Help w/X1900XT (CrossFire Ready) Card and Questions

[jvmongoose]

Hey Guys,

I would like to know if anyone can help me decide what exact card I would need to purchase to complete my CrossFire gaming rig and possibly answer some questions like if it is even worth it with the new Vista coming out, games (if they support it), experiences, etc.

My current gaming rig is the following

Mobo: ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe Socket 939 ATI CrossFire Radeon Xpress 3200 ATX AMD Motherboard

Current Video Card: ATI 100-435801 Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

Now, I would like to know what exact card would I need to buy to be able to complete my CrossFire setup. I tried to read through the ATi's site and found a listing of compatible cards, etc... but found nothing with my current card.

And once more, is it even worth it to buy another card to enable crossfire? Will I get a huge boost? Do games have to specificially support it in order for it to be taken advantage of? Has anyone tried this on Vista yet w/ATI's vista drivers?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
- jv

 

[wimcle]

You need this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127208

That $300 after rebate...


You would be much better off, by dumping you existing card on ebay (you could probably get $150 for it) and buying an nvidia 8800gt* or holding out for ati's next card.

just my $.02

 

[jvmongoose]

Yeah, I think I would like more replies... I'm not sure I agree w/that one.

 

[HA_ZEE]

You need the X1900 Crossfire master card to make crossfire work on your MB. They are getting harder to find online brand new. It is possible you might be able to purchase it on ebay. The other poster suggested an 8800GTS as a possible option and quite frankly that is not a bad idea. Do your homework because for what you are spending you could end up with DX10 support which would end up lasting a lot longer as an upgrade. The 8800 outperforms 1900 crossfire under most circumstances so your overall performance would be better. See the link on a 8800gts for pricing. I am not trying to tell you crossfire is bad, but you can do better if you check into it.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130071