Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 and Crossfire, what's the bottleneck here?

[reaper2794]

Hey guys, if I'm correct, I believe the Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 CAN support Crossfire, but it does not max out it's potential.

If I am correct, it is because if you have 2 cards, then the 2nd card runs at x4 instead of x16 am I right?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425

If not can someone correct me?

Also, what's a good board from a reliable brand that runs true potential crossfire? I don't want some junk brand like Biostar

Thanks for your time

 

[sportsfanboy]

That's correct, I would pick up a mobo that has two 16x lanes or better, or at least one 16x and the second at 8x.

 

[reaper2794]

I see, can you recommend me some reliable ones? Also, what if one of the slots are PCI-E 2.0 x 16 and the other is a PCI-E x 16?

Also, can you tell me what this specific board would be running at? x4 or x1? Kinda confused

 

[sportsfanboy]

The board in your link has 2 pci-e 1.0 slots, one runs at 16x and the other at 4x. The 16x is the primary and would be perfect for a single card setup, while maybe using the 4x slot for raid cards or perhaps a dedicated physics card.

 

[reaper2794]

Ok, and I dunno if I understand this correctly but, I just looked at the details

It says "When the PCIEX1_2 slot is populated with an expansion card, the PCIEX4_X1 slot will operate at up to x1 mode."

Does that mean if I have a PCI-E x1 slot filled (let's say with a wireless adapter), my 2nd video card will be slowed down from x4 to x1????

and PhysX is only available with nVidia isn't it?

Notice I said crossfre not SLI

 

[sportsfanboy]

Actually yes that is an Nvidia thing, was thinking sli for some reason. I think in this boards case when you throw in an expansion card it will slow down the 4x slot, don't hold me to it but that's what it looks like. That board really is good for just one video card.

What's your budget I'll give you my opinion on what board to get. Also is there a reason why you need two video cards?

 

[reaper2794]

It's for a friend, and I don't know his budget since he's gonna be using birthday/christmas money and we have no set budget since we dunno how much he's gonna get.

We wanna crossfire for better gaming performance, and we're considering leaving the option open in the future, but I'm thinking he should go with this board since I doubt he's gonna spend another 200-250 in the future for another 6870 or whatever he ends up getting

 

[sportsfanboy]

The problem with crossfire /sli is: by the time you need to add another video card (sometimes two years later)there are one card solutions that are far better than the original and will equal or exceed the performance of the crossfire setup your proposing.

Does your friend use more than one monitor? Because the GTX 580 or the soon to be released 5970 will handle any single monitor system.

 

[hotyamaha06]

Yeah drop the crossfire and buy 1 good card??? crossfire scales good but your not really making it easy buy having two look how much more you spent on it now....

 

[reaper2794]

The problem with crossfire /sli is: by the time you need to add another video card (sometimes two years later)there are one card solutions that are far better than the original and will equal or exceed the performance of the crossfire setup your proposing.

Does your friend use more than one monitor? Because the GTX 580 or the soon to be released 5970 will handle any single monitor system.

You mean 6970 and yeah that's true, the 6970 is rumored to be like $450 though right? That's quite pricey. He runs a single monitor and yeah I'm really leaning towards a single card, maybe something stronger than a 6870. Is there any reason why people recommend a 6870 over the 5870? Just cause it's newer? Cause the 5870 is way better and it doesn't lack any critical features so yeah...

Yeah drop the crossfire and buy 1 good card??? crossfire scales good but your not really making it easy buy having two look how much more you spent on it now....

Not to be rude, but you sound extremely uneducated and stupid, and I don't get what you're trying to say. Please spell correctly and use semi-proper grammar next time.

 

[sportsfanboy]

yea 6970,lol

 

[sportsfanboy]

The 5870 is faster than the 6870, gotta love the AMD naming scheme. To me it makes rsense to wait to saee what the 5970 or the 5950 has to offer.

 

[reaper2794]

Yeah, they're coming out December 15th or that's what I read today anyway

He won't be building till Christmas time or so

I don't get the naming scheme either, but I do believe each of the numbers do mean something if I'm incorrect, surely there's some reason why they do that, I believe it's with the actual hardware that goes into it, I may be wrong

 

[hotyamaha06]

You mean 6970 and yeah that's true, the 6970 is rumored to be like $450 though right? That's quite pricey. He runs a single monitor and yeah I'm really leaning towards a single card, maybe something stronger than a 6870. Is there any reason why people recommend a 6870 over the 5870? Just cause it's newer? Cause the 5870 is way better and it doesn't lack any critical features so yeah...



Not to be rude, but you sound extremely uneducated and stupid, and I don't get what you're trying to say. Please spell correctly and use semi-proper grammar next time.

Wow, wish i knew you right now

 

[reaper2794]

Wow, wish i knew you right now

Please quit making useless posts that don't contribute to my question

 

[hotyamaha06]

"If I am correct, it is because if you have 2 cards, then the 2nd card runs at x4 instead of x16 am I right?" was already answered by sportsfanboy

#2 "Also, what's a good board from a reliable brand that runs true potential crossfire?"
I was trying to direct you away from CF just buy 1 GPU no need for two you have 1 screen low res. why the CF what dont you get..... 1/4 the populace in Rtard thanks for playing im done


"The simplest answer is usually the correct answer"

 

[amk09]

To Reaper: Show a little respect when someone is trying to help you out.

hotyamaha06 was correct, and although he misspelled some words, it didn't take a rocket scientist to understand it. You called him stupid and then said you didn't get what he was trying to say when it was in fact very clear. How ironic.

Let me clarify what he was saying. It's STUPID to go for a crossfire setup right away. Getting a powerful one card solution that will last until you want to upgrade is the smarter decision. If you don't understand this then we can go back to 2nd grade and spell it out for you.