SLI / CrossFire FAQs - Page 9

Last message on previous page:
No i dont recommend MultiGPU for that resolution because a single HD 4870 does the trick

Edited with a new chart for CrossFire compatibility list.

I have read the first and last page of this thread.

I saw so many errors it got me quite irritated, one in the guide and one in a reply (although that could have already been answered).

the one in the reply was asking about a monitor with a good refresh rate, around 6ms or under.

6ms is the response time of the monitor, not the refresh rate. the refresh rate is measured in hertz, and is generally around 60hz.

the error in the guide was about MultiGPU technology being only for PCI-E graphics cards.

here's a quote from wikipedia that I read a long, long time ago:

"Scan-Line Interleave (SLI) from 3dfx is a method for linking two (or more) video cards or chips together to produce a single output. It is an application of parallel processing for computer graphics, meant to increase the processing power available for graphics. SLI from 3dfx was introduced in 1998 and used in the Voodoo2 line of graphics accelerators. However, the original Voodoo Graphics card and the VSA 100 were also SLI-capable.

Nvidia Corporation reintroduced the SLI acronym in 2004 as Scalable-Link Interface"

3dfx's technology was meant for igp, pci and agp cards. I remember there is a geforce <6 card which is AGP and is SLIable, although not in the same way that we do it today. You used to have a master and a slave card, which used a daisy chain cable to connect from the vga socket on one card, to the other socket on the other card, and then on to the monitor.

so it would look like this
_________________________________
>|PCI/AGP CARD |
/ | |
_______ | | |
| | \ | |
|monitor|----------------->|PCI/AGP CARD |
|______| |________________________________|




yeah. take that.

what is the best card to crossfire with a Radeon 3850 for under 120 dollars?

Hi guys
How is this CF for this resolution ?
2x4830 HIS iceq + 1024x1280?
MSI x58 Pro
if i do it can i see any more performance?!

For that resolution,i recommend a single HD 4830,CrossFire ins't needed.
As i have talked about in the first page,i don't say you won't see any performance increase with multiGPU in lower resolutions,i said it will shine in high resolutions.

I'm still confused on this whole crossfire thing. I have a Radeon X1900 GT and am beginning to upgrade my system. How do I tell if my processor is crossfire ready (aka where do I see my chipset number)? Also, do I have to get another identical Radeon x1900 GT or what other options for cards could I get? I'm thinking at this time it might be better to just buy a whole new card rather than crossfire with my x1900.

From my dxdiag if it helps:

Machine name: MICHAEL-DESKTOP
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.080814-1236)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: GATEWA
System Model: GT5238E
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2038MB RAM
Page File: 631MB used, 2762MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

Gud job man very detailded

Thanks a lot for this thread, lots of information!!!

gracias mate!

Hello and welcome to the forums mate

Yes it will 1920x1200 is one of the resolutions that benefit from multiGPU in most games.

No problems mate glad i could help u

Good question
Well core clock and memory clock speeds are important for a video card but they aren't the most important factors,there are some other important things to consider too like stream processors,memory bandwidth....

GTX 295 is basically 2 downclocked GTX 260s attached to one card.

Did you even read the FAQ mate ? plz read the first page and you will get all of your answers

Hello and welcome to the forums mate
You have to use 2 CrossFire bridges since HD 48xx/HD 4770 series have 2 place for bridges (38xx series have 1 only)
Also its not a noob question mate asking isn't a noob thing

No problem mate Glad i could help u

Hi Sir,

MAN SORRY TO BUG YOU AT A BAD TIME..

How are you doing Maz!

I apologize for bothering you again.

I just have some retarded situation on my crossfire set up.

I know honestly for my self that you are a THE EXPERT when it comes to these complex stuff.

I finally made this Sapphire Toxic 4870 1gb and one more of the same into a crossfire mode running with just default /factory oc settings and yey I did it, did some generals games one hour or so and it blew me away( awesome!!!! ) then I played some Tom Clancy Vegas 2 1st person shooter , came after 2 to 5 minutes PC SHUT DOWN ALL POWER GONE , ITS OFF ,,, by golly what Id do...so I got this antec quattro 1000 watts and asking myself what happened.

I was thinking its getting to be a defective power supply on its 5th/6th month,, or my mobo battery is dying. There could be a million ways that this is happening isnt it. So I am pleading for your scrutiny ,,, If I get another psu, If i get another Thermaltake lets say 1200 watts, would this be super mega enough/sufficient to power my whole system and this shut down will not bother me..

take care MAZ

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME..

--------------------------------
CPU: Phenom II 940 @ 3.6GHZ (1.47v)
MB: ASUS M3A78-T
PSU: Antec Quattro 1000w
GPU: Sapphire Toxic Edition 4870 1gb plus Sapphire Toxic Edition 4870 1gb CF
RAM: Corsair 8gb 800MHz DDR2 pc6400 twinx
OS: Vista Business Upgrade 64bit
CASE: Antec 1200
OPTICAL DRIVE: Pioneer blueray

Hello mate
No need to applogize for anything i am glad to help

Well your PSU is good for 2x HD 4870s.
Can you test both cards in single mode ? i mean take 1 card out and test with the other one and play some games and see if it works well or not.

THANK YOU Sir!

Ill try to do that!

Does the crossfire option come for all ATI X2 cards? I read on the AMD FAQ that it should not come at all...or is the 4850 a special case siince its not really a true X2?

Thannks

Damn, I feel stupid asking this but I don't know anyone else crossfiring and google hasn't been my friend on this occassion!

I've recently added a second 4870 onto my little rig, which is working fine. My problem is during boot up, both card's fans spin up for the POST then the card in the main slot quietens down to idle but the one in the second slot doesn't and stays loud. Once the Windows drivers load, the second card's fan quietens down to idle too and then it all works as expected from there.

The card in the second slot works fine when running on it's own (I ran it solo for several months before buying it a companion). I've examined the BIOS using the ATI Bios Editor and the fan speeds are identical for both cards.

My question is - is this normal under crossfire, that the motherboard/BIOS can only control one fan and the other fan isn't controlled until Windows kicks in? The only reason I'm worrying is that my motherboard has ExpressGate built in, so I can boot into a quick, tiny Linux build instead of Windows if I want, but the constant loud-ish fan noise from card 2 gets grating after a while.

I'm using an Asus P5Q-E with Q6600 (o/c to 3.4), Kingston 8GB DDR2-1066, XFX 4870 1Gb crossfired with Sapphire 4870 512Mb, 76Gb Raptor and 500Gb WD HDD, Hiper 880W Type-M PSU, Zalman CNPS9900, Antec 900 case and Vista 64. Currently running dual 20 inch 1600x1200 monitors.

Thanks for reading, and sorry it turned into a long post!

Thank you for the quick response.

As you quite rightly pointed out, I can change the fan speed within Windows so I know that's not a problem. My problem lies BEFORE Windows boots up - does everyone's second card spin faster/louder, or is that just a quirk of my motherboard?

I know this sounds like nit-picking, but if I want to pop online for 10 minutes, it's quicker to use the built-in ExpressGate than wait for Windows to boot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressgate The problem there is that because I'm not booting into Windows, the fan on the second card never slows to idle so it's constantly running loudly while I'm in ExpressGate, which gets annoying!

Thanks again.

You are wrong about "two mid range cards performing worse then one high end" - that is not always true.

You didn't read the whole review

2 midrange card sometimes beat 1 high-end card but not always,it depends on most settings(like drivers,resolutions and so)

Well you have to connect them,so they can't be far away from each other.