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SLI / CrossFire FAQs - Page 13

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Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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January 1, 2010 10:23:22 AM

Well I put the 9400 in and tried to play assassins creed 1 and CoD4 which the old card plays both and it kills it stone dead which I find amazing considering it's got 1 gig on it and the other one's only 256. Would you consider that normal for this card?
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
January 1, 2010 1:32:13 PM

Size isn't the only factor to consider a card there are lots of important factors such as Stream processors,Core clock etc,as i said a 9400GT isn't a good card for gaming and its slower than 6800GT,so don't expect to play games well with a 9400GT
January 2, 2010 11:14:30 AM

Thanks for your help. I've now gone back to the 6800 and is all better. Just gotta get shot of the other one now!!!!! Anyone want a 9400GT???? hahahahaa
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a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
January 2, 2010 2:52:06 PM

Well although 6800GT is faster than 9400GT,but there are lots of better cards with good prices now available
January 8, 2010 10:34:10 AM

I posted this question as a separate thread but it may belong in this thread more. Please feel free to tune me into how much of an idiot I am if my problem is something obvious.


I have not put together a computer almost since they were like an abacus but I am trying to get my son started. He wanted a screaming gaming computer. We have it all assembled and it is running but the SLI is not working. The NVIDIA control panel is supposed to have an option in the 3D menu to enable it but the option just isn't there. The computer has 2 Gigabyte GV-N250OC-1's. The SLI bridge connector is connected. The system sees both cards. The monitor is plugged into the card that is closest to the CPU. If we plug it into the other card, the display gets no signal. Is this normal? The computer has an ASUS Sabertooth 55i mobo, an Intel I7-860 CPU, a 1000 watt power supply and 4 gig of memory. We are using an old copy of XP that we just updated with SP3. I am not sure if I am missing something in the mobo BIOS or where else I have gone wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if more info is needed.

Thanks,
Dave

Update:I tried swapping video cards. Both are working. I have read that I may need to install one, load the drivers then install the second and load the drivers. I have looked to see if there is a switch on the mobo but there is not one. I also do not see anything in the BIOS to change how it sees the video cards. I have not updated the BIOS or the video card drivers. I guess that would be next...
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
January 9, 2010 6:27:00 AM

Have you tried updating to the latest VGA driver ?
Please post a picture of your Nvidia control panel please,also you said that if you plug to the other card the displays gets no signal,if so then can you try using the card (that gives you no signal in SLI)in single mode ?
January 9, 2010 9:55:53 AM

Thanks Maziar. The problem is solved. I am blaming Bill Gates. I told my son he should get all the updates from Microsoft so that XP is up to date and secure. In my job, I troubleshoot microlithography equipment when it breaks and my question to the techs is always, what happened right before the failure. Well, in hind site, after installing SP3, the pig would not boot. Then we were unable to install any updated drivers and have them take because we always would have to start with last good known config. After we un-installed the update, and tried many other things, the computer booted and we were able to install the updated drivers. BTW-I had him remove one of the video cards too. So I am not sure if that is needed too but long winded post short, the SLI is working and the boy is happily tweaking this and that. Thanks for your help!
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
January 9, 2010 1:50:59 PM

Glad its OK now :) 
January 10, 2010 12:59:44 PM

This was a great post!

As I am looking to replace my 5+ year old system (the venerable AMD Athlon 64 FX-55) with a new gaming rig in late Q1 2010 (I'm waiting so I can get a look at the fermi, and decide from there) this information is very helpful!

Thanks!

D.

a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
January 10, 2010 1:17:06 PM

No problem,glad you find it useful :) 
January 25, 2010 8:39:03 PM

speaking of helpful, I'm hoping someone can answer this for me.
I have (2) Radeon HD 5970's that I've put into my XPS 730, (replaced 2 GTX 295's) and am not sure they are really working as intended as a 4-GPU system. The quad-SLI was pretty straightforward actually but I'm fairly certain this is only using 2 of the GPU's (1 card) rather than all 4. Power isn't a problem and I connected the cable between the two as well. I see all 4 cards are active and working fine but there is no "CrossFire" options in the menu dropdown. I read that this was because you could not disable CrossFire since the card is DualGPU (which makes sense) but how do I know if I'm using all 4?

Any pointers would be welcome.

Thanks
February 3, 2010 8:18:10 PM

ok, can you crossfire two xfx hd 5970 Black Edition 2gb 512 cards ??? With an asus Rampage II Extreme??? Here's why I have bought already the mobo an a ultra x4 1600 ps, 12g ripjaws memory ddr3, Intel 950 cpu, OCZ 60 gb solid state hd, two caviar black 1tb hd's, 64 bit windows 7 extreme, and a zalman cnps10x cpu cooler and putting it in a thermaltake vg4000sna case. And I just want to make sure these cards will work I havent been able to get an answer ?? Thanks, Just call me broke!! !oops. I forgot the cd/dvd burner and lg blue ray burner too.
February 13, 2010 1:28:10 AM

Glazierman said:
ok, can you crossfire two xfx hd 5970 Black Edition 2gb 512 cards ??? With an asus Rampage II Extreme??? Here's why I have bought already the mobo an a ultra x4 1600 ps, 12g ripjaws memory ddr3, Intel 950 cpu, OCZ 60 gb solid state hd, two caviar black 1tb hd's, 64 bit windows 7 extreme, and a zalman cnps10x cpu cooler and putting it in a thermaltake vg4000sna case. And I just want to make sure these cards will work I havent been able to get an answer ?? Thanks, Just call me broke!! !oops. I forgot the cd/dvd burner and lg blue ray burner too.



Hi
Yes that should work. I have/had two xfx597A-BE cards mounted in this new system. My cards have gone back RMA as like others with other brands I was having issues with grey screen / crashes requiring hard boot. There are posts on this site about the issues you just need to look for them.
You could go to the AMD forum site there is a section just for the xrossfire set up.

OS: Win7-64bit
MOBO: Asus P6X58D Premium
CPU: Intel i7-965 extreme
RAM: 12GB OCZ 1600
PSU: Silverstone 1500W
Case CoolerMaster HAF932
2 x DVD
3 x HDD
February 13, 2010 2:59:54 AM

Hey all, I have this monitor.

http://www.viewsonic.com.pe/suppor [...] /a91fplus/

Im looking at buying either a ATI 5770, 2 ATI 5770's Crossfired, or a single ATI 5850.

I have a I7 920 CPU with the ASRocks X58 extreme Mobo.


Which Vid Card should I get and why? I can get 2 5770's for $20 more than the 5850 and they out perform the 5850 quite well.

Would anything more than one 5770 be overkill? I built my system to last at least 3 years and who's to say I wont get a new monitor within that time?

Thanks,

Johnie
February 17, 2010 7:34:06 PM

Buy one Ati HD 5850 because, you will be able to add a HD 5850 in the future unless you add 2 HD 5770 to the quad crossfire.
a b U Graphics card
February 18, 2010 5:20:43 PM

Depends if you are looking for an upgrade now, 5770 is a very good value. I run them cross-fired for high end purposes and they work great. However if you think you will have extra money in a few months, I figure why not bump up and get a 5850. I only upgrade once every 1.5 years so 2x 5770 will serve me well as the 5XXX series is really only just a bridge series till the next REAL gpu release.
a b U Graphics card
March 14, 2010 5:42:04 PM

The i7 920 will outperform even a QX9770.
You are right in that that rig is better at gaming, however the CPU isn't as powerful.
A 5870 isn't that far behind, as 3 & 4 GPU scaling is horrible, so quad-CF is probably like 3 4870's, a 5870 = 4870X2. So OCing the 5870 and it won't be more than 5-20% behind.
March 19, 2010 6:28:05 AM

So, anyone knows 'bout the new motherboards with hydra technology (like MSI Big Bang Fuzion)?, suposed to be able for the sli-crossfire, I mean nvidia-ati cards together.
March 23, 2010 4:16:09 PM

you said ex:\ 8800 gt 512 mb with another 8800 gt 512 mb wont make my memory go 1gb. so is it bettter to just chuck away old gpu and buy a new graphic card with 1gb memory.
March 23, 2010 6:53:44 PM

so back to JohnnieReb's question: With a new build of an i7 920 system intended to not be upgraded within 3-4 yrs (aside from graphics card/HD), is it better today to purchase a 2x5770 or 1x5850?

To add my own twist, I will be playing on a 1680x1050 monitor and possibly a 52" plasma from time to time (idk if that makes a difference or not)..and the games will likely vary but include starcraft 2 + diablo 3 and the occasional FPS..

Thanks in advance!
March 24, 2010 1:32:53 AM

As you said adding 8800gts512 mb with another 8600ts512 sli wont make my memory go 1gb. how sli will help me anyway then , does it mean that games which cannot use multiple gpu will show no improvement during gameplay. ?
March 24, 2010 5:15:54 AM

Sorry! I didn't answer before do my task in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTKjjXo_KVc , octv shows how did work this moterboard with a 260 GTX and a HD 4890 together, in fact I think maybe it shows a little decrement in performance compared with a SLI or CFX, but, it represent an advantage for one guy with a oldest video card, in the specifications MSI declares that mobo works wit the 9xxx and gtx 200 series in the nvidia part and with the 4xxx series for ati, but there are another video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3DeOsrBUa8&feature=rela... , that shows a chinese guy playing with a HD5870 & GTX285, for the moment I do not know more than this and I like someone can explain me how can it possible?, how does work sli and cfx physically?, and how did the hydra 200 make work ati-nvidia?
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
March 24, 2010 5:52:43 AM

themarshall said:
speaking of helpful, I'm hoping someone can answer this for me.
I have (2) Radeon HD 5970's that I've put into my XPS 730, (replaced 2 GTX 295's) and am not sure they are really working as intended as a 4-GPU system. The quad-SLI was pretty straightforward actually but I'm fairly certain this is only using 2 of the GPU's (1 card) rather than all 4. Power isn't a problem and I connected the cable between the two as well. I see all 4 cards are active and working fine but there is no "CrossFire" options in the menu dropdown. I read that this was because you could not disable CrossFire since the card is DualGPU (which makes sense) but how do I know if I'm using all 4?

Any pointers would be welcome.

Thanks

Download GPU-Z and run 4 copies of it (each for one core) and then run a game,and check their usages
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
March 24, 2010 5:53:14 AM

JohnieReb said:
Hey all, I have this monitor.

http://www.viewsonic.com.pe/suppor [...] /a91fplus/

Im looking at buying either a ATI 5770, 2 ATI 5770's Crossfired, or a single ATI 5850.

I have a I7 920 CPU with the ASRocks X58 extreme Mobo.


Which Vid Card should I get and why? I can get 2 5770's for $20 more than the 5850 and they out perform the 5850 quite well.

Would anything more than one 5770 be overkill? I built my system to last at least 3 years and who's to say I wont get a new monitor within that time?

Thanks,

Johnie

The lnk you posted doesn't work but 1 HD 5850 would be the best price/performance option between them
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
March 24, 2010 5:55:23 AM

murphycop said:
So, anyone knows 'bout the new motherboards with hydra technology (like MSI Big Bang Fuzion)?, suposed to be able for the sli-crossfire, I mean nvidia-ati cards together.

Some sites (including tom's)wrote a review about Hydra.
It looks promising but its currently new and driver support isn't very good but i think in future it will work better.
And yes the general purpose is using an ATI card with a Nvidia one
March 26, 2010 4:54:55 PM

thanks maziar, and happy belated new year from a fellow persian :) 
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
March 26, 2010 5:07:16 PM

Thanks mate :)  happy new iranian year to you too :) 
April 8, 2010 4:33:10 AM

If i have a motherboard with 3 way SLI but i decide to purchase one new ATI card, will the card work as it should on the nvidia based sli motherboard? im not trying to do SLI or crossfire with that one card or anything. i just feel like trying out a ati card. i dont know if an ATI card will be compatible with my motherboard.
April 10, 2010 6:49:12 AM

Nvdia Sli Technology is fully -developed if we notice for now.

But the real potential is AtI-Cross-Firex technology which is much similar.

Both have identical performance.

I really think that Ati-Crossfirex can be more developed in coming years=D
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
April 10, 2010 6:57:34 AM

bonbon99 said:
If i have a motherboard with 3 way SLI but i decide to purchase one new ATI card, will the card work as it should on the nvidia based sli motherboard? im not trying to do SLI or crossfire with that one card or anything. i just feel like trying out a ati card. i dont know if an ATI card will be compatible with my motherboard.

Yes you can use a single ATI card on a Nvidia SLI chipset and vice versa.
April 11, 2010 10:55:39 AM

Very nice info, thanks!

I have a problem as I planning to buy a new CPU, hope you can help me.
Here's my specs:

Motherboard - Asus P7P55D-E PRO
Processor - Quad Core i5-750
Graphic - 2 x ATI Radeon HD 4850 (Crossfire)


Asus P7P55D-E PRO and Quad Core i5-750 only support "2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16 or dual at x8 / x8 mode)"
Will there be bottleneck as both 4850 cards share x8 bandwidth only?
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
April 11, 2010 11:16:42 AM

You are welcome :) 
In almost all games,the difference between dual 8x and dual 16x isn't noticeable.
In very high resolutions and in some specific games,dual 16x performs better but overall the difference isn't much.
April 19, 2010 9:59:46 AM

hello i have a gigabite GA-EP45T-DS3R (rev. 1.0) mother board with CrossFireX and i am running a nvdia geforce 9600 gt DDR3 on it... and this works fine...

now my question is can i pair it with another graphic card i have i.e Nvidia Quadro FX 580 on this board??? is it possible??

mother board is CrossFireX certified and the first graphic card (9600 GT) is SLI certified...
a b Î Nvidia
a c 119 U Graphics card
April 19, 2010 12:58:07 PM

You can run another video card(any card that will fit). It will NOT RUN IN SLI, but for individual cards, it will work.

Also note the second slot runs at X8 not X16
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
April 19, 2010 1:26:34 PM

You can use a main card(like FX 580) and use your 9600GT as a PhysX card
April 20, 2010 10:32:29 AM

thank you very much for our replies....

so that means even if i get a new fx 580 after selling 9600gt and try to pair two fx 580 on my motherboard it wont pair as it is a crossfirex suport board not a sli board ??
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
April 20, 2010 12:47:44 PM

now that's different.
At first i thought that you want to keep your 9600GT and use a FX 580 with it but not you say that you want to pair 2 FX 580 and that's not possible because your motherboard doesn't support SLI.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 119 U Graphics card
April 20, 2010 3:05:04 PM

nitinbharadwaj said:
thank you very much for our replies....

so that means even if i get a new fx 580 after selling 9600gt and try to pair two fx 580 on my motherboard it wont pair as it is a crossfirex suport board not a sli board ??

Dead on. They will not pair(SLi) and will instead run as 2 separate cards.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
April 22, 2010 8:41:44 AM

Edited with Geforce GTX 400 family and also i put the HD 5xxx cards in one list instead of making more lists(like HD 59xx,58xx)to make it more compact
April 26, 2010 10:20:40 AM

hey
i want a sutable video driver for my pc(vindows 7).
could u help me plz.what graphic card is suitable for me?
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
April 26, 2010 1:48:12 PM

Hello and welcome to the forums :) 
What are your system specs and are you going to play games on it ?
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
April 28, 2010 7:13:31 AM

Edited with the updated "AMD compatibility" chart.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
May 1, 2010 9:46:21 AM

Glad you found it useful :) 
Can you post the full specifications of it ?
May 1, 2010 7:04:43 PM

Is it wise for me to run dual GTX 260 SLI Configuration on a 1440X900 resolution?
I am thinking of picking up another GTX 260 to boost up my games... Any suggestions anyone?

The specs of my rig are as follows:
CPU: Core i5 750 @ 2.66Ghz
Ram: 4Gb Kingston 1066
Graphic Card: MSI GTX 260
PSU: Corsair TX 650W
Mobo: MSI P55 GD-65
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
May 1, 2010 8:54:04 PM

For a resolution like 1440x900,i recommend sticking with a single GTX 260 because it will do fine on that resolution.
If you want to go with SLI(or getting a better card),i would recommend you upgrading your monitor first
May 2, 2010 3:49:31 AM

ok ok, thanks for the suggestions :)  luckily i haven't went ahead and buy another GTX 260 XD
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
May 2, 2010 6:55:32 AM

You are welcome :) 
a b Î Nvidia
a c 124 U Graphics card
May 10, 2010 9:42:48 PM

Great post! It answered some of my questions. I especially like the graph of compatible cards - I didn't realise the 5870+5970 would be a decent combo. I'm currently running a 5850, and thinking about CF a second one which should perform great at 1920x1080 in any game max settings (hopefully including Crysis 2!). So, does CF/SLI improve min frames even if it doesn't improve max? It would be great to have a silky smooth experience even at 30fps.
a b Î Nvidia
a c 169 U Graphics card
May 11, 2010 8:35:11 AM

wolfram23 said:
Great post! It answered some of my questions. I especially like the graph of compatible cards - I didn't realise the 5870+5970 would be a decent combo. I'm currently running a 5850, and thinking about CF a second one which should perform great at 1920x1080 in any game max settings (hopefully including Crysis 2!). So, does CF/SLI improve min frames even if it doesn't improve max? It would be great to have a silky smooth experience even at 30fps.

Well Crysis 2 isn't out ye,so no one knows how it will perform with MultiGPU systems but adding another 5850 will help you in current games.
And MultiGPU improves both Min and Max frames in games.
Anonymous
a b U Graphics card
May 13, 2010 3:31:18 PM

I have an NVIDIA 9800GT in my crossfire based motherboard (BAH!) and I wish to use 4 displays (3monitors 1tv). What do you suggest:

I may not want to use the crossfire technology at all, just the fact that I can put 2 VGA cards in my systems (without crossfire). I want separate extended windows desktops on all displays, no cloning.

1. Keep my current NVIDIA card and buy another (for driver's sake: NVIDIA but not necessary 9800GT) card so i'll have 4 outputs, is that good?
2. Sell my current card and buy 2 ATI cards like 2 HD4850, this is crossfire friendly and I will be able to use 4 indepentent displays? Even during gaming?

Obviously the second option is better but would the nr1. work? And did I understand the situation of the nr 2.?

Thanks!
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