Would a HD3870 lose performance on a 4x express crossfire setup?

[retronova]

I want to buy 2x Sapphire HD 3870 and the only board I was able to find which uses a 780g chipset and supports Crossfire for the 2 cards is the Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H. (Of course i'm a AMD fanboy )

http://www.giga-byte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2800

What I would like to know if there is anyone here who has had some experience with a 16x and a 4x configuration. Would the second card be effected by the lower lane speeds?

Most other boards that have 2 x 16x lanes have the SB600 installed, which i have heard isnt the best southbridge ever as I am using a raid 0 configuration.

Any help or views on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GeoMan]

click herel

This article has the answers to the questions you ask, please read it... it is on Toms front page so you may want to try reading that before posting.

If that doesn't help click here

 

[retronova]

Ahh that was smart, guess I'm just really stupid at not looking at the front page first, as I've bookmarked the forums to go directly to them, sorry I wont post again.

Maybe a better question would have been on the bord itself.

 

[GeoMan]

Sorry, that's just me being a grumpy old b@stard (;

I like AMD, but rignt now intel is definately better bang for buck, if i was you i'd look into a p35 or X38 board with an E8X00 chip if you're looking for Crossfire

P.S. if you can hold off for a month or so AMD are brining out their HD48X0 cards at the end of this month, or beginning of next month, and the rumor mill is saying that they are going to blow everything else out the water.

 

[EXT64]

I saw the two PCI-E "long" slots on that board and was wondering why they didn't say 2 x16 ports. I guess that's why. Are you sure it actually supports crossfire? An x4 slot would reduce performance a bit. x8 is great and x16 is a little overkill (for now), but x4 is a little low.

 

[EXT64]

I only see Hybrid CrossfireX (or whatever it's called) which is Crossfire with the onboard. Also from what I've heard, you probably want to wait for the SB750 for RAID. It will replace the SB600 on their good true Crossfire boards in a month or so.

 

[sisley_111]

Agreed with EXT64. Wait for new motherboards with 790X or 790FX and SB7xx (SB750 support for RAID 5) if you really want to stick with AMD and doing crossfire.

By the way, wait for the HD4xxx series, just in case is really worth it.

 

[radnor]

By the way, wait for the HD4xxx series, just in case is really worth it.

Atm, i would really wait one month or so. Even that isnt much worth it the price for a 3870 should go down a bit more. I know its always something new coming soon and all, but there are too many GT200 and HD4xxx details running around to buy NOW. One month i said Remember Moore Law !!