X1950 SLI Question

valen

I got one of these from overclockers last year;

ATI Radeon X1950 XT-X ***Crossfire/Master Edition*** SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR4 (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-051-CO)

Any idea what sort of card I need to make it do SLI ? I asked overclockers and they (unhelpfully) said 'We don't sell that card anymore, sorry'.

So, I think I'm looking for a X1950 XT-X slave. Are you dreaming, if you think "I'll buy an SLI motherboard, and get a second video card next year", as you just can't buy them ?

John

christophicus

You cant have ATI cards in SLI. If you want two cards they use crossfire. I dont know whether or not they still sell xtx's but you could probably get one off of ebay.

valen

Indeed. Note that I mentioned the card was a Crossfire. Same idea.

This shows some cards;
http://search.ebay.ie/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&_trksid=m37&satitle=ati+x1950+512MB&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D3&sabfmts=1&saobfmts=insif&ga10244=10425&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1&fsoo=1

But I've no idea if they'll work with mine. I got the impression when I got mine that you need a specific 'slave' card. Is that true, or will any modern X1950 work fine ?

john

christophicus

There are no cards marked slave. There are only standard ones and then ones with the crossfire master compositing function. Preferably you would want one of the standard ones , but I suppose you may be able to use one with the master function. Yes i think you can use any x1950. But if you use a pro or xt then the master xtx will slow down to match the speed of the slower card.

valen

The more recent cards have on-board crossfire ability alright. The older XTX like I have doesn't though, it's external, and as far as I can tell, you need dedicated slave cards. Though...I'm not sure. Wish I could borrow someone's XTX for an our & test it

http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/howitworks.html

John

8T8

Yeah Crossfire was pretty confusing though the latest version does away with all the slave/master business.

For Crossfire X1950XT or X1950XTX you must have a master crossfire card and any other regular X1950XT/X will act as the slave.

Motherboard wise any Intel 965/975/P35 or ATI/AMD chipset with two PCI-e x16 slots will work even if one of the slots is x4 electrically.

For the X1950 Pro it used the latest generation of Crossfire which mimics SLI by using an internal bridge which connects the two card, all of the new Radeon HD 2000 series now use this interconnect.

All low end X1K cards like the x1600/X1300 etc use soft Crossfire where the data travels over the PCI-e bus so no need for a internal or external link though some of the low end Radeon HD cards do have the internal link present on the card.

valen

Sweet, that explains it. Some cards are mentioned as 'slave: yes, master:no' which I thought meant they were slave-only. Yeah, I have the Intel 975 so I should be OK. Woo hoo.

John