Setup crossfire and bridges question

[darckhart]

OK i've done some googling and keep getting conflicting information on how to setup my crossfire as this is the first time i've ever done so. running win7 x64.

a few questions:

1. i have 2 cards. do i use 1 bridge or 2? x58 chipset (if that makes a difference.) my mobo has 3 pcie slots, but only the top two do pcie2.0 x16, so obviously i stuck them there. some sites say using 2 enables more bandwidth or something to that effect. some say if only 2 cards use both. if more than 2 cards, only 1 connecting each.
2. the crossfirex tab is finally there in ccc. i check enabled. i goto diagnostics tab. everything is blank. is it supposed to show something about the status? at least tell me two gpu active and ready for xfire? (info tab is fine. shows primary and linked adapter.)
3. does it randomly assign gpu1 and gpu2? or is the first (top) pcie slot gpu1 and the lower slot gpu2? (trying to figure out which oc is applying to which card)
4. what are game profiles? where are they located? can i fiddle with them?
5. can i oc both cards independently and still run them in xfire? or do both cards need the same clocks?

thanks for helping an xfire newb!

 

[jpeake]

OK i've done some googling and keep getting conflicting information on how to setup my crossfire as this is the first time i've ever done so. running win7 x64....

I didn't think you needed the bridge anymore. I've never done it myself but was looking into it a while back. I thought I had read that the HD29xx and newer no longer required you use it for 2 way crossfire.


I just got a 5870 and there was one in there, so that is probably wrong. But I swear I read that on some tech site

EDIT:Forget everything I just said

 

[lavaheadache]

crossfire does require a bridge on the highend cards. If you don't use a bridge the crossfire tab isn't even there. I'm not so sure about lower end cards though. I could have swore that 2600's or something didn't need it.

Anyhow, On my hd4870X2 there is only one crossfire plug meaning it will only connect to one other card. My hd4870 has 2 plugs so you can connect it to 2 other cards. Basically how it works is that each card has to have a direct link to the other cards in the system with a max of 3 cards or 4 gpu's.

 

[happy medium]

crossfire does require a bridge on the highend cards. If you don't use a bridge the crossfire tab isn't even there. I'm not so sure about lower end cards though. I could have swore that 2600's or something didn't need it.

Anyhow, On my hd4870X2 there is only one crossfire plug meaning it will only connect to one other card. My hd4870 has 2 plugs so you can connect it to 2 other cards. Basically how it works is that each card has to have a direct link to the other cards in the system with a max of 3 cards or 4 gpu's.

Correction 4 cards and 4 gpu's

 

[darckhart]

hm ok great so just need 1 bridge per two cards even tho it has two connection plugs