What does crossfire ready mean?

[Mrcool33]

I bought a rig from best buy (an ASUS M11BB) and on the motherboard it says that it is crossfire ready. What does this mean and how will it help me in upgrading to a better graphics card? (The card right now according to dxdiag is an AMD Radeon HD8670D) I am just looking at what I can do to boost without going very high in price.

 

[damric]

There are many variations of that computer model.

Can you post a screenshot of CPU-Z and GPU-Z?

With these tabs open like this:

Need the info circled ^^

 

[esco_sid]

It just means you can add another same model card in there and 2 of them would work together for increased performance.

 

[cball1311]

Crossfire ready means that it can support 2 AMD cards at one time. I wouldn't recommend this though with the proprietary PSU. The specs say that its only 350W which is too low for CrossFire.

 

[Mrcool33]

 

[Mrcool33]

There are many variations of that computer model.

Can you post a screenshot of CPU-Z and GPU-Z?

 

[damric]

lol I see you tried to post something but I cannot see it. If you can post those tabs I'll be able to see what you have, and exactly what we are working with here, and whether any hardware or software tuning or upgrading is even possible.

 

[Mrcool33]

lol I see you tried to post something but I cannot see it. If you can post those tabs I'll be able to see what you have, and exactly what we are working with here, and whether any hardware or software tuning or upgrading is even possible.

CPU Model = AMD A10-6700 Motherboard = M11BB Ram Speed= 799.8 MHz GPU model = AMD Radeon HD 8670D

Motherboard Might be of no use as the most current information On the M11BB will be wrong they have changed the computer and different specs since I bought the computer.

 

[damric]

Gotcha. When did you buy this computer?

 

[Mrcool33]

November 29th 2013

 

[damric]

Ok so since taking it back to the store isn't an option, let's talk about what you have to work with:

The mobo is an A55 chipset, which is the lowest quality of the 3 tiers of FM2 (A55, A75, A85). It doesn't have a lot of features, but you CAN add a discreet GPU (provided your PSU can handle it).

The A10 is a high tier Richland APU, though it is locked so you cannot overclock it. It does support some fast RAM speeds though. This APU has a good integrated graphics (almost as good as it gets) and also 4 piledriver CPU cores (which are meh, ok).

There's a couple ways to squeeze out some more performance.

1) Crossfire/dual graphics is probably a no go. AMD has still not perfected the drivers to really get this working properly and this will just cause more pain than is necessary.

2) Tweak 3d driver settings in AMD Catalyst Control Center. This is an easy way to increase performance by making detail compromises.

3) See if your RAM will run faster. It might not. To change this you will need to go in your BIOS and see if if it as an option. If it fails to run faster, it could cause the computer to not to boot up, requiring a CMOS CLEAR (don't panic it's easy). Anyways if you can get it to run faster it will increase the bandwidth for your APU graphics and help a lot!

4) You could purchase a discreet graphics card. BUT...we need to know some things about your PSU first.

 

[Mrcool33]

Ok so since taking it back to the store isn't an option, let's talk about what you have to work with:

The mobo is an A55 chipset, which is the lowest quality of the 3 tiers of FM2 (A55, A75, A85). It doesn't have a lot of features, but you CAN add a discreet GPU (provided your PSU can handle it).

The A10 is a high tier Richland APU, though it is locked so you cannot overclock it. It does support some fast RAM speeds though. This APU has a good integrated graphics (almost as good as it gets) and also 4 piledriver CPU cores (which are meh, ok).

There's a couple ways to squeeze out some more performance.

1) Crossfire/dual graphics is probably a no go. AMD has still not perfected the drivers to really get this working properly and this will just cause more pain than is necessary.

2) Tweak 3d driver settings in AMD Catalyst Control Center. This is an easy way to increase performance by making detail compromises.

3) See if your RAM will run faster. It might not. To change this you will need to go in your BIOS and see if if it as an option. If it fails to run faster, it could cause the computer to not to boot up, requiring a CMOS CLEAR (don't panic it's easy). Anyways if you can get it to run faster it will increase the bandwidth for your APU graphics and help a lot!

4) You could purchase a discreet graphics card. BUT...we need to know some things about your PSU first.

What is a PSU and what info on it will you need? ( I am fairly new to customizing computers and am unsure what that is)

 

[damric]

Ok so since taking it back to the store isn't an option, let's talk about what you have to work with:

The mobo is an A55 chipset, which is the lowest quality of the 3 tiers of FM2 (A55, A75, A85). It doesn't have a lot of features, but you CAN add a discreet GPU (provided your PSU can handle it).

The A10 is a high tier Richland APU, though it is locked so you cannot overclock it. It does support some fast RAM speeds though. This APU has a good integrated graphics (almost as good as it gets) and also 4 piledriver CPU cores (which are meh, ok).

There's a couple ways to squeeze out some more performance.

1) Crossfire/dual graphics is probably a no go. AMD has still not perfected the drivers to really get this working properly and this will just cause more pain than is necessary.

2) Tweak 3d driver settings in AMD Catalyst Control Center. This is an easy way to increase performance by making detail compromises.

3) See if your RAM will run faster. It might not. To change this you will need to go in your BIOS and see if if it as an option. If it fails to run faster, it could cause the computer to not to boot up, requiring a CMOS CLEAR (don't panic it's easy). Anyways if you can get it to run faster it will increase the bandwidth for your APU graphics and help a lot!

4) You could purchase a discreet graphics card. BUT...we need to know some things about your PSU first.

What is a PSU and what info on it will you need? ( I am fairly new to customizing computers and am unsure what that is)

No worries.

The PSU = power supply unit. If there is a model number on it, that would be helpful. Recent PSUs also have a sticker with voltage outputs listed in a chart. If you can see what the 12V rail output says?

Let me know if you understand that

 

[Mrcool33]

Its number is HBA008-ZA1GT on the sticker I have several 12v's I have a +12v1 with a 13.0A and a +12v2 with the same the spot below them is totaled at 216W and I also have a -12V with a 0.3A and total is 3.6W

Also There is a cable that is unused with an end on it that looks like the type you would plug into a graphics card. Its really short though so idk what it is for.

 

[cball1311]

Yeah, that PSU wouldn't run anything better than the GPU you have now. You would definitely want to upgrade it if you plan on getting a better GPU.

Here is the specs page for the PSU. It's only supplying 13A on each of the two 12V rails. Definitely not enough to run a newer generation GPU. I wouldn't risk it personally.

http://us.estore.asus.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=5628

 

[damric]

Its number is HBA008-ZA1GT on the sticker I have several 12v's I have a +12v1 with a 13.0A and a +12v2 with the same the spot below them is totaled at 216W and I also have a -12V with a 0.3A and total is 3.6W

Also There is a cable that is unused with an end on it that looks like the type you would plug into a graphics card. Its really short though so idk what it is for.

That's an older multi-rail design, but you can safely put something like a GTX 750 in your rig, no problem. Even a GTX 750 Ti. If you get one, make sure it's the GDDR5 version.

 

[Mrcool33]

Its number is HBA008-ZA1GT on the sticker I have several 12v's I have a +12v1 with a 13.0A and a +12v2 with the same the spot below them is totaled at 216W and I also have a -12V with a 0.3A and total is 3.6W

Also There is a cable that is unused with an end on it that looks like the type you would plug into a graphics card. Its really short though so idk what it is for.

That's an older multi-rail design, but you can safely put something like a GTX 750 in your rig, no problem. Even a GTX 750 Ti. If you get one, make sure it's the GDDR5 version.

So with my motherboard If i put an amd graphics card such as a Diamond R7 250 oc or an Diamond HD 7750 would it crossfire with my current integrated one? Or does that crossfire ready mean that I have to buy 2 of them and plug them into the two different pcl-e slots for them to crossfire?