHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 10 of 17
Page 10 of 17

AMD Radeon HD 5970: This was a monstrous card with a lofty price and spectacular performance. As a high-end card, it wasn't really meant for single-monitor usage. Instead, AMD included support for Eyefinity which was the perfect use case for the card. Crossfire two of them, and you had enough collective power for crazy triple monitor setups.

Specs: Year: 2009; Price: $600; Core: 725MHz; Memory: 2x1GB, 1GHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 11 of 17
Page 11 of 17

AMD Radeon HD 6990: The 6990 made a huge splash when it was released in 2011. It was astronomically powerful, but also obnoxiously loud. The card used a ridiculous amount of power and compensated by having a giant cooler with a fan that quickly entered hairdryer mode when under load.

Specs: Year: 2011; Price: $700; Core: 830MHz; Memory: 2x2GB, 1.25GHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 12 of 17
Page 12 of 17

Nvidia GeForce GTX 590: The Nvidia, AMD battle continued with the GTX 590 and the Radeon HD 6990. Both cards showed up around the same time, with the same price, and similar performance. It was a toss up between the two, with various small differences. The GTX 590 was slightly quieter, but fell behind on particularly demanding games.

Specs: Year: 2011; Price: $700; Core: 607MHz; Memory: 2x1.5GB, 853MHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 13 of 17
Page 13 of 17

Nvidia GeForce GTX 690: The GTX 690 represented another leap forward, but its worth was still questionable. At $1000, the card lacked 4GB of RAM for each GPU (8GB total) and instead went with two 2GB modules. That said, for gamers running high resolutions like 2560x1600 or 5760x1200, the GTX 690 was one of the only options for 60 FPS gaming.

Specs: Year: 2012; Price: $1000; Core: 915MHz; Memory: 2X2GB, 6.008GHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 14 of 17
Page 14 of 17

Page 15 of 17
Page 15 of 17

AMD Radeon R9 295X2: AMD calls this an "uncompromised" card and it's clear that they aren't exaggerating. This 500W TDP card has a built-in liquid cooling loop to keep things from getting too toasty. The R9 295X2 sets a new standard for ultra high-end dual-GPU cards. It's $1500, but it's beefy, powerful, and a little bit crazy.

Specs: Year: 2014; Price: $1500; Core: Up to 1,018MHz; Memory: 2x4GB, 5GHz; Bus: PCIe

Page 16 of 17
Page 16 of 17

Page 17 of 17
Page 17 of 17
Alan Dexter
Alan Dexter
Social Links Navigation

Alan has been writing about PC tech since before 3D graphics cards existed, and still vividly recalls having to fight with MS-DOS just to get games to load. He fondly remembers the killer combo of a Matrox Millenium and 3dfx Voodoo, and seeing Lara Croft in 3D for the first time. He's very glad hardware has advanced as much as it has though, and is particularly happy when putting the latest M.2 NVMe SSDs, AMD processors, and laptops through their paces. He has a long-lasting Magic: The Gathering obsession but limits this to MTG Arena these days.

With contributions from
  • Maximum PC Staff
Read more
The Nvidia FX 5800 Ultra graphics card on a dark surface
These are the 5 most ridiculous GPUs of all time (or rather 4 GPUs and one genuine leaf blower)
Maxsun's Intel Arc Pro B60 dual-GPU graphics card on show at Computex, 2025.
I'm actually jealous of the workstation that gets to use this Maxsun graphics card containing two Intel Arc GPUs and 48 GB of VRAM
a picture of retro Graphics cards
Amassing over $10,000 worth of retro GPUs over 14 years, this avid collector says they were astounded it started with a $28 purchase
Pages examples of Overclocked: An Archive of Graphics Card Box Art
If you fondly remember the wonders of terrible graphics card box art like me, there's now a book available with a collection of some of the greatest hits
A Doom: The Dark Ages inspired RTX 5080 Astral shown off at Computex 2025.
There are only 666 of this ROG Astral RTX 5080 Doom Edition being made and I'd go to Hell and back to get one if it wasn't $2,000
The backplate of the Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 OC DOOM Edition
This Doom-themed Asus RTX 5080 is here just in time for some medieval ripping and tearing in Doom: The Dark Ages
Latest in Graphics Cards
A promotional image created by Nvidia for the launch of its GeForce RTX 5050 desktop graphics cards
Newegg has 13 RTX 5050 models ready for the baby Blackwell's release, but no one in their right mind should be paying $250 for one, let alone $290 for a measly overclock
A cross-section of quartz, exposing the amethyst within.
AMD offers an update on Project Amethyst, a Sony collaboration that's already 'delivered smarter, more efficient solutions like Super Resolution in FSR 4'
A Palit RTX 5060 Ti Infinity 3 with three fans and 16 GB of memory on a computer.
To the surprise of nobody, sales of the 16 GB RTX 5060 Ti at retailer Mindfactory outstrip the 8 GB version by a factor of 16
GTX 1080 Ti
The end is probably nigh for full Windows driver support for GTX 10, 9 and 7 Series graphics cards as Nvidia announces that its next major Linux driver fork will be its last for those GPUs
MSI RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Trio OC Plus graphics card under a red light
Specs rumours for the Super versions of Nvidia's RTX 5070 cards kick off with more VRAM being the main dish of the day
An image created by a procedural generation algorithm, processed via GPU work graphs, created by Coburg University and AMD.
Graphics researchers have created a GPU-run procedural algorithm for creating an equivalent 35.6 GB worth of trees, leaves, and bushes from just 52 kB of data
Latest in Features
Marvel Rivals Wolverine and Phoenix team-up in Season 3: Wolverine gritting his teeth as he gets ready to leap. His claws glow orange and are covered in a red haze.
Phoenix's terrifying team-up in Marvel Rivals Season 3 has me starting a campaign to get Wolverine banned in all my matches
A grocery store with townfolk around it
I played 10 free Steam demos this week: here are the 5 games that made it onto my wishlist
20 foolproof ways to get laid off in the videogame industry
Special Week winking at the camera with a peace sign in Umamusume: Pretty Derby.
Not quite girl, not quite horse: The latest gacha craze sweeping Steam is a bizarre idol management game for anime highschool horse girls
The beautiful visage of Andy Edser, hardware writer extraordinaire, wearing a Bengoo G9000 gaming headset with his thumb down
Budget or bust? My editor forced me to use this $19 gaming headset for a whole week and it's goppingly awful in ways I never dreamed of
A Diablo 4 spiritborn character readies their polearm to fight as they descend a staircase.
Diablo 4 has finally given dungeons their teeth back and the loot hunt has never been more satisfying
  1. Annapro carrying case, GameSir Nova Lite controller, SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds, and Asus ROG Falchion RX Low Profile keyboard on a blue background with PC Gamer Recommended logo
    1
    Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads
  2. 2
    Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop
  3. 3
    Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most
  4. 4
    Best 14-inch gaming laptop in 2025: The top compact gaming laptops I've held in these hands
  5. 5
    Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I've tested
  1. An NZXT N7 Z890 motherboard on a desk with port covers removed.
    1
    NZXT N7 Z890 review
  2. 2
    NZXT N9 X870E review
  3. 3
    NZXT N9 Z890 review
  4. 4
    Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 review
  5. 5
    Razer Joro & Basilisk Mobile review

PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...