To Crossfire or not to Crossfire................

[richyb]

Hello all never posted in the pc section but I thought I'd have a go. I am (constantly it seems) upgrading my pc and have been looking at getting a crossfire motherboard and graphics card to work in sync with my current one. I have an ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro 512mb card at the moment and would get exactly the same one to run in crossfire mode. My query is how much benefit there is from running dual cards in crossfire mode compared to the standard card? If there is very little improvement I may skip it but it’s hard to actually find a decent review of it. I am happy with the card at present and it runs DirectX10 games well but I cannot run the graphics at full settings without lag still which is a shame as the newer games are truly awesome at max settings. The other option is to step away from ATI and go for Nvidia 9800 1GB or similar. This would work but it would work out most expensive overall as I want to upgrade my motherboard as well for future changes. Anyone on the forums that run a crossfire system and can give me a realistic review would be helpful.

[Zod]

From what I've read, Crossfire is flaky, so I'd leave it alone if I were you.

[richyb]

Thanks, all I can get though is rough reivews, I can't find many anyone who uses it. This obviously could be a sign in itself.

[LukeBird]

I run SLi (the Nvidia equivalent of CrossFire), SLi is only more popular than CrossFire because of Nvidia's "The Way it's meant to be paidplayed"
CrossFire scaling is very good in general and more than a match for SLi in a fair few games (particularly anything made by the Steam guys - Half Life 2 etc.). I'm looking at binning my current set-up in a few months and going to ATi cards in CrossFire because I'm fed up with Nvidia (multitude of reasons!).
Onto your decision though, I wouldn't bother running CrossFire 2900 Pro's, they will give you a useful power boost (but only at higher res, at least 1680x1050, but ideally 1920x1200 or higher) but they will run hot (you'll need decent case cooling) and you will need a decent PSU with plenty of oomph to run them (my 8800GTX's are running on an 850W PSU).
If I were you I would wait out until next month when the new Radeon HD 4xxx series are launched. They're looking at giving Nvidia a big run for their money and would be a far better upgrade than CrossFireing what you already have!
If you're desperate to upgrade, have a look at the 8800GT/GTS or the 3870/3870X2.

[GregE240]

As per Luke's final comment, I'd look at a 3870X2, for just over £200 it sounds like one hell of a card.

And they are Crossfire capable.

[richyb]

Cheers Lukebird. I have already upgraded my psu to a 750w one and I am in the process on getting a new case to assist with cooling. (The new case idea led to the new motherboard idea which lead to crossfire plan!). I've got a pentium 4 3.4Ghz processor and just recently fitted a 'Andy Samurai Master' (no idea who andy is!) cpu cooler which is seriously huge and is keeping the cpu chilled. I did think about waiting for the new ati cards but my logic is that when a new range comes out the prices of the old ones drop like crazy. The card I am looking at is now 50% of what I paid for it 6 months ago and drops more each month. I do run at 1680x1050 generally and for games here possible, do you think this would be of benefit then? I do like running strategy games at huge res if possible as there is often a lot going on (supreme commander etc). I am still not sure. The choice of crossfire motherboards is fairly limited.

[LukeBird]

richyb said:

Cheers Lukebird. I have already upgraded my psu to a 750w one and I am in the process on getting a new case to assist with cooling. (The new case idea led to the new motherboard idea which lead to crossfire plan!). I've got a pentium 4 3.4Ghz processor and just recently fitted a 'Andy Samurai Master' (no idea who andy is!) cpu cooler which is seriously huge and is keeping the cpu chilled. I did think about waiting for the new ati cards but my logic is that when a new range comes out the prices of the old ones drop like crazy. The card I am looking at is now 50% of what I paid for it 6 months ago and drops more each month. I do run at 1680x1050 generally and for games here possible, do you think this would be of benefit then? I do like running strategy games at huge res if possible as there is often a lot going on (supreme commander etc). I am still not sure. The choice of crossfire motherboards is fairly limited.

Very true that the 2900's will drop when the new cards come out, but one of those new cars will be able to kick a pair of 2900's CF'd no doubt....
You'll be able to CrossFire the 3xxx series with the 4xxx series as well, which leaves plenty of scope for future upgrade if you do decide to go that route. If you use lots of filtering, you may get a noticeable boost at the resolution you game, but it very much depends on the game. Crysis, for instance, scales fairly well with multiple video cards, but Supreme Commander will do far better with a quad-core CPU as it is very well multi-threaded. With regards to motherboard choice, there are plenty of CrossFire motherboards available. Intel's P35 (I think), X38, X48 are all capable of running CrossFire'd cards.

[richyb]

LukeBird said:

richyb said:

Cheers Lukebird. I have already upgraded my psu to a 750w one and I am in the process on getting a new case to assist with cooling. (The new case idea led to the new motherboard idea which lead to crossfire plan!). I've got a pentium 4 3.4Ghz processor and just recently fitted a 'Andy Samurai Master' (no idea who andy is!) cpu cooler which is seriously huge and is keeping the cpu chilled. I did think about waiting for the new ati cards but my logic is that when a new range comes out the prices of the old ones drop like crazy. The card I am looking at is now 50% of what I paid for it 6 months ago and drops more each month. I do run at 1680x1050 generally and for games here possible, do you think this would be of benefit then? I do like running strategy games at huge res if possible as there is often a lot going on (supreme commander etc). I am still not sure. The choice of crossfire motherboards is fairly limited.

Very true that the 2900's will drop when the new cards come out, but one of those new cars will be able to kick a pair of 2900's CF'd no doubt....
You'll be able to CrossFire the 3xxx series with the 4xxx series as well, which leaves plenty of scope for future upgrade if you do decide to go that route. If you use lots of filtering, you may get a noticeable boost at the resolution you game, but it very much depends on the game. Crysis, for instance, scales fairly well with multiple video cards, but Supreme Commander will do far better with a quad-core CPU as it is very well multi-threaded. With regards to motherboard choice, there are plenty of CrossFire motherboards available. Intel's P35 (I think), X38, X48 are all capable of running CrossFire'd cards.

I'll do a bit more research. I've only found probably 5 or 6 that could be crossfired. Can you crossfire different ati cards as long as they are compatable? I thought they had to be identical cards? I will go for a newer card along side the current one if thats the case. Upgrading pc's is a constant battle really. I only recently sorted my cooling problems out and before that had upgraded my ram to 4gb. New case, new motherboard, new graphics card, new psu and new memory, not a lot of my original pc left. Its starting to go down the old 'trigger' route of having a broom with 10 new handles and 8 new heads!

Cheers for the advise Lukebird, I'll post again when I have found out more and see what you think. You keep radio2ing them for til next time. .

[chris-ST220]

GregE240 said:

As per Luke's final comment, I'd look at a 3870X2, for just over £200 it sounds like one hell of a card.

And they are Crossfire capable.

+1 for the 3870x2.
Its basically 2 ati 3870s stuck in one card. Very very good value for money. Ive run one for the last few months and very happy with it. Although the best value for money card at the moment has to be an 8800 GTS 512mb, excellent price for the performance they give.

[LukeBird]

richyb said:

I'll do a bit more research. I've only found probably 5 or 6 that could be crossfired. Can you crossfire different ati cards as long as they are compatable? I thought they had to be identical cards? I will go for a newer card along side the current one if thats the case. Upgrading pc's is a constant battle really. I only recently sorted my cooling problems out and before that had upgraded my ram to 4gb. New case, new motherboard, new graphics card, new psu and new memory, not a lot of my original pc left. Its starting to go down the old 'trigger' route of having a broom with 10 new handles and 8 new heads!

There should be plenty of boards that'll support CrossFire with Intel CPU's, but I'll have a look around as well
I'm sure you can CrossFire different cards, but I think they just have to be the same core. I'll do a bit of research though. They are certainly less stroppy putting different cards together than SLi is. Especially with Nvidia's ste drivers!
I know what you mean about a constant upgrade battle, I've rebuilt mine so many times since I started upgrading last year which then morphed into a complete rebuild!
I must have reinstalled Windows about 10 times!

richyb said:

Cheers for the advise Lukebird, I'll post again when I have found out more and see what you think. You keep radio2ing them for til next time. .

No problem at all!
I thought that'd stay in the P&P

[LukeBird]

chris-ST220 said:

GregE240 said:

As per Luke's final comment, I'd look at a 3870X2, for just over £200 it sounds like one hell of a card.

And they are Crossfire capable.

+1 for the 3870x2.
Its basically 2 ati 3870s stuck in one card. Very very good value for money. Ive run one for the last few months and very happy with it. Although the best value for money card at the moment has to be an 8800 GTS 512mb, excellent price for the performance they give.

Very true on both points.
I'm getting put off Nvidia cards though, after the farce with DX10, that they created and their inability to get a DX10.1 piece out I'm getting put off going back to them for my next card(s).
Especially that DX10.1 is looking like it may come out sooner than expected (Assassin's Creed anyone?) that'll give the ATi cards a massive boost and leave all the current Nvidia cards, including the 9800GX2.

[chris-ST220]

LukeBird said:

chris-ST220 said:

GregE240 said:

As per Luke's final comment, I'd look at a 3870X2, for just over £200 it sounds like one hell of a card.

And they are Crossfire capable.

+1 for the 3870x2.
Its basically 2 ati 3870s stuck in one card. Very very good value for money. Ive run one for the last few months and very happy with it. Although the best value for money card at the moment has to be an 8800 GTS 512mb, excellent price for the performance they give.

Very true on both points.
I'm getting put off Nvidia cards though, after the farce with DX10, that they created and their inability to get a DX10.1 piece out I'm getting put off going back to them for my next card(s).
Especially that DX10.1 is looking like it may come out sooner than expected (Assassin's Creed anyone?) that'll give the ATi cards a massive boost and leave all the current Nvidia cards, including the 9800GX2.

I very nearly went NVIDIA when I last upgraded, glad I stuck with Ati TBH. I will be sticking with Ati
next time round if the rumours concerning the pricing of the next gen cards are to be believed. Ive heard rumours the Ati 4870 will be circa £200. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ati-radeon-4800,5...

Mmmm the 4870x2 sounds tempting

[LukeBird]

chris-ST220 said:

I very nearly went NVIDIA when I last upgraded, glad I stuck with Ati TBH. I will be sticking with Ati
next time round if the rumours concerning the pricing of the next gen cards are to be believed. Ive heard rumours the Ati 4870 will be circa £200. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ati-radeon-4800,5...

Mmmm the 4870x2 sounds tempting

Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on that thread as well!
The price and performance is looking pretty impressive!
I reckon a 4870/4870X2(s) will be a decent upgrade over my 8800GTXs