Thinking of going Crossfire

[ShadowFold]

I bought a ASUS P5Q-PRO which has two PCI-E 2.0 slots. I have a HD 4850 coming in RMA and I should get around 200$ from some stuff I just sold. With that 200$ I was thinking of grabbing another HD 4850 and two Zalman VF900's. On the eXtreme PSU Calculator, with 2 4850's I would only pull 384w and I have a Seasonic built 500w psu so I should be ok there I guess.

 

[Darknova]

Is that 384w + the rest of your stuff and all at 100% load?

 

[ShadowFold]

yes

 

[Darknova]

yes

Well then you should be ok.

 

[Gallatin]

i have a intel crossfired system i have only good things to say. do it.

 

[Hayder_Master]

i think your p5q , have pci-e 4x in second slot , better if you change your mobo or change you card , you can try 4870x2

 

[Darknova]

i think your p5q , have pci-e 4x in second slot , better if you change your mobo or change you card , you can try 4870x2

No. It's P45. It's 2 8x slots when in CFX.

 

[Hayder_Master]

No. It's P45. It's 2 8x slots when in CFX.

ok, right but there is also first p5 have x4 , but about you psu you need new one

 

[Darknova]

ok, right but there is also first p5 have x4 , but about you psu you need new one

The P35 is 16x/4x. The P45 is 8x/8x.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Plus 8x/8x on pci-e 2.0 is as fast as 16x/16x on pci-e 1.0/1.

 

[johnnyfiive]

CrossFire, DO IT. Not only for performance increase, but bigger e-peen.

 

[MatTheCat]

Plus 8x/8x on pci-e 2.0 is as fast as 16x/16x on pci-e 1.0/1.

Ministry of Public Misinformation alert.

 

[ShadowFold]

Ministry of Public Misinformation alert.

No its actually true. 8x = half of 16x and PCI-E 2.0 = twice the bandwidth of PCI-E 1.1a. So a 8x 2.0 slot = 16x 1.1a performance.

 

[Darknova]

Ministry of Public Misinformation alert.

PCI-SIG announced the availability of the PCI Express Base 2.0 specification on 15 January 2007.[8] PCIe 2.0 doubles the bus standard's bandwidth from 0.25 GByte/s to 0.5 GByte/s, meaning a x32 connector can transfer data at up to 16 GByte/s in each direction.

Check that please.

 

[Polarman]

Not all game take advantage of Crossfire. And a lot of game that work with it do not gain that much from it.

Some do well of course but i you compare the price/performance ratio with a 2nd card.. It's not really that great.

 

[Deleted member 3]

but about you psu you need new one

Why is that? Perhaps you should post some actual numbers/tests to back up the claim?

 

[Hayder_Master]

Why is that? Perhaps you should post some actual numbers/tests to back up the claim?

ok my friend , so the 600w is good , but 700w for sure if you want overclock too, and make sure it is good brand like crossair

 

[Gallatin]

ok my friend , so the 600w is good , but 700w for sure if you want overclock too, and make sure it is good brand like crossair

crosshair? that is a mobo. corsair? that is most like it. unless i missed something.

no offence.

 

[mat9v]

Going by the power use as stated by the producent this is at least:
- 65W for CPU, more for overclocking to 3.6Ghz (maybe 80-90W)
- 40W for motherboard
- 20W for memory
- 10W for HDD
- lets say 30W for various other stuff (usb and so on)
- 2x110W for 4850 and if overclocked add another 2x30W
445W total - now to be on the safe side add to that 30% to let your PSU room to breath and not keep it on max and you arrive at 600W PSU. Of course good 500W will work but I would sleep better with option numbet 2 (my rig work 24/7 so good PSU is a must). I have 750W Corsair PSU but then I have much more overclock applied and 4870 in CF.

 

[Adeel_ssj4]

crosshair? that is a mobo. corsair? that is most like it. unless i missed something.

no offence.

I think he meant corsair unless crosshair is an up and coming brand of some sort o.0