1 or 2 crossfire bridges

[johnb0118]

I just got two 6970's in crossfire and I was wondering if I should use one or 2 crossfire bridges. I have scoured the net looking for an answer and always run into conflicting information. Some people say that two bridges can hurt performance, but then other sites say that two bridges help balance out the information flow. So should I use one or two?

Intel Core i7 920 @ 4.0
12GB DDR3 Corsair Dominator @ 1900
EVGA x58 SLI Mobo
Corsair 1000W PSU
2X Sapphire HD 6970 CrossfireX
Corsair Obsidian 800D

 

[shadow187]

Doesn't matter, as far as I know. People will 'say' that the second bridge will help. It's only necessary with 3 cards.

 

[wolfram23]

2 bridges messed up my 5850s and killed performance.

So go with a single one.

 

[welshmousepk]

It only supposed to be one. The second crossfire connector is for adding a third card.

Using two on one card can cause big issues, including bad performance and artifacting. So just use one.

 

[someguynamedmatt]

Just one. Technically, it's a glitch if both work, as far as I know...

 

[megamanx00]

You only need to use one. It doesn't make a difference if you use both of them or not, or rather it shouldn't anyway ^_^. I use to use two with my 3850s just so I wouldn't misplace one of them. Didn't make a difference if there was one or two. I only use one on my 5870s though.

 

[ubercake]

You only need to use one. It doesn't make a difference if you use both of them or not, or rather it shouldn't anyway ^_^. I use to use two with my 3850s just so I wouldn't misplace one of them. Didn't make a difference if there was one or two. I only use one on my 5870s though.

megamanx is correct. As a matter of fact, the books that came with my Gigabyte cards illustrated the use of two for two cards. The most recent publication states that you can use 1 or 2. Going by issues some people have had with using two on two, I'd say just use 1.

 

[nforce4max]

THG did an article last year with this question in mind seeing how having one bridge, two, and then none affected scaling in crossfire and maybe sli. The second bridge has such a small impact on performance I doubt that most will even notice.

 

[ubercake]

I just got two 6970's in crossfire and I was wondering if I should use one or 2 crossfire bridges. I have scoured the net looking for an answer and always run into conflicting information. Some people say that two bridges can hurt performance, but then other sites say that two bridges help balance out the information flow. So should I use one or two?

Intel Core i7 920 @ 4.0
12GB DDR3 Corsair Dominator @ 1900
EVGA x58 SLI Mobo
Corsair 1000W PSU
2X Sapphire HD 6970 CrossfireX
Corsair Obsidian 800D

Did you get it worked out?

 

[johnb0118]

I am just going to use one for now. It seems to work pretty well with one. In Crysis Warhead I am getting 65+ fps with enthusiast settings and 8x AA. As far as I know, it don't really get any better than that. However, I am a little disappointed that neither crossfire nor SLI work for SC2 (confirmed by blizzard). Doesn't matter though, I guess 200+ fps is good enough. Thanks for all the input guys. Much appreciated.

 

[johnb0118]

Best answer selected by johnb0118.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey