Crossfire confusion...

[V8VENOM]

ATI's web site says that just about any ATI X1900 card can be used for crossfire, it doesn't need to say "Crossfire".

http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/buildyourown.html

If I believe ATI's information I don't need a "crossfire edition" card? Is this correct?

Rob.

 

[sludge0000]

Howdy,

AFAIK to setup crossfire you need 2 cards, 1 must be a CF edition and the other can be a regular edition. They must be from the same family, I.E., X1900, X1800 but can be different brands, ATI, sapphire etc..

Hope this helps!

 

[V8VENOM]

thanks, yes I was able to locate the Crossfire info. My confusion was that I thought there was a crossfire edition card for each model i.e. X1900 CF, X1900XT CF, X1900XTX CF -- as it turns out there really only is a X1900 CF which gets combined with any 1900 series. Of course the X1900 CF is a downgrade if one uses the X1900XTX.

So basically I went with one X1900XTX.

Rob.

 

[sludge0000]

Cool, that's what I have. Some people told me to watch out for using an XTX with the CF edition board because on older ATI chipsets (Cannot remember which ones) it would downclock the xtx to xt speeds, but I have a new mobo with the intel 975x chipset and both cards are performing nicely. You won't be disappointed, being able to play Oblivion at 1920x1080 with settings maxes is REALLY nice..

 

[prodaytrader]

actually there are more then 1 crossfire edition cards out there. I believe there is an x800 and x850 crossfire edition cards. Additionally, the cards do not slow down when useing them in a pair. You mention that a cf card would slow a xtx card down and thats not true. Now if you use a 12 pipeline card and a 16 pipeline card then both will slow down to 12 pipes but if both are 16 which is the case for the xtx then they will both operate at their intended speeds. Even though the clock rates are different for the cards you mentioned (cf and xtx) they both take advantage of their maximum intended speeds and work great. Now that you have the xtx you can still think about getting the cf edition and truely boost your speeds. I went the other route first and bought the cf edition now with the intention of buying the xtx or maybe the xt later on. I found a truely fantastic buy on the cf card so decided to get that one first hopeing that prices will drop and allow me to get the xtx later on.

 

[sludge0000]

Actually I said that was what other people had told me. I had not found it to be true but put it out anyway, hence the disclaimer "some people told me."