6950 crossfire - different brands and psu requirements

[PESolution]

Hi all,

potentially crossfiring my 6950

Two questions:

1) is my PSU powerful enough?

2) can I use two different branded cards as the one i have at the moment is a triple slot one and i wouldnt want to put two of those next to each other on my Asrock Gen3 board?

Thanks x

 

[MOOGLEYS]

1.) Psu will be fine.

2.) Yes you can use any brand of that series..

You won't get any return kisses from me I'm old school male not one of these new metrosexual types....

 

[PESolution]

thanks for the info Moogleys.

I've done a bit more research and noticed that my motherboard apparently doesnt support 16x on both card's at once? What kind of performance bottleneck would this present?

<3

 

[MOOGLEYS]

I have run crossfire 6950's on dual 8x and also a 16x4 and both worked very well with very little noticeable losses.

What board do you have ?

 

[pugheaven]

thanks for the info Moogleys.

I've done a bit more research and noticed that my motherboard apparently doesnt support 16x on both card's at once? What kind of performance bottleneck would this present?

<3

**** all if the 2nd slot is 8x... nothing apart from possibly the upcoming 7990 would be bottlenecked from it... go for it mate.

 

[PESolution]

Asrock Extreme4 Gen3 - once upon a time i had a nice sig with my spec in but a mod deleted it

 

[MOOGLEYS]

You will be fine running crossfire on that board... It runs dual 8x and you will not see any difference with a pair of 6950's

Just remember to keep your profiles updated and enjoy dual card gaming...

 

[Surveyor]

Just remember to get another 2GB card and not a 1GB.

 

[tommybhoy]

i wouldnt want to put two of those next to each other on my Asrock Gen3 board?

Why not?

 

[Surveyor]

Why not?

I imagine it's because the Asus DirectCU II has an enclosed shroud so pretty much all the top card would be doing is drawing in hot air from the back of the bottom card.

The fans on your coolers aren't sealed inside the shroud so are able to draw in some cool air.

 

[PESolution]

As surveyor has posted the model of my card is huge, and not the same as you posted in your original image.

Additionally I also have a sound card in the bottom slot which would restrict airflow to the bottom card also x

 

[Clav]

You can use 2 different branded cards to crossfire but they will work at the speed of the slowest (i think). If you get a standard dual slot card in the top slot and the directcu in the lower one airflow should be ok.

I had to do a bit of rearranging on my gen3 with 2x 6950 TFIII's and ended up with my Xonar in the topmost slot. I think if you arrange your cards like below it should be fine. My 750w PSU powers it all fine (with 3 SSD and 2 HDD).

 

[PESolution]

this is my soundcard, don't think it would fit in that small slot would it?

Razer Ac-1

 

[Clav]

Ah no, I presumed it was a PCIEx1 card. If you have a PCI soundcard the only place it could go with crossfire is (squeezed) in the centre slot. The 2nd graphics card will block the only other one.

Ventilation wise, it is advisable to have a 1-slot gap however the souncard is probably around half the length of the 6950 so it might not be too bad. If you blow a fan straight into that area then it should help keep things cool but I would not expect any/much overclocking.

Like so:

 

[PESolution]

sod it, ill just go 7 series or wait for nvidia 6series

 

[tommybhoy]

this is my soundcard, don't think it would fit in that small slot would it?

sod it, ill just go 7 series or wait for nvidia 6series

I think this would be your best bet, considering you don't know the difference between a Pci-e and a Pci slot, dual cards would be a headache for you(not meant derogatory in any way).

 

[PESolution]

ouch ^^