Crossfire?? What type of video card? CF edition only?

[bluemaverick]

I just was given a Crossfire board (Abit AT8) as my buddy got the 32X already to replace that.....and I do have couple Video card kicking around too.....

one X850XT
one X800Pro

Will they work in Crossfire mode? I thougt CF and you use diff card....anyone have experience???

 

[framerateuk]

Nope. They both need to be the same series, and also one has to be a Crossfire Master card.

So you would need an X850 + X850 Crossfire Master Card

 

[Ackmed]

Actually, you can mix and match. It will drop pipes to match the other card however.

 

[ElFenix]

i think the x800 series can now be crossfired without a master card.

you could always plug them both in and try.

 

[Golgatha]

You need at least one Crossfire edition card to make it work. You can mix and match models, but it will Crossfire down to the slowest card's performance. You could always try dongleless Crossfire; the worst that could happen is a system with two video cards in it.

 

[Fraggable]

When you do get your system up and running, please see this thread. If you ever happen to see the issues I'm seeing there with that motherboard, please PM me.

Oh BTW, make sure the board's running the version 11 BIOS. Version 10 sucks. It makes your RAM run at CAS 3 among other things.

 

[thilanliyan]

There is someone on this forum (can't remember his name) that has a X1800XL Crossfire without the master card so I think it IS possible without a Master Card.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: thilan29
There is someone on this forum (can't remember his name) that has a X1800XL Crossfire without the master card so I think it IS possible without a Master Card.

it depends on whether it's been enabled to do so in drivers or not. the x1600 and x1300 need no master card because the drivers allow xfire without one. i believe that ati enabled xfire without a master card for the x8k series of gpus as well, and maybe even for x18k now

 

[JPB]

I saw a review not too long ago that they had ( 2 ) X1800 XL's in Crossfire without a dongle. Was enabled via driver. I'll see if I can find it.

 

[Cabages]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
Actually, you can mix and match. It will drop pipes to match the other card however.

I always knew you could mix and match, but I didnt know it would drop the pipes to do it.

Anyone know why nvidia wont let you mix and match with SLI? Just interested...

 

[JPB]

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:0of...le&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=8&lr=lang_en

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: thilan29
There is someone on this forum (can't remember his name) that has a X1800XL Crossfire without the master card so I think it IS possible without a Master Card.

it depends on whether it's been enabled to do so in drivers or not. the x1600 and x1300 need no master card because the drivers allow xfire without one. i believe that ati enabled xfire without a master card for the x8k series of gpus as well, and maybe even for x18k now

right now it only works with x1300/x1600 cards (RV570 and RV560) - the required composting chip is on all cards, effectively making them all "masters". i believe catalyst 6.4 is required.

it will not work on any other series at this time, and will not work on older cards - they don't have the chip.

there was some rumor that a special driver allowed it to work on rd580 boards only (regardless of composite chip) as it's northbridge can handle the bus traffic due as it has dual x16.. the there was another snipet stating this "special driver" was a dev tool so ati board partners can test crossfire boards.. so who knows. i haven't seen anything else definitive on this subject, and there's been no official announcement by ati afaik.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: thilan29
There is someone on this forum (can't remember his name) that has a X1800XL Crossfire without the master card so I think it IS possible without a Master Card.

it depends on whether it's been enabled to do so in drivers or not. the x1600 and x1300 need no master card because the drivers allow xfire without one. i believe that ati enabled xfire without a master card for the x8k series of gpus as well, and maybe even for x18k now

right now it only works with x1300/x1600 cards (RV570 and RV560) - the required composting chip is on all cards, effectively making them all "masters". i believe catalyst 6.4 is required.

it will not work on any other series at this time, and will not work on older cards - they don't have the chip.

there was some rumor that a special driver allowed it to work on rd580 boards only (regardless of composite chip) as it's northbridge can handle the bus traffic due as it has dual x16.. the there was another snipet stating this "special driver" was a dev tool so ati board partners can test crossfire boards.. so who knows. i haven't seen anything else definitive on this subject, and there's been no official announcement by ati afaik.

Ask Zstream from this forum. He told me he had 2 X1800xls in Crossfire with the Cats 6.4beta. Said there was a decent boost in some games.

 

[Bull Dog]

Originally posted by: bluemaverick
I just was given a Crossfire board (Abit AT8) as my buddy got the 32X already to replace that.....and I do have couple Video card kicking around too.....

one X850XT
one X800Pro

Will they work in Crossfire mode? I thougt CF and you use diff card....anyone have experience???

Try finding a bios from a X850 Crossfire card and flashing that to your X850XT. That chinese tech site Hkepc did it once and got dongleless crossfire working on pretty much all the X3/X7/X8 cards. No idea if that'd still work but it may be worth a try.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: Cabages

Originally posted by: Ackmed
Actually, you can mix and match. It will drop pipes to match the other card however.

I always knew you could mix and match, but I didnt know it would drop the pipes to do it.

Anyone know why nvidia wont let you mix and match with SLI? Just interested...

Because, you want atleast 80~% performance increase by having a dual GPU setup.
NV lets you have mix venders, but the cards have to be the same. i.e EVGA 7900GT + XFX 7900GT.

Crossfire you need a master card + any card depending on the master card, i.e a X1900 master card + any X1900 series card and so on. But in some cases you are spending more to have a dual GPU setup e.g an X1900GT($300~) and a X1900 master card($450~) compared to a 7900GT SLI ~$499

 

[Ackmed]

Where are you finding two 7900GT's for $499?

 

[JPB]

Yea, link please...that would mean roughly $250 a piece...I want in on this if its that price