First time crossfire questions. AMD 270x

[jay2577]

Hi guys.
I am getting my new power supply unit with 2 x AMD 270x graphics cards delivered tomorrow and just had a few questions as i've never crossfired or sli'd cards before.

1. Is it true that the new 270x cards don't need the crossfire cable/bridge between them?
2. I'll install the latest drivers but do i need to run driver sweeper still if my current card is an AMD 7850?
3. What settings do i need to enable in the catalyst control center to use them in a crossfire configuration?
4. I bought 1 Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB and 1 Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 4096MB. Do i need to install the 4 gb card in the top slot of my motherboard and will it use the 4gb of memory for the 2 cards?
Thanks for any answers

 

[326power]

1. false. they need it
2. you can do it, but its not necessary
3. dunno
4. each card uses its own memory.

 

[iceclock]

u require a crossfire bridge. also even if u bought 4gb card in xfire it will only utilise 2gbs as ur second card is 2 gigabytes.

top or bottom slot doesnt matter.

also u might require more than 520 watts for xfire. whats ur budget for new powersupply

 

[326power]

also even if u bought 4gb card in xfire it will only utilise 2gbs as ur second card is 2 gigabytes.

AFAIK, each card utilises its own memory, so 4gb one will use 4gb and 2gb one will use 2gb.

 

[iceclock]

well its still useless anyways. cuz the 270x cant properly utilize more than 2gbs so its a waste.

 

[326power]

yeah, thats right.

 

[iceclock]

cool story.

 

[gamedevil]

When you are in catalyst control center its not that hard to find where to enable crossfire. Good thing about amd is their zero core software wich disables one card completely so it doesnt use power. Energy saver for the win. But again you can turn of crossfire if you like. Really simple. Just search a little and you will find it.

 

[jay2577]

thanks for the reply
i have ordered a Seasonic 660w '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply which i believe is enough.

u require a crossfire bridge. also even if u bought 4gb card in xfire it will only utilise 2gbs as ur second card is 2 gigabytes.

top or bottom slot doesnt matter.

also u might require more than 520 watts for xfire. whats ur budget for new powersupply

 

[iceclock]

excellent glad to help please select an answer as best answer if this has help cheers.

 

[jay2577]

I thought with AA some games will go above 2gb of graphics memory
This is for crysys 3

 

[iceclock]

only in resolutions of 1440p or greater.

 

[jay2577]

Ah okay. Are you sure about the graphics cards both using their own memories?

 

[jay2577]

Thanks. I'm sure i will find it hten. they don't arrive until tomorrow

When you are in catalyst control center its not that hard to find where to enable crossfire. Good thing about amd is their zero core software wich disables one card completely so it doesnt use power. Energy saver for the win. But again you can turn of crossfire if you like. Really simple. Just search a little and you will find it.

 

[iceclock]

im unshur of that. but i do know that the stronger card will autosync itself to the lowercards clockspeed. memory not shur i just know that, the 270x can really barely utilise 1gig and 2 gigs at the limit so 4gigs is useless.

 

[s4in7]

The VRAM doesn't stack, it'll use whatever the top card has. So in your case, install the 4gb card as your primary and the 2gb card as your linked adapter. Go into Catalyst Control Center->Performance->CrossfireX and select 'Enable' and Apply. Use GPU-Z or MSI Kombuster to determine if Crossfire is enabled, and if so you're good to go!

I love my Crossfire 270X setup, although it's a bit of a frankenstein--I have one Visiontek 270X and one XFX 270X. Haven't run into a single problem though! Posting 10,000+ on Fire Strike Extreme and 52fps in Heaven 4.0 at Ultra and 8x AA.

That's faster than a 780 Ti, Titan, and 290X all for a fraction of the price