SLI / CrossFire FAQs - Page 10

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Yes, but how far away? Can the "band" that connects the CrossFire connectors stretch across 1 expansion slot, to connect with a Card in a slot not immediately next to it?

Yes, some boards(P5W DH) have slots farther apart(to allow for better airflow or even 3 pci-e slots on some boards) and use a flexible or longer crossfire or SLI connector bridges that makes it easier to use if the cards are close or far.

I am sure there is a limit on how far they can go(losses.noise), but lets say you have

PCI-E x16 - Xfire/SLI card
PCI - covered by card as well
PCI-E x4 - Raid card
PCI-e X16 - Xfire/SLI card
PCI-covered by card
PCI-Sound card :0

Then a cable bridge should connect them with ease.

By bridge I mean the connector from card to card.

Since some boards have there PCI-E slots only 2 slots away

PCI-E(Top Card)
PCI(Blocked)
PCI-E(Next Card))

Others have
PCI-E(Top Card)
PCI(Blocked)
PCI-E X4 Usable or left clear for cooling
PCI-E(Next Card)

There are different length bridge connectors. Maybe they are all longer and flexible now, so it may not matter anymore since a longer flexible one will do all configs. The one for my P5W is too long(and is a solid one) for some boards.
Something like this.

In the old days you had to connect the screen to the master card(To be honest, i am not sure about how it works now[Maziar can answer that one for sure ], I guess the top card).

The external cable you saw was a cable ATI used to use to allow the slave card to send its images(partial/alternating frames) to the master card to have the images/frames incorporated(portions placed to make a full frame or alternating frames put in the right order) with a composting chip on the master card then sent to your screen for you to see.

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,1047.html

how to setting crossfire X dual GPU in Ati 780V chipset with integrated HD3100 with discreet vga HD 4350 because when i tried to put them both nothing happened....is it within BIOS setup or maybe they just not fit to each other as crossfireX? can u help me...thanks

I am thinking of going for a crossfire setup on my current mobo, but it only has one x16 and one x8 so im guessing it would be pointless going for a big card as alot of the speed will be lost in the x8 configuration? any recommendations on which cards will best suit this config? or will it maybe be better to just go for one big x16 card?

my current system is
G-B-EP45-DS4P
Q6600 might be upgrading to Q9550or9650
G.Skill-PI 4GB DDR2 1066
PSU im thinking of going for Coolermaster RealPower Pro 850w if more needed can go to the 1kw version
also have Asus D2X soundcard if it makes a difference
and coolermaster 1100s case
everything is standard clock too

i usually play at the highest i can

if i have a p6t motherboard and has 3-Way SLI & Quad-GPU CrossFireX Support! .. the CrossfireX does that mean i can only crossfire with a card that is like HD 4XXX x2 or what? or i can just do the normal crossfire

If your motherboard supports CrossFireX,then it supports all kind of CrossFire,here is an example:
ATI HD 4870 + ATI HD 4870 (2-Way CrossFire)
3xATI HD 4870(3-Way)
4xATI HD 4870(4-Way)

No problem mate glad you find it useful

Maziar, i have been thinking about the same thing as ac3144 above. You should add this bridge info to the already superb FAQ when it is settled.

By my information, I watched the official amd/ati promotional video

http://game.amd.com/us-en/unlock_sevenseries.aspx

(follow the red demo link - watch the whole thing or skip to superior scalability)

and it shows clearly that you have to only use one bridge per 2 cards even if you have 2 places to put it on the card.

nukemaster, can you tell me where I can get/buy/which MB manufactures have longer Crossfire bridge cables? I am planning a major upgrade and will be needing longer ones for sure.

Edited with some new info's.

For the crossfire bridge, Any board that has 2 other slots between its PCI-E slots used to need a longer bridge(Mostly when SLI came out), but it looks like ATI's current line of bridges are flexible and work for PCI-E slots 0(Single slot cards),1 and 2 slots apart.

It clearly reaches far enough and since its flexible it will work in shorter distances as well. I think you will be good to go with what ATI includes with there higher end cards. If you need more, Ebay has a bunch.

You misunderstood...

I dont got a 8500GT all i wanted to was... Is the system memory your using for your onboard? Is it the same memory speed as your system memory? In my case i got 800mhz, now that its shared. Will my onboard run better if i upgrade to 1066mhz? :-) thanks for your answers..

Cool thanks,then can you maybe tell me where i can go for it to show me the onboard memory speed? CPU-Z,Latest Everest dont show anything just the core clock and the shader clock, but not the memory speed nor the type of memory or bandwidth...Can anybody maybe help me to correct me where i can look for this?

Every resolution benefits from crossfire as long as you are gpu limited in even only a few sections of a game.

I think Everest shows,doesn't this page have it ?

Gpu-z shows it.

GPU-Z does not show it,especially not it. Any other program maybe?

Well, gpu-z shows the memory speed for me.

I am not sure of another program that can help, does driver software not show it?

Nothing shows it...Have searched everywhere!! Thats why i asked is the speed of my system memory the same as my onboard graphics memory...Cause i cant find any program to show me

this sucks... Does RAM coolers really keep RAM that cool?

I've a doubt regarding Memory size and monitor resolution.
I got a 24" monitor with 1920x1080(16:9 aspect ratio) resolution... somewhere i read that 1GB GPU memory required for such resolution. Now i'm using HD4850 512MB.

"4745454b" at http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] 33_12.html