ATI Crossfire Compatibility

[mahler01]

I have ECS A785GM-M mobo w/AMD785G graphics core, ATI HD 4200 internal graphics. What ATI cards would be compatible in crossfire mode? More specifically, can I use one of the most recent releases such as ATI Radeon 4870 x2?

 

[EXT64]

What do you mean by 'crossfire mode'? As to the 4870X2, yes, it will work fine on your board as long as you have a big enough PSU. If you are referring to crossfiring with the onboard, only a few of the low end cards do that, and it is not really worth it in my opinion. In fact, if they let you crossfire the onboard with high end discrete, it would probably slow the system down rather than help. Sorry if that was not your question.

 

[brockh]

The ATi Radeon 4870X2 is not really a "recent release," but regardless, you cannot CrossFire (nor would you want to) an internal graphics solution with a dedicated graphics solution. Recent releases you should consider are the HD 5770, HD 5750, HD 5850, and HD 5870. Older releases to consider are the HD 4850, 4870, and HD 4890. They will all provide a large performance increase over the HD 4200 onboard graphics solution.

Even it was possible to use the onboard graphics to CrossFire with a dedicated GPU, it would take the lowest common denominator performance from the HD 4200, essentially giving you two HD 4200s, which is just silly.

 

[skolpo]

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?detailid=1000&CategoryID=1&DetailName=Specification&MenuID=145&LanID=0

Is this your motherboard?

If it is, it has one PCI-Express x16 slot, which means it will only hold one graphics card. You won't be able to crossfire anything, well at least none of the newer cards. I think it'll be able to run a single 4870x2, though.

 

[mahler01]

Yes - that is my motherboard - maybe my terminology is wrong, it has one PCI-Express x16 slot, but it uses Hybrid Graphics Technology by inserting an external graphics card and enabling both the descrete GPU and the integrated AMD785G graphics core (w/ATI HD 4200) to render simultaneously in Hybrid CrossFire mode. So, I'm just not sure what I can use for the external card. Thanks.

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?detailid=1000&CategoryID=1&DetailName=Specification&MenuID=145&LanID=0

Is this your motherboard?

If it is, it has one PCI-Express x16 slow, which means it will only hold one graphics card. You won't be able to crossfire anything, well at least none of the newer cards. I think it'll be able to run a single 4870x2, though.

 

[brockh]

Yes - that is my motherboard - maybe my terminology is wrong, it has one PCI-Express x16 slot, but it uses Hybrid Graphics Technology by inserting an external graphics card and enabling both the descrete GPU and the integrated AMD785G graphics core (w/ATI HD 4200) to render simultaneously in Hybrid CrossFire mode. So, I'm just not sure what I can use for the external card. Thanks.

The answer is no, you cannot do that.

Source

 

[mahler01]

Sorry, what do you mean by "you cannot do that"?

The answer is no, you cannot do that.

Source

 

[EXT64]

He means you cannot Hybrid Crossfire a higher end chip (like 4600, 4800, 5700, 5800 to name a few) with the onboard.

This article is a bit old, but I thought I heard they had not increased the compatibility recently. I'll look into it more.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3178

 

[EXT64]

Here's a more up to date one. Read the first two lines:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3615&p=9&cp=4