# Crossfire X Thread



## i_dog_69 (Jan 1, 2008)

Hey guys im not an AMD fanboy or anything but im intreuged by the new technology tht is crossfire x. im opening this thread to everyone who has question and answers about this new technology. ill start the inquiries by asking what mobo's could and should support this new tech as well as wondering about the rumor that you can use the cards in any combination of graphics and physics processing you want. who's got the answer?? bring it on..


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## imperialreign (Jan 1, 2008)

details are still a bit sketchy - the only thing that has really been pointed at is that it will allow xFire between dissimilar GPUs, i.e. using a 1650 & 1950, or a 2900 & 1850, or a 1300 & 2600, etc.

not sure what chipsets will be capable of handling this - but I get the feeling that AMD/ATI will back date it to older chipsets (Intel allowing) through means of BIOS updates . . . personally, I'd really like to see this support work down to the i975X chipset, seeing as how there is still ample life left in it.


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## acperience7 (Jan 1, 2008)

It should work on the Intel X48 boards, and any combo of cards will work.

Question@imperialreign: So I could throretically use a 2900XT/3870/3850/X1950, and the 38XX cards will operate at X16, but the other cards will operate at X8?


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## imperialreign (Jan 1, 2008)

> It should work on the Intel X48 boards, and any combo of cards will work.
> 
> Question@imperialreign: So I could throretically use a 2900XT/3870/3850/X1950, and the 38XX cards will operate at X16, but the other cards will operate at X8?



I'm guessing it would depend entirelly on the chipset limitations themselves, and how it handles the PCIE BUS.  Some chipsets operate in x16/x4 in xFire, some in x16/x16, and some in x8/x8, etc.  The one thing that AMD/ATI have made certain to point out is the ability to xFire between dissimilar cards on selected chipsets.  We already know they've licensed the CrossfireX technology to Intel for chipsets, so hopefully we'll see if slowly desecend into some slightly older performance chipsets.

I do wonder, though - with Crossfire X being right around the corner . . . how much longer will it be before ATI starts dropping their physics Crossfire . . . they rumor that it'll have the same capabilities between dissimilar cards . . .


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## kwchang007 (Jan 1, 2008)

I have to wonder how this is going to pan out.  Is it just me that thinks this is going to require more resources to pull off?  Like because of the unlike cards so you can't just say one is going to produce half the frames and the other the other half.  And what about overclocking?  Overclock each card separately now?  Going to be some crazy driver designing for this...or that's what I think at least.


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## ShadowFold (Jan 1, 2008)

So if I have a HD 3850 and I get a HD 3670 and crossfire them... it will work?


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## imperialreign (Jan 1, 2008)

> So if I have a HD 3850 and I get a HD 3670 and crossfire them... it will work?



If I interpreteped all of AMD/ATI's comments of the new Crossfire implimentation they will.  Only time will tell, though.




> I have to wonder how this is going to pan out. Is it just me that thinks this is going to require more resources to pull off? Like because of the unlike cards so you can't just say one is going to produce half the frames and the other the other half. And what about overclocking? Overclock each card separately now? Going to be some crazy driver designing for this...or that's what I think at least.




I think between AMD and ATI, they can defi pull it off - asides, if it works out without too much of a hitch, it'll give them a major advantage over nVidia when it comes to multi-GPU setups.


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## ShadowFold (Jan 1, 2008)

Honestly they already have better multi gpu setups. Crossfire has alot better scalability I read.


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## imperialreign (Jan 1, 2008)

> Honestly they already have better multi gpu setups. Crossfire has alot better scalability I read.



well . . . it depends, I guess . . . from what I understand, ATI's Crossfire is a lot more effiecient and effective than nVidia's SLI, mostly due to how ATI GPU's can effectively tile images and whatnot - I might be wrong, though . . . 

but, I think it mostly comes down to the motherboard chipset and how effectively it can allow communication between the cards - even without the bridge connectors.  It doesn't matter how fast two or more cards can communicate if they're being hampered buy BUS speeds.


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

Hmmm, I have the ASUS M3A32-MVP Delux Series and it claims to have CrossFire X(its says so on the box and manual).


So if it has CrossFire X and 4 PCIe Slots, can I use my 2900Pro in conjuction with my X1300???

Or will that not work, will it even help with performance. Regardless that would be cool.


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## imperialreign (Jan 1, 2008)

> Hmmm, I have the ASUS M3A32-MVP Delux Series and it claims to have CrossFire X(its says so on the box and manual).
> 
> 
> So if it has CrossFire X and 4 PCIe Slots, can I use my 2900Pro in conjuction with my X1300???




hell . . . if nothin else, you could give it a shot!  It's not like it would hurt anything.  A second GPu would help even the slightest bit - if for nothing more than just being able to swap and render textures a little quicker.

I would think, though, that based on the chipset, the modes both cars run at in xFire mode would slow things down the most  . . . a X1300 running at x8 wouldn't be nearly as fast as in x16 partnered with a more recent card.  At least ATI's Crossfire-X would allow most of us with somewhat older hardware to get a bit of a boost . . . too bad I think they only limit it to X1000+ series, whioch excludes the X700 and X800 lineup.


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> hell . . . if nothin else, you could give it a shot!  It's not like it would hurt anything.  A second GPu would help even the slightest bit - if for nothing more than just being able to swap and render textures a little quicker.
> 
> I would think, though, that based on the chipset, the modes both cars run at in xFire mode would slow things down the most  . . . a X1300 running at x8 wouldn't be nearly as fast as in x16 partnered with a more recent card.  At least ATI's Crossfire-X would allow most of us with somewhat older hardware to get a bit of a boost . . . too bad I think they only limit it to X1000+ series, whioch excludes the X700 and X800 lineup.



Well I guess I'll try it, I have no Idea how I would do it though, hmmm I will have to read up on it.


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## imperialreign (Jan 1, 2008)

> Well I guess I'll try it, I have no Idea how I would do it though, hmmm I will have to read up on it.



I'd fathom to say . . . download the latest CAT drivers - turn off your rig and istall your second VGA adapter into the secondary PCI-E slot; boot up and install the newest CAT driver for the new hardware.

Then, open up CCC and see if there is some form of Crossfire option available . . .

. . . at least, that's how we have to do it for similar GPU setups . . . I can't imagine ther'd be much difference for dissimilar . . .


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> I'd fathom to say . . . download the latest CAT drivers - turn off your rig and istall your second VGA adapter into the secondary PCI-E slot; boot up and install the newest CAT driver for the new hardware.
> 
> Then, open up CCC and see if there is some form of Crossfire option available . . .
> 
> . . . at least, that's how we have to do it for similar GPU setups . . . I can't imagine ther'd be much difference for dissimilar . . .



Yeah, I'll try it, I'm just waiting for my new Thermal Paste to get here before I install the MotherBoard.

Dam basterds don't seem to have shipped it yet.


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

lol, dude look at what I found

http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?p=3421207

"Hey guys im not an AMD fanboy or anything but im intreuged by the new technology tht is crossfire x. im opening this thread to everyone who has question and answers about this new technology. ill start the inquiries by asking what mobo's could and should support this new tech as well as wondering about the rumor that you can use the cards in any combination of graphics and physics processing you want. who's got the answer?? bring it on.."


Who copyed who lol.

Dude thats trippy, it like copyed all of the first three posts or something???


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

Okay let me start contributing to this thread with the crossfire interconnect bridge configuration with using four compatible ATI cards. I hope you can follow this schematic diagram. Note than card #1 and #4 aren't connected. This topology was devised to help even those boards that have the PCI-E slots spread apart so there's no need for an interconnect between cards #1 and #4.







MS Paint FTW


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## imperialreign (Jan 1, 2008)

> lol, dude look at what I found
> 
> http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?p=3421207
> 
> ...



verbatim per verbatim 


that kinda irritates me, TBH


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> verbatim per verbatim
> 
> 
> that kinda irritates me, TBH



Dude, how the hells does that happen, is there like another forum that just copys all the stuff we discuss or what???


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

WTF!!

Who are these copy shits. Okay I'm on its trail....


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

btarunr said:


> WTF!!
> 
> Who are these copy shits. Okay I'm on its trail....



I know right, I just discovered them on accident, I AM SO CONFUSED RIGHT NOW!!!!

WHo the hell copyed who LOL.

ITS JUST LIKE YOU WROTE IT, just like you said "Verbatim"

Sorry to go of topic, but I'm just speachless??


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

I've sent a message to its webmaster.

Sue.  The sweet three letter word


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## imperialreign (Jan 1, 2008)

> Dude, how the hells does that happen, is there like another forum that just copys all the stuff we discuss or what???



IDK - but it'd be interesting to see how _their_ thread pans out 




btarunr said:


> Okay let me start contributing to this thread with the crossfire interconnect bridge configuration with using four compatible ATI cards. I hope you can follow this schematic diagram. Note than card #1 and #4 aren't connected. This topology was devised to help even those boards that have the PCI-E slots spread apart so there's no need for an interconnect between cards #1 and #4.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I kinda figured that's how it'd work . . . makes me wonder, though, if the card's might communicate better if the the bridge would span to 2 or more cards instead of just one . . . as in, you'd have a two seperate bridges that could run the slots of all four cards, instead of having to Jacob's Ladder them.


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

btarunr said:


> I've sent a message to its webmaster.



ok kool, I mean Honoestly are we that kool..

I BET they are reading this as we speak, and are going "oh shit, oh shit, they found us."


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

Does anyone have a whois application here? perform a whois for http://techarena.in

Let's nail the b******

the whois can reveal the webmaster's name and address.


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

btarunr said:


> Does anyone have a whois application here? perform a whois for http://techarena.in
> 
> Let's nail the bastard



not quite sure what you mean, but I went to Whois.net and search the site, this is what came up...


WHOIS information for: techarena.in:

Verio Inc. - Growing Your Business, One Click At A Time
Domain Information
Domain Name Registration,  News 
Daily DNS Changes,  ICANN  Hosting Resources
Web Hosting,  VPS,  Managed Hosting, 
Windows Hosting,  Windows Servers  


Copyright © 1999-2007




Don't know if the link works.
http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=http://techarena.in&tld=com


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

Nope man the comprehensive whois where the domain registration date, the webmaster's name and address can be churned out. I'm gonna get craigwhiteside on this. He's our networking moderator.


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

Wait hold up, I found this..

Domain Name: techarena.com 

Status: clientDeleteProhibited, clientTransferProhibited 

Registrar: DIRECT INFORMATION PVT LTD D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM 
Whois Server: whois.publicdomainregistry.com 
Referral URL: http://www.publicdomainregistry.com 

Expiration Date: 2009-11-05 
Creation Date: 2001-11-05 
Last Update Date: 2007-10-27 

Name Servers: 
    ns1.techarena.net 
    ns2.techarena.net

I honestly have no idea what I am doing lol. Plus its 4 AM here, its all good.


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## SpookyWillow (Jan 1, 2008)

thats a shame about the x800's, i have 1 sitting around doing nothing lol


on that other forum,  their is a whole bunch of stuff ripped from here, heres a quicky....

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?p=589645

http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=882446


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

SpookyWillow said:


> thats a shame about the x800's, i have 1 sitting around doing nothing lol
> 
> 
> on that other forum,  their is a whole bunch of stuff ripped from here, heres a quicky....
> ...



Dude what the duce is up, why would someone need to do that??

Its like looking at a parallel version of us lol, Ima go see what my name is in that parallel forum lol.


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## Lazzer408 (Jan 1, 2008)

Someone needs to go back in time and shoot the #uktard that sold 3DFX to nVidia (who burried the company) because 3DFX had it right and they would be pwn'in the market by now. You could just keep piling on 3dfx cores and multiplying framerates like nobodys business. Now, both ATI (I will not call them AMD haha) and Nvidia are abusing the whole concept of multiple GPUs with the whole "SLI" and Crossfire crap. They should slap multiple GPUs on one card and just be done with it. #1 it's cheaper, #2 it's faster, #3 their market will be larger as people don't have to build custom rigs to run it.


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

Went thru their forums. its all soo phony. Regardless of the sitemaster, I'm gonna lodge a complaint with the law here. It takes an Indian to beat an Indian. Once the FIR is lodged, the law will take care. This CT has delivered more headshots than the words on that POS forum. Done. To the people behid this: If you're viewing this as a guest, we can still track your IP  . Just wait till our networking mod returns. 

Back to the topic now.


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

btarunr said:


> Went thru their forums. its all soo phony. Regardless of the sitemaster, I'm gonna lodge a complaint with the law here. It takes an Indian to beat an Indian. Once the FIR is lodged, the law will take care. This CT has delivered more headshots than the words on that POS forum. Done.
> 
> Back to the topic now.



Thanks man, didn't mean to bring that up, I just thought it was odd.

Anyways...  

What if my X1300 does not have a CrossFire Bridge to connect to my HD2900PRo, will it still work or do they need to be connected with a Bridge???

Well to sleepy, I'll check this thread tomorrow and see if there is answer for me, peace out.


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

The X1300 can perform software crossfire.


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## Lazzer408 (Jan 1, 2008)

Oh I remembered wtf I was going to ask here... sorry I'm kinda buzzed and went on a rant. 

What ever happened to concept of crossfire+physics? aka Havoc. Seems like something that could help games like Crysis. I ran my 1950s crossfire then threw in an x1600pro and couldn't see any results. I wonder why they advertise that ability but never went into detail on exactly how it works. I would figure I would at least have to install a 'havoc driver' for it similar to the way the Ageia cards work.


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> I kinda figured that's how it'd work . . . makes me wonder, though, if the card's might communicate better if the the bridge would span to 2 or more cards instead of just one . . . as in, you'd have a two seperate bridges that could run the slots of all four cards, instead of having to Jacob's Ladder them.



I guess that's to step up flexibility. Have you seen the tri-SLI bridge? You can't use it to connect three cards that don't have two gold-fingers using it. OTOH, a single CFX bridge can span over two expansion slots so you can build a Jacob's ladder, but the more interesting thing is that it is highly scalable. In the future IF we do get to see larger boards with something like a 64-lane PCI-E arbiter in the chipset, who knows we just might see all 7 expansion slots with PCI-E x16 slots though it sounds stupid. Secondly on a setup with just three cards you can continue to build a Jacob's ladder using two CFX bridges just that card #1 and #3 wont have a connect. Now isn't this far more flexible and user-friendly than Tri-SLI?


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## peach1971 (Jan 1, 2008)

http://whois.domaintools.com/techarena.com 
Okay, back to topic, agreed.


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

^I could kiss you. Thanks.

This is what I needed:


> TechArena
> Sandeep Khetan
> 5, Chincholi,
> Malad - W
> ...



Back to the topic. No more discussion on this issue.


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 1, 2008)

LMAO!@btarunr

So, I heard a while ago nVidia was going to try and adopt crossfireX technology as well. Meaning able to crosSLi (sp  ) like a hd8350 with umm lets say an 8800GT.  Who knows if that is going to be true or not.

Or was that Hybrid SLi (onboard + dedicated) ?

Although, the technology is very interesting. I myself am really close to purchasing a crossfire motherboard just to try it out.


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

AMD has better brains, just implementation of those brains are lacking. They're brilliant. They came from behind SLI and overtook it. At least it is a superior multi-GPU technology at the moment. go for it!


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## imperialreign (Jan 1, 2008)

> AMD has better brains, just implementation of those brains are lacking. They're brilliant. They came from behind SLI and overtook it. At least it is a superior multi-GPU technology at the moment. go for it!



also considering that nVidia never developed SLI initially . . . that was 3DFX's brainchild.  nVidia also had the upper hand on ATI for years when it came to handling OGL API, and this is another area where ATI came from no where and can now handle OGL equal to, and in some cases even better, than nVidia.




> What ever happened to concept of crossfire+physics? aka Havoc. Seems like something that could help games like Crysis. I ran my 1950s crossfire then threw in an x1600pro and couldn't see any results. I wonder why they advertise that ability but never went into detail on exactly how it works. I would figure I would at least have to install a 'havoc driver' for it similar to the way the Ageia cards work.




ATI dropped the xFire+physics - at least, we haven't heard anything else from them since they were getting into it with nVidia.  This is another area where ATI claimed they could best out nVidia with physics processing.  The idea is that a dissimilar card, or whichever GPU isn't doing a lot of work, can be put to use as a physics processor (instead of having to buy a dedicated PPU PCI adapter).  ATI GPUs are excellent for this kind of work, as they can handle mathematical calcualtions a lot better than nVidia's can, and they're more accurate.

I don't think we'll actually see this go into work for a while, though.  There isn't much of a need for a PPU yet, as only a few games even support the use of one.  As time goes on, and more games start using physics more heavily, ATI might start releasing drivers that would allow an installed GPU to do this kind of work.  I think Crossfire X is going to be the key to it down the road, as at least when they do decide to start bringing in physics calculations, the Crossfire technology will already be in the hands of the consumer - the foundation will already have been laid out and had many of the bugs worked out.


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

About Physics+Graphics crossfire: There will be no GPU accelerated physics at least till DX 11 comes out. The only alternative physics API to Ageria, Havoc Physics worked with Intel to roll out their latest supported SDK, which does NOT make use of GPU's from either vendor. Instead it uses a dedicated CPU core for physics calculations. Quad-core processors from both Intel and AMD benefit. Irony: Even if ATI loses on the "no more GPU physics, its parent company AMD still benefits from it as people will buy quad-core processors for it anyway. NV got a rude nutkick though. The newest game that will incorporate this physics API: Alan Wake from Remedy Software.


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## imperialreign (Jan 1, 2008)

> NV got a rude nutkick though. The newest game that will incorporate this physics API: Alan Wake from Remedy Software.



exactly - and ATI hasn't said shit about it since nVidia dropped the pissing match.  ATI has even taken down the Physics 1+1 and 2+1 descriptions from their website.


edit>>  I take that back . . . they've still have those pages up: http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/physics/index.html


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

lol. The deal between ATI and Havoc is a dead one. Intel clinched it (In return for seamless Crossfire support on its chipsets). BTW look at those cards in the page:










Aren't they circa. X1900 series?  Back then ATI didn't even merge with AMD.






And this is the board that supported it. Gfx + Phy

BTW this thread is developing into a brilliant resource-point for CrossFire users, despite the initial hickups from those POS forum clone-drones. Anyway I've sent an email to the senior moderators of most leading tech-forums to look out for these. It's a question of hit-rate. Reg. TPU, I'm on the lookout. If you steal one sentence, you pay for the "Make TPU rich fund". :laugh


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

btarunr said:


> lol. The deal between ATI and Havoc is a dead one. Intel clinched it (In return for seamless Crossfire support on its chipsets). BTW look at those cards in the page:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



So if I crossfired my Pro and X1300 I could have my X1300 process the Physics???


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

Nope. Read posts #40, #41. There's no use. There's no game that'll exploit the GPU doing physics processing.


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 1, 2008)

btarunr said:


> Nope. Read posts #40, #41. There's no use. There's no game that'll exploit the GPU doing physics processing.



oh ok, well If it is even possable to crossfire the two, I wonder what performance increase it will bring, if any.....

This is still an awsome concept, Crossfireing two diffrent GPU's from two diffrent Generations, its still not even confirmed it it will work.

I also remeber reading that, yes the hardware is out for CrossFire X, but the drivers won't come out till at least January 4????

So if it does not work now, I'll have to see if the Drivers will bring on the solution.


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## Lazzer408 (Jan 1, 2008)

btarunr said:


> And this is the board that supported it. Gfx + Phy










Dont forget that bad boy. 

I was under the impression the 1xxx series cards already ran physics on the gpu or supported it at least. Anyways, Gecube is/was on the right track making cards like the Gemini-3 but they blew it using 2600s -doh- They should have waited and used 3870s. I have seen a dual 3870 on one card somewhere but I couldn't find a link.

Here's the Gemini-3
http://www.gecube.com/products-detail.php?prod_cat_pid=&prod_cat_id=216&prod_id=67404


EDIT - Here's a pic for those who havent seen it.


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## btarunr (Jan 1, 2008)

@Aphex
No, Aphex the concept back then was that instead of buying three X1900 cards to do graphics + physics, you could buy two X1900 cards and one X1300 too (or anything you choose) just that the third card will not be used for video, while using the driver, it cannot give out display output and the X1300 has enough juice to do physics calculations (+ the 128~256 MB memory which the PhysX has). Alas ! all failed with the stupid ATI/AMD merger, and a lot of company internals. As of now, no asymmetric CFX configuration (two/more dissimilar cards) is possible for graphics. We're all waiting for drivers, some of us even more so because there's a lot of talk about a "magical driver" that'll "bless" the HD2900.

@Laz
Yup, she's a beauty but I'm not sure if this board had the 2x GFX 1x PHY setup capability. the 3rd PCI-E slot is general purpose. The DFI board was advertised to support physics CFX


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## imperialreign (Jan 2, 2008)

> oh ok, well If it is even possable to crossfire the two, I wonder what performance increase it will bring, if any.....
> 
> QUOTE]
> 
> ...


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## btarunr (Jan 2, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> Mind you, unless the two cards can connect through either an interconnect bridge, or the goofy external dongle - all communication between the two cards will be carried out by the chipset . . . which boils down to xFireX performance will be massively dependant upon BUS speeds and the rest of the system.  Any bottlenecks or weak spots in a system will turn speed bumps into traffic stops.



Unlike the NForce SLI where in lower variants, the x16 PCI-E lanes are split to two x8 lanes and the northbridge/chipset serving it, the higher 32-lane variants where both cards are serve full x16 lanes per card, and that's 16 lanes from each, the northbridge and the MCP southbridge. This causes bigger bottlenecks regardless of the mandatory SLI bridge because the Hyper Transport link between the two parts of the chipset are flooded with graphics data. 32 lane Crossfire on the other hand has all the 32 lanes coming from the northbridge, be it in AMD 790FX or Intel X38 in this way even when doing Crossfire without the interconnect bridge or the Macguiver dongle would still mean reasonably good performance at the cost of a hotter NB. This is what makes CFX superior.


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 2, 2008)

I have been trying to dig up more information on this CrossFire X and Hybrid CrossFireing, but I can't really find anything that mentions useing two diffrent GPUS's.

Anyone got some sources on this stuff???


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## imperialreign (Jan 2, 2008)

http://www.crossfirex.info/

http://game.amd.com/us-en/unlock_crossfire.aspx


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## AphexDreamer (Jan 2, 2008)

imperialreign said:


> http://www.crossfirex.info/



Thanks, but thats the stuff I already new about CrossFireX, Heck thats the stuff the old crossfire would do as well, where are the details...


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## imperialreign (Jan 2, 2008)

srry, got a little ahead of myself with those links 

I've only found a ton of info concerning Intel's P45 chipset to support CrossfireX . . .

As the rumored driver release date looms (mid Jan, round about CAT 8.1 I assume), I'm sure AMD/ATI will update the CrossfireX page.


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## i_dog_69 (Jan 2, 2008)

in regards to that other forum, i havent even heard of that site before. that is crazy because the verbage is so close. i can assure you that i was just looking for some more info on crossfire, and so far the posts have been great. thanks guys! GO TPU


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## i_dog_69 (Jan 2, 2008)

also,  i know that you can use a 3 card setup using the 3rd card for physics but what about using the 3rd card for rendering also, or can you use 2 cards for physics and one for rendering?( i.e. i have 2 x1300's and a 3870). maybe its a stupid question but i am just wondering. cheers!


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## btarunr (Jan 2, 2008)

Read post #41


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## ShadowFold (Jan 2, 2008)

Um I think you need a card that says CrossfireX on the box like my HD 3850. So I think you need to get a HD 3000 series to do this.


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## adrianx (Jan 10, 2008)

soo.... no one run's with 3 or 4 cards in crossfire so far?

Ok, very soon I will try (not buy) o crossfire with 2x3850 and one 3870

I simple dont know how to set the connectors... (I was a nvidia fun until the crysis driver problems with 8800GT).

my logic say... if the 4 cards use 3 bridge and 2 cards use one...from that my logic say... with 3 card I will use 2 crossfire bridge...

If I will succes I will need to set 3870 to 3850 settings to have a ~ 3x3850 configuration...

so.. I will try to convince my friend with 3870 to ... come at my home and let my ..try ...

the driver 7.12 and 7.11 I see on the net that cand run on a configuration like dual 3870x2 (2 x2gpu on bord)

this is the link 

http://au.gamespot.com/video/939217/6184393/ces-2008-amd-booth-tour

so I dont know if is a close beta driver or the official driver.  will see


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## btarunr (Jan 10, 2008)

^Don't do that before you get the drivers, it's pointless as there's no driver for Crossfire X yet, forget doing it with dissimilar GPU's. Catalyst 7.1x still doesn't take in 3~4 cards.

Append: If you do come up with something, share it here


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## Bytor (Jan 11, 2008)

I just installed a Asus M3A32-MVP MB and have 2 X1950 pro's running on it.  I have 2 HD3870's in the mail to me right now.
I want to try crossfiring all 4 cards on my board just to seeif it will work, but wondering how you would connect the crossfire bridges?


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## btarunr (Jan 11, 2008)

Bytor said:


> I just installed a Asus M3A32-MVP MB and have 2 X1950 pro's running on it.  I have 2 HD3870's in the mail to me right now.
> I want to try crossfiring all 4 cards on my board just to seeif it will work, but wondering how you would connect the crossfire bridges?









^The drivers to it aren't out yet. You'll have to wait. Regarding Asymmetric CrossFire (use of dissimilar cards), you'll have to wait a little longer, the whole thing is very sketchy right now.


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## Bytor (Jan 11, 2008)

Thanks for the drawing, clears things up.


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## btarunr (Jan 23, 2008)

A quick update on the Crossfire X (4-card) interconnect bridge arrangement:

It is confirmed on the way the interconnect bridges are arranged as you can see from this image: http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/DigitalMedia/44367A_AR-CFMoboQuadmd.png (1.80 MB, high resolution, PNG)

Makes me wonder which motherboard is that in the pic.


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## Lazzer408 (Jan 23, 2008)

Almost looks like the K9A2 Platinum, almost.


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## twicksisted (Jan 23, 2008)

this will surely mean that you have seriously undervuntilated and hot cards....
two of them are pressed against eachother with about 1mm to spare!!!

Surely they would overheat in this configuration?


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## btarunr (Jan 23, 2008)

Lazzer408 said:


> Almost looks like the K9A2 Platinum, almost.



The last expansion slon on a K9A2 Platinum is a PCI-E. The PCB layout is definitely different.



twicksisted said:


> this will surely mean that you have seriously undervuntilated and hot cards....
> two of them are pressed against eachother with about 1mm to spare!!!
> 
> Surely they would overheat in this configuration?



It all boils down to motherboard layout, be it AMD 790FX or Intel X48 the arrangement of the PCI-E slots determines ventilation. In boards such as the Gigabyte GA-790FX-DQ6, the PCI-E slots are in a chain, and cards 2 and 3 will be literally cooked if there isn't a large ventilating fan to the chasis' side-panel. But in boards such as the MSI K9A2 Platinum they are spread apart to a comfort level. The larger issue is that of double-slot video cards which won't fit which is why Sapphire and HIS are working on single-slot cooler designs for the Radeon HD3870 cards.


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## twicksisted (Jan 23, 2008)

still.. anyone who is going to go to the length of having 4 of gthem, wants maximum performance, and that means that they will probably end up overclocking them...

theres not even space for a waterblock and tubes lol...

still interesting... though id rather have 2 3870X2 cards in normal crossfire over this from a price, heat and simplicity point of view


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## Lazzer408 (Jan 23, 2008)

twicksisted said:


> still.. anyone who is going to go to the length of having 4 of gthem, wants maximum performance, and that means that they will probably end up overclocking them...
> 
> theres not even space for a waterblock and tubes lol...
> 
> still interesting... though id rather have 2 3870X2 cards in normal crossfire over this from a price, heat and simplicity point of view



Give it time and you can probably have 4 3870x2 cards. Marketing departments will catch on sooner or later and sell it wether it works or not.


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## btarunr (Jan 23, 2008)

I could be wrong but the release drivers of HD3870 X2 will not support two cards in Crossfire. Tom's Hardware had a superb pre-release review of the HD3870 X2 this morning but the webmasters seemed to have removed it. They had mentioned about this.


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