Running Crossfire

[painejake]

I want to run a crossfire setup but im quite new to more than 1 gfx card. I have a Gigabyte M750SLi-DS4 mobo which supports SLI however, what are the chances of it working in Crossfire instead. I read on ATi's site that it is recommended to use a supported board, so does that mean i could crossfire instead?

Thanks

 

[Allargando]

You can't run 2 ATI cards in crossfire on an SLI board (IIRC, there was some experimental driver that let you do that for one particular SLI chipset...but it didn't work as well)

For your mobo, if you want the run a multi-gpu setup you'll have to get 2 Nvidia based cards

 

[painejake]

Ok well thanks for clearing that up

Also can anyone recommend a good nVidia card as i've always gone with ATi before now. I have a budget af about £150

Cheers

 

[deathwish]

depends on what you have at the moment

but a 9800gtx is a good bet

 

[painejake]

Atm i have a ATi HD 4670 1024MB GDDR3 and looking for a upgrade on that. Tbh i dont think it will be for a while anyway. Or not untill nvidia drop their prices....

 

[rammedst]

9800gtx from nvidia or 4850 from ati, if you are going single card at around 150~ it doesnt matter

 

[painejake]

Is the 9800gtx SLi ready? And thanks

 

[zak4994]

Is the 9800gtx SLi ready? And thanks

You made me lol there.

Of course!

 

[rammedst]

that said though, why not get a good 300~ card instead of 2 150~ cards? i mean, what does a GTX260 cost? or do you not have that money and a buying one now one later kind of thing?

 

[monkey7]

2*8450 is about the same value as a 300 pound card, and gives way better performance in most games

GTX260 certainly has its arse kicked by a '50 crossfire setup. If your motherboard support it and you have the budget, I'd go for that.

 

[painejake]

You made me lol there.

Of course!

Shh i havent seen a nvidia card since the GeForce440MX

Reason? I only ahve £150 to spend thn in a few months time ill buy the same card again

 

[rammedst]

Ahhh, i see, well, if that is the case, yes, Sli would be appropriate, however, there are 1 things, one is that your board, being the 750i chipset won't get the most out of the 2 cards (dual 8x i think), and the other being that there is no guarantee you will spent the other 150~ on another card exactly the same. unfortunately, this certainly seems like the best solution to my knowledge...

Oh, on a side note, I have never heard of E-tec, could someone affirm with me on this brand? are they good? because if they are only so-so you may need a new power supply if you intend to run Sli (650W means nothing, I want to know the current of the combined 12v rail(s))

 

[painejake]

Its just a cheap e-buyer affiliated brand. Its a ok psu as in it works, but i will prob upgrade to the coolmaster 800w when im moving onto 2 cards or as im thinking of saving a bit more cash and getting a 260 or something or even stick with ATi

 

[ikan dugong]

if you want to experince SLI for 150, I think 2x 9600GT is quite powerful to run most games nowadays. otherwise, go for a single 9800GTX+ (you can save for another one to get SLI config on 9800GTX+ later). or if you insist on crossfire, go get one of 4850 card, you can migrate your system to crossfire later, and boost gaming performance with two 4850's. just make sure your system (power supply) is ready for those power-hungry cards.