SLI / CrossFire FAQs

[Max Lazer]

The main incentive there is that one of the cards I saw was about $30 cheaper than buying a card from the same brand line, but with the same speed as my card. It may become a non-issue, as that particular card has some unfavorable reviews on Newegg regarding it's workings with 64-bit operating systems.

 

[Maziar]

Ok,if so then go for the cheaper one but don't pay alot of attention to newegg reviews,check reviews from tech sites

 

[xablian]

Thanks in advance for any responses.

I currently have a Asus M3n -HT Deluxe with Phenom 940 BE 4 Gigs of 5-5-5-15 ram just upgraded form an opty 175 and Abit MB, new system walks all over the old one.

Big question now is I have a 8800 GTS 320MB and a 24" I run at 1920x1200 Would go higher if the monitor let me.

From what I have seen a GTX 260 basically walks all over a pair of 8800 320gts in SLI my board is 3-way SLI capable but that seems like not a very good idea. (heat lots of it, power consumption gobs of it, scalablity issues)

So thoughts are get a GTX 260 for about 200 bucks and wait till they drop to about a 100 and grab another one.

The case is an Antec 900 with all fans, the power supply may be an issue. Antec 500W that is 4 years old. I still have my old MB CPU and will build another system with it for my son. Have an old PCI-e card laying around I can stuff on it.

 

[Max Lazer]

Ok,if so then go for the cheaper one but don't pay alot of attention to newegg reviews,check reviews from tech sites

Of course, I can always use Catalyst to overclock my original card, if I wanted. (and if I understood the FAQ.) After all, it's only 25 MHz and 14 MHz on the CPU and memory, respectively.
Problem I've found with tech sites so far is that none of them talk about problems with Vista....so either they ran into none, or they aren't testing long enough >_>
On the other hand, unless HIS has their own drivers or software with the video card, as opposed to the standard stuff that came with my Visiontek, then I should have no problems, as my Visiontek card has only run into problems when I neglected the drivers.

So the HIS 4850 with the 650MHz clock is looking to be a winner. Something flashy to go with my new mouse and keyboard.

 

[Maziar]

Thanks in advance for any responses.

I currently have a Asus M3n -HT Deluxe with Phenom 940 BE 4 Gigs of 5-5-5-15 ram just upgraded form an opty 175 and Abit MB, new system walks all over the old one.

Big question now is I have a 8800 GTS 320MB and a 24" I run at 1920x1200 Would go higher if the monitor let me.

From what I have seen a GTX 260 basically walks all over a pair of 8800 320gts in SLI my board is 3-way SLI capable but that seems like not a very good idea. (heat lots of it, power consumption gobs of it, scalablity issues)

So thoughts are get a GTX 260 for about 200 bucks and wait till they drop to about a 100 and grab another one.

The case is an Antec 900 with all fans, the power supply may be an issue. Antec 500W that is 4 years old. I still have my old MB CPU and will build another system with it for my son. Have an old PCI-e card laying around I can stuff on it.

Yes,for 1920x1200 defenitley get another card,8800GTS 320 can not keep up in tha resolution,GTX 260 is good,you may want to look at HD 4870 too.

 

[Maziar]

Of course, I can always use Catalyst to overclock my original card, if I wanted. (and if I understood the FAQ.) After all, it's only 25 MHz and 14 MHz on the CPU and memory, respectively.
Problem I've found with tech sites so far is that none of them talk about problems with Vista....so either they ran into none, or they aren't testing long enough >_>
On the other hand, unless HIS has their own drivers or software with the video card, as opposed to the standard stuff that came with my Visiontek, then I should have no problems, as my Visiontek card has only run into problems when I neglected the drivers.

So the HIS 4850 with the 650MHz clock is looking to be a winner. Something flashy to go with my new mouse and keyboard.

Good luck with new purchase enjoy its power

 

[xablian]

Yes,for 1920x1200 defenitley get another card,8800GTS 320 can not keep up in tha resolution,GTX 260 is good,you may want to look at HD 4870 too.

Thanks a lot, I would look at the ATI stuff but the board is 3 way sli capable. May get a 260 55nm Newegg has them on sale today! 184 after rebate, kinda hard to beat that. Will add one later on any ideas on the PSU? I am guessing a 750 should be enough for SLI

 

[Maziar]

PC&POWER COOLING 750w QUAD would be fine for it

 

[meodowla]

PC&POWER COOLING 750w QUAD would be fine for it

Does Tri-SLi need 750W?
What about CoolerMaster Silent Pro 600W?

 

[Maziar]

It depends on the cards/configurations that u will be using

 

[meodowla]

One of the core of my AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+ @ 3GHz shows 86ºC & the other 54ºC. Why is it so? Is it normal?

 

[Maziar]

Mate ask questions about SLI/CF here,ask your CPU related questions here :
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum-28.html
thanks

 

[meodowla]

Maziar, what you think of getting 9800GTX+ in SLi? I wanna know if it would be better than HD4850X2....

 

[Maziar]

As i said what resolution do you play at ?

 

[meodowla]

16x10

 

[Maziar]

For that resolution,i recommend you getting a single HD 4870,it will do the job

 

[meodowla]

No need for SLi?

 

[Maziar]

No i dont recommend MultiGPU for that resolution because a single HD 4870 does the trick

 

[Maziar]

Edited with a new chart for CrossFire compatibility list.

 

[Maziar]

Edited with more notebook cards.

 

[niforean]

I have read the first and last page of this thread.

I saw so many errors it got me quite irritated, one in the guide and one in a reply (although that could have already been answered).

the one in the reply was asking about a monitor with a good refresh rate, around 6ms or under.

6ms is the response time of the monitor, not the refresh rate. the refresh rate is measured in hertz, and is generally around 60hz.

the error in the guide was about MultiGPU technology being only for PCI-E graphics cards.

here's a quote from wikipedia that I read a long, long time ago:

"Scan-Line Interleave (SLI) from 3dfx is a method for linking two (or more) video cards or chips together to produce a single output. It is an application of parallel processing for computer graphics, meant to increase the processing power available for graphics. SLI from 3dfx was introduced in 1998 and used in the Voodoo2 line of graphics accelerators. However, the original Voodoo Graphics card and the VSA 100 were also SLI-capable.

Nvidia Corporation reintroduced the SLI acronym in 2004 as Scalable-Link Interface"

3dfx's technology was meant for igp, pci and agp cards. I remember there is a geforce <6 card which is AGP and is SLIable, although not in the same way that we do it today. You used to have a master and a slave card, which used a daisy chain cable to connect from the vga socket on one card, to the other socket on the other card, and then on to the monitor.

so it would look like this
_________________________________
>|PCI/AGP CARD |
/ | |
_______ | | |
| | \ | |
|monitor|----------------->|PCI/AGP CARD |
|______| |________________________________|




yeah. take that.

 

[Maziar]

I dont remember anyone asking about refresh rate,also what errors you found in the FAQ?

 

[rjbrunker]

what is the best card to crossfire with a Radeon 3850 for under 120 dollars?

 

[Maziar]

For asking about which card to buy,please refer to this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/page-169937_33_950.html

 

[D3vil_hsa2w]

Hi guys
How is this CF for this resolution ?
2x4830 HIS iceq + 1024x1280?
MSI x58 Pro
if i do it can i see any more performance?!