Ati CrossfireX

[TheAria007]

I have a
AMD Phenom X2 Black Edition Processor
4 gigs of ddr3 Ram
and have a gigabyte motherboard with onboard graphics of ATI Radeon Hd 4250 with Hybrid Crossfire X supported on my motherboard.
Can I go ahead and install a graphic card of ATI that will merge with my onboard graphics to give me faster performance, through CrossfireX.
thank you please help

 

[Maxx_Power]

I have a
AMD Phenom X2 Black Edition Processor
4 gigs of ddr3 Ram
and have a gigabyte motherboard with onboard graphics of ATI Radeon Hd 4250 with Hybrid Crossfire X supported on my motherboard.
Can I go ahead and install a graphic card of ATI that will merge with my onboard graphics to give me faster performance, through CrossfireX.
thank you please help

Any card that you CAN Hybrid crossfireX with (if you want to do onboard with discrete, it is Hybrid CrossfireX), is not worth your money. If you read their Hybrid CrossfireX chart (they updated it now and I can't find the original) but there are two cards you can use, and they are:

HD3470 and HD3450. They are several generations behind, and any single card you can buy these days like a 7750 will blow those away by a large distance. Not worth it to do hybrid.

 

[Maxx_Power]

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_crossfire_x_hybrid_graphics_performance/page10.asp

Is the kind of performance you can expect. Something to the tune of 5 fps to 10 fps in old DX9 games.

 

[djscribbles]

I have a
AMD Phenom X2 Black Edition Processor
4 gigs of ddr3 Ram
and have a gigabyte motherboard with onboard graphics of ATI Radeon Hd 4250 with Hybrid Crossfire X supported on my motherboard.
Can I go ahead and install a graphic card of ATI that will merge with my onboard graphics to give me faster performance, through CrossfireX.
thank you please help

You can however add an AMD/nVidia card as long as your motherboard has a PCIE slot, and run it by itself rather than in hybrid crossfire mode (essentially the GPU on your motherboard doesn't get used). It will be much much faster than what you have now. However, the power supply in your computer will be important for determining how powerful of a card you can get, so please post that information if you can. It would be good to make sure your motherboard has a slot for the GPU as well.

Simply adding a decent graphics card to your current PC will make your computer good for gaming (depending on your CPU it can be good or great), the GPU you have now is really bad for gaming.

Did you have a budget, or some cards already in mind? Are you gaming with the computer (what games and settings do you want) or something else?

Edit: Just to summarize from above, here are some considerations to keep in mind along with selecting your card:

Is the GPU (graphics card) going to be able to fit in your case, powerful cards can have trouble fitting in small cases. Also some cases not really designed to support full-height cards (the case would be really thin)?
Does your motherboard have a slot to plug a GPU in (a PCIE2.0 16x slot would be best, but PCIE1.0 is ok)?
Is the PSU in your system powerful enough to supply power to the GPU you want?
Is a new GPU going to speed up your computer in the way you want? (usually you only need a powerful GPU for gaming)

 

[TheAria007]

i havc e a 550 watts power supply
and yes my case can fit a large card if necessary.
i mainly want my computer for gaming and i think i got tricked in buying a motherboard with onboard graphics.
I am a bit low on budget but please suggest whats best.....i will try to stretch my pockets if possible.
TY

 

[Maxx_Power]

i havc e a 550 watts power supply
and yes my case can fit a large card if necessary.
i mainly want my computer for gaming and i think i got tricked in buying a motherboard with onboard graphics.
I am a bit low on budget but please suggest whats best.....i will try to stretch my pockets if possible.
TY

These days, if you want an AM3+ board without onboard graphics, the cost usually goes UP not down. The ones with an onboard are perfectly fine for gaming if you ADD a discrete card. Usually when you add a discrete card, the onboard gets disabled.

That said, depending on how much money, and the size of your monitor, but a cheap 6770 might be a good starting point. If you want more performance, go up to a 6850 or 6870 if you stick with AMD.

 

[TheAria007]

i dont mind the company of the graphic card....its just performance that matters to me......i hav a 22"led display (1920 x 1080p)
the graphic cards you mentioned......can you give me the price as well....i tried searching online....but I am not fetching correct info
Thanks

 

[Maxx_Power]

i dont mind the company of the graphic card....its just performance that matters to me......i hav a 22"led display (1920 x 1080p)
the graphic cards you mentioned......can you give me the price as well....i tried searching online....but I am not fetching correct info
Thanks

From NCIX, on this week's weekly sale:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=63985&vpn=HD685XZCFC&manufacture=XFX&promoid=1254

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=58225&vpn=GV-R685OC-1GD&manufacture=Gigabyte&promoid=1254

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=73462&vpn=6770PE51GV2&manufacture=Diamond&promoid=1254

Newegg's prices are currently a bit higher, so I didn't link any form Newegg.

The 6850 is faster than the 6770, but both will work much much much much better than your current card. They will handle all current games if you don't insist on maxing out every single setting (then you are in a different price category completely).

 

[djscribbles]

You can also have a look at Tom's GPU/$ lists (though maxx_power's suggestions are definitely good): http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-2.html

Another option for picking up a GPU on the cheap would be eBay. Lot's of people are pawning 6870s to upgrade to the latest version and 6870s appear to be landing around 100$. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=6870&_sacat=0

Personally I would never go that route (not much of an ebay person for anything, but some cards may have been overclocked hard, you never know), however it is an option to get you a more powerful card for 100-120$, and some people do this quite successfully.

550W should be enough power to run a 6870 as long is it's a decently well designed one, if you want to go for a 6870 it maybe a good idea to post a few more details about the PSU though. Any other card (under 150$ retail) should run fine on it.

 

[TheAria007]

Thnx guys alot for the help......i definately would just like subtle gaming with well to do graphics...if u know what i mean...
And i dont need all the settings to be maxed out...although it would be better...but even if the games running decent graphics without lagging or any texture issues.....I'm fine wid it...
and my budget is about $100-$150.....