CrossfireX with different cards?

[kod1ak]

I currently have an Visiontek hd 5850. Sometime after xmas I intend on building an entirely new system, keeping my video card. ATI's website tells me that I can run an HD 5850, and 5870 in crossfirex together. What do you guys think about this opposed to a 5850 and a 5850.

 

[jitpublisher]

The faster card will slow down to match the speed of the slower card, so putting a 5870 with a 5850 is absolutely fine, it will work, but there is no advantage over 2-5850's. You are simply wasting your money on the higher end card.

 

[kod1ak]

gotcha, thanks alot

 

[daedalus685]

The faster card will not slow down, they will both run at whatever they are set to.

The cards are given equal work though, the frame will not be drawn until the slower card is done. Thus the performance is always the same as crossfire of the slowest card.

However, in games which do not utilize CF, if the faster card is the primary card it will continue to work at stock, not equal to a single of the lesser card.

SLI on the other hand will match clock settings.

 

[notty22]

So if someone found themselves with a 5870 and a 5850. You would put the 5870 on the top and have your monitor cables out of this one. Its a curiosity , common sense type question ? With both sli and crossfire do you always have your cables out of the top monitor ?