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Asus P5KC and 2X XFX 4850 1GB in Crossfire mode compatible?

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February 18, 2010 8:17:03 PM

I currently have a CG5270-BP003 Asus (got it for $186 BNIB) that has a single slot PCI-e 16x in it running an Asus EAH 4850 TOP 512mb that I added.
I am happy, but just got a ridicolous deal on 2 brand new XFX 4850 1GB cards. $85 each =)
I also got an unfinished barebones setup to get rid of this ridiculous case that the BP003 comes with... It came with an Asus P5KC mobo BNIB, Antec 900 BNIB, and a Zalmann cnps cooler BNIB.

My question is this :
Being that the P5KC has 1 PCI-e 16x (blue) and 1 PCI-e 4x (black) and is crossfire certified, will this motherboard run the 2 XFX 4850's in crossfire mode perfectly?

Should I just sell the motherboard and buy a different one that has 2x PCI-e 16x slots with crossfire or will I not notice a difference worthwhile?

I may just sell or return the XFX cards and get a MSI Cyclone 4890 OC and not do anything with the motherboard at all... but I think 2x 4850s will outperform that setup.

Here is the rest of the parts :

23" LCD w/ 1900x1280 res
corsair 650w sli certified cmpsu-tx
q8300 core2quad
Apacer 4x2GB ddr2-6400

what are your thoughts?

More about : asus p5kc xfx 4850 1gb crossfire mode compatible

a c 130 U Graphics card
February 18, 2010 8:21:06 PM

You'll do fine. Your MOBO has a PCI-E1.0x8, which doesn't bottleneck the HD4850 at all.

Wait, check. Are those PCI-E 1.0 slots or 2.0?
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a c 169 U Graphics card
a b Ĉ ASUS
February 18, 2010 8:24:44 PM

Yes you will be able to use CrossFire on it but since it supports crossfire at 16x4x then i don't recommend it because 16x4x doesn't perform as well as dual 8x/16x so if you want to upgrade then get a better single card,here is a good review which compares 16x4x dual 8x and dual 16x:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crossfire-pci-expre...
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a c 169 U Graphics card
a b Ĉ ASUS
February 18, 2010 8:26:21 PM

shadow187 said:
You'll do fine. Your MOBO has a PCI-E1.0x8, which doesn't bottleneck the HD4850 at all.

Wait, check. Are those PCI-E 1.0 slots or 2.0?

Well if the OP wanted to use a single card then you were right but he/she is going to use dual 4850's on it and since P35 chipset supports CF @ 16x4x then the performance won't be good as dual 8x/16x
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a c 130 U Graphics card
February 18, 2010 8:29:06 PM

PCI-E v2.0 has a 10%+ increase in graphics capability? Damn, never knew..

Thanks Maziar.
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a c 169 U Graphics card
a b Ĉ ASUS
February 18, 2010 8:34:36 PM

Well PCI-E 1.0 vs PCI-E 2.0 won't make a noticeable difference in almost all games the thing is as i said using CF @ 16x4x won't perform as well as dual 8x/dual 16x
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February 18, 2010 8:51:57 PM

So which option is best do you think?

Sell P5KC and get a new motherboard with dual 8x or 16x support and run dual XFX 1gb 4850's.

or

Sell P5KC and keep factory motherboard and get MSI Cyclone 4890 OC 1GB
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a c 130 U Graphics card
February 18, 2010 9:01:02 PM

$85 each isn't /too great/ for an HD4850. Performance-wise, sure, because the only competitors are the GT240/9600GT/HD4670/HD5670.

If you want, sell the P5KC, keep factory motherboard (assuming 2.0x16 PCI-E), and get an HD5850. HD4850x2 is better than the HD4890.
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February 18, 2010 9:07:25 PM

shadow187 said:
$85 each isn't /too great/ for an HD4850. Performance-wise, sure, because the only competitors are the GT240/9600GT/HD4670/HD5670.

If you want, sell the P5KC, keep factory motherboard (assuming 2.0x16 PCI-E), and get an HD5850. HD4850x2 is better than the HD4890.


My current Asus HD 4850 TOP 512mb can run MW2 max settings 1900x1280 very smoothly. I just want better/faster. I don't think any of the above cards mentioned can manage that.

And I don't want to spend $250-300 for an HD5850
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a c 130 U Graphics card
February 18, 2010 9:11:01 PM

If it plays smoothly, why you looking to upgrade?

If you want pure performance, go with the better MOBO and HD4850 combo.

If you want longevity, get an HD5770, a better mobo, then later, an HD5770 crossfire.
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a c 169 U Graphics card
a b Ĉ ASUS
February 19, 2010 6:30:22 AM

Solidpantz said:
So which option is best do you think?

Sell P5KC and get a new motherboard with dual 8x or 16x support and run dual XFX 1gb 4850's.

or

Sell P5KC and keep factory motherboard and get MSI Cyclone 4890 OC 1GB

Although getting another 4850 will give you a boost but it costs more so getting a 4890 and keeping your motherboard costs less however if you don't have problems running your games then why do you want to upgrade ?
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