Graphics Card compatibility query

Nirnias

Hey i bought 2 of these cards a while back:

Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 1GB DDR2

I had them crossfired but 1 became faulty so i sent it back and got a refund because they didnt have a replacement in stock. Now they no longer even sell the card anymore.

Due to exams and study i never got around to replacing the card back then but now that i have some time i want to get that second card back.

My question is do i have to get the exact same Manufacturer Model, e.g Sapphire, in order for them to be crossfired? Or can any 1GB HD 4650 DD2 Radeon card work the same way?

Or if someone can link the product i can use that would be compatible.

Monotype

There should be no problem with most cards - you would even be able to pair with a 4670. Try and aim for similar clock speeds and GDDR2 1GB. Just don't get the AGP version.

However, cards have moved on considerably since then, and even something like a 5770 would be better than the two cards.

Sapphire HD4650 1GB DDR2 PCI-E Graphics Card €57 delivered.

Nirnias

Awesome thanks a million for the reply and the link. I usually use 2 low end cards rather than 1 high end card. can usually squeeze out the same performance.

I bought the other cards for 90 euro each. when i was refunded 1 i was refunded like 210 euro or something O_o i was like, AWESOME! Clerical errors ftw! Dont want to buy brand new card and this 1 i have sitting doing nothing, so figured id just get the same card again to crossfire them!

thanks again!

roast

Aye, manufacturer/brand doesnt matter. Even clock speeds or buffer size doesnt matter, but of course its best to get something with the same buffer size anyway.

Although, like Monotype said, I'd probably go with buying a single, more powerful card.

Nirnias

I Purchased the one that was linked above. Same card as i already have! thanks for the replies was very helful!

Nirnias

So i went ahead and bought that card, it arrived today, opening it it looks nothing like it was displayed and it looks nothing like the card i have in my pc already.

My card looks like this:

http://www.abesofmaine.com/abeimg/msir4650md1g.jpg

With the bits on the top to bridge the 2 cards for crossfiring.

The card amazon sent me looks like this:

http://ii.alatest.com/product/600x400/4/6/ATI-HD4650-Sapphire-radeon-hd-4650-512-0.jpg

They look totally different and the one i got sent by amazon doesnt have the bridge connections, how am i supposed to crossfire the cards?

Any help in this would be greatly appreciated, i already set up to return the card cause i thought it wasnt the right one and looks totally different to what was shown on the above link that was posted

Monotype

You don't need the connector for 4650s.

http://game.amd.com/us-en/content/images/crossfirex/CF_combo_chart.jpg

It's probably just a newer revision where they've changed around the cooling and the PCB, by the look of it. I doubt it would have any effect on the actual performance. Only real difference to you would be looks. Best way to find out is to try it.

Nirnias

thanks man, i didnt want to put it in yet just in case, i probably should of to see if it gets detected and used the catalyst program to see if they are crossfired. i thought they had to be bridged by the connector tho.

I got my brother 2 cards but they dont need the bridge connector, didnt know about 1 card that needs the bridge and 1 that didnt, or how that worked.

Guess ill stick her in to see! was just pissed after waiting for it then seeing it and thinking it was the wrong one!

Nirnias

Actually i just nocited, does it matter that my original card is an ULTIMATE edition? i wouldnt think it does but just thought id ask.

Monotype

I thought that the ultimate would have faster clocks but it looks like the main differences is just the connectors at the back between most of the versions and looks.

http://www1.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=255
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=272

Jonny7

Might be a little late now, but surely one ATI 5750 for 90 euros is _much_ faster than 2 x 4650's?

Monotype

I think two 4650s would be about the same as a 4850. Given that the 5770 is just a little better than the 4850, I'd put the 5750 about the same as the two 4650s. Apart from the increase in power consumption, noise etc in having two cards.

Jonny7

Ahh just read the post properly, hope he got the latest 4650 at a decent price

2 x 4650 is slower than a 4850, its the 2 x 4670 that would be closer

5750 is a little faster and then the 5770 faster still

Personally I'm not big on SLI.. single cards are usually faster, cheaper, use less power and are less hassle

Nirnias

Thanks for all the replies guys and im hoping this is my last question about this >.<

As stated above i got sent another 4650, looks totally different. Slotted it in, turned on PC drivers auto downloaded all 3 screens are working fine, but when i booted up my pc it says i might be running a pirated version of windows 7 for some reason, dunno why never seen that before on this pc.

The main thing is even tho both cards look different and the boxes are different for each of them but the details on each box is exactly the same. When i go into my device manager and look at my Display Adapters. Both cards are shown there but 1 shows as "ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series" and the other card shows as "ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series" when i try to launch the ATI Catalyst Software that i usually use to tinker with the card, nothing happens and it doesnt launch. So i cant seem to even check if the cards are crossfired or not.

Any suggestions or ideas?

Monotype

You could try completely uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling with both cards in. Or maybe switch the slots?

Might be a stupid suggestion, but did you check the system tray to see if the catalyst icon was there? A while back I was wondering why it wasn't opening and discovered that you have to rightclick on the icon to get your settings rather than it opening when you launch it from the start menu.

Nirnias

I ended up reinstalling the catalyst. have it working but cant see an option to crossfire them. this looks different to the version of catalyst i had before i remember there being an option there to enable crossfire or something.

Jeez what ever happened to the days of plug and play >.<