SLI / CrossFire FAQs

[dogman_1234]

Longer than Is Intel Doomed. Well, considering he is a Mod, no other mod will touch it..it is also a good reference point. I would consider to Maziar to create a next gen thread for the upcoming APU chips form Intel and AMD

 

[Maziar]

Thanks amjay
And good idea dogman,I'm waiting for APU's to be released and then I may be able to write about them as well.

 

[CraigHarrison]

thanks ..real helpful ..I'm thinking it going cf with my Radeon 6950 ..
I'm a newcomer here ..so I guess anyone can find this post ..just as long as they look for it ..

 

[sss_56]

i should never have bought a mb with igp; my thought was to go igp and later add only one card just to help improve upon the board graphics; The ad says:
"ATI Hybrid Graphics allows you to combine the performance of the HD4290 integrated GPU with an applicable ATI Radeon graphics card to bring enhanced gaming performance, productivity and power efficiency."
simply put, would one of you guys say which single and "applicable" card this would be? I play games like f.e.a.r, far cry and halo and i do some movie making and also watch movies.
thanks

 

[Maziar]

Like I've mentioned in the first page,Hybrid Crossfire isn't worth it for gaming because it won't give you a huge boost in performance;furthermore,you can only crossfire a low-end discrete card with the on-board GPU.So having a single fast card is a more wiser choice.

 

[dogman_1234]

Doesn't the IGP on the Fused chips actually deactivate when a direct card is applied?

 

[Maziar]

Depends.
If you use Hybrid Crossfire,then no;otherwise,it will be deactivated when you use a discrete card.

 

[sss_56]

my asus mb specs say:

"ATI HYBRID GRAPHICS TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT
Based on ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU technology, ATI Hybrid Graphics allows you to combine the performance of the HD4290 integrated GPU with an applicable ATI Radeon graphics card to bring enhanced gaming performance, productivity and power efficiency."

What are my options for an "applicable ATI Radeon graphics card" to get the most out of this feature? i am hearing conflicting statements about this; please help.

thanks

 

[sss_56]

I know i'll get the best possible performance from one or two discrete cards but for now i'd just like to make do with the onboard and and an "applicable" card that will give my just the boost that the mb has made available.

 

[Maziar]

Like I said you can use low-end discrete cards like 5450 in order to pair them with the on-board HD 4290

 

[ss_56]

Great; the 5450 it is! can you let me know if the clocks speeds have to be the same? can the ob memory be different? will ddr2 works as i have ddr3 x 8 on my pc. Or as long as it is a 5450? thank you much for the insight.

 

[Maziar]

As long as you have a PCI-E slot,you can use HD 5450(no matter if it's DDR2 or DDR3)

 

[dogman_1234]

Or GDDR5.

 

[residentdean]

Thanks for the post, it was will written and thought out!

 

[douipastor]

Yay! The answer to all of my questions, together in one well written thread! Google just kept giving me "I think that'll work, but you should look it up" answers. From now on, Tom's hardware is definitely going to be my first stop for computer questions. Thanks, thanks and more thanks!!

 

[dogman_1234]

Glad you like it.

BTW:

Welcome to THG!

 

[Maziar]

Yay! The answer to all of my questions, together in one well written thread! Google just kept giving me "I think that'll work, but you should look it up" answers. From now on, Tom's hardware is definitely going to be my first stop for computer questions. Thanks, thanks and more thanks!!

I'm happy it helped you
Actually I remember the day when I started to write this topic.There were lots of questions in the forums about SLI/CF and lots of different answers;therefore,I decided to write something that helps everyone know SLI/CF better and answers their question.

 

[dogman_1234]

..and look how popular it is.

This is innovation to its finest.

 

[Maziar]

Thank you I'm really glad it's helping people.

 

[dogman_1234]

Now, all one needs to do is release the APU chips and have the Intel/AMD APU FAQ Thread.

 

[s9y143]

that was very informative... it would b btr if you add those boars also which support hybrid SLI.. i have Asus P7h55-v does it support hybrid sli?? i have i3 540 now dont have any GPU planing to buy gtx460 will my MB give any Hybrid sli advantage with that card gtx460??... and now without gpu?? ... and how can i enable this function ??? as i dont have GPU now so this will b helpfull if i3Gpu sli s with IGpu of MB

 

[Maziar]

I haven't included the boards that support Hybrid SLI/CF but I've mentioned that they're not worth it at all because the performance gain isn't much.
And your board doesn't support Hybrid SLI.

 

[Milkym0o]

Going to get Evga GTX 570 SLI <3

This was informative. Thank you

 

[Maziar]

No prob,enjoy your new cards

 

[Griffolion]

Maziar, could we get a few quick fire FAQ's about the different configurations of SLI/Crossfire in terms of the PCI-E connections.

A lot of people ask about x4 x16 and if it's a good idea, it would be good if the answer and reason for that is here.

Could you also give some explanation that x8 x8 is only a 4% or so drop in performance compared to x16 x16 and so unless you're wanting to triple SLI or Crossfire then it doesn't make financial sense to get a x16 x16 capable setup based purely on this predication.

I think this would help a lot of people before they shoot off a post.