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2900 Pro & 2900XT Crossfire?

kylew

kylew

kylew

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So, as the title says, can you crossfire a 2900 Pro & 2900XT? I just want to confirm if they are definitely the same card with just a different bios. I've already got a 2900XT, and I've been thinking about getting a 3870X2, but I can get myself a 2900Pro for £90. So I've been thinking that I get the pro, flash it to an XT and crossfire it with my current 2900XT, am I right in thinking it won't be too different from a 3870X2 performance wise? (if clocked the same as an X2) If it's remotely similar performance wise I think I'll go with crossfire 2900s. Any help appreciated :)
 
It will work if you flash the pro's bios to an xt. TBH i wouldn't bother as a singke 2900XT/pro burns as many watts as asingle 3870X2. In crossfire you'd be getting similar performance at the cost of a larger leccy bill.

I've had xfired 2900's and they are hot, noisy and expensive to run. Also, unless you have a beefy PSU i wouldn't really consider it.

If you're concerned about a budget i'd even recommend 3850's crossfired and overclocked as my single 3850 returns performance comparable to one of my old 2900's - plus you wouldn't have to upgrade your psu.

gt
 
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Thanks for your reply :) I was Considering Going dual 3850 512s, the only thing is the cost of getting 2 3850s or an X2. I've got a PSU beefy enough to cope with two 2900s (cooler master real power 850m). My concern is how soon r700 will be ready and if I do go for an X2 it would be "more wasted" as opposed to £90 which isn't too much of a "loss".
 
If you can stand to wait then i would. By all means have a play with xfire if you really want to but remember the 2900 on its own is still a very capable card.

I was in your boots 3 months ago decided to play. i sold my 8800GTX and got two 2900xt's and £60 in my pocket. It was fun and impressive looking and with certain games the boost was quite noticeable. However, in many cases i saw only slight gains.

gt
 
Right then, assuming it'll be fine using a pro (which it is anyway :)) I'll go for an addition 2900, as Trunks9486 said, i feel it's definitely not worth trying to get rid of my 2900XT to get a 3870X2 as I've got other things I could put my money into. Chances are, depending on how good r700 is, i'll do a proper upgrade then.
 
What's the current situation with crossfire 2900s and multiple screens? As I've got my 2407 and my Hitachi TV connected upto my 2900 at the moment, I remember seeing that crossfire can "now" do multiscreen setups, but is this just the 3870X2, or is this driver implemented to work on all crossfired cards? :)
 
kylew said:
What's the current situation with crossfire 2900s and multiple screens? As I've got my 2407 and my Hitachi TV connected upto my 2900 at the moment, I remember seeing that crossfire can "now" do multiscreen setups, but is this just the 3870X2, or is this driver implemented to work on all crossfired cards? :)
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i think ati as done it for all crossfire setups.

tbh i would flash both cards with the pro bios then clock them.. because the pro bios seems its slightly faster than the xt bios, clock for clock..
 
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crossfire does work with multiple displays with the newer drivers, also you can run a 2900 Pro and 2900 XT in crossfire without having to flash the pro with an XT bios.
 
I was thinking of possibly just getting 2 Pros, a friend of mine is wanting to do the same thing, I may offer him my 2900 for £80 and use that to buy 2 2900 pros (or that may give me funds for 2 3850 512MBs :rolleyes: :D)
 
I've been re-thinking a bit, and I'm possibly swaying towards crossfired 3850 512MBs, I've seen some 3850s that "look" promising, they're the gecube 3850 X-Turbo IIIs, pre overclocked (obviously :p) The aftermarket cooler is what's grabbing my attention, it's a heat pipe cooler and is dual slot. I'm assuming that a 3850 512MB is basically a 3870 with a lower clock speed? I'm also assuming that in theory they should over clock well due to having a better cooler than a stock 3850 (and possibly 3870). Anyway I'm trying to say, how different is a 3850 512MB to a 3870 other than clock speeds? Can a 3850 512MB be flashed with a 3870 bios? This won't cost too much more, about £220 in total minus about £90 for my 2900.
 
I'm up for doing a vmod, those pencil mods look easy enough, I tried it once on an x800 too which wasn't difficult :), so with a vmod, should I be able to hit about 800 on core? (in theory of course with better heatskink taken into acount)
 
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