crossfire

[johnnqq]

crossfire is supposed to be the response to sli because it can hold different x800 cards...but i read the review from toms or anandtech. it said that if u use a x800 pro and an (for example) x850xtpe as the crossfire edition, it lowers its pipelines down to 12 like the pro. so if i bought say an x850xtpe and i wanted to put an r520 in later, would the r520 slow down to the x800xtpe?

 

[baddog121390]

yeah i think it would

you have to have two of the same cards for crossfire not to lower the faster card to the slower card's speed

kinda dumb i think

after all, ATI has been saying all along that you can use two different cards... they just didnt tell us what would happen if we did

 

[jasonja]

Originally posted by: baddog121390
yeah i think it would

you have to have two of the same cards for crossfire not to lower the faster card to the slower card's speed

kinda dumb i think

after all, ATI has been saying all along that you can use two different cards... they just didnt tell us what would happen if we did

When exactly did ATI say that you could use two different cards? You're mistaking Inquirer noise and other rumors as ATI's press releases.

 

[VIAN]

it's still more flexible than SLI.

 

[Boris the Spider]

Originally posted by: VIAN
it's still more flexible than SLI.

 

[vision33r]

Flexible yes but misleading yes..

Why would you waste big $$ on a X850PE CF and pair it with a X800Pro, forcing it to 12 pipes and in essence made the X850PE to perform like your X800Pro.

Sounds more misleading than Nvidia.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: vision33r
Flexible yes but misleading yes..

Why would you waste big $$ on a X850PE CF and pair it with a X800Pro, forcing it to 12 pipes and in essence made the X850PE to perform like your X800Pro.

Sounds more misleading than Nvidia.

Whether this is fact or rumour, I remember reading something in this forum about load balancing and nothing about slowing down the 'faster card'.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Elcs

Originally posted by: vision33r
Flexible yes but misleading yes..

Why would you waste big $$ on a X850PE CF and pair it with a X800Pro, forcing it to 12 pipes and in essence made the X850PE to perform like your X800Pro.

Sounds more misleading than Nvidia.

Whether this is fact or rumour, I remember reading something in this forum about load balancing and nothing about slowing down the 'faster card'.

I don't think it would matter either way, it can't be as fast as two of the faster cards.

Let's consider tiling:
To "balance the load" you'd have the slower card render less tiles. Net effect: faster card has to do more work that it would if it was mated to another faster card. Less performance.

Crossfire isn't magic that it can somehow force lower performing card performas well as better cards.

For example, consider the poor slobs who have X800XT PEs and want Crossfire. Does anyone honestly think the $299 "master" X800 card is going to be anywhere near the performance of the $500 X800XT PE and not totally reduce it's possible performance if it were mated to another X800XT PE?

Or how about the laughable situation where a guy with a X850Pro has to buy a $550 X850 master and has it's performance slowed down to X850 Pro level?

I'd be pissed.
Using same product level cards isn't really a constraint, it's a guarantee of most "bang for buck".

 

[coomar]

x850pro, man that would suck, you essentially can't use crossfire

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: coomar
x850pro, man that would suck, you essentially can't use crossfire

Not cost effectively. Same with X800XT PE. If my theory is right (that the X800 master board is a X800XL with the Crossfire circuitry bolted on it) why would you want to run a $500 520MHz card with a $300 400MHz card?

While Crossfire is a little more flexible, the only real option from running identical cards is the ability to run a X850XT PE/X850XT combo, as nobody with any sense is goign to want to run a much faster card with a much slower card, or a 12 pipe card with a 16 pipe card.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: VIAN
it's still more flexible than SLI.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Originally posted by: VIAN
it's still more flexible than SLI.

nVidia has sold one million SLI chipsets in the last seven months. It will be interesting to see if the world at large finds the slight edge on flexibility you mention worth buying a crappy* ATI motherboard.

*In before Ackmed

By "crappy" I mean specifically a. bolt on SATAII b. buggy Southbridge c. low end ULI chipset.

(as opposed to premiere market leader nForce 4 Ultra motherboard)