Do i , Or dont i

[mitchy24]

hi all ,As the title says should i but another 4850 to crossfire ?... My E6750 is clocked at 3.6 and to be honest i dont wanna part with it..the motherboard ive got at the min is this one......http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=2744&ProductName=GA-EP35-DS4
It says it has dual 16x pcie slots, i thought that p35 have 1 16x and 1 4x?.. If you were in this situation with very limited funds! , what would you do... Cheers

 

[MilkyWay]

go for it if you want to it says crossfire x and 16x pci epress for both slots so it must be

if its not sue em for a free board mis advertising

 

[largon]

Even from the small pic at Gigabyte home one can see the second x16 slot is electrically nothing more than x4.

I would stick with the single 4850 if I were you. 5k series is just around the corner.

 

[mitchy24]

Thanks for the reply lads...I might actually contact gigabyte and see why they have advertised it this way... To be honest thats the reason i bought this board a while back for 145 quid.. hoping i could maybe crossfire 2 cards....

 

[a_ump]

well that linky only says the interface is a PCI-E x16 slot, not the operating speed of the x16 slot . There was a thread i was just looking at and someone was asking about xfiring HD 4830's and general consensus was to do it as the 2nd card doesn't need as much bandwidth since a lot of data traffic flows through the xfire bridge. A respected member also said he has xfire HD 4870's on a P35 with x16/x4 and went to an X48 with x16/x16 and saw i thk he said less than 10% difference. so go for it imo

 

[Mussels]

P35 boards are all 16x/4x

That said, theres been quite a few threads about this lately - you will be held back in performance, but it will ALWAYS be better than a single card - look at it as a short to mid term solution for now. crossfire held back by a mobo, and you can get a better mobo later (say, a core i5 and move the cards to that next year)


From the specs page:

Expansion Slots

1. 2 x PCI Express x16 slots (The PCIE_16_1 slot supports x16; the PCIE_16_2 supports x4.)

 

[BrooksyX]

I agree with mussels, get the 4850 now and a p45 or better mobo in the near future.

Thats what I am doing. Currently running 2x 4830s on a p35 board.

 

[r9]

DO IT DO IT. Getting now toys is always fun .

 

[a_ump]

brooks, did you ever post benchmarks in your thread? haha that was the thread i was refering to in my previous post that i'd looked at. Did you see a nice performance increase even though the 2nd slot was at x4 speeds?

 

[hat]

Eh... I would wait for DX11 cards.

 

[Hayder_Master]

don't get another 4850 you have this solution
1- stay on you are
2 - replace your card with 4890 or 4870x2
3 - buy other mobo like p45
4- wait for DX11 cards

 

[mitchy24]

thanks guys.. i love threads like this so many different opinions... To be honest im not bothered about dx11.. There was a big rush of ppl buying dx 10 cards, when they need not have bothered.. Probably dx11 will be over priced too..Still havnt got a definate awnser.. Probably go for another 4850 cheapest option so far...???

 

[Ketxxx]

I wouldn't get another 4850, crippling it to a 4x bus won't net you much. If it were me I would grab a P5Q Pro, sell your current mobo and use the recouped funds to find a cheap 4850 or 4830 to put alongside your existing 4850. Also be aware that once you CF, no CPU is really powerful enough. You can limit such problems as CPU throughput bottlenecks though by using faster memory and a higher FSB.

Max it till it breaks! ..Then buy another one

 

[mitchy24]

i know what ya mean ketxx,but i dont think there is much point buying another motherboard, as i dont think ill be buying anymore LGA775 procs... At least if i buy another 4850 i could still use them on the i5 or i7 platform..70 quid for a graphics or 100 quid or so for another m/b..even if i sold this board i prbably woulnt get much for it , maybe a quarter to what i paid...

 

[ShogoXT]

I would just get a faster single card considering your board.

 

[Ketxxx]

i know what ya mean ketxx,but i dont think there is much point buying another motherboard, as i dont think ill be buying anymore LGA775 procs... At least if i buy another 4850 i could still use them on the i5 or i7 platform..70 quid for a graphics or 100 quid or so for another m/b..even if i sold this board i prbably woulnt get much for it , maybe a quarter to what i paid...

775 won't die for some time yet. A good 775 board has everything a i5/7 board does. As a example, With my Q8400 @ 3.68GHz 460FSB and my two "lowly" 4830s @ 655/2GHz, I just got a Streetfighter 4 benchmark result of 20419 (average 234FPS). Thats with a resolution of 1680*1050. Lots of power in 775 still.

 

[Mussels]

775 won't die for some time yet. A good 775 board has everything a i5/7 board does. As a example, With my Q8400 @ 3.68GHz 460FSB and my two "lowly" 4830s @ 655/2GHz, I just got a Streetfighter 4 benchmark result of 20419 (average 234FPS). Thats with a resolution of 1680*1050. Lots of power in 775 still.

you're missing his point.

He's saying he intends to upgrade to i5/i7 anyway, so why not buy the video cards now, and use the second one - even if its at 50% - until that time comes.

if he buys a new 775 board, its costing him more, for no long term benefit.

 

[Ketxxx]

I wouldn't bother buying any new hardware at this time. intel are already talking about i9, and with DX11 almost here, theres little point in a new graphics card. Just saying if anyone has to upgrade at all, may as well make it cheap until i9 and DX11 hardware is out.

 

[etrigan420]

What I did was just kept an eye on ebay for my model of 4850.

One came up for $60 and I grabbed it.

I probably wouldn't pay retail for one, but it should definitely tide me over until the 5000 cards arrive.

 

[BrooksyX]

brooks, did you ever post benchmarks in your thread? haha that was the thread i was refering to in my previous post that i'd looked at. Did you see a nice performance increase even though the 2nd slot was at x4 speeds?

I did. I actually ended up with pretty good results.

edit 3dmark06 and vantage results can be seen here:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=92069

 

[Mussels]

I did. I actually ended up with pretty good results.

3dMark scores are at the bottom of this page:http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=92069&page=3

3dmark scores with crossfire disabled can be found on the next page.

merge the results into the first post of the thread, so that people can go to post one and see that it was a success, and see the before/after results.

 

[BrooksyX]

merge the results into the first post of the thread, so that people can go to post one and see that it was a success, and see the before/after results.

will do.

edit: alright just did.

 

[mitchy24]

you're missing his point.

He's saying he intends to upgrade to i5/i7 anyway, so why not buy the video cards now, and use the second one - even if its at 50% - until that time comes.

if he buys a new 775 board, its costing him more, for no long term benefit.

nail on the head mate....gunna keep an eye for another cheap 4850, even a second one...that way i get my money worth out of my mother board... Plus its the cheapest option for now... as im propa skint lol