Crossfire compatible? msi z87-g43 gaming mobo

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
StaalZA

StaalZA

Honorable
Nov 8, 2012
26
0
10,540
Hi,

I currently have a Corsair GS800 paired with a msi z87-g43 gaming Mobo rocking crucial ballistix tracer ddr3 1866 8GB with a Intel I7 4790K Chip.

My gpu is a Powercolor 7950 3GB OC.

I recently got an supper deal on a second 7950 3GB at a fraction of the retail/value price.

Although the website shouts Crossfire ready, the way the bus is divided confuses me and I'm curious as if this mobo wil be able to run 2x 7950 3 GB in Crossfire?

MOBO website: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z87-G43-GAMING.html#hero-specification
 
Solution
Rogue Leader
You will definitely have good gains. Now even the best crossfire does not double your performance. My system for example went from (with an old HD 5400 series) 955 3D Mark to 6570 with 1 R9 280 card, and then to 9670 with 2. So I got about a 48% gain. I would anticipate a bit less than that for you maybe around 35 - 40%.
Sort by date Sort by votes
Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Dec 22, 2014
32,729
2,812
113,640
Not sure what you mean by how the bus is divided, is it because of the extra PCI slot in between? That has no effect other than giving you more airflow room. This board is fairly common here and should have no problem running those 2 in crossfire. I'm sure theres other users here running that exact combo.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
StaalZA

StaalZA

Honorable
Nov 8, 2012
26
0
10,540


What I meant is the part on the website;

• 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, supports up to PCIe 3.0 x16 speed
• 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, supports up to PCIe 2.0 x4 speed

Does it mean that the throughput is lower when a second card is added, and if so how negatively will that impact the performance gain... :p
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Dec 22, 2014
32,729
2,812
113,640


If you populate both slots the second will run at x4, because of the low number of PCI lanes in the system. It will still work, and the speed difference between 2.0 and 3.0 is barely 1%. The concern is the number of PCI lanes for the whole setup (16 on 1 4 on the other), that may have an effect on performance as it drags down the card with more lane's performance but is a limitation of the G43 (they corrected this in the Z87-G45). It will still work fine and most likely the difference is mostly visible in benchmarking. Newer setups split the PCI lanes so both cards run at x8.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
StaalZA

StaalZA

Honorable
Nov 8, 2012
26
0
10,540


I'll run before and after benchmarks and will report back in the morning. If you had to guess, just out of interest, what gains( if any) would you speculate the crossfire setup would have?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Dec 22, 2014
32,729
2,812
113,640
You will definitely have good gains. Now even the best crossfire does not double your performance. My system for example went from (with an old HD 5400 series) 955 3D Mark to 6570 with 1 R9 280 card, and then to 9670 with 2. So I got about a 48% gain. I would anticipate a bit less than that for you maybe around 35 - 40%.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
maddogfargo

maddogfargo

Splendid
Nov 28, 2006
3,344
8
22,965


Some motherboards and chipsets can support 2x PCIe GPUs at x16 each. AMD 990FXA for example.

Others can do Crossfire and SLI at x8 / x8. this would be good as well and still gives nearly the same performance as dual x16.

But if you're looking at one fo the cards running at x4, this is going to give you a noticeably lower performance gain compared to x8 / x8 or x16 / x16.

Crossfire can support one card at x4, but SLI requires x8 minimum. Since it says the motherboard supports crossfire but I don't see SLI, my hunch is you will be stuck with one card at x4. I would contact MSI to confirm what your board can support.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
StaalZA

StaalZA

Honorable
Nov 8, 2012
26
0
10,540



Well, I ran a few benches with my normal single card config.
Then I ran the same benches with the same settings in Crossfire.
Across the range I had about 80% performance increase.
Feeling that this might be a mistake, I swapped back to my original single card config and got the same original results. Swapped back to Crossfire and YAY +-80% increase.

I also maxed out the GFX for early access(un-optimized completely) Rust and Star Citizen. The results was awesome. All in all I bought the second card from a friend for about $60, so I am really happy :D
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom