Crossfire 4830's on a P35 motherboard?

[BrooksyX]

Do you guys think my PSU is enough though? (for the rig in my specs) Its only 550w but it has 3x 12v rails = 22a, 22a, & 25a.

 

[Mussels]

thats an awful lot of win there sir.

I could have sworn some P35 tests showed worse results, or stuttering or something BUT;

if hes seeing at least minimal gains, and nothing "slower" s'all gewd - P45's are teh shiznit too, CF loves them, 8x/8x @ 2.0 will be plenty for a pair of 4830's.

i tried it with 4870's before this thread was even started, and i got all the same reactions there. sure the 4x slot holds it back - but since ram isnt used on secondary cards, just the GPU the hit isnt the same as running the primary card on a weaker slot. 16x/4x at least gives the master card full bandwidth, whereas 8x/8x is the same for both cards, even when the slave cards dont need as much bandwidth as the master card.

and btw, x48 ftw 16x/16x 2.0

Do you guys think my PSU is enough though? (for the rig in my specs) Its only 550w but it has 3x 12v rails = 22a, 22a, & 25a.

I'd say its definately enough for stock usage, OC'ing may push it a bit high.

 

[BrooksyX]

i tried it with 4870's before this thread was even started, and i got all the same reactions there. sure the 4x slot holds it back - but since ram isnt used on secondary cards, just the GPU the hit isnt the same as running the primary card on a weaker slot. 16x/4x at least gives the master card full bandwidth, whereas 8x/8x is the same for both cards, even when the slave cards dont need as much bandwidth as the master card.

and btw, x48 ftw 16x/16x 2.0




I'd say its definately enough for stock usage, OC'ing may push it a bit high.

I usually leave my q6600 at 3.0 ghz w stock volts.

I am running quite a bit of stuff: 2 dvd drives, 4 hdds, oced q6600, 2x oced 4830s, tv tuner, pci wifi card, and 3 extra fans. I used that extreme psu calculator and it I used about 430w so I think I am fine but can never be to sure.

 

[Mussels]

I usually leave my q6600 at 3.0 ghz w stock volts.

I am running quite a bit of stuff: 2 dvd drives, 4 hdds, q6600, 2x 4830s, tv tuner, pci wifi card, and 3 fans. I used that extreme psu calculator and it I used about 430w so I think I am fine but can never be to sure.

PSU calculators are worthless. I get people to use that on their systems and then i loan them my wallmeter, its always out by several hundred watts.

 

[BrooksyX]

PSU calculators are worthless. I get people to use that on their systems and then i loan them my wallmeter, its always out by several hundred watts.

several hundred watts high or low?

 

[wolf]

and btw, x48 ftw 16x/16x 2.0

tisk tisk, its actually X58 ftw

honestly, i'd only recommend X48 if he can get a DDR2 board, screw getting DDR3 for an X48.....

DDR2 X48 or P45 should be weapons of choice imo.

 

[Mussels]

tisk tisk, its actually X58 ftw

honestly, i'd only recommend X48 if he can get a DDR2 board, screw getting DDR3 for an X48.....

DDR2 X48 or P45 should be weapons of choice imo.

i was talking about my PC

brooksy: almost always high, but in a few rare cases low.

 

[BrooksyX]

tisk tisk, its actually X58 ftw

honestly, i'd only recommend X48 if he can get a DDR2 board, screw getting DDR3 for an X48.....

DDR2 X48 or P45 should be weapons of choice imo.

not really looking to spend tons of cash. Only reason i would upgrade my board is because if I can could sell my current one it would only end up costing me about $30~$40 to upgrade.

i was talking about my PC

brooksy: almost always high, but in a few rare cases low.

Wait, the psu calculate estimated to high or the wall wattage checker comes out higher than estimated?

 

[Mussels]

not really looking to spend tons of cash. Only reason i would upgrade my board is because if I can could sell my current one it would only end up costing me about $30~$40 to upgrade.



Wait, the psu calculate estimated to high or the wall wattage checker comes out higher?

most gaming machines come out higher on the calc than at the wall. my PC was estimated almost 300W higher when i had my Q6600, than when i was gaming (about 200W higher than furmark)

Some low end machines (my HTPC for example) come out 50W higher than they do at the wall

 

[BrooksyX]

most gaming machines come out higher on the calc than at the wall. my PC was estimated almost 300W higher when i had my Q6600, than when i was gaming (about 200W higher than furmark)

Some low end machines (my HTPC for example) come out 50W higher than they do at the wall

oh okay, thats good news then. I guess I should be fine psu wise.

Would you guys consider this a good deal on a p45 board ($80 w/ free shipping):
http://cgi.ebay.com/MSI-P45-Platinu...QQptZLHQ5fDefaultDomainQ5f0QQsalenotsupported

I know is a refurb but has a warranty and all accessories.

 

[Mussels]

i'm not a fan of MSI boards, but it seems ok. no idea how well it would OC or anything.

 

[BrooksyX]

i'm not a fan of MSI boards, but it seems ok. no idea how well it would OC or anything.

I don't necessarily prefer MSI boards its just that I like my video cards and motherboards to be the same brand. I know it makes no difference but I am just OCD like that

I sent them a message asking if they would sell me the board for $70. They will probably say no but hey it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[eidairaman1]

I dont know how MSI is for Intel boards, but they seem to be one of the Weapons for Overclocking on AMD side of things. Btw Im not sure if the P45/P35 Distros its Bandwidth evenly between the PCI 16 slots, because if i recall it was what 16/4?

 

[BrooksyX]

I am also thinking about trying to trade my q6600 for an e8500 or e8400 + cash. Do you guys think this would be a good move?

 

[Mussels]

P35 is 16x/4x 1.1
P45 is 8x/8x 2.0
x48 ix 16/16 2.0

I went from a Q6600 to an E8500 equivalent (better stepping, so more like an E8600 with a lower multi) and think its win. higher clocks, lower temps.

 

[BrooksyX]

I went from a Q6600 to an E8500 equivalent (better stepping, so more like an E8600 with a lower multi) and think its win. higher clocks, lower temps.

I just might have to do that before the end of the summer. I am sure I could convince someone to trade.

 

[eidairaman1]

I am also thinking about trying to trade my q6600 for an e8500 or e8400 + cash. Do you guys think this would be a good move?

downgrading to a dual core? erm If the Dual cores cost less than what you sell the Q6600 for, Otherwise id say get the fastest quad avail.

 

[BrooksyX]

downgrading to a dual core? erm If the Dual cores cost less than what you sell the Q6600 for, Otherwise id say get the fastest quad avail.

Well I would like a q9550 but that might be a little too much $$$ for me right now...

 

[eidairaman1]

well stick with what you have currently.

 

[BrooksyX]

well stick with what you have currently.

Maybe. Whats better a q6600 @ 3.0 or an e8500 @ 4.0

I know it depends on what I am doing but I am wondering for overall use.

 

[Mussels]

we're going offtopic, but its a simple thing: all the cheap quad cores have very low multipliers comapred to same price duals, and the lower quads have crippled caches (sometimes, less total cache than the duals)

Q6600: 9x multi, 2x4MB
E8500: 9.5x multi, 1x6MB
Q8200 8x multi, 2x2MB
Q9450 8x multi, 2x6MB
Q9550 8.5x multi, 2x6MB

If you're OCing, its dual core all the way unless you can afford a Q9450 or better. (personally i wouldnt want less than a Q9550, as even that has a lower multi than a Q6600)

 

[eidairaman1]

System bus comes into play aswell, i know it can be negated by overclocking but reliability standpoint your better off with the faster CPU out of the box by System bus.

 

[newtekie1]

Do you guys think my PSU is enough though? (for the rig in my specs) Its only 550w but it has 3x 12v rails = 22a, 22a, & 25a.

You should be fine.

but since ram isnt used on secondary cards, just the GPU the hit isnt the same as running the primary card on a weaker slot. 16x/4x at least gives the master card full bandwidth, whereas 8x/8x is the same for both cards, even when the slave cards dont need as much bandwidth as the master card.

I'm pretty sure the RAM on the second card is used. It is just filled with the same data as the RAM on the first. This allows both GPUs direct access to everything they need to render whatever they are tasked with rendering.

This is why, even if you have a 1GB primary card, when you stick in a 512MB secondary card, you are limitted to 512MB.

 

[Mussels]

rofl, i hit edit instead of quote. restored your post now, newtekie

I'm pretty sure the RAM on the second card is used. It is just filled with the same data as the RAM on the first. This allows both GPUs direct access to everything they need to render whatever they are tasked with rendering.

This is why, even if you have a 1GB primary card, when you stick in a 512MB secondary card, you are limitted to 512MB.

Logical, i guess. this stuff is never documented, so you have to work it out as you go.

 

[BrooksyX]

all scores are now posted in the the first post of this thread for quick comparison.

edit: 2500th post