Running in "Tri-Fire" with my 4850x2 is it okay? And worth it?

[devilhanzou]

Okay so this will not cost me any money to do, I helped spec out a computer for a friend with little money and he gave me a 4850 card from the machine he replaced for putting the computer together for him. I currently am running a 4850x2 and my machine is already nice I run maxed out with the catalyst bells and whistles making it look even better in star wars the old republic at 100 fps so my questions is if I take the 4850 single card he gave me and run it with my 4850x2 will I see peformance gain or will it hold back my X2? I have seen way to many arguments of this on other forums so figured I would post and see what you guys have to say.

 

[ricardois]

if they all have the same memory size, your psu is good enough, your motherboard can handle 3 way and your case is well ventilated i don't see any problem going to Crossfirex3 if your motherboard is compatible, you will yes gain performance over your Crossfirex2.

 

[justinxtreme]

I think (I think!) that if you run a 4850 X2 and a 4850 512MB (or 1024MB) video card, they will work together like three single 4850s and the memory would amount to 4850 X2's memory + the single 4850's memory combined.

 

[ricardois]

I think (I think!) that if you run a 4850 X2 and a 4850 512MB (or 1024MB) video card, they will work together like three single 4850s and the memory would amount to 4850 X2's memory + the single 4850's memory combined.

crossfire/sli will work at the lowest card memory size, so if you are using 2x 2gb cards, and you add a 512mb card, all the three will be runing at 512mb, so it is kind of a waste of money, so that is why you should always match the memory sizes (matching the core clock is also best for performance but they can work with different sizes).

 

[monsta]

I agree with ricardois , I would not add the other card if it has less vram than your current card.