Is it possible to Xfire on my motherboard?

[silkstone]

I was thinking of upgrading my Video card, but monetary constraints mean that it isn't practical to do that now.

My motherboard has a 16x PCIe and a 4x PCIe slot, however the manual does not say that crossfire is supported.

Is there a special chip that needs o be present to use Crossfire, or is it just a matter of having the slots?
In other words, would you think it would be possible to Xfire my current card with another 4850 for greater performance?

Thx

[DrPepper]

I believe the chipset doesn't support crossfire so no it can't be done unless there is a workaround or such.

[Mussels]

I'm with the cola above, its not officially supported, but there is a slim chance it might just work anyway. obviously you're gunna have to make the 16x card fit in the 4x slot and get a custom/long crossfire bridge to even attempt it, so it may not be worth the risk.

[micropage7]

for crossfire or sli there 2 things that needed 1st is how many slot on the board, except hybrid when you combine onboard with add on vga card and 2nd is the chipset, so it would be impossible when you use crossfire without them

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by micropage7

for crossfire or sli there 2 things that needed 1st is how many slot on the board, except hybrid when you combine onboard with add on vga card and 2nd is the chipset, so it would be impossible when you use crossfire without them

not quite, some hacks do exist. we have a thread here on TPU where they've managed to get SLI working on AMD chipsets, for example.

[xBruce88x]

you may also want to consider a power supply upgrade, not sure if that 470watt will power 2 cards.

edit: TBH, by the time you've bought the new power supply and crossfire bridge, you probably could sell your current card and get a single more powerful card that'll work with your power supply. also, this way you'd get the full potential (if there's no cpu bottleneck) of the pci-e x16 with a single card, since both would be at 4x if they were in crossfire. I'd look at some benchmarks and see what cards are roughtly 40-50% faster than your current card for the performance of 2 of your current card

[silkstone]

Thanks, i was hoping to be able to upgrade my graphics fairly cheaply. Where i am the latest graphics cards are a lot more expensive but i could pick up a 2nd hand 4850 for around $70.

There's no point in upgrading my motherboard to do xfire until i have enough for an i7, so i guess i am stuck with this system for another year or so. At least until the 68xx series come down in price.

Oh, i think the psu will be able to power 2x video cards, they aren't all that power hungry and 470w should be enough. Not overly ample, but then wasted wattage means higher electricity bills.

[(FIH) The Don]

even if you did a hardmod on the x4 slot, theres a battery in the way.

[newtekie1]

ATi doesn't allow Crossfire on the G33 chipset, so no chance of it working even if you got the card in the slot. If you try it, the ATi drivers will detect that you don't have a supported chipset and not allow crossfire.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by silkstone

Oh, i think the psu will be able to power 2x video cards, they aren't all that power hungry and 470w should be enough. Not overly ample, but then wasted wattage means higher electricity bills.

what?


its not like a 470W PSU uses 470W all the time, it aint a light bulb...

[micropage7]

Originally Posted by Mussels

not quite, some hacks do exist. we have a thread here on TPU where they've managed to get SLI working on AMD chipsets, for example.

yes its true, but im kinda skeptic about performance although it looks pretty nice

[silkstone]

Originally Posted by Mussels

what?


its not like a 470W PSU uses 470W all the time, it aint a light bulb...

Of course, but they become inefficient when they are underloaded. The optimal load is 70-80% for the best efficiency.

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by silkstone

Of course, but they become inefficient when they are underloaded. The optimal load is 70-80% for the best efficiency.

Actually it is 50-60%.

But the maybe 5% efficiency difference beween 50% load and 20% load is going to amount next to nothing when the machine is idling at less than 100w most of the time.

[silkstone]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

Actually it is 50-60%.

But the maybe 5% efficiency difference beween 50% load and 20% load is going to amount next to nothing when the machine is idling at less than 100w most of the time.

The graphs i saw were a bit higher and i thought it was significantly higher than 5%. But fair enough.
I guess it depends on the quality of PSU.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by silkstone

Of course, but they become inefficient when they are underloaded. The optimal load is 70-80% for the best efficiency.

i proved that to be BS recently.

Corsair TX750 Vs HX1000


losing a few % efficiency really makes next to no difference... and a quality 750W is going to be more efficient than a cheap 500W, no matter what load it has.

[silkstone]

Originally Posted by Mussels

i proved that to be BS recently.

Corsair TX750 Vs HX1000


losing a few % efficiency really makes next to no difference... and a quality 750W is going to be more efficient than a cheap 500W, no matter what load it has.

Nice tests, i'll keep them in mind when i need to upgrade my PSU and go for a more powerful one..
I should be getting a killawatt soon, so i can test the input power. The PSU i have got some good reviews and is (supposedly) very efficient. Looking at the power requirements for the HD4850 (250w Per Card) i doubt 550w would be enough, especially with overclocking.
So, yea. You're right i would need a new PSU.

It's no fun when i need to spend hundreds of dollars to upgrade everything