ATI Crossfire

Den_M

Hi, just bought this recently (after much consulting with the users here )

the card

Just wondering what my future options are regarding crossfire.
Will any ATI radeon card work in conjunction with my current card? Or do they have to be the same chipset/memory size/brand etc?

My motherboard has 2 pci express 16 slots so there should be no problem there.

Tried looking this up online but it didn't seem to be explained that clearly.

TerrorFirmer

Just get another X1950Pro. That's all you need. and the bridge, which should come with the card. What board is it?

I'm not too sure on the current state of crossfire. You used to be able to mix older cards that actually weren't identical but you needed a Master and Slave card. I assume it's the same as Sli now, in that you need 2 of the same cards, with vendor/clocks being insignificant. but I'm not 100%...

christophicus

Honestly man you would just be better off getting one new card and dumping your x1950 .

Lord Deco

christophicus wrote: »

Honestly man you would just be better off getting one new card and dumping your x1950 .

Agree.....

Grim.

go for this instead tbh http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-082-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=416

Den_M

christophicus wrote: »

Honestly man you would just be better off getting one new card and dumping your x1950 .

Nooooooooooooo! I really can't, just bought it a few weeks back. I wasn't aiming at a very high end spec machine anyway, just to keep me going for a while.

cashville

crossfire is balls in my opinion.i had 2 x1950 512mb cards,do you know how many games actually utilise crossfire?? not many!!! i flogged them, bought a 1 GB 2900xt.well worth the money

Den_M

So a game has to support it for it to be any benefit? Nob that then...

Lord Deco

Den_M wrote: »

So a game has to support it for it to be any benefit? Nob that then...

I wouldnt break the bank,ati/nvidia have a new range coming in spring next year,which will eat Crysis etc....

You could get €70 to €100 on ebay/adverts for your x1950pro....

Depending on your monitor I would get (1280x1024 or below HD3850) (1680x1050 or better HD3870)


8800 GT's are over priced imo


http://www.dabs.ie/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4SRY&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,4294953134&InMerch=1

http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4SRZ&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,4294953114

TerrorFirmer

Most of the bigger releases support it, but there's no guaranteed improvement in performance. Some games will see massive gains (Source games see a massive gain in particular) others a small boost, some games will even run at worse performance (last time I checked Quake IV ran about 50% worse in Xfire) then a single card though that's very rare.

It always is uneconomical to buy 2 cards for crossfire new, though it's good value if you, say, pick up an X1950Pro in a few months for 70-80 euro...(you can get a 512mb X1950Pro for 100 from Dabs.ie now)

I'm getting HD3870 Crossfire but only because I didn't have to pay for any of the components, just one of the cards.

Den_M

Why on earth would there be a decrease in performance though?

uberpixie

Den_M wrote: »

Why on earth would there be a decrease in performance though?

Because some games go bat shi t mental when you run them in crossfire/SLI and perform worse.

All depends on how a game is made and if it supports crossfire/SLI properly.

Dual Gfx cards is only of use if you are playing games at very high resolutions.

I.e. 1600 x 1200 on a huge screen. Think 24" and up.

If you have a standard 17"/19" monitor SLI makes very little difference if not decrease certain games performance.

In general buy one good card that works well in all games instead of two crap cards in SLI/Crossfire since for a lot of games the 2nd card will be sitting on it's ass doing nothing.

Den_M

Reading the description of the motherboard I bought again, it says

''...and NVIDIA SLI-memory technology. Powered by the nForce 650i chipset, the GA-N650SLI-DS4 is SLI enabled with dual PCI Express x16 connectivity for extreme gaming performance''

So it supports SLI which i assume is the NVIDIA equivalent of ATI's Crossfire?
Does that mean I can't use 2 ATI cards anyway? Just so I know my options.

Grim.

Den_M wrote: »

Reading the description of the motherboard I bought again, it says

''...and NVIDIA SLI-memory technology. Powered by the nForce 650i chipset, the GA-N650SLI-DS4 is SLI enabled with dual PCI Express x16 connectivity for extreme gaming performance''

So it supports SLI which i assume is the NVIDIA equivalent of ATI's Crossfire?
Does that mean I can't use 2 ATI cards anyway? Just so I know my options.

nope only one ati card will work on an sli board if you want to use two they have to be nvidia

TerrorFirmer

doh, why would you buy a sli board and then go out and get an ati card?

Den_M

Yep it's a puzzler alright. Although at the time I wasn't paying much attention to this possibility, I just thought 'two PCIe x16 slots, they might come in handy..'