All-In-Wonder Crossfire

[dragonvaloo]

I'm in the market for a new card and happened across an X1900 All-In-Wonder for a great deal. I'm trying to future proof a little though (don't want to go for DX10 quite yet) and so once prices drop on the X1900s, buy a second one and use them in Crossfire.

I was looking on the internet and one site said that to use an AIW card in Crossfire, you just needed to pair it with a Crossfire Edition card from the same series (X1900 GT, XT etc.). Another site said they couldn't do Crossfire at all.

My question is, can they do Crossfire? And if not, what's my best bet for around ~250CAD (~230USD).

Thanks.

EDIT: I was also considering waiting for the X1950Pro since it's 80nm and supposed to be priced at ~200USD, or maybe the X1650XT.

 

[mesarectifier]

In theory it should be alright, as long as the cards are both from the same series (whatever denomination of R5XX they are) and one is a master card. And if the AIW is clocked slower, then it'll just slow the other card to it's own speed.

 

[mesarectifier]

If one already had a card such as the X1900GT, and wished to use it in a Crossfire system, they would need to buy an expensive X1900XT Master card. The X1900GT is a 12(36) pipeline part with 256MB of memory, while the X1900XT is a 16(48) pipeline part with 512MB of memory. On top of this, the XT runs at higher speeds in MHz. To compensate for this large gap in speed, the Master card would disable four(16) of its pipes, ignore half of its memory, and clock its GPU/RAM speed down to match. Many see this as poor value, with an expensive Master card performing at the level of a card of half the price if paired with a slower card.

 

[mesarectifier]

Interesting, well I guess the answer is:

They might both work at full speed, but at the same time they might not.

 

[iamsexyrob]

well if you do it let me know, im in the same boat. Ive got a x1900 AIW and id love to do crossfire, I love the multimedia features of the AIW but I want more gaming performance.

 

[illuminatirex]

I would get a separate tv tuner(thats what im planin on doing), thats why i got the x850xt for now and illupgrade to a dx10 card in about year or so.
Many review sites stated that aiw cards will not go xfire(not shoor of that, but i gues they are right), it is much beter to metimes to get a separate tv tuner, because later on when you upgrade a gpu, u will be looking for a regular non aiw gpu which are cheaper(usually) , and You will get beter speeds on non aiw series cards. I am using an old aiw which i had almost for 2 years(maby3) never had a single issue with it), but because i finaly want to get into more serious gaming im going with a separate tv tuner and a gpu, it might cost you a bit more (or the same) and buy you will usually get beter tv reception(the new ati tv wonders are sweet) and beter framerates.