SLI / CrossFire FAQs

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
When it says "CrossFire read",it should support it, but to make sure that it does, always check the manufacturers site.
You can run a pair of 5850's on a motherboard which supports CrossFire, just make sure you get a motherboard that support CrossFire at dual 8x or dual 16x speed, because 16x4x doesn't perform very well.

 

[Cruzan]

Hello and welcome to the forums
When it says "CrossFire read",it should support it, but to make sure that it does, always check the manufacturers site.
You can run a pair of 5850's on a motherboard which supports CrossFire, just make sure you get a motherboard that support CrossFire at dual 8x or dual 16x speed, because 16x4x doesn't perform very well.

Hi Maziar

Thanks for the greetings! Great thread by the way.

I guess I wasn't clear, and I'll try to make it a straightforward question...

If my motherboard is NOT on the AMD "Crossfire Certified" list, and if I have two PCI Express 16 v2.0 slots free, can I still run two 5850's in a Crossfire configuration in those slots? If I can, are there any implications to the 5850's performance versus a typical "Crossfire Certified" board?

P.S. the board is an Intel S5520SCR Dual LGA 1366

Any light anyone could shed would be much appreciated.

Cheers from the Virgin Islands!

= = = = =

Update: After much digging,...

"The S5520SC motherboard has six DDR 3 memory slots for each of the two sockets...The twin graphics slots support CrossFire but not SLI"

...just wrapping up my own question for someone else who might want to know 😉


http://www.reghardware.com/2009/04/01/review_cpu_intel_xeon_5500/page2.html

 

[Maziar]

Well it seems you already have found the answer yourself,that it supports CrossFire.
And sorry for my misunderstanding at first

 

[htelectrical]

They have to be the same even if I do not want to run them in crossfire? I just want to be able to add a 3rd monitor (projector actually). If so that sucks, because I already ordered another inexpensive HDMI vid card.

 

[htelectrical]

They have to be the same even if I do not want to run them in crossfire? I just want to be able to add a 3rd monitor (projector actually). If so that sucks, because I already ordered another inexpensive HDMI vid card.

Monoprice sells a USB 2.0 Display Adapter DVI/VGA/HDMI (1600x1200) that allows an aditional monitor to be added, but I thought I would be better off using another video card. I really do not want to have to buy another x1900xt card, or have to buy 2 new vid cards. (I know Waaaaaaa!!!!)

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011403&p_id=5324&seq=1&format=2

 

[Maziar]

Unfortunately like i said the cards have to be identical in order to use multiple monitors

 

[carlos alcantara]

Hi again everybody!
I have troubles, recently installed windows 7 and when I charged the drivers for the HD 4800 series it doesn't install correctly, used the drivers for windows vista and the driver for the site of amd/ati for win7 and this does not install completely and i have not acces to the CCC so I can't activate crossfire and yes I uninstall windows vista driver before install win7 driver. So then I install the afterburner of MSI and doesn't apears the choice for crossfire or I do not know how activate

Another trouble: my cards even if crossfire is not activated suffer by heat ( over 78ºC ) when in win xp is not uper than 64 ºC.

So I'm very gratefully for any light.

Ah! I forget: HD4830 CF in win XP at highest settings in my 22 inch (1680x1050) monitor overperformance by much a single 5770 in every game i played(dirt2, crysis, batman arkham asylum, fear2, grid, NFS shift, etc) . So that's the reason i install win7.

 

[Maziar]

Hi
Well what error does it exactly give you during the driver installation

 

[carlos alcantara]

The installation is completed but with erros in the installation of CCC

 

[Maziar]

Did the drivers install in Windows XP ? if so then are you sure that you are using the right drivers for Windows 7 ?

 

[carlos alcantara]

Did the drivers install in Windows XP ? if so then are you sure that you are using the right drivers for Windows 7 ?

Is the drivers of the amd/ati site and the legend is for the win7 so

 

[carlos alcantara]

I start download again, i go to sleep and tomorrow will write, so, Good night and hapy dreams!

 

[Maziar]

Let us know how it goes.

 

[INeedSomeAdvice]

This thread is nearly 3 years old, an awesome feat maziar, props =)

 

[Maziar]

Thank you

 

[Maziar]

Nothing much, just have to keep it updated

 

[morpheusfk300]

Thanks for the great infromation! With a motherboard enabling quad crossfire or space for 3 video cards, could a user run two sets of differing video cards (like 2 4850's with 2 5850's or 2 4850's and 1 5850)? Thanks to anyone who may know the answer!

 

[Maziar]

No,the cards have to be the same in order to run in CrossFire mode(like 3 HD 5850s)

 

[kim_51]

really informative..... good job dude....

 

[Maziar]

to kim
thanks,glad you liked it
to dogman
No one knows for now,we have to wait for it to come out,then we will know about its GPU features.

 

[flash_77]

SLI & CrossFire technology r useful in boosting your graphics.
Both does almost similar type of job.

SLI technology just make use of both the IGP & Discrete Graphics card simultaneously and boosts the graphics by both of them equally.

Whereas CrossFire technology make the default use of the Graphics Card and for extra boost uses the IGP.

I prefer CrossFire technology as u will combine your IGP with your graphics hard.
And you will also has the advancement of ATI Catalyst 10.6 which will increase your performance a lot.

 

[Maziar]

But neither Hybrid Crossfire nor Hybrid SLI boost performance significantly.

 

[Maziar]

Like Lucid ? Well the idea is good but it still doesn't perform as well as SLI or Crossfire, because its a new technology and the driver support isn't very good yet.

 

[ali rafaty]

Excellent...

 

[ali rafaty]

both!