Crossfiring my graphics

[Samtastic06]

Ok folks, i have an MSI A75-G55 motherboard, it is crossfire capable, and im thinking about getting 2 Radeon HD 6770 cards to put in, since theyre in my cheap budget. Now i was looking at the specs to confirm my board can handle crossfire, and i noticed something i dont understand, this is what i read
2 PCI Express gen2 x16 slots
- PCI_E1 supports up to PCIE x16 speed
- PCI_E2 supports up to PCIE x4 speed


Now what exactly im asking is what does the X16 and X4 speeds mean,one slower than another? and if so should i even put 2 cards in?

And another question would be, what kind of additional hardware am i looking at to even use crossfire?

My specs are Msi a75-G55 Mobo, Amd A8 3870K APU 3.0GHz, with hd radeon 6550D graphics built in and 4Gb of DDR3 Ram. Any help would be nice, just so i dont waste money on something if i cant even use it.

 

[kelthic]

Without getting into all the details, yes the x4 slot is slower and will be a bottleneck on the second 6770 card. However, the difference might not be as bad as you might think it would. I usually recommend the best SINGLE gpu solution a person can afford over a crossfire/SLI setup because not all games support multiple card setups and also in crossfire/SLI you sometimes run the risk of Microstuttering. Here is an article on this. http://www.overclockers.com/micro-stutter-the-dark-secret-of-sli-and-crossfire/

Another concern is whether or not your psu will be able to handle 2 cards in crossfire. Which model PSU do you have and what is your budget?

 

[Samtastic06]

I did find a much better deal on an HD 6870, which its rank is a 15 over the 6770s 52. the PSu i have is a Blue Diamond i think 650W PSu. I did look at the article and it does make sense, i figured id go with one awesomely great single card, and not run the risk of bottlenecks and incapatability.

 

[kelthic]

Glad to help

 

[Samtastic06]

Best answer selected by Samtastic06.