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ok to xfire 290 tri x with 290 vapor x ?

jimbob339

jimbob339

jimbob339

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16 Apr 2009
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mansfield woodhouse
Hi all as title says

got a chance of a cheap vapor x and hope its ok to xfire with my tri-x oc, i know the clocks are different 1030 1400 and 1000 1300 and i can easily push my trix to same speeds on its own but being a crossfire noob is that easier said than done ??

the other thing is a 850w gold psu be good enough for it ? with my 8350 clocked to 4500

Thanks Jimbob
 
It would most likely work due to 200 series Hawaii cards being compatible with each other. Just think the PSU will be at it's limit under full load, so would be weary of that.
 
More than fine. AMD cards allow you to crossfire different cards as long as they are the same generation of chip (e.g a 290 and 290X is fine, 7950 and 7970 etc). However crossfire will essentially disable the extra cores on the more powerful card to make it match the slower one (in essence the 290x/7970 becomes a 290/7950)

However since you have the same card (both 290's) The same card with a different cooler is even more fine.

You can overclock/underclock crossfire cards without problem just like single cards. PSU should be enough, my setup is fine and doesn't even pull 750W from the wall during gaming so you should be ok.
 
Meladath said:
More than fine. AMD cards allow you to crossfire different cards as long as they are the same generation of chip (e.g a 290 and 290X is fine, 7950 and 7970 etc). However crossfire will essentially disable the extra cores on the more powerful card to make it match the slower one (in essence the 290x/7970 becomes a 290/7950)
<snip>
Click to expand...

Just to say this disabling doesn't happen - Crossfire is quite happy running full fat cards and cut down cards of the same gen together (290x & 290, 7970 & 7950, etc). Personally, I'd put the faster card as the primary one as I tend to find with Crossfire that the primary card usually works harder than the secondary (higher temp, higher usage average), but a 290x/290 setup will perform between a 290x/290x setup and a 290/290 one.

You can also run different clock and memory speeds with Crossfire, you don't need the cards matching - although some people have mentioned performance feels smoother if they do match.
 
^

Yup. Never seen my cores disabled or Speeds changed. Running two different cards use to be nicknamed 'Frankenfire' if i recall correctly.

I believe that the bios would have to be changed/replaced to disable cores on the card.
 
Confused Stu said:
Just to say this disabling doesn't happen - Crossfire is quite happy running full fat cards and cut down cards of the same gen together (290x & 290, 7970 & 7950, etc). Personally, I'd put the faster card as the primary one as I tend to find with Crossfire that the primary card usually works harder than the secondary (higher temp, higher usage average), but a 290x/290 setup will perform between a 290x/290x setup and a 290/290 one.

You can also run different clock and memory speeds with Crossfire, you don't need the cards matching - although some people have mentioned performance feels smoother if they do match.
Click to expand...

Avenged7Fold said:
^

Yup. Never seen my cores disabled or Speeds changed. Running two different cards use to be nicknamed 'Frankenfire' if i recall correctly.

I believe that the bios would have to be changed/replaced to disable cores on the card.
Click to expand...

Wow. I assumed frankenfire did disable the extra cores. TIL. So you still get the extra performance of the faster card in this situation? Compared to just two of the slower cards? I assumed you didn't. Damn it, I was ignorant for so long.
 
Thanks guy's I should be OK then hope ocz zx PSU can take it. One last one the vapour x has backplate and none on the trix. What's the best order for cooling trix slot 1 or other way round ?
 
jimbob339 said:
Thanks guy's I should be OK then hope ocz zx PSU can take it. One last one the vapour x has backplate and none on the trix. What's the best order for cooling trix slot 1 or other way round ?
Click to expand...

I would go for whichever way round gives the most space between the cards for the heat from both to disperse. Am I right in thinking the Vapour X is 2.5 slots wide where the TriX is 2? If so, put the TriX in the primary slot and the Vapour X in the secondary will give .5 of a slot more gap between them to allow the Vapour X to breathe. You'll still need good airflow through the case to whip away 600W of heat being exhausted inside the case when pushing the cards hard, so be prepared to have a play with fans in different positions around the case to find the best one for you. :)
 
shankly1985 said:
Wrong! I used 290x with 290 for couple months.. Both GPUs will happily run at different clock speeds.

I had 290x at 1050 and 290 at 977
Click to expand...

Did you happen to notice any increased stutter or anything bad from this?

I am interested in running my 290's at different speeds as my top card is a much better overclocker compared to the bottom one (1110 stock volts vs 1040) and right now I am undervolting the top card and running it slower than it could be.
 
In a situation where there is no cpu bottleneck and the cards are equal - you should have 100% utilisation of both cards. with the 290 + 290x, you'd see something like 100% on the 290 and 90% on the X.

The cards have to generate frames sequentially in AFR, so your going to be limited by the slowest card in an array.

Dx12 and explicit mGpu / SFR might change this.
 
What extreme can you take this to and still get a performance gain?
For instance would a R9 290x and an R9 270x crossfired give you a performance gain over the single 290x or would the difference in vram on the cards negate any gain?
 
Meladath said:
Did you happen to notice any increased stutter or anything bad from this?

I am interested in running my 290's at different speeds as my top card is a much better overclocker compared to the bottom one (1110 stock volts vs 1040) and right now I am undervolting the top card and running it slower than it could be.
Click to expand...

Nope they worked perfectly fine with each other till I installed second GPU in another system.
 
Trunkey said:
What extreme can you take this to and still get a performance gain?
For instance would a R9 290x and an R9 270x crossfired give you a performance gain over the single 290x or would the difference in vram on the cards negate any gain?
Click to expand...

You can only crossfire cards with same Vram and Family..
 
subbytna said:
It will run at the same speeds as the 290 so in effect you cripple the 290x....iirc
Click to expand...

RanxZy said:
It would most likely work due to 200 series Hawaii cards being compatible with each other. Just think the PSU will be at it's limit under full load, so would be weary of that.
Click to expand...

Why is everyone going on about crossfiring a 290x and 290 when he's asking about a pair of 290's? One is a Tri-X and one is a Vapor-X. There still 290's just clocked differently.
 
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nashathedog said:
Why is everyone going on about crossfiring a 290x and 290 when he's asking about a pair of 290's? One is a Tri-X and one is a Vapor-X. There still 290's just clocked differently.
Click to expand...

I was just thinking that as I was reading through. :p
 
Got it all installed now no problems clocked 1050/1400 had to put vapor in slot 1 the trix x was running mid 80s under load slot 3 back to mid 70s. 63ish in normal gaming. One thing I did find odd was the vapor x came with 1000/1400 +.5 extra volt ?? Sure vapor should be 1030/1400 ??
The bios is newer than what I can find on the net.
 
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