New to crossfire, Need some tips

[bradaz85]

Hi, Im looking to crossfire but i have an xfx 6870 black edition and i cannot find it anymore, am i still able to crossfire this card with a 6870 standard edition or from a different manufacturer like powercolour or asus? would it matter if the graphics cards look different but are the same model by a different maker sort of thing? thanks in advance

 

[kajabla]

I'd try to get them as similar as possible (XFX), but any 6870 should work. If the cards end up being clocked differently, match the clocks. That's all it should take.

 

[bradaz85]

nice one, so just to double check, my card is this on http://www.ebuyer.com/product/247429
and the one im lookin at buying for crossfire is this one :
http://www.misco.co.uk/product/173801/XFX-Radeon-HD6870-1GB-PCI-Express-Graphics-Card
Cheers

 

[Earnie]

as Kajabla stated,you will be fine,just set the clock speeds to match and baboom,crossfire.Another thing to consider depending on your case config is placement of the cards due to different cooling,
After much research I was gonna go the 6870 xfire route,but opted for the 6950's in crossfire,but in my research,the 6870 crossfire is also a very powerful combo,in some reviews i read,depending on game/app,it will beat the 590 and 6990.
If you req any help with setup etc..let me know!

 

[bradaz85]

Thanks very much guys, i will purchase and write back when it has been deliverd, as this will be my first crossfire set-up

 

[bradaz85]

I just purchased : http://www.ebuyer.com/279585-xfx-hd-6870-900mhz-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-dual-mini-displayport-hdmi-hd-687a-zhfc
And also orderd a new mobo, the crosshair formula V.
The design to the two of these graphics cards are totally different, hope the crossfire bridge matches up. How would i go about underclocking the black edition card so that its the same as the new one? and will i be able to do it after re-installing windows? Cheers

 

[kajabla]

Xfire bridges are standard.
MSI Afterburner will do it.
Why'd you get such an expensive mobo?

 

[bradaz85]

Okay thanks. why would i get a cheap one? The one i replaced only had a second pci-e x4, so went for this future proof expensive beast that should be good!

 

[kajabla]

You would get a cheap one to save money. You could grab a $125 ASRock Z68 Extreme3 and be fine. Expensive mobos will allow you to overclock slightly more, which you don't need if you have a 955 or better, and some will give you extra SATA ports or something, but you probably don't need that either. Just don't get one without the features you want.

 

[bradaz85]

Indeed, allthough i like Asus boards and i got this for overclocking and the bulldozer, Generaly I stay away from Asrock had a few problems with them years ago. It was only £160 anyways. Should run the two cards sweet at 16x both I beleive, and have room for more. And I was looking for some nice sounds, X-Fi 2 bulit in should be good.

Any other tips for crossfire or anything else I need to know dudes?

 

[kajabla]

Current GPU hardware doesn't max out 8 PCI lanes, so that's unimportant, and I'll bet you can't tell the difference between the sound processors.

What are your other specs? Just making sure everything matches up and you don't have a bad PSU.

 

[bradaz85]

Coolermaster GX 750W PSU
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Kingston 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz
WD 2TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s Caviar Green Hard Drive - 64MB (Storage)
Hitachi Deskstar 500GB (OS)
XFX 6870 Black Edition
XFX 6870 (coming soon)

Next year im puttin a bulldozer in there and an SSD. Way-way after christmas

 

[kajabla]

High-end AMD. Sigh.
The SSD'll be the best upgrade, I think. The 1100 shouldn't bottleneck those cards.

 

[bradaz85]

Whats up? I know Intel are like the kings of powerfull cpu`s, they`d also clean me out if i decided to switch to a top end intel. Bulldozer will do.

You think they wont be bottleneck`d at all? Yea ive been waiting a long time to get an SSD, very overdue. Crap sizes for the money tho i know its getting better n cheaper but its very slow

 

[kajabla]

2500K+ Z68 Extreme3 = $345. 1100T + Formula V = $430. The Intel setup beats the AMD by a significant margin, of course.

 

[bradaz85]

But Asrock suck ass And I didnt pay that, £230 for the pair.. Of course
You ask anyone, if theres a 15 quid price difference between the two boards, which one they`d pick Asus Everytime

 

[kajabla]

No, you ask all the veterans on Tom's and they'll point you to the ASRock. The performance difference will be negligible compared to the performance you could get by spending that £15 elsewhere in the build, like the GPU.
Do you have any evidence that ASRock is bad?