Crossfusion

[Ham]

Crossfire is confusing me. According to the ATI website, i could simply plug my X1600 in next to another and it would be fine. However according to other sources (ie my graphis card box), i need a 'crossfire edition' or 'master card' to utilise dual GPUs. Anyone know which is right?

 

[PV5150]

The master cards can be identified by the weird connector shown below and the inclusion of the black dongle.For the X1800 series you will need an X1800XL, X1800XT 256, or X1800XT 512 along with the X1800 Crossfire edition with external dongle. The X1300 and X1600 series don’t need a master card and dongle because they can simply communicate through the PCI-E bus. X1800 Crossfire includes an external Y-cable, or dongle, to connect the two cards together. Crossfire enabled motherboards such as: Radeon Xpress 200 Crossfire Edition and Intel i945X/i955X/i975X based dual-slot motherboards are supported platforms

 

[Ham]

As the ATi site say then. Thanks PV.

 

[PV5150]

np's mate

Btw I added you to my msn

 

[llwyd]

What kind of output would you be looking at for dual x1600s?

 

[NoL]

Define output? Benchmarking results? Pretty good probably for the system, won't bottleneck the cpu most likely. 2x x1600 probably would be around an x1800xl i'd imagine.

 

[mrapoc]

wot advantages does crossfire have over sli and vice versa?

 

[llwyd]

for a start, with SLI you dont have the huge PITA of the ATI drivers. neither are really what i would call great value for money, but if you got cash to splash then you mightaswell lol

 

[Ham]

As llwyd says, if your burning money to heat the house, then go for SLI. But otherwise go for a top end single card atm.

 

[JN]

I'd pick SLI over crossfire, but then i'd pick single card over SLI.

 

[mrapoc]

how bout get a sli board (m2n32) and use single card till ive saved up

 

[llwyd]

if you have to save up i would say no, save up anyway and get one damn good single card thatway you dont run the risk of it messing up either and being disapointed by the results

 

[FragTek]

if you have to save up i would say no, save up anyway and get one damn good single card thatway you dont run the risk of it messing up either and being disapointed by the results

Agreed, benchmarks are the only place you will see a good performance boost from an SLI setup. SLI may prove itself game-worthy in the near future however with these crazy new gfx engines and PhysX just now trying to make its break in to the mainstream. PhysX puts quite a load on your gfx system, something that SLI might be able to actually help with.

Suggestion for now is to get a single card, the best on the market.

 

[mrapoc]

is it worth getting a sli / crossfire motherboard for the future? or just get the best when the need is there?

 

[FarFarAway]

You can get one. I used SLI for the very first time when I hooked up those 7900GTX's in SLI for my review. I was actually pretty damn impressed. nVidia have ironed out a lot of creeses that they had with SLI

 

[FragTek]

is it worth getting a sli / crossfire motherboard for the future? or just get the best when the need is there?

Not really worth it unless u plan on going SLI/CF in the near future because the boards get better and better by the week with something newer and more appealing for the same price it seems.

 

[JN]

is it worth getting a sli / crossfire motherboard for the future? or just get the best when the need is there?

Its nice to have the ability to go SLI/Crossfire, but to be honest unless you're benchmarking for the highest scores or running a screen at ultra-high resolutions it's essentially worthless.

 

[FarFarAway]

Its nice to have the ability to go SLI/Crossfire, but to be honest unless you're benchmarking for the highest scores or running a screen at ultra-high resolutions it's essentially worthless.

/me looks at Dell 24" - /me smiles

 

[mrapoc]

wow @ reply speed

well i get about £60 a month and im about to blow £400 of it (plus computer) for a new system so it would take me about 3 months to be able to afford another card. not really worth it is it?

im only using 17", i want to be able to play new games in the future at a decent performance as im sick to death of play css at 30 fps (all settings at low) and doom 3 unplayable at lowest settings :$

 

[FarFarAway]

Ye save your case andd go single card