1. SPS Accounts:
    Do you find yourself coming back time after time? Do you appreciate the ongoing hard work to keep this community focused and successful in its mission? Please consider supporting us by upgrading to an SPS Account. Besides the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting a good cause, you'll also get a significant number of ever-expanding perks and benefits on the site and the forums. Click here to find out more.
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
You are currently viewing Boards o' Magick as a guest, but you can register an account here. Registration is fast, easy and free. Once registered you will have access to search the forums, create and respond to threads, PM other members, upload screenshots and access many other features unavailable to guests.

BoM cultivates a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We have been aiming for quality over quantity with our forums from their inception, and believe that this distinction is truly tangible and valued by our members. We'd love to have you join us today!

(If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you've forgotten your username or password, click here.)

ATI CrossFire question

Discussion in 'Techno-Magic' started by Kitrax, Dec 15, 2008.

  1. Kitrax

    Kitrax Pantaloons are supposed to go where!?!?

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2002
    Messages:
    7,899
    Media:
    74
    Likes Received:
    96
    Gender:
    Male
    Remove all ads!
    So I'm thinking of giving my rig a shot of CrossFire to beef my games up.

    But I have a few questions.

    Here's my exact card: Powercolor 3870. Now IIRC, you have to have the same type of card for CrossFire or SLI to work. That being said...how *exact* do they need to be? Newegg no longer sells my card, and even though I've been able to find it elsewhere, Powercolor has a cheaper version of the 3870...Looking at the specs, the card is slightly different. My card has a core clock of 800Mhz and a memory clock of 1170MHz x 2 and uses GDDR4...the other 3870 that Newegg now offers has a core clock of 775MHz, a memory clock of 1800MHz, and uses GDDR3.

    Question #1: Will the two different cards work together in CrossFire?

    Question #2: How difficult is it to setup CrossFire? Do I just plug it in and the driver automatically configures everything...or do I have to manually configure everything?

    Question #3: My card cost me $203 when I bought it...to get the same card now will cost between $110 to $125. The 3870 Newegg offers is only $89. With that in mind, if the two different card will work together, which one should I get?

    Question #4: Anything else I should be aware of?

    I am unsure of how CrossFire performance will be affected since the two cards are slightly different. If it is as I suspect, and CrossFire limits the performance of the two cards to match the slowest card's capabilities, then I wouldn't mind paying a little more to get the same exact card I have now, since it looks like my card is slightly faster.
     
    Kitrax, Dec 15, 2008
    #1
  2. olimikrig

    olimikrig Cavalier of War Distinguished Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2004
    Messages:
    1,876
    Media:
    472
    Likes Received:
    21
    Gender:
    Male
    Well I know that for SLI you need the same GPU on all cards, but that any brand of say a 8800 will work together (a BFG 8800 will work in SLI with an ASUS one). It doesn't matter either whether one of the cards are OCed, any combination of clock speeds should work together as long as it's the same GPU. My guess would be that it is the same for CrossFire (I don't know though).
     
    olimikrig, Dec 15, 2008
    #2
  3. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2005
    Messages:
    2,445
    Media:
    23
    Likes Received:
    54
    Gender:
    Male
    I think it is smart to try to get the same type of memory and clockspeeds. As far as I know it can be done whit two different 38x0 generation cards whit the slowest one setting the pace.
     
    Merlanni, Dec 15, 2008
    #3
Sorcerer's Place is a project run entirely by fans and for fans. Maintaining Sorcerer's Place and a stable environment for all our hosted sites requires a substantial amount of our time and funds on a regular basis, so please consider supporting us to keep the site up & running smoothly. Thank you!

Sorcerers.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on amazon.com, amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.